Towards the end of a 20 mile walk in the rain, dropping back down into the valley a nice reward.
Small scale hydro-electric plants are not new. For the wealthy or people who liked their toys they were a must have during the late 1800s. By 1900 they were much more common and wealthy landowners would often provide some limited electricity for rural villages via a turbine in a mill....a couple of light bulbs per house and maybe a half dozen street lights. Small businesses also realised water was like having free (Nestle hadn't bought it all yet) power.
This vortex turbine was made in 1902 by Gilbert Gilkes & Co. It wasn't here however and I don't know who it was first sold to.
Jump forward to 1936 and a local garage owner with a decent waterfall 300 yards away wanted electricity in his workshop (and house in the evening) so he bought a secondhand turbine and dynamo to provide it (mains electricity wouldn't reach the area for another 25 years). Once mains arrived the majority of these small systems rapidly went out of use. People were 'encouraged' to adopt mains electricity and standards. Sometimes the relatively new equipment in mills and by streams was recovered for scrap but a lot was just left behind. Later the copper fairies descended.
The larger 'local' systems in mills and factories lasted a bit longer but when abstraction charges were introduced in the mid 1960s their fate was sealed too.
No record of the dynano manufactuer and all trace of it has gone.
Water was taken from above the waterfall via an earthenware pipe which is now broken.
Lord Kelvin'e brother, Professor Thomson at Belfast University patented the vortex turbine and made it much more efficient by utilising variable guide vanes. Williamson Brothers in Kendal purchased non-exclusve rights to produce these and had supplied around 400 turbines (not all were Thomson Vortex type) between 1856 and 1881 when they sold their business to Gilbert Gilkes. Gilkes (pronounced 'Jilks') are still a private limited company and headquarterd at the Kendal site.
Small scale hydro-electric plants are not new. For the wealthy or people who liked their toys they were a must have during the late 1800s. By 1900 they were much more common and wealthy landowners would often provide some limited electricity for rural villages via a turbine in a mill....a couple of light bulbs per house and maybe a half dozen street lights. Small businesses also realised water was like having free (Nestle hadn't bought it all yet) power.
This vortex turbine was made in 1902 by Gilbert Gilkes & Co. It wasn't here however and I don't know who it was first sold to.
Jump forward to 1936 and a local garage owner with a decent waterfall 300 yards away wanted electricity in his workshop (and house in the evening) so he bought a secondhand turbine and dynamo to provide it (mains electricity wouldn't reach the area for another 25 years). Once mains arrived the majority of these small systems rapidly went out of use. People were 'encouraged' to adopt mains electricity and standards. Sometimes the relatively new equipment in mills and by streams was recovered for scrap but a lot was just left behind. Later the copper fairies descended.
The larger 'local' systems in mills and factories lasted a bit longer but when abstraction charges were introduced in the mid 1960s their fate was sealed too.
No record of the dynano manufactuer and all trace of it has gone.
Water was taken from above the waterfall via an earthenware pipe which is now broken.
Lord Kelvin'e brother, Professor Thomson at Belfast University patented the vortex turbine and made it much more efficient by utilising variable guide vanes. Williamson Brothers in Kendal purchased non-exclusve rights to produce these and had supplied around 400 turbines (not all were Thomson Vortex type) between 1856 and 1881 when they sold their business to Gilbert Gilkes. Gilkes (pronounced 'Jilks') are still a private limited company and headquarterd at the Kendal site.
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Id be hurting for weeks. Lovely images and great narration. The water look cold and fast flowing. Free electric sounds appealing today lol
