Maths and history

It ain’t pretty but it works

I was showing the hydro system to some guests last weekend (what man tires of showing off his handiwork), and had occasion to point out a date crudely scratched into the wet concrete of the base.  10/83.  Yesterday I was putting washing on the line and my mind wandered from the dull task to do some mental arithmetic, as one does for entertainment.  I realised that the hydro has been providing me with power 24/7 for the last 32 years.  For half my life, I have provided my own power.  I designed and built a machine that has been working for me continuously for 32 years  That is 280,320 hours.  Slaves are generally not that reliable.

It is nearly all the original equipment.  The generator has now done about 25,000,000,000 revolutions and the turbine has used 100,915,200 tons of water.  Approx.  When I say ‘used’, every drop is returned to the creek.  So what do I extract from the water to make the power?  Energy cannot be created or destroyed in this universe, it can only be converted.  So what am I taking from the water that is not the water itself?  Heat.  If the water tumbled down the waterfall, friction would heat it by a tiny fraction of a degree.  It bypasses the rocks down a smooth pipe with much less friction and is less heated by the turbine than it would have been by crashing over rocks.

So I have replaced the 2 drive v-belts about every 2 years, the turbine and generator bearings about every 4 years, the generator brushes about every 3 years, the slip rings about every decade.  Some pipes have been trashed by floods, but most are the originals, The top weir and turbine housing survive unchanged.  Have you every had a machine that worked non-stop for 32 years?

I have actually seen a working machine that has worked 24/7 for 150 years.  The only time it got maintenance was Xmas day when it got some grease.  It was a coal lift for a mile deep mine in the UK.  They didn’t expect to have to do more than grease once a year for the next 250 years.  I went down the mine and having a mile of rock over ones head propped up by crumpled steel pillars is a thought provoking experience.  I expect that magnificent steam engine operated by a ‘winder-driver’ of considerable experience, has now been replaced by an electric motor computer controlled.  Sigh.

2m under water a couple of weeks ago

I had a thought that I would like to give some feed-back to Stamford the makers of the generator in the UK, which has withstood the harshest operating conditions at the bottom of a waterfall in a tropical jungle, being swept away in floods, being jammed solid with rocks and sand, immersed in water for days at a time and other mishaps not covered by the operating manual.  I fondly imagined some white-haired old engineers stirring their tea in a spartan canteen, would get a moment’s satisfaction when I clinically reported that after 30 years of use and abuse, their design had proved satisfactory.  Time has moved on, even if I haven’t, and now I find from  a web search, that the Stamford name is now manufactured in China.  Those white-haired engineers have probably retired to Spain for the last decade.