Show southeastern transmission PLANT written for the mining kevie review w by 0 H skidmore E E of salt lake american falls on the snake river is situated about twenty five miles west of pocatello where the huntington division of the oregon short line railroad croiser crosses on its steel bridge which is over feet long this is one of the widest places on the river with high blufus on the west side and is a particularly good location for a power plant both ford for its natural adaptability as well as having the largest constant flow of water at any point on the river in idaho I 1 s s it was here that mr J T H brady who had taken in the pocatello power and irrigation co of pocatello idaho decided that he would build a power plant to supply pocatello with power and light and possibly do the same for some of the numerous surrounding towns I 1 having secured his franchise and located his W water ater rights the next step was to settle n a site for the power house this was not such a simple matter as the fhe west side of the river was occupied by the fhe pumping plant the rights of which are owned and controlled by mr A H tarbet and d the lauds lands on the east side were then then in litigation therefore mr bradys only alternative was an island of rock in the middle of the river here he realized it was a great undertaking to convert this lava rock into a power site however nothing daunted plans were laid and several feet of rock were blasted to a level sufficient for the foundations for the machinery and building also a tunnel was as run in below the water level for a discharge or tail race for the water wheels A W mv 7 A anz i N j s ar tk 7 7 VA 4 GE STATION AT AMERICAN FALLS LOOKING THE it was also found necessary to remove considerable sid erable rock above the power house to construct a forebay and erect wing walls A two story building of rock was built the lower floor to be used for the generating station and the upper floor for a residence for the attendants at the plant with an office and library for the company one triple set of samson turbines capable of delivering twelve hundred horsepower orse were placed in one of the two pits prepared for them with a head of twenty two feet of water above and a draught of sixteen feet below tho the turbine Is controlled by an oil pres p res sure lombard governor and is direct cau pled to a kilo watt generator of the revolving field type and of general electric co s make there is accommodation for another unit identical with the one just described this arrangement being made as it was believed that it would shortly become necessary to increase the plant all wires are run in wood lined channels in the cement floor the wires themselves being lead encased with insulation tested for volts the current is generated at 2300 volts three phase and handled through a two panel switchboard switch board the Fene generator panel contains one triple pole double throw oil switch for disconnect ing the generator from the switchboard with wim one motion one field discharge switch and the usual measuring instruments the other called the transformer panel contains three double pole double throw oil switches which control the current supplying the three kilo watt water cooled step up transformers these transformers are connected in delta both sides and increase the voltage from the initial voltage of the generator of 2300 to volts whence it goes out over three no 4 copper wires tied to provo no 1 glass insulators twenty five miles to pocatello here the wires enter the pocatello substation at a difference of potential ot of volts showing a drop in voltage of about 6 per cent under full load conditions the current is again transformed through three K W water cooled transformers identical in appearance with the step up transformers at the generating station but these are so connected as to reduce or step down the voltage to 2300 volts thus making it available for distribution about the city A switch board is installed here to regulate and control the current used in pocatello the first panel carries three single throw double pole oil switches to connect or disconnect the transformers with the 9 AK zo 60 A y 44 01 Y ak vi J ct lk 0 AI R 4 AND generating STATION AT AMERICAN FALLS switch board bu next is the lighting panel which carries the measuring ments and regulator hand wheels where the voltage of the various lighting circuits are adjusted by medium of three C R type G E regulators placed the switch board next is the power panel which controls the motor circuits in pocatello the back board contains current transformers potential transformers and recording watt meters and on them is recorded the amount of energy supplied to pocatello the municipal lighting is performed by means of two 25 light series transformers of the oil cooled type which in turn furnish current to fifty series arc lamps of bf the A C enclosed type this system is usually called the hartford system and it has given efficient and excellent service the commercial and residence lighting is done under the three phase four wire system thus making it possible to run small motors from the lighting secondary mains without materially disturbing the potential of the lighting line thus the power line is left for large motors and being connected direct to the bus bars at the substation little or no effect is made on the potential of the lighting circuits when a large motor is started the installation as far as pocatello was begun december 1901 and completed the latter part of july 1902 there are now connected in pocatello over 16 c p incandescent lamps or their equivalent this installation showed such a marked success from a financial point of view that the reorganized company which took its name from the falls and wa was called the american falls power light water co ld decided to build from pocatello on to blackfoot a distance of twenty five miles making a total length of transmission of fifty miles therefore in the following spring surveys were run from pocatello to blackfoot through the fort hall indian reservation and right of way obtained 0 from the TJ S government on the ath of june active work began and the line was completed on the of the following august there are some novel features in the construction of this line principal among them being the method of turning a corner instead of following the old stereotyped western union way of bracing as many as twenty poles set on the arc of a long radius curve angles of more than 30 degress are turned on two gallows frames braced within themselves and set at two radii of the curve about twenty feet apart these poles are double armed to stiffen the frame and to divide the side strain on pins and insulators the transpositions trans positions are a little over two miles apart and make three complete cycles or barrels and nine single transpositions trans positions Y the wire used was no 4 stranded aluminum and is tied to knowles M G top tie volt glass insulators 1 at all the building where the high ten sion wires enter lighting arrestors arresters are in j stalled for the protection of the building i machinery and apparatus and in a measure it the line and poles are saved considerable damage from lighting and static discharges v which are by these devices carried off into the ground s the blackfoot substation has something the appearance ofa of a church the object 01 0 the tower is obvious being to keep the high ten tension sOrl wires as high as possible from the ground where they enter the building these wires are insulated from the wall in the following manner A length of 24 inch sewer pipe is built in the wall the hub being inside the building into which is fitted a disc of plate glass with a hole in the center large enough to admit the wire three K W core type oil cooled step down transformers are installed in this stati station orl and are connected through three sin gle phase lighting 1 panels and three C R type regulators 1 to the lighting 0 circuits of blackfoot which are divided into three single phase circuits each of the three phases taking care of a different section of the town there is a three phase power panel from which the black foot ot mill elevator co obtain power for their 50 horsepower motor which operates their mill and also there is an arc light panel for the municipal arcs similar to that III pocatello connected to a 25 light series oil 01 cooled transformer from which are oper abed ed fifteen enclosed series A C are arc lamps 01 OI the streets of blackfoot the power now now developed at american palls falls during the peak of the load amounts to a little over the normal rating of the generator 1 which will necessitate the installs tion of more generating capacity in the near future the possibilities are vast at american falls there being not less than thirty thousand horsepower of energy at the minimum flow of water it is possible to construct a plant to use the entire water of the falls for a reasonable iea expenditure and it would not of necessity be very hard to find a market for the power generated within a possible distance even though this market should d not apparently exist the same could und undoubtedly be found indeed in the neighborhood of the great salt lake it is reasonable to believe that N fv 7 14 tv N k r A fa L A NOR fa ait substation SUB sm STATION AT BLACKFOOT such a market could be created the time is nearly ripe for the construction of an electrically operated railroad system or perhaps the equipment of one of the roads already built work has progressed far enough on alternating terna ting transmission of electrical energy to be safe in saying that apparatus to make long lines of electrically operated railways successful is now emerging from the experimental peri mental stage and will be soon with us and show us a way to utilize much of the undeveloped water power of this western country also to open a new field for financiers of the day and a new and interesting field for the engineer 0 H SKIDMORE |