First Turbine in Action

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 655, 6 May 1929, Page 11

First Turbine in Action

vm?. - Triumph and Tragedy at Arapuni

Superintendent Dies After Trial Run

TRAGEDY intervened in an hour of great triumph at Arapuni on Saturday evening. The first of the three great power units had hardly finished spinning on its initial run when Mr. J. W. Swaney. who was to superintend the plant when it is operating, collapsed and died. The tragic occurrence caused further trials of the turbine and generator to be deferred until to-dav.

JgUT for Mr. Swaney’s untimely death the crowds of sightseers who visited the lay-out yesterday would have seen the waters of the Waikato surging down the penstock tunnel to No. 3 unit, and emerging beneath to pour out into the tailrace in a frothing flood. The spectacular effect of this part of the trial was hidden by the dusk from those who witnessed it on Saturday evening. The water was not turned into the tunnel until 6.30 p.m. By eight o'clock this epochal first run was over, and Mr. Swaney, who had had a heavy day, went for a motor spin to Okoroire. On arrival there he collapsed and did not recover. The further run planned for yesterday was therefore postponed. In the meantime it was possible, however, to gauge the extent of the progress made by the Public Works Department and to see that the estimate that power will be available from one turbine for the King’s wharf station within a month, and that the two others will be generating current before the end of the year. Is in no way extravagant. ONE AFTER ANOTHER

The turbine now in running order is No. 3, the one at the upstream end. The massive castings of No. 3 are now being pieced together in its bed of concrete. The wheel lies flat, with a vertical axle, as distinct from the horizontal type employed at Waikaremoana. Details of the construction, with the remarkable Johnston valve occupying a huge conical bulge in the pipeline alongside the turbine, can be picked out by the few privileged visitors permitted in the powerhouse. Mr. T. Rabone, engineer in charge, said yesterday that he was fully satisfied with the trial on Saturday evening. The turbine had run beautifully. No. 2 turbine, he hoped, would be brought in within three months, and No. 1 within three months after that. For a fortnight the turbine now completed will be used to generate power on a short circuit for the purpose of drying out the generator. After that it will be switched on to the waiting transmission lines and current at terrific voltage will siug upon the wires as it flashes across country to Penrose. MARBLE FITTINGS

At present the powerhouse is only partly roofed in. Its steel skeleton decked in vivid red priming shows up against the drab background of concrete foundations and walls. Above what will be the main floor of the building rises the sold crest of No. 3 unit, a squat monster with most of its bulk buried under the concrete. Below the floor-level run dark stairways and sinister passageways—places only for the initiate, because there is a lot of “live” stuff down there. Back against the cliff are set tiers of concrete. One of them houses the elaborate control room, the future pride of Arapuni which, with -its marble fittings and glistening metal, will represent the giant power of the turbines in decorative form. Above are gloomy chambers, and passageways leading into the cliff. One of them gives access to the cable tunnel, an almost vertical shaft mounting to a distant speck of daylight away up by the transmission station. Cables as thick as a man’s arm run in great bundles in racks beside the steep stair. Deep in the cliff, again, is the eerie vault of the petometer chamber where pressure of water in the penstock tunnels will be recorded. CONSUMMATION OF TASK Although Arapuni no longer has the spectacular aspect it wore when the dam was being built and the powerhouse foundations sunk, it retains its interest, largely because the consum-

mation of the great task is at hand. Virtually, it was consummated to some extent on Saturday evening, when the ponderous gate to No. 3 tunnel was raised, and the water of the Waikato sent hurtling down to the waiting wheel. The wheel moved with the first impulse. It accelerated as the full pressure bore into the tunnel and then settled down to a steady roar, the roar which in deeper volume will be the unending accompaniment when Arapuni is generating power for the north. VALUED OFFICER MR. SWANEY’S TRAGIC DEATH Mr. Swaney was walking to the bathhouse at Okoroire when heart failure overtook him. He died almost at onee. A valued servant of the department. Mr. Swaney, who was only 40. had been superintendent at Horaliora for five years before taking up duty six weeks ago at Arapuni, where the department had appointed him superintendent in charge of general operations us soon as construction was completed. Mr. Swaney was thus on the eve of assuming large responsibilities when he was so suddenly cut off. Possibly, although, as a co-worker said of him, he was a man who never seemed to get * bustled.” it was the sight of the first giant turbines in action that caused undue exhilaration and contributed to his death. A general gloom settled over the little community at Arapuni when the news was known. Mr. Swaney, who was born in Tinxaru, had served at Lake Coleridge and Mangahao, and was thus well-known to Public Works men. One of the finest tributes to his professional ability was the manner in which he had Horahora operating again in a few hours after the disastrous fire last year. He leaves a wife, who was with him when he died, and a young daughter who was at boarding school in Hamilton.