ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Electrical Nostalgia 1898 Hydro Plant

Yup... the extra % of safety margin are what makes old things keep working. Last Tuesday I crawled under a 1927 electric loco... now that's sturdy steelwork!

Very good point; I can think of two examples from recent times:

(1) Some years ago, there was a proposal to reduce the width of nominal "2 by" lumber for wall studs from the present 1-1/2 inches to 1-1/4 inches, thereby cutting building costs. The idea was supported by engineering studies showing that the narrower studs would still have ample strength, given the conservative nature of code-prescribed wall construction.

But practical-minded reviewers noted that carpenters sometimes fail to hit current-size studs when nailing on sheathing, and could be expected to miss more frequently with the narrower lumber.

(2) After hurricane Andrew hit Florida, inspectors noted that a surprising amount of stapled-on roof sheathing had blown off. Theory and tests showed that the staples should have held as well as nails.

But they failed to take into account human laziness. The proper method of stapling was for the crown of the staple to be parallel to and centered on the the rafter, so that both legs of the staple would penetrate solid wood. However, this entailed holding the staple gun in an uncomfortable position, so some carpenters shot the staples perpendicular to the rafter. This practice greatly increased the likelihood that one leg of the staple would miss the rafter, thus reducing the holding power of that staple by half.

Relevant to both the topic of older technologies sometimes being more resilient, and the original topic of old hydro plants: the latest issue (Vol. 6, No. 4) of Rexel's "Power Outlet" magazine includes an article about the company furnishing materials for a replacement cooling-pump control panel at Pacific Gas and Electric's Tiger Creek plant in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

The article said that PG&E specified relays, rather than a PLC for the panel due to the lack of appropriately skilled technicians at the plant's isolated location, and because PLCs could be more sensitive to power fluctuations. PG&E's project manager stated "We've found that relays are tried and true, so we stick with them."


[This message has been edited by Albert (edited 10-04-2006).]

A digitized copy of the entire book "American Hydroelectric Practice", from
1917:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=O...p;lpg=PA1&dq=hydroelectri c#PPP16,M1

Has some good descriptions of hydro plants of the era.

Albert LaFrance



[This message has been edited by Albert (edited 02-18-2007).]

This is all good stuff - but our memories serve us so badly - we forget about things from yesteryear that were truly terrible. A couple of things important to me:
Thank goodness we finally came up with an alternative to the automobile choke and carburetor - notoriously unreliable and extremely sensitive to the cold, when was the last time you had difficulty starting a car and it was because of a fuel problem? Come to think of it 40 years ago we would have been thrilled with 100 000 miles out of a car - now they regularly do 200 000 and more. Digital tuning of radio and TV receivers (not to be confused with digital radio) - how I hated trying to turn the knob to get the station tuned correctly - they always seemed to drift. Car batteries that always needed topping up with water. Give me my electronic programmable thermostat for my home heating any day - the mercury filled electro-mechanical one I replace was a piece of work that bounced the temperature around all over the show. Answering machines with tapes in them - actually anything with tape in it - my car stereo ate tapes up for breakfast regularly. Leaded paint, fuel. My grandparents had a coal fired kitchen oven and range - took one person about an hour each day just to keep the thing running (clean out stoking etc). The steam iron - the guy (gal?) who invented that deserves a medal. Automatic washing machines, bagless vacuum cleaners and DISHWASHERS Woo Hoo! Diapers!!!! In short you couldn't pay me enough to live in my parents or grandparents generation - it sucked big time.

Vienna working class housing in 1890... a single bedroom apartment, consisting of a room (maybe 20 sq. m, 25 at best, i.e. roughly 200 sq. ft.) and a kitchen. No bathroom (shared water closet out in the stairway for at least 3 apartments), no running water (one sink per floor in the stairway). And around 10(!) people living in such an apartment, sleeping in shifts.
Nowadays those apartments make for nice student and single accomodation, often upgraded with a bathroom. However, some elderly people still live in those things without a bathroom and running water!
Those houses have special cast iron sinks with integral backsplash called Bassena (from the French bassin). Bassena gossip was a fairly common word as the housewives would meet there getting water...



At least it's got something to do with water, so its not completely OT

Wow. Thats a really awesome sink!

What's that little gimmick that's stuck in the faucet? Did they seal the sink off or is that for attaching a hose to the faucet?

That's for a hose. Besides, without a hose attached it makes for a somewhat straighter stream.

Yep, replications are expensive, and originals are close to inaffordable!

It's likely that there are transient spikes of unexpected stress that rarely happen, but eventually will happen. And that that extra margin that engineers added in the old days was what got buildings and other such things thru the transient spikes of stress without any problems. Take away that margin, and you'll start getting failures from time to time.