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French River Land Company's Website!

Previous Pictures Three Web Page

I posted too many photographs on the website. It was becoming very slow to load. I moved some of the previously posted photographs here.

Celesty and Will getting ready to dive on the forebay at Woronoco HEP. Sand had built up in front of the west rack and the trash rake would not descend to the sill. They cleaned out the sand.

Removing the Rodney Hunt turbines at Livermore Falls, N.H. Bill Fay is using thermite bars to burn the 3 inch thick cast iron head covers at Livermore Falls. Here the cold of outer space (liquid oxygen at minus 297 deg F) is feeding the fires of hell (OxyAcetylene burns steel at 2500 deg F, the surface temperature of the sun is 16,000 deg F. The tip of the thermite bar runs 8,000 deg F). The thermite bars are consumed like a punk stick. As they burn down the 8,000 deg F gets very close to your hands!! Once they are ignited, we could carve our initials in solid granite. (Livermore Falls<<click here for Livermore Falls)

I had been searching for a 60 inch Bullard for several years. I could afford neither the $60,000 price tag, that they were going for, nor the $10,000 trucking charge. Finally I found this one, on e-bay, two towns over from the shop for $3500 that included the flag and digital read out!!! Here Will, Celesty and Ronnie have jacked it up and placed it onto caterpillar machinery rollers in order to ship it back to the shop. We were looking for a service manual. The folks who are supplying parts for Bullards told us to look on the cross slide for a 5 digit serial number that would help them select what manual to send to us. I looked and found only a three digit number. We told the number to the factory rep. He called back and told us our Bullard had left the factory in August of 1902!!! It was the oldest Bullard that he new of that was still being used in a commercial operation. I was very pleased to get it. Will did put on his steel toed boots after this photo was taken.

April 11th, 2009, added scanned textbook, Hydraulic Motors by M. Bresse as translated by F. A. Mahan, July 1869. Also added links to Part I and Part II of the 1880 US Census, Water Powers of the United States. Got up at 5:00 AM cleaned both sides of River Road of all trash from bridge to abandoned house. Got Collin's trash rake and swept beer bottles and trash from sun turtle's little pond.

April 2nd, 2009, added scanned textbook, Hydraulic Turbines by Victor Gelpke and A. H. Van Cleve

March 29th, 2009, added scanned text book, Theory of Turbines by De Volson Wood, Graphics of Water Wheels by William Fox and Standard for Hydraulic Turbine and Generator Shaft Couplings and Shaft Runout Tolerances.

March 23rd, 2009, added Characteristics of Modern Turbines- Chester Larner.

Celesty in action!!!! She is sitting on the Woronoco No. 2 pressure casing. Note the operator for the 72 inch butterfly valve over Mike's head. The crew is grouting the space between the old pressure case and the new steel plate liner. The waste paper basket is welded to a two inch pipe that is inserted between the two layers. See the second bucket located behind Celeste. We mixed the grout, emptied it into the buckets and vibrated it into the cavity.

Celesty in action!!!! She is at the bottom of the Chinese gate case at Brockway Mills. She is moving one of the 75 ton porta-power cylinders. You can see the remains of the Chinese volute case, that needed to be cut out, in order to install the 500 KW, Ossberger Turbine in place. Chris gave me the Dong Fang for cash and a promise to assist him with the concrete removal. The only place to insert the rectangular draft tube was to hammer out a 10 foot wide by 12 foot long by 15 foot deep hole in front of the volute case and breaking out into the roof of the elbow draft tube. We used 30 pound rivet busters to remove the yardage. It took 6 weeks of back breaking work. This plant is currently for sale. Chris has purchased property in Montseratt. He wants to drill obliquely towards the volcano and install several megawatts of vulcan-thermal, steam cycle power!! This is a beautiful plant and has been running superbly!!! He is asking $ 850,000 for the plant. I think it is a steal. If you have a serious interest, please call Chris at: 1-603-499-2350.

Celesty is inspecting the No. One turbine runner for damage at Pepperell Hydro. Note the chunk of missing runner blade she has discovered. She is holding her hand over the missing piece.

