Valves

More fun things to turn.

I don't know why, but I see the shape of a dancing person in this :S

Makes me think of a drummer playing.

If it is dancing person,wouldn't want him to step on my foot.

Would this be a thing-a-ma-gig? :)

Looks like a wonderful piece of Modern art! Should be in a Museum! Great Shot Motts!!!

That's a, um, uh, one of those things.

I want this thing lol

Pressure gauge still looks in good shape

This looks like one of those Rube Goldberg devices that has a lot of moving parts but does absolutly nothing of any value.

*agrees with Greenskulker*

Probably a speed control system. Mechanical PID control. Lovely!

Nice, very artful in it's own way. I especially like the two wheels on the bottom left. :D

it reminds me of the chocolate boat from that movie "charlie and the chocolate factory" lol

You are looking at the governor for one of the tubines. The governor regulates the speed of the turbine, using oil hydraulics to pen or close wicket gates to admit water to the runner ("wheel") as required to maintain speed. Once the generator has been synchronized into the grid, the speed is held solid by the frequency of the grid power, so the governor just controls load. Very similar to cruise control on a modern automobile. The "dispahn" on top is a shroud covering the governor ballhead. The ballhead spins, as speed drops off, the balls drop down and open a pilot valve- which ports oil to the distributing valve- which sends massive flows of pressurized oil to work hydraulic cylinders (servomotors) which open or close the wickets. The gauge with the dark face and single pointer is a wicket gate position indicator. The white faced guage is the tachometer. The rusted lever arms on top are part of a very sensitive mechanism to take the small movement /low force of the ballhead and use it to work the pilot valve.

The governor is an extremely sensitive and incredible piece of work. Very fine machine work needede build a governor. To maintain a ballhead hydraulic governor took the finest mechanics. Each unit had its own governor. Without a governor, there is no controlling a turbine's speed so it 's generator could be synchronized into the grid.