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• Collection: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

• Title: Wilson Dam & Hydroelectric Plant, Turbine & Generator Unit, Spanning Tennessee River at Wilson Dam Road (Route 133), Muscle Shoals, Colbert County, AL
• Creator(s): Historic American Engineering Record, creator
• Related Names:
     Tennessee Valley Authority
     Benz, Sue , transmitter
• Date Created/Published: Documentation compiled after 1968
• Medium: Photo(s): 7
  Measured Drawing(s): 1
  Photo Caption Page(s): 1
• Reproduction Number: ---
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html)
  
• Call Number: HAER ALA,17-MUSHO,2A-
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
• Notes:
  • Significance: At Wilson Dam, two manufacturers, Westinghouse and General Electric, each supplied 4 of the dam's first turbine and generator sets to the 18 unit-capacity powerhouse. Illustrated here is one of the original GE generators with its correlative "Francis" turbine built by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. Named after its originator, James B. Francis, the Francis, or inward-flow, turbine has distinctly American roots that lead back to its first application in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts in 1849. By the time of Wilson Dam, the Francis turbine had grown in size and efficiency to become one of the standard prime movers in modern hydroelectric plants. Such increases in runner size were in tandem with an increase in the size of generators and their electrical output. In 1900, General Electric generators at Niagara Falls were producing 5,000 horsepower per unit. 25 years later, Wilson Dam was called the "Niagara of the South," with each GE generator set producing 35,000 h.p. Maximum efficiency in hydroelectric generation is dependent upon the integration of both dam and turbine design. The type and size of the runner dictates the design of the dam's penstock, scroll case and draft tube. At Wilson Dam, these sub-structural features utilize massive concrete formwork to create the perfect turbine setting. Flowing through three penstocks and into a single scroll case (spiral distributor), the water of the Tennessee River enters the turbine inwardly through guide vanes, flows into the side of the Frances runner and is discharged axially through the center of the turbine into the draft tube, in this case a unique design known as the Moody spreading draft tube. To maintain consistent electrical frequency throughout changes in river level, and hence, changed in turbine speed, flow of water into the runner is controlled by a Lombard hydraulic governor linked to a collar of 20 wicket gates that surrounds the turbine.
  • Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N165
  • Survey number: HAER AL-47-A
  • National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000147
• Place:
  • Alabama -- Colbert County -- Muscle Shoals
• Collections:
  • Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
• Part of: Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)
• Bookmark This Record:
     http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/al1187/

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• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
• Reproduction Number: ---
• Call Number: HAER ALA,17-MUSHO,2A-
• Medium: Photo(s): 7
  Measured Drawing(s): 1
  Photo Caption Page(s): 1

Rights assessment is your responsibility.

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• Call Number: HAER ALA,17-MUSHO,2A-
• Medium: Photo(s): 7
  Measured Drawing(s): 1
  Photo Caption Page(s): 1

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