Celesty and Will in the ruins of Appleton Mills in Lowell, MA. Will is sitting on the endbell of the horizontal pressure case. Celesty is straddling one of the cylinder gate operating shafts. Please see the following "You Tube Video" of this site when it was restored in the 1980s by Dave and Luke Wright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efZfa8w7VNg <<< please click

March 18th, 2009, Added Operation and Maintenance of Hydro-Generators

March 11th, 2009, added brochure, Craig Ridgway, "Perfection" Water-Wheel and Shaft Couplings for Hydroelectric Units

March 10th, 2009, added brochure, Headgates by S. Morgan Smith Company

Here, I am using thermite bars to burn the salient pole rotor off of the Westinghouse shaft. We needed the shaft to make our hybrid WestFang Generator. The rotor had sat outside in the weather for so many years, that we were afraid of bending the shaft, if we pressed it out of the flywheel bore. Ronnie Johnson has just lit up the end of the bar with the 30 inch wrecking torch. Once the bar starts to sputter, you crank open the ball valve, on the collet holder and all hell breaks lose!! It never ceases to amaze me how destructive a thermite reaction can be. Kids don't do this at home!!

Celesty, Ronnie Johnson and Chris Krueger rigging the Brockway Mills Rotor in anticipation of lowering it into the powerhouse hatch. Look at the size of the crane block compared to Chris' head!!

Here, I am installing a 15,000 volt air break switch. I had to extend the crane boom, with two I-beams, to get the lift. See the heavy clamps I fabricated to hold the beam to the end of the boom. Note the real end of the boom ends at the boom sheave. I first had to extend the 40 foot ladder, climb to the top and rope it down. I then lifted up the two heavy channel irons and bolted them and the braces onto the pole. Next I lifted up the individual switches. I had to haul the welding cable up the ladder. That's me straddling the I-beams while I weld the outboard switch to the support channels. The commuters coming down Route 202, from the center of town, thought I was floating in air!   Bad picture of me welding on top of the 40 foot pole. Note the guard rails up on Route 202 in the background.

Here's my Celesty operating the cherry picker at one of our sites. She has been operating the crane for years. I get a chuckle out of seeing her bossing around 30 and 40 year old guys, telling them not to get under the boom or the load! The next photo is looking down the 45 degree tarred slope that constitutes our driveway!!! We are pulling the number one runner out of Woronoco to rehabilitate at our shop.

Here, Celesty is pushing the Brockway Mills synchronous generator stator into position. I am in the back corner operating two 5 ton chain cum-a-longs in series to take up the slack. The stator is hanging off the crane cable . The top of the boom is almost 200 feet above her and the cable is dropped down through three stories, of a concrete reinforced powerhouse.

Here is a photograph of the Brockway Mills Powerhouse, with the crane in place, to lower the new generator into the roof hatch. This is where the word gorgeous comes from!!!

Davis starts his surgical incision. Note the small pressure case to the right. The Clark's (of Clark's Trading Post Fame) 15 years previously removed a smaller turbine by drilling a million holes in the little cover. They than smashed the cover with large sledge hammers. The result was the same but Davis and I preferred the thermite bars.

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Davis Hobbs dancing with the devil!! The heat was so intense that with an ambient temperature of over 100 degF we could only do two bars each. When we stopped we started shivering uncontrollably because the 100 degF day was so cold!!! See the Livermore Falls sidebar.

Celesty is slowly pulling the double runners up the hill. Left to right are Davis Hobbs, Ken Smith (aka: Mr. ESAC), me, crazy Chris Krueger and the best employee in the world, Mike Desrouche. We white blasted the runner, magnefluxed it for cracks, turned the bearing journals and coated the runners with Belzona's Super Glide. When it was finished, I did not want to go through this scene again. I rented a truck from Home Depot, loaded the runner on the back with the orange crane, drove down the Mass Pike to the site, and slowly (with some trepidation!!) backed down the hillside. I off loaded the runners with the chainfall located inside the powerhouse door.

Kenny is an excellent rigger. He was a merchant marine engineer and graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Whenever I thought we were doing a difficult pick, I remembered Kenny telling me about picking a 10,000 pound cylinder head, off a large marine engine, during a storm!!! Instead of worrying about just gravity, he needed to secure the x-y plane against pitching and yawing of the ship, with no external reference, of where the waves were going to hit. Here, he is removing the dollies from the runners so we can lift it onto the crane.

