File:The conquest of nature (1911) (14579645830).jpg

Identifier: conquestofnature00will (find matches)
Title: The conquest of nature
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Williams, Henry Smith, 1863- Williams, Edward Huntington, 1868-1944, joint author
Subjects: Industrial arts Machinery
Publisher: New York and London, The Goodhue company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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el. To use any other is indeed a wastefulextravagance, as the perfected turbine makes availablemore than eighty per cent, of the kinetic energy of anymass of falling water. A turbine wheel two feet indiameter is able to do the work of an enormous wheelof the old type. Turbine wheels are of several types, one operatingin a closed tube to which air has no access, and anotherin an open space in the presence of air. The watermay also be made to enter the turbine at the side or frombelow, thus serving to support the weight of the mech-anism—a consideration of great importance in the caseof such gigantic turbines as those that are employedat Niagara Falls, which we shall have occasion toexamine in detail in a later chapter. The power generated by a revolution of the turbinewheel may, of course, be utilized directly by belts orgearings attached to its axle, or it may be transferredto a distance, with the aid of a dynamo generatingelectricity. The latter possibility, which has only re- (72)
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WATER WHEELS. Fig. I shows a model of the so-called breast wheel, a familiar type of waterwheel that has been in use since the time of the Romans. Figs. 2 and 3 show similarwheels as used to-day in Belgium. Fig. 4 shows a model of Fourneyrons turbine.This wheel was made in 1837, but the original turbine was introduced by Fourneyronin 1827. The turbine wheel has now almost supplanted the other forms of waterwheel except in rural districts. THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER cently been developed, and which we shall have occasionto examine in detail in connection with our studies ofthe power at Niagara, gives a new field of usefulness tothe turbine wheel, and makes it probable that thisform of power will be vastly more used in the futurethan it has been in the past. Indeed, it would not besurprising were it ultimately to become the prime sourceof working energy as utilized in every department ofthe worlds work. Mr. Edward H. Sanborn, in an article on MotivePower Appliances in the Twelfth Census

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