Wood Screw Pumps

[MikeHalloran]

are actually axial flow turbine pumps, but there wasn't a precise taxonomy when they were built.

http://photos.nola.com/tpphotos/2009/01/sullivan_honored.html

I'm just as impressed with the motor, through which we are viewing Mr. Sullivan in the photo.

The flows quoted are not misprints. The white object in the background is the pump housing, which in the case of this smaller pump, is 12 feet in diameter.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ScottyUK]

Yeah, the article calls it a flywheel but it looks like a big salient pole motor. Based on the number of poles visible it turns at about 200 rpm.



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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[BigInch]

where's the pump?

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"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25% to 50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities." - DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99.99% for pipeline companies)

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

 

[MikeHalloran]

Sorry, I should have included these links:

End view of pump section during construction:

http://www.asme.org/Communities/History/Landmarks/AB_Wood_Screw_Pump_1914.cfm

There's an axial cross section near the bottom of this:

http://www.loyno.edu/history/journal/1995-6/haydel.htm

I.e., the pump is a gigantic single stage axial flow turbine, in an inverted u-tube. In the Times-Picayune photo referenced above, you're looking through the motor rotor, along the (long) shaft, and seeing the rising inlet half of the u-tube. The turbine blades are within it, near the plane of the far wall of a fair sized building.

Multiple arrays of these pumps keep New Orleans from flooding every time it rains.

I first learned of them right after Katrina.
Now I'm working in the area, so they have taken on a new importance.






Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[BigInch]

That's more like it.

And this,

http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5485.pdf

**********************
"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25% to 50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities." - DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99.99% for pipeline companies)

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

 

[Artisi]

For those interested in early big pumps the following is of interest. To my knowledge this unit could still be in use.

http://sections.asme.org/Milwaukee/history/3-centrifugalpump.html

 

[BigInch]

Prob not. It says the river was widened from 200 to 600 ft at that location.

**********************
"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25% to 50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities." - DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99.99% for pipeline companies)

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

 

[Artisi]

This is the pump I was looking for although the unit I posted earlier is also of great interest.

http://sections.asme.org/milwaukee/history/7-mkeriverpump.html