One set of freshly rehabbed runners, about to go down the Mass Pike, to be backed down to the Woronoco Powerhouse. I was really hoping the brakes would hold and they did!!!We do nice work!!!

Out with the bad!!! One very corroded and damaged Leffel, 54 inch, "J" runner. Mike Desrouche, Ronnie Johnson and Marshall Smith riggers.

Back in with the good!! $ 130,000 later, one new, replacement American Hydro runner!! Marshall Smith, Dave Hobbs, Mr. ESAC and Mike Desrouche off loading the new runner.

March 8th, 2009, added Christiana, Jolly, Trump and 1902 Lombard Catalouges.

March 5th 2009, added link a link to "Treatise Relative to the Testing of Water-Wheels and Machinery, with Various Other Matters Pertaining to Hydraulics" James Emerson, Holyoke Testing Flume, 1878.

March 3rd 2009, added three Lombard Catalouges, four articles on cavitation and links to the classic textbooks, Waterpower Engineering by Dan Mead and Hydraulic Turbines by Daugherty.

Celesty and I are lowering the Leffel, 39 Inch, B-2 runner into the No. 2 pressure flume. The new main shaft was created by "The Wizard",  on our 28 foot long, Poreba, roll, lathe.  Celesty and Mike had just used the 3000 ft-lb, hydraulic torque wrench to tighten the 1/2 coupling onto the top of the runner. We are standing on top of the Westinghouse generator flange that I carved from the carcass of the number two generator with the thermite bars.

Can you imagine inventing a turbine, drawing it up, making the patterns, casting the iron parts, machining the pieces, assembling the machine and shipping it off to the famous Holyoke Turbine Testing Flume for efficiency tests. Now, imagine paying the famous Mr. James Emerson, for those tests and having this letter, not only sent back to you, but also published in an engineering textbook!! Mr. Emerson really needed a modern course in client relations! This was in the famous, first, edition, that was banned by the Roman Catholic Church, the only engineering textbook ever banned!!! This was not in the later editions of the book, "Treatise Relative To The Testing of Water-Wheels and Machinery, Also of Inventions, Studies and Experiments with Suggestions from a Life's Experience", James Emerson, Williamsett, MA. 1894. It was the latter part of the title and of the book that got Mr. Emerson in trouble with the Church.

Collins blew a 13,800 volt fuse yesterday. The crew opened the air break switch and killed the line. After inspecting the blown line, we found this burnt bushing. Notice the hairline crack in the porcelain. Water got in the crack and the high voltage tracked down the water to ground. Note the burned metal in the eye. No one saw it happen, but it must have been a spectacular explosion.

Celesty has just helped finish replacing the Ropac mechanical seal at the Collins site. The seal was in the No.2 ESAC unit. What other turbine mechanic cannot work without her ear rings!

Will and Celeste reassembling the GE thrust bearing at Turners Falls. They have installed the bearing and thermocouples and are just sliding on the cooling fan. The next morning we all left for three weeks in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Will cutting the 30 inch main support beam for the new stoplog structure at Woronoco Hydro. Here he is 11 years old and this is an enormous I-beam!

Celesty rigging out the back roller shaft at Consolidated Edison's, Gardiners Falls Station. We were onsite to repair the canal waste gate's operating mechanism. The shaft was so long and heavy that we had to use two three ton chain falls hung from beam clamps attached to the overhead roof beam.

Celesty adjusting new trash racks at Consolidated Edison's Dwight Station. The rack section was being held out by a 600 volt conduit. Rather then moving the conduit, Celeste picked up the torch and adjusted the racks. That is a 30" wreckers torch she is using. It has been used on many jobs!!

Celeste rigging in the main waterwheel support bearing at the Slater Museum in Pawtucket, R.I.

Lovell Comstock using his Mack truck with a Peppin backhoe to load the four 33 inch, Hi Test runners onto the trailer.

Will determining the best place to set up the crane and how to slice the penstock and draft tubes.

Kenny Smith and Celesty adjusting the new racks at Dwight HEP.

Will and Celeste in the ruins of Appleton. Dave and Seth Wright would be dismayed at this destruction.

