Electricity Notes.

Progress, Volume III, Issue 4, 1 February 1908, Page 127

Electricity Notes.

The Eketahuna Borough Council is advertising for tenders for an electric lighting plant to be dnven by producer-gas engines. ****** Mr. F. H. Chamberlain terminates his agreement as consulting, engineer to the Chnstchurch Tramway Board in March, and is to leave, during that month, for his home in the United States. ****** The commencement of the long-delayed Wanganui tram scheme has now taken concrete form. Material is coming to hand fieely, and there is every indication that the work will bs pushed on without delay. ****** Mr. G. S. Maben, late manager for the Wellington Electric Lighting Syndicate, left for England recently for the purpose of purchasing the necessary pumping plant for the Ross Flat gold mine. The cost oi this plant will amount to between /25 000 and ****** The amount of electrical power used in factoues, etc., in Wellington is rapidly increasing day by day, and the tramway power-house supplies to date over 1000 horse-power for motors. The laying of new power mains has just been completed, and in the near future the present output will in all probability be doubled.

The electric locomotives used in the Simplon tunnel can travel at forty-four miles an hour. ****** Tenders have now been received by the Tourist Department for the extension of Okere power-house, the excavations for which are now well in hand. It is estimated that the new plant will cost ,£SOOO, and it should be a great advantage to Rotorua, as there is at present a considerable shortage of current. ****** The Westport-Stockton Coal Co.'s new electrical plant is now landing, the coal cutters and cables bsing first to arrive. It is expected that the general plant and locomotive will reach Westport m about a month's time. The cost of the installation will amount to between £25,000 and £40,000. ****** The cost of generating current for the Christchurch trams, where the Curtis turbine is used, has been shown to be .08 less than the cost per unit for the Wellington tramways. Tbis demonstrates that although the Bellis engine, which is installed in Wellington, represents about the last word in recipiocating engines for electric lighting, it nevertheless does not compete with the vertical turbine. ****** Regarding the above-mentioned 500 k.w. Curtis turbine, it is interesting to record that the machine is giving every satisfaction and shows great economy in oil and fuel. At the end of the reliability contest lately given the machine ran from Monday night to Saturday without a stop, and on an examination of the bearings being made everything was found in perfect order. This once more illustrates the efficiency of the vertical type of turbine with water footstep bearings. ****** Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers are being installed on the site of the new electric lighting station in Wellington, which will shortly be seen in course of construction. It is intended to equip this new power-house with a turbo-generating set of 1500 k.w., and in all probability the 500 k.w. Curtis set, at present m the old building, will be removed to the new one, together with the majority of the best engines still amongst the remnants of the old Gulcher station. A modern switchboard is also to be installed in the new station, which should be able to deal with heavy peak loads during winter time. ****** We note with interest the proposed electric tramway scheme for the Hutt and Petone, Wellington, which, should it mature, will transform a purely rural district into two active suburbs. The residents feel that the want of cheap transit is, and has been for years, the only retarding influence m the advancement of the district. The estimated cost of the whole scheme is set down at £80,000. This is considered ample for a tram system of ten and a half miles, and would also include electric lighting for the two boroughs. The cost of the tramways is estimated at £6000 per mile ; £8000 would be needed for the electric light; while contingencies would have to be provided for, thus bunging the total up to the £80,000. The promoters of the scheme are piepired to guarantee for a period of ten years any loss up to £20,000. The revenue to cover running expenses is based on the assumption that there would be a traffic of 4000 fares at an average of 2d each psr diem. It would appear from a casual glance at the proposal that it is a good one, but the question whether the taxpayers can stand a further loading comes very seriously into the deliberations of thoughtful people. The more practicable scheme appears to us to be that the Government should remove the embargo they have placed on through tram traffic from the Hutt to Wellington, on account of the existence of the railway, and render possible an mterurban seivice for the Hutt and Petone distiicts connected with a mam line running from Wellington right up to Silverstream. It is proposed under the present scheme that eight cars and four trailers should form the rolling stock, and that the line be operated by a producer-gas plant. The electric lighting for the districts would no doubt be a great improvement on existing conditions, and it would be easy to secure ot the outset at least a thousand subscribers.

Probably the largest exposed deposit of cinnabar, or quicksilver ore, is that forming the mountain from which the town of Black Butte, Oregon, derives its name. There is a vein 400 feet wide, which has been opened for more than a mile along the mountain, at a depth of 1,000 feet below the crest. In Europe the chief mines are at Almaden in Spain, and at Idna in Austria, a town twenty-eight miles from Trieste. The process of obtaining mercury is called distillation.