Document vy6j34Jwzx5N27ypw1QjKR9ww

For ALL Power Engineers Steam, Electricity and AH Other Power Engineering Services COMPLETE CONTENTS Special Review and Forecast Section pages 53 to 68 At the Turn of the Half Century.......................................................... 53 The Power Industry--Past, Present and Future.................................... 54 Power Plants of 1950--How they Foreshadow Tomorrow's Progress. 58 8y Chester R. Bari Electrical Engineering--Where Does It Go From Here?................... 64 8y Andrew W. Kramor Chutes, Feeders, Gates, Grids and Hoppers for Coal-Handling Systems.. . 70 8y Wilbur G. Hudson New European Refinery Power Plant Designed for Dependability.......... 72 By C. i. Ruxhko and R. R. Popham The Thermoelectric Generator......................................................................... Discussion By Howard K Podell Problems Encountered in Thermoelectric Generator Design By C. D. Hauott 76 The Grounded Neutral in Holland................................................................. 79 By H. Wioland Lot A Shorter Funnel Solved this Filter Paper Problem............................... .... . 80 By A. Thompson How New Water Test Determines Calcium and Magnesium Hardness Separately.................................................................................... 81 By A. O. WoMcer and R. S. Robertson "Dry-lee" From Boilers .................................................................................... 82 Atomics Digest................................................................................................... 96 ASME Holds 70th Annual Meeting............................. 99 Regular Departments N Notes on This Issue....................... 5 Engineers' Preview..................... 7 Helpful Bulletins......................... 35 New Equipment News................. 42 Letters to the Editors................... 69 A Laborer's Criticism of Engineering Education An Engineer Looks at Labor Practical Hints and Kinks............. 83 Anti-Plug Greuit Eliminates Commutator Main tenance Practical Signal System, Easy to Install and Maintain Core and Operation of Outside Fuel Oil Tanks Faulty Boiler Hook-Ups The Hook-On Ammeter Questions and Answers............... 90 What Causes Burner Trouble and High Draft in These Boilers? What Operating Data Should Be logged for a 1250 Kw Condensing Turbine Generator? Coming Events .. . ...................... 95 Obituaries-- .................................. 95 Construction N ews ..................... 98 Catalog Library.............................100 r. rr>. i JANUARY 1950 f PLAINTIFFS I* EXHIBIT \G_E~5U > THE POWER INDUSTRY- Pig. I. A photograph of th tint turbine for central station use in the United States. This was the 2000-kw Westinghouse unit insta ,*d in the plant of the Hanford Electric Light Co. in 1900. It wes a 1200 rpm condensing turbine, far exceeding in capacity any unit previously built. This machine ran for eight years AS THE WORLD MOVES into and almost no one can tame a scien the second half of the twentieth tist, except perhaps his wife. Try century the advent of nucleairng to reduce such a situation to energy or atomic power as it is generally accepted accounting prin popularly known gives promise of ciples consistently applied is both changes so vast, so inconceivably elusive and illusory." beyond anything we can even im In the use of nuclear energy we agine today that it would be foolish have a gain over present day fuels to try to predict what the power of three million to one. No matter industry will be like in the year what the engineering difficulties, no 2000. Make no mistake about this; matter how diffused the supply of do not be misled by economics or fissionable materials may be on so-called engineering considerations earth, nuclear power will be put to by so-called experts today. The nu use during the next half century. cleus of the atom is not amenable to It is fortunate that nuclear energy economics. As pointed out in a can be used as a war weapon be recent issue of Nucleonics, an ac cause the development of weapons, countant can't see an atom and if he like the atom, is not subject to the could he probably wouldn't know laws of economics, and the intensive what he was looking at. For this research that is going on under the reason, all estimates of the probable weapon program is enormously ac cost of developing atomic energy are celerating the development of atomic relatively worthless. Such estimates power for peacetime use. only show up the circumscribed kind of thinking which people--en gineers as wed as accountants-- indulge it A&Jhifleonics points out "only a scientist can tame an atom, Fifty years ago, in the year 1900, the first turbine-generator for cen tral station service went into opera tion in the plant of the Hartford Electric Light Co. A picture of this unit is shown on this page. It was a 2000-kw, 1200 rpm condensing turbine driving a d-c generator through reduction gears. As will be seen from the photograph, it was quite modem in appearance. Charles A. Parsons had developed the tur bine in England and as soon as George Westinghouse heard of Par son's success he investigated and in 1895 Westinghouse obtained the ex clusive American rights for the Parson's type steam turbine. After building several small units--one 400-kw unit--the Hartford unit was built in 1900. First 500-Kw at Fisk The General Electric Co., in the meantime developed a type of tur