Celesty taking down the nameplate data at Bristol.

Celeste operating the Landoll rig as she carefully pulls the Poreba lathe onto the truck.

Celeste pulling the 35 foot long, 40,000 pound, Poreba roll lathe onto the truck to bring back to the machine shop. Warren Fay (The Wizard), Donny and Will Fay watch.

Will and Celeste dismantling the wet end of Woronoco Hydro's No.2. They have removed the front gate case. They are flanking the exposed main shaft and front runner.

Will and Celeste wonder whether to pull the equipment or rebuild the site!!

Will jacking up the 60 inch Bullard Turret Lathe

A view of the turbine suspended from the chainfalls. All in a days work!

60 inch Bullard moved to loading dock by Celeste, Will, Ron, Warren & Bill

Celeste and Mike installing the No.2 unit's shift ring.

Will Fay finishing up the quarter block assembly for turbine two. He is fitting the new bronze screws.

FERC ordered us to place an emergency oil spill pan under the transformer at Collins. We needed to get it out to the powerhouse which is set in the river. It was too bulky to drag across the rocks and lift up. I tied a cable to the superstructure, made a loop on the other end and put it on the crane hook. We belted the stainless steel pan to a snatch block. As I lifted up and extended the crane boom, the cable became taunt and the pan was lifted up and it rolled across the chasm to the waiting arms of our riggers. We placed two ten foot, aluminium  I-beams on top of the steel superstructure. We hung four five ton chain falls at the corners of the transformer. We lifted the transformer up, slid the pan underneath and set the transformer down into the pan.

End of a long day! The gang of four!!! Carol, Celesty, Ian, and Will taking a break from sending the transformer pan across the river.

Will and Celeste prospecting for "houille blanche". Will!!! watch out for high hazard dams!!!

Celesty and Hugh are using the 30 ton porta-power to drive the slip ring collector on to its seat.

Celesty installing a rebuilt Rodney Hunt filler gate. This gate is used to fill the turbine pit prior to lifting the 8 ft high by ten foot wide pit gate. The lifter had two Timken tapered bearings that were rusty. We replaced both bearings, sandblasted and painted the lifter.

Will welding the containment box for the 800 amp circuit breaker to connect the rebuilt No. 2 unit to the main bus bars.

Celeste and Will rigging in the slip ring cover on Pepperell No.2's reconditioned unit.

Celeste, Will and the "Wizard"

Will white blasting the Golden Pond Hydro Kaplan hub. Note blade trunion bearings covered with plywood covers.

Celesty and Mike Desroche preparing the camel back hump for Woronoco No. 2. Note the freshly, steel lined pressure case. Note the new pins in the rear gatecase.

Celeste removing the old slate switchgear from Thorndike Lower HEP. Celeste has been operating the crane for years. Lance is taking pictures of me taking pictures!

Celeste rigging the Brockway Mills stator into position. This was really quite difficult. The crane dropped the rotor down 60 feet. Then it had to be pulled side ways beneath the powerhouse floor. Celesty has transferred the load from the crane hook to a 10 ton chain fall attached to an eye bolt fixed to the ceiling.

Celeste and Chris Kruger dropping the Brockway Mills rotor through the hatch in the powerhouse roof. The snow progressed into a blizzard. All in a days work!

Celeste and Chris Kruger close quarter rigging the Brockway Mills rotor into position. This rotor weighs in excess of 14,000 pounds. Watch out Celesty!!!!

Celesty Fay constructing her first dam at Mill Road. She is two years old here!!! Note the giant baloney curl looped over her left shoulder.

The Wizard, Kenny Smith and Celesty pulling the 72 inch propellor out of the ESAC unit at Collins. We needed to replace the Ropac mechanical seal that prevents water from leaking into the bulb. The draft tube has been sealed off with the concrete draft gate. We had Mike go down in his scuba gear to seal off the gate before we pumped out the turbine throat. Celesty has put in another long day!!!

The four bladed ESAC runner ready for removal from its throat. Mr. ESAC (Kenny Smith) is the country's leading expert on these units!

The catastrophic flood, that injured our dam, also shorted out our generator. Here we are pulling the Hydrolec unit out of the tailrace. We previously unbolted it from the penstock flange. Before this we poured over 100 cubic yards of concrete to stabilize the dam. It has been a very busy, traumatic and trying fall season!!

