Quote Originally Posted by brewmeister View Post
Yes they were at allis chalmers,I served my machinist aprentiship back in 1975-79,These dams were put in back in the 1920's and mostly power the paper mills but they can be/are put into the power grid.The dams are about 16 foot high.I have no idea how much they had cost back when they were built.The 54 foot boring mill I ran at AC machined segments of generators for replacements at the dams at the TVA in tennisee.You should have seen the 55,000 HP mairine desels we machined on back then.150 ft long inline 12 cylinder slide block desiel with 3 foot pistons,4 stories tall, I spent many hours die grinding on the intake//exaust ports to specs.Hot dirty job with breathing aparatise.No fossil fuel to run the generators .Time on line must have brought down the cost over all these years and its still pollution free no matter the cost.
I did several designs for similar low head turbines on the Connecticut river and up in Maine in places like East Millinocket. These turn of the century, and earlier plants, powered textile and paper mills. The paper mill in Maine was so old, the turbines were wound for 50-hz......

If I'm not mistaken, some of the TVA projects you worked on are visible from the "tail of the dragon" in GA.