bine based on the patents of Curtis. At first, the vertical type was ex clusively the standard in this type of turbine. Outstanding among the names associated with the eariy days of the utility industry and the steam turbine is the name of Samuel Insull. Despite the later notoriety which surrounded this man when the lust for power and money over ruled his earlier good judgment, Samuel Insull deserves considerable credit for his untiring efforts in the development of the utility industry. It was Insull's confidence in the ad vantage of the turbine that led him, in 1903 to install the first 5000-kw turbine generator at the old Fisk Street Station in Chicago. This was by far the largest turbine unit ever constructed and there was some ap prehension concerning its feasibility. A picture of this unit is shown in Fig. 3. It was a vertical unit which operated successfully for many years. Then, it was moved back to the General Electric Co. works at Schenectady, where it was made, to stand as a monument to commemo rate the beginning of the turbine industry. There is a great difference be tween these early turbines, the one at Hartford, the 5000-kw unit at Fisk, and the modern 100.000 and 150,000-kw turbine generating units of today--between them lies the growth and development of prac tically the whole of the electric power industry as we know ;t today. Yet, if history is any criterion, we can expect far greater changes in the power industry in the next 50 years. This would probably be true even without atomic energy but with it, the changes are bound to be re volutionary. With the development of the breeder type of nuclear reac tor the entire problem of fuel supply and transportation will vanish. In stead of having to transport hun dreds of millions of tons of coal and 54 January, 1950--POWER GENERATION--Chicago. III. Past, Present, and Future oil over long distances, it may be come possible to deliver the nation's annual nuclear fuel supply in a single good size truck. At the pres ent time, of course, noboby outside of the top members of the Atomic Energy Commission know how much fissionable material can be made with our present production facil ities. Niels Bohr was attributed to have said that at the close of the war the Oak Ridge plant was making 6 lb of U-235 a day by the gaseous diffusion process. Since then we have considerably added to the ca pacity of the diffusion plant, and. of course, the Hanford facilities have also been extended. Cost of Uranium Even now, as reported by Dr. John R. Dunning at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in New York on December 26, the cost of producing fissionable uranium is somewhere between $10,000 and $25,000 a pound. Averaging these two extremes would give us uranium at a cost equivalent to less than S10.00 per ton for coal Many present-day steam stations, of course, pay only a little over $5.00 per ton for coal. As Dr. Dunning said, "uranium fission converts only one part in a thousand of mass into energy, so we certainly have plenty of room for some faith in the future and some new ideas and discoveries. During the first fifty years of the twentieth century, we have attained in this country the world's highest standard of living, due largely to our great and universal use of electricity. In 1949 the use of electrical energy by residential customers reached an all time high in the United States with an annual consumption of 1685 kilowatthours per customers. Only 10 years ago the average annual con sumption per customer was892,kilo- watthours. At the end of the year 1949, there was installed in this country a total of 63,500,000 kw of generating capacity. This included plants of all business-managed com panies as well as federal, municipal and REA plants. The leadership of the United States in the production of electric- ity among the nations of the world is indicated in the accompanying table. With a total annual produc tion of 336.808.000.000 kwh. the United States produces 44.4 per cent of the world's production. This fig ure is even more significant when we compare it with population. With less than 7 per cent of the world's population, the United States produces (this was in 1948) over 44 per cent of the world's electricity. This was about 5Vc times as much electricity as Russia, the country generating the next greatest amount, was able to produce. At the beginning of the century many generating plants used as much as ten pounds of coal per kilo watt hour and the best stations used around six pounds. (Edison's Jumbo units which required only 10 lb per kwh were a great improvement over earlier arc-lighting plants which used 30 lb of coal per kwh.) Today, the national average is 1.2 lb of coal per kwh and the most efficient plant requires less than ^ of a pound of coal per kwh. For the long term future, these gains will serve as the springboard to much greater progress. Future years will witness great development of the gas turbine. The gas turbine has been in process of development for some 25-years but only this year was the first gas turbine installed in a central station in this country. Of course, they have been used in Eu rope for well over ten years. The great advances in the art of metal lurgy. however, have given renewed impetus to gas turbine development during the last four years and from now on, an increasing number of gas turbines will be installed for power production. The development of the coal-burning gas