Fins

Wow!

Indeed.

Looks like a missile silo

Wonder if these would even turn now?

Like Atlas, holding up the world...

What the heck? The bomb bay doors of the B-52 Stratofortress? From this shot I can see Slim Pickens from the movie Doctor Strangelove sitting on top the bomb and riding her down.

yeehaaa

This shot makes me feel small.

Imagine how many Xboxes and Ipods you could run with that sucker!

You are seeing what we call the "spider" or bearing bracket and generator lower guide bearing. Above it, where you see a little dim light seeping thru, is the generator field. The field rotates. The light is coming thru air slots in the stator (the stationary part of the generator which has "General Electric" on it). The rotor has a series of vertival fins on it that are also partially visible. As the rotor turns, aside from inducing a current in the stator to produce power, the fins ont he rotor act as a cooling blower to move air thru the windings in the stator and rotor. Generators get hot when producing power. This old unit is air-cooled.


This is a little guy as generators and turbines go. I work at a plant where the generator rotor alone weighs 500 tons and turns at 257 rpm.

BTW: I estimate these units at about 15 megawatts apiece given their age and size of the stators. 15 megawatts would provide power to about 1500 modern homes. 15 megawatts needs about a 20,000 shaft horsepower turbine to turn the generator. I've worked on hydro turbines of over 300,000 shaft horsepower, and those are over 40 yrs old. This plant had big units for its day, but that was a long time ago. These are little guys by any standards.