106 South Elm Street, Newkirk, Oklahoma 74647
Quite often someone writes to the IMA telling about the biggest
steam engine ever built. Now I wish to tell about some fair-sized
engines that are being built a few miles south of here by the
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company. These are steam turbines.
There will be two units when the plant is complete. Each turbine
will be able to turn up 750,000 horsepower at the shaft. They will
be directly connected to alternators that produce 515,000
kilowatts.
About a year ago the steam drum of the boilers was hauled by
here on the Sante Fe Railroad. It was carried on three specially
built flat cars. It weighed over 300 tons. Now understand this is
only the steam drum. There is a mud drum, or more properly called
the lower drum, of similar size at the bottom.
These boilers when completed stand 120 feet high and will weigh
around 200 tons each. Now the incredible the steam pressure will be
2,600 pounds to the square inch, super-heated to 1000 degrees
Fahreinheit. Also please note these turbine units will only burn
one-half pound of coal per horsepower hour. About the best official
record for a steam traction engine was made by the Case 110 HP at
Winnipeg, Canada in 1913, when it won sweepstakes in the economy
contest by developing a horsepower-hour on 2.65 pounds of coal. The
80 HP Case with Woolf compound cylinder was second with a fraction
of a pound more but all the other competing makes burned over three
pounds. The late, very-much-liked steam engine man, Leroy Blaker,
got some economy runs with his Port Huron Compound that were equal
to these. Leroy was a fine operator and he owned the best Port
Huron that escaped the junk man. The best Corliss engine in use 60
years ago burned 1.5 pounds of coal per horsepower-hour.
Now there is another side to the picture. To be able to
withstand the incredible heat and pressure a very high grade of
alloy steel must be used in these boilers and turbines. Among other
ingredients, CHROME is absolutely necessary and there is
practically none produced in this country. The best and the most
chrome comes from Rhodesia, and it looks like that country is about
to fall into the hands of our enemies. Most people in this country
don’t seem to be concerned, but I’m scared. Perhaps I’m
just an old fogey like most of the other steam engine buffs?
Chrome is necessary in the jets of airplanes and is used in
several other modern machines. Stainless steel cannot be made
without it. Molybdenum and Vanadium are metals that are used in
high grade steel. Both are scarce in this country and must be
imported.
It is my humble opinion that the people in charge of our
government should be trying to secure materials for our factories
to use, but they seem to think that it is more blessed to give than
to receive.
More about big power. Over in Arkansas, the Arkansas Power &
Light Company is operating one of those much reviled nuclear power
plants. The two turbines there develop about 600,000 horsepower
each. It is surprising that many people have never learned that the
nuclear power plant uses a STEAM turbine to turn the roter of an
alternator. That is the same way as in the gas or coal-fired plant.
The only difference is in the boiler which is fired by nuclear
heat, so it’s nothing but a steam engine after all!