turbine is well t*tt-SURnCE CONOEKSER l*OT- IMPULSE - REACTW"! TURBINE IMNTAMDCM, DOUSU- ^ ____ FLOW TURBINE ON U BLANC JET CON-- DENSER ANO ROTARY AIR RUHR WOO- FIRST CENTRAL* STATION INSTALLATION 1920 -- t*13-U BLANC STEAM EJECTOR 1*14-CROSS--COMRQUNOTVRtIHC ---t*21 -SOUP- FORCED ROTORS IB22-KY0RAUUC QOVtRNOA lf*S- IOW-C4RROR. ttRERCewTCNROME STttt. ROR BLADES tB2*~ iOW'RRCISURE BLAOC EROSION SHIELDS I1SS-ORTICAL STUDIES OF IMRULSE LAOe VIBRATION IN SERVICE i 19*4-13' INCH REACTION X!.buoefor MOO* ARM TURBINES #25 mo 1*50 1*40 1*41 i*SO Fig, 2. Chert showing the development of the steam turbine and the influence of the development of different metels upon its growth. This chert was presented at the Westinghouse Electric Corp. Mid-century Review end Forecast Forum in Pittsburgh, November 10, 1949 t JfflWOW t '? ..'^ORCWBTEEt^- | January, 1950--POWER GENERATION--Chicago, III. 65 if 4 ) i 15 &1 -.Rg3^!TB>*firrtSS , twsf*#* tutbfaw^go-^ erctin^umf m*tUid>oifi : tfckold? Fisk-Shoot*Sfi5 Hovi.Chicago fiu i902iL' . ThiYf wtt the*-'. largest-^ unriover-- built at- thcto;. Km* e*d>; Rib Station- wa- tho. tint. aB steam.-: turbineelectric generet*-tog.-. plant? built' if*stbiR; country.;,- C uriciis 1 y*; eoougbr'FnlrStation to-- day^. he*-installed' **'.Hvi - tw. larges*- nglaihafR - staam? turbme unit ovorrK bu3fc.-Th* uart-ts-showo^' under way and when a fully practical and successful coal-burning gas turbine is achieved even our highly developed steam turbine will disappear, not completely perhaps but to a marked extent. Like the gas turbine, the mercury and his assistant L. A. Sheldon and installed under the supervision of H. N. Hackett The mercury cycle was developed by these pioneers to superimpose or top the then existing low-pressure 250 psig steam cycle. Today, even with the practical Country WORLD PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICITY--1948 KSiowatthours Produced 8sr cant of Worid Production United States Russia Canada United Kingdom Japan Germany (United States, British, and Franeh zones) Franca Italy Sweden Norway Estimated other countries, including Russian lone in Germany 336,808,000.000*t 60.000,000,000^ 46,930,000,000* 46.536,000.000 33.624,000.000 31,320.000,000 27.564,000.000* 22,692,000,000 14,268,000,000* 12.444,000,000* 125,814,000.000 44.4 7.9 6.2 6.1 4.4 4.1 3.7 3.0 1.9 1.7 16.6 Station of the Hartford Elec Light Co. This replaces the old i referred to above, "he new i consisting of a 15,0*. kw mere boiler and turbine, produces 33. kw net capacity from the mereturbine and steam produced in condenser-boiler. This unit is first of several post-war mere unit power plants to be placed service before very long. Where the Mercury Turbine Fits While high thermal efficiencies < be attained by the use of die his pressure high-temperature ste cycle, the mercury turbine offers tractive features in that its h thermal efficiency can be attaii with small plants--plants of 1500 and less. Thus, while it is possi with present day high temperat steam plants to attain very h thermal efficiencies in large static it is not economically feasible obtain these same efficiencies w small steam plants. It is here t the mercury type of plant off great promise. Thus, both the gas turbine and ' mercury turbine can be expected find increasing application in futi decades. The task with the gas tt bine in the immediate future clearly, to develop it for long cc tinuous operation with gas tempej tures beyond 1300 degrees and obtain information as quickly possible that will lead to constn. tion of suitable units for temper tures up to 1500 degrees. Such pr grams are being aggressively pi sued. Both the central station fit and industry generally have attrs tive applications for the gas turbi that await its development Tht is little doubt that such practic long-life machines will become reality and that machines of ope cycle form and in capacities up say, 10,000 kw will be built in few years. Closed cycles offer pc Total 758.000,000,000 100.0 SOURCE: NOTES: United Nations Statistical Bulletins, Sapt. 1949. * includes industrial plant production, f EEI Statistical Bulletin No. 16. $ Business Weak, Fab. 12, 1949. Industrial plant figures for 1945. turbine has been a long time in development. Development of the mercury turbine dates back some 30 years and during this time General Electric has spent upwards of 20 million dollars in its development The first commercial mercury tur bine went into operation in 1928 at the Hartford Electric Light Co. This first installation was designed by W. L. R. Emmet then consulting engineer of the General Electric Co. maxima of pressure and temperature in steam generating equipment, the mercury cycle still ran successfully top such units and increase the over all efficiency. The resulting econo mies, especially in the higher fuel cost areas, may be sufficient to pay off the additional investment in about three years. In January 1949--just a year ago --a new mercury boiler and turbine was started in the South Meadow Faraday discovering the principle of electric generetor 56 January, 1950--POWER GENERATION--Chicago, 111. sibiiities of macnines i.ir.e- this ratine jjow, at mid-century, the gas turbine stands about where the steam turbine stood at the beginning of the century^ The gas turbine in herits much experience from its cousin. Its further development, for all its obstacles should be_rapid and what the next 50 years holds for the gas turbine, like