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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
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djk Offline OP
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http://www.softday.ie/live2.html

A link to real video footage of possibly one of the weirdest power-generation related art projects I've ever seen.

They used the turbine halls at Ardnacrusha hydro station (built in the mid to late 1920s) as a backdrop for an expiremental peice of art.

It involved 2 Irish groups and a German group (the roaring choir) to represent the fact that it was originally built by Siemens)

Check it out, it's got interesting views of the turbine halls and equipment and some VERY VERY odd music....

The national chamber orchestra tried to use the turbine hum as part of their performance!!
There's no accounting for taste! or limit to the weirdness of the projects that can get funding...

Interesting concept though [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 05-01-2005).]

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
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quote.
---------------------------------------
....originally built by Siemens...
---------------------------------------

Which, by the mid 1920s would have been an entirely 100% British company with no links with the German firm of the same name whatsoever! (Different brother, not on speaking terms over the Kaiser's war 1914-19 etc). So, no more German than the Queen, unless of course they gave the contract to the GMBH half, unlikely in the light of the previous bit of unpleasantness. And, it was built, in the strictest sense of the word, by 'Paddy'. If you wanted something done then, you got the auld Irish muscle in to do the job properly! What a laugh! - a Caylee band would have been more appropriate!
Alan


Wood work but can't!
Joined: Mar 2005
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I stand corrected. Built by gmbh. When I typed in the name for a Google search, I got a lot of stuff about unpaid labour, so I logged out......


Wood work but can't!
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
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djk Offline OP
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Siemens (Germany) actually came in with the lowest bid by a long shot. The German economy was in a downturn and they were desperate for projects and willing to do take a big risk with a fledgling state that was only barely up and running.

They brought all of their technical work force over from Germany from what I've heard of the project as there were very few people here at the time with civil engineering background / serious construction backgrounds. A small town was created near by to house the work force and several miles of electrified railway was layed to move machinery and people in and out! (These things are MUCH LESS labour intensive thesedays!)

The ESB (Electricity Supply Board) gained enormously at the time in terms of knowledge transfer as their engineers learned a lot from the Siemens, AEG and Asea people.

Also, given the fact that the Republic of Ireland had *just* violently seperated from the UK and there was about as much anti-British sentiment here at the time as there was anti-German sentiment in the UK the liklihood of a British company getting any sort of state contract here in those days was very slim indeed!

That project was primarly Siemens (GMBH) but also ASEA and AEG were involved.

Much of the early pre WWII installations here, even in domestic homes were done to german specs too..
E.g. we've always used 220V 50Hz and 380V 3-phase. (until recent european tweaks to 230V ratings.. you'll still find the power coming out of a socket here is close to 220V not 230V)

Also, the schuko plug/socket system was very much in use until quite recently. BS1363 was adopted and replaced it around the same time as it replaced BS546 in the UK.

and Diazed and Neozed (Siemens GMBH style) fuses were the norm here for decades, in fact even brand new consumer units still have a single neozed main fuse to protect them from overloading.

http://www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/milestones_photos/shannon.html

The Shannon project is one of the IEEE milestones projects. The above link gives you all the technical and historical details including a rather interesting map of the Irish National Grid as it was in 1929!

After WWII broke out, the poco here moved onto a much wider range of suppliers. They also rapidly built up a very large in-house engineering team that went on to design most of the subsequent power plants etc.. the company still exists as an international electrical engineering consultancy called ESBI.

Equipment came from multiple suppliers, Siemens and AEG reappeared in the 1950s.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 05-02-2005).]

Joined: Mar 2005
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I'd not rememberered the formation of Eire. It's quite tragic the way we Europeans have knocked each other about in the last 1000 years. The website on the Shannon project is fascinating, and I've just wasted the entire morning reading it!
Thanks.

Alan


Wood work but can't!

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