SHOW us YOUR PIX here .... Odd, WeiRd ,UnUSuAl or EyE CaTchIng things from your rides

The smoke from our local wild fire cleared enough today for a shorter 14 mile ride.

Saw this in the town 'plaza' and thought it would be fun to find out how many know what it is.

P1010402.jpg

Hint: it needs water to work.

Californians, hold your answers for a bit to give everybody a chance. Answer in the AM...😎
 
Sierratim said:
The smoke from our local wild fire cleared enough today for a shorter 14 mile ride.

Saw this in the town 'plaza' and thought it would be fun to find out how many know what it is.

View attachment 63127
Hint: it needs water to work.

Californians, hold your answers for a bit to give everybody a chance. Answer in the AM...😎
Click to expand...
I'm voting hydro electric water wheel.
 
DaveMatthews said:
I'm voting hydro electric water wheel.
Click to expand...
This type of wheel has been used for hydro electric generation decades after its first use. But what specific type of wheel is it? It was one of those inventions that helped develop tne western US.
 
Art Deco said:
Today's ebike. The only ebike I've seen in the wild other than ours in our tiny town. The rider is my neighbor, an experienced cyclist.

The trike is new, under 20 miles on it, and he is testing it for a friend with health issues.

He says it's like an old muscle car, goes fast, stops straight, and doesn't handle corners at all.
View attachment 63090
Click to expand...

But does it drift? ;)
 
DaveMatthews said:
Pelton?
Click to expand...
And we have a winner! You're not a Californian are you? Those of us that are all studied the Pelton wheel in California history classes.

0818201137_Film1.jpg

This particular Pelton wheel was used for hydro electric generation starting in 1928. This 12 foot diameter wheel developed 18,000hp at its design speed of 257rpm. Another local Clamper plaque, btw.

The Pelton wheel was invented by Lester Pelton not far from here in the 1870's and patented in 1880. Due to its high efficiency Pelton's design quickly replaced earlier lower efficiency water driven turbine designs and then steam engines that powered lifts in the local hard rock gold mines. At its design speed a Pelton wheel would extract neatly all of the energy from a focused steam of high pressure water. Originally manufactured at the local Miner's Foundry here in Nevada City, CA, production moved to San Francisco as demand increased.

Hoover Dam on the Colorado river used a Pelton wheel in the base of the dam to generate power during construction. It was still operating when we last toured the dam maybe 30 years ago.

Pelton wheels were manufatured until 1956.

My youngest sons won a high school physics design contest using the basic concepts of the Pelton wheel to put together a water powered generator that developed more current than the other entires. They used soup spoons from a thrift store as the Pelton buckets and a garden hose nozzle to focus the water from the physics lab sinks onto their version of Pelton's wheel.

EDIT - The physics teacher was accostomed to these class projects generating meager outputs so he used a 10:1 stepup transformer feeding a full wave rectifier connected to a high voltage capacitor. He would measure voltage at the capacitor after a set number of minutes to get a winner. After my sons' project was ready to messure they called out to the teacher to not touch the capacitor terminals. It was too late. The high voltage they'd generated knocked the teacher back against the nearest desk. After a brief recovery his response was simply "AWSOME!". Their modified Pelton wheel project is still on display in that lab.
 
Last edited:
Sierratim said:
And we have a winner! You're not a Californian are you? Those of us that are all studied the Pelton wheel in California history classes.

View attachment 63134
This particular Pelton wheel was used for hydro electric generation starting in 1928. This 12 foot diameter wheel developed 18,000hp at its design speed of 257rpm. Another local Clamper plaque, btw.

The Pelton wheel was invented by Lester Pelton not far from here in the 1870's and patented in 1880. Due to its high efficiency Pelton's design quickly replaced earlier lower efficiency water driven turbine designs and then steam engines that powered lifts in the local hard rock gold mines. At its design speed a Pelton wheel would extract neatly all of the energy from a focused steam of high pressure water. Originally manufactured at the local Miner's Foundry here in Nevada City, CA, production moved to San Francisco as demand increased.

Hoover Dam on the Colorado river used a Pelton wheel in the base of the dam to generate power during construction. It was still operating when we last toured the dam maybe 30 years ago.

Pelton wheels were manufatured until 1956.

My youngest sons won a high school physics design contest using the basic concepts of the Pelton wheel to put together a water powered generator that developed more current than the other entires. They used soup spoons from a thrift store as the Pelton buckets and a garden hose nozzle to focus the water from the physics lab sinks onto their version of Pelton's wheel.
Click to expand...
Well the fun part is that I most certainly was born in Cali (San Mateo)! :cool:
But the odd part is that I left when I was 4 years old. Gotta tell ya it's one helluva tricycle ride to Vancouver B.C.
So I didn't get the local education. That being said my basic instinct was hydro wheel, and certainly in B.C. it is predominant.
Had to do some research and made a guess.:)
 
DaveMatthews said:
Well the fun part is that I most certainly was born in Cali (San Mateo)! :cool:
But the odd part is that I left when I was 4 years old. Gotta tell ya it's one helluva tricycle ride to Vancouver B.C.
So I didn't get the local education. That being said my basic instinct was hydro wheel, and certainly in B.C. it is predominant.
Had to do some research and made a guess.:)
Click to expand...
Got a toaster for a prize @Sierratim?
 
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