SAND IN PUMP

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 110, 9 April 1926, Page 2

SAND IN PUMP

EXTRAORDINARY EFFECTS. POWERHOUSE OUTRAGE. Public feeling in the town of Young, Now South Wales, is reported to have been greatly incensed by an outrage which took placo ten days or so ago, when the lives of the employees in the power-house wero placed in grave danger. According to the report of Mr Robertson, tho electrical engineer in charge, sand or some similar substance must have been put into tho fuel pumps of the engine whilo it was stationary the night before. This prevented tho suction valve from functioning, causing tho engine to attain an abnormal speed, which generated an exceptionally high voltago in the dynamo, making it flash over the brushes and to earth.

So terrific was tho’Speed that the giant four-ton flywheel shifted an inch along tho main shaft by centrifugal force, and had it gono half an inch further the whole powcr-liouso would have been wrecked.

During tho past 18 months there havo been repeated engine breakdowns, resulting in a loss of thousands of pounds to tho council. The engineer had had his suspicions beforehand, but tho evidence was not sufficient to justify his making them public. Tho motive for the act is not apparent, and suspicion is certainly not directed against any employee.