atomic energy, makes interesting speculation. Development of all three types of prime movers, the steam turbine, the gas turbine, and the mercurv-vapor turbine will no doubt continue far into the second half of the twentieth century unless some new tj'pe of electric generator, such as. for example, a thermoelectric genera tor. should be developed. This is true regardless of whether or not nuclear energy comes into use on a large scale. At the present time the only practicable method of develop ing' power from nuclear energy is by utilizing the thermal energy pro duced as a consequence of nuclear fission in a conventional type of prime mover such as a steam, gas. or mercury turbine. Nuclear energy is thermal energy and unless a way is found whereby this thermal energy can be converted directy into electrical energy, it will be necessary to use prime movers driving electro dynamic generators. V C i U* l O l. L* 1i' ' w * .... - .. is of the order o: a sphere 3 to 6 in. in diameter. The great advantage of atomic power over other forms of power lies in the extreme concentration of the fuel. In recent years there has been considerable discussion con cerning the possibility of utilizing the radiant energy issuing from the sun directly by photosynthesis, or by some other method. True, all our power stems from the sun and each square mile of the earth's sur face receives a relatively enormous amount of energy from the sun. but it seems unlikely that a practical method can be developed in the foreseeable future which would con nuclear energy offers a:-. a.r.-.os: finitely more concentrated form of fuel and therein lies its particular charm. A small reactor, no larger than a modern steam boiler may be able to deliver a thousand, perhaps a hundred thousand times as much energy. Atomic energy, then, is the great new force of the second haif of the twentieth century. It offers pros pects of revolutionary changes far greater than those which the de velopment of the steam -turbine brought in the first haif of the cen tury. Our electric power systems no doubt will continue along the nre-ent lines of development: our New Perms of Generators As indicated in the section de voted to electrical engineering in the pages that follow, there is a pos sibility that a practical thermo electric generator might be built-- a generator that would absorb the heat from a coal or oil fired furnace, or a nuclear reactor, and convert it directly into electical energy. A new type of thermocouple, one made of silicon carbide and carbon has been developed which produces a very much higher electromotive force per degree difference in temperature and this thermocouple offers pos sibilities in that direction, though there may be reasons which will prevent the development of a prac tical generator of this kind. Some scheme of this kind would be of in estimable value in abstracting the heat from a nuclear reactor. It ap pears that the amount of energy^hat may be released in a nuclear reactor and, hence, the amount of power that may be produced, does not de pend upon the size of the reactor as determined by nuclear considera tions. Any amount of power from a few' watts up to hundreds of thou sands cf kilowatts may be produced from any size pile provided the energy can be removed from it. In other words the problem in reactor design is mainly one of heat transfer. In ffie extreme case, the atomic bomb is a nuclear reactor and it is quite clear from even the small amount of information that has been released, that the mass of uranium Fig. 4. The I SO.000 lew turbo-generator placed in service at Fisk Station of the Common wealth Edison Co. in Chicago in July 1949. This is one of the largest generating units ever built. It is Unit No. 18 et Fisk and with its installation, Fisk Station attains a capacity of 473.000 kw. making it the largest of the ten generating stations of the Commonwealth Edison system vert this radiant energy into useful power without the construction of vast structures covering large areas. Wind power is somewhat in the same category and, so far, the most feasi ble way of utilizing wind power is by the pumped storage method, that is by having windmills pump water from a low to a high level and then using the potential energy of the stored water in hydroelectric plants. This scheme, however, in volves the building of great reser voirs and while other forms of ener gy are still relatively cheap, this method is not likely to find extensive use. ,, At the present time coal and oil are abundant in many parts of the world and since these are concen trated forms of energy they wall be drawn upon until the reserves have electric transmission and distribu tion systems will grow and become more effective and efficient. Trans mission voltages will increase on our long distance transmission systems, the underground transmission of electrical energy will be developed to a point where it may become pos sible to do away with overhead transmission as has been the case in telephone systems. As to the use of electrical energy in this country fifty years from now, it would be foolish to even try to predict. About all we know now, is that in another ten years, by 1960, say, the installed electric generating capacity in the United States will be well over 100 million kilowatts and this assumes no use of atomic ener gy. After that, atomic energy will probably begin to have its effect. January, 1950--POWER GENERATION--Chicago. HI. 57