Tach

Long has that needle been still.

Love those old dials.

Turned pretty slow?

Now we talkin my lan-guage hehe. I love these old pieces.

Very cool, the manufacturers of the valve system on this are the Morris family of renown for the Morris Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania. The historic building site where IP Morris built ship parts for the William Cramp Ship Co. (before Cramp bought out the parts making) in Pennsylvania is slated for demolition soon and the company closed in .

Sorry .. IP Morris was bought by Cramp and CO in 1891 and closed in 1927 - The site reopened for some time in 1941 but I don't see a final closure date.

ok 3rd post ... I guess the brick building at the Cramp ship yard I named was taken down in Jan of this year to make way for a highway interchange...

That needle has been still since Gerald Ford was President.

Gerald Ford stumbled, banged his head on it, and rendered it inoperable.

I.P. Morris and Cramp Shipbuilding were all part of Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA. I.P. Morris became known as "Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton" or "BLH" for their hydro turbines and built them under that name into the late 1950's.

Hydro turbines, with large generators turn very slowly compared to steam turbines. It's all a function of how many poles ("magnets") the generator has. The hard and fast number is 3600, which is 60 Hz current x 60 seconds/minute. RPM x number of poles on the generator must = 3600. Big machinery has to turn slow due to centrifugal force, but the rim speeds are up there. Hydro turbines are built custom for each application based on head of water (height), type of flows, and the turbine runner ("water wheel") determines the horspeower and rpm . Oncet hat is in hand, the generator design follows. A hydro turbine turns slower, so a bigger generator with more poles is needed. I've worked on older units that run at 90 rpm. You stand in the turbine pit and look up and can damned near count the poles on the generator rotor. Steam turbines usually run at 3600 rpm, and the combustion "gas" turbines (derived from aviation turbines) turn faster yet. Hydro turbines are friendly, massive machines. Smooth running and generally quiet at openating speed with a nice "60 cycle hum" from the generators and a little dull background roar of the water.