Here Celesty and Mike Desrouche have pulled the 480 volt conduits off of the 480 volt primaries. They are inspecting the wires for short circuits.

We have raised the turbine up out of the tailrace. We built a temporary scaffold for Will to work on. We had to pump the oil out of the unit. We then removed the porthole on the end of the turbine bulb. This allowed us to disconnect the high voltage wires from the generator leads.

**************FLASH*********************

September 27th, 2008

    On August 7th, 2008 a microburst hit the intermediate drainage area between Golden Pond Hydro's dam and the main dam at Squam Lake. The flood wave heavily damaged our spillway. It took out the catwalk, flashboards, undermined the spillway apron and shorted out the generator leads. We prepared an emergency, dam, repair permit and applied to the New Hampshire Dam Safety and Wetland's Divisions for their permits. The folks at FERC and the New Hampshire State Agencies responded very quickly. They all worked very hard with us to issue the work permits. We have been working non-stop to repair the dam. We had to first install an access road to access the tailrace and toe of the spillway. Once we had the excavator in place, we cleaned out beneath the apron and formed natural concrete forms out of dry laid stone. We cored three 12 inch diameter cores, 24 inches deep, through the floor of the old apron. We pumped 4.5 cubic yards of concrete beneath the left abutment and then poured another 30 yards beneath the spillway apron. We used vibrators to force the concrete beneath the spillway. Our tailrace training wall had been breached. The wall collapsed into the hole that had been piped beneath it. We formed a new wall on top of the old wall. We pumped another 40 yards beneath the old wall and into the new wall, wooden, forms. We leveled the area in front of the old spillway. We laid 100 pieces of No. 5, 20 foot long, 80 ksi rebar. We drilled the front of the old apron and Hilti glued the rebar into the drilled holes. We poured a new extension of the apron in front of the old one. We have poured 96 cubic yards of concrete as of today. 

Bill Fay waves at the tourist train that had stopped on the old railroad bridge. This is before we poured the new spillway apron extension. You can see the No. 5 rebar mat.

 Please see the attached Picasa album of the destruction and the ongoing repairs.

http://picasaweb.google.com/frenchriverland/GoldenPondDamDamage?authkey=nUCJGifjYLw#

Notes: Please wait for the pages to load. I used high definition j-pegs for all the pictures and documents. When I loaded them into Front Page, I had to shrink them down with the corner cursor. When I shrunk them, they lost resolution!! It seems counterintuitive to me. Anyways, if you want to print any of the materials, download them into a Word document, blow them back up and then print them. You will have excellent results.

Will standing on top of the newly installed Hydrolec Turbine. The unit was installed two weeks ago and the paint is already coated with algae! Note how the turbine is bolted to the penstock. Its weight is suspended from the pit walls by four, heavy walled, channel-iron, hanger brackets.

Will is flipping the Hydrolec Unit from, vertical to horizontal, in preparation for lowering it into the abyss. The 18 inch I-beam is cantilevered ten feet off the back wall of the powerhouse. The unit can be rolled, on the trolley, over the tailrace and lowered down to the end of the penstock.

The newly rebuilt, Hydrolec H9H, turbine finally arrives at the Freshwater Hydro Station (aka: Golden Pond Hydro) in Ashland. N.H. Will Fay is attaching the lifting belts and shackles to the crane hook. Lee Nichols of Ashland Electric Light Department is operating the crane. The double drop tractor trailer could not drive down the access road so the unit was moved to this smaller truck. The I-beams and pipe supports for the new installation gantry crane came with the same load.

Will and Celeste rigging the 2000 pound, 18 inch I-beam, for the new gantry, at Freshwater Hydro. Previously, when the unit needed work, George had to hire a 90 ton crane to remove it. After it was repaired, he had the crane back to re-install the unit. Celeste and Will designed the gantry and are now fabricating/installing it.

Will has transferred the load from the three ton chain fall to a 5 ton chain cum-a-long. He removed the chain fall and is lifting the beam closer to the support frame. He has installed a lifting strap around the two beams as a safety. The old railroad bridge is in the background.