Earle S. Eckel's home and shop power plant

A while back was a thread titled "Tidy Generator Room" which I enjoyed seeing the photograph of and reading the discussion about it.
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/tidy-generator-room-252469/
This reminded me of an article in the June 1949 issue of Popular Science magazine that a neighbor gave me many years ago. I did some checking online under Google Books, and sure enough, it is online now. Here is the link below:

Popular Science - Google Books

Go to page 2 in the magazine where the table of contents are and then under the heading "PS Features" is "Home Steam Generating Plant" on page 178. Click on this and it will go right to that article.

This was Earle Eckel of Washington, New Jersey that was quite involved with Stanley steamers and Autogiro airplanes back then, but also setup this neat power plant which appeared to be pretty much automated after it was on line. He even used the exhaust steam to heat his home and shop.

It was mentioned he could start cold without outside power or "black start", but had outside power available. - It was interesting how he would sink in the 60 cycles with outside power, using a 220 volt light bulb flashing which would go out when the two phases canceled each other out and the load would be switched over to his own generator.

He had one of the neatest little horizontal steam engines I have ever seen with a 5" X 5" cylinder and operated at 165 r.p.m., turning a 3 Kw generator (alternator) at 1,800 r.p.m.. It was single phase at 115 volts.

I have always wondered what happened to this setup, as I have never heard anymore about it.

Mark

The PS webpage didn't give me a viewing option. That sometimes happens to me with online archived documents. Too bad for me. Sounds real interesting.

Jim

Earle Eckel had quite a history. In the reprint of the Fitz Water Wheel catalog, Eckel had lived on a farm in NJ. There, he had built a small hydro electric plant with (2) vertical turbines driving AC generators. These had ballhead governors with oil servos. One photo showed Eckel's machine shop as it was in the same building as the hydroelectric plant. Eckels was noted as having powered his entire house with this hydro plant, heating it and having a central air conditioning system, and this was in the 1920's. I Googled Mr. Eckels and found he was quite an inventor and entrepeneur. He started in the automotive industry when it was brand new, opening filling stations. He got into aviation and advocated for use of Autogyro aircraft, flying his own Autogyro. I think he raced motorcycles at some point. His farm was more of an estate, and included his own airstrip and was noted as having a hangar, machine shop, laboratory, as well as the hydro plant.

Eckels sold his farm with the hydro plant. I did find that it passed thru a variety of owners, and at some point, later owners ripped out the hydro plant. It was never put back in. I did see the online reprint of the article about Mr. Eckels and his home steam plant.

Synchronizing an AC generator to a buss (or grid) with lamps is still done. We use the lamps in conjunction with an instrument called a "Synchroscope". The Synchroscope has been in use well over 100 years. It is possible to synch an AC generator using just lamps. Chances are with a small steam engine and belt driven AC generator, and no synchroscope, the way it was done was to tweak up the governor speed adjustment until the lamps went dark for maybe a second. During that second, the breaker tying the steam engine's generator to grid had to be closed. With a synchroscope, you know if you have a "fast" or "slow" 'scope. You want to come on line with a "fast scope" to avoid reverse current and motorizing the generator. With a small generator driven by belt, chances are it was "slow", so even if the lamps were dark for a long enough interval to close the tie breaker, there was still some reverse current. This motorized the generator and pulled the generator into step with the grid. Not enough to make any kind of problem. Once the tie breaker was closed in, the governor on the engine was cranked up to what would normally be an excessive speed. Since the grid now held the generator at 60 hz, the governor was only controlling load. Coming off line, the governor speeder had to be backed down before the tie breaker was opened.

The whole beauty of the lamps for synchronizing is they show the "potential difference" between an AC generator and an AC buss. When the lamps are brightest, the generator is 180 degrees out of phase with the buss. When they are dark, the generator is in phase. The lamps vary in brightness as the degree of out-of-phase varies, so you can gauge when you are getting close to being in phase. When you synch a generator manually, you watch the lamps as much as the scope. The lamps clue you and you have your one hand on the breaker control and one hand on the speed control. I've synched generators where it took two of us to do it- one of us manually working the governor speed control, and one of us on the breaker. This was in diesel plants overseas, and we used hand signals (same as for a crane, index finger pointed up and making small circles for "raise speed", down and small circles for "lower speed", and little pinch motions with thumb and forefinger up or down for little tweaks). Some units with sloppy governors tend to overshoot or be unstable, so one shot at synching "on the way up" is all you get for a while if you miss your shot. Slow the unit down, wait for it to settle out, then bring it back up in tweaks, wait for each tweak of the governor speed control to settle, see what the 'scope and lamps have to say.... After you get the unit synched, then you play with the field voltage adjustment to get the power factor where it belongs or you will have an engine laboring and using fuel and a generator running hotter than it should for the power being produced. Done it a few times in my life, and any time I see a unit being put on line manually, I watch the 'scope and lamps, even if I had nothing to do with that generating unit. I start counting seconds when I see a "slow scope" and when it's about a "seven second scope", I find myself muttering "NOW !" when it seems right to close the main breaker in. Usually, there is a hell of a bang from the big circuit breakers on powerplant generators, and you automatically look at the meters on the 'board and feel good 'cause power is going into the grid.

You can set those sync light bulbs to be either "bright" on sync point or "dark." Bellows Falls Hydro where I first did this was "bright." As the plant originally built in 1928, light bulbs were all they had. Later, around WWII, they added an actual syncroscope - but the lights were kept as the older operators were familiar with them. They're probably still there - clear pointy top "Edison" type bulbs with curlycues of filament inside.

I confess my first couple of times I was not right on. I used the syncroscope. And the generator went BANG as the breaker closed. It's like you want to throw it in about 11:30 on the hour hand and everything takes a little time (milliseconds I suppose) to come together.

Now with modern autosync, it's like throw it in about 9 on the hour hand and let the machine do the work.

A few times over at Harry's Engine Board, someone comes in with visions of grandeur about setting up a steam engine powered lightplant. Over there I told my story about having a setup to do this and just WAITING breathlessly for the day when the power goes off so I could "fire 'er up" and provide lighting and refrigeration as the storm passes. And the day came - and out I went to the shop - RAN, actually. "I'll have the power on in a little bit dear." And in went the wood. And in went the water. And up came the steam pressure. And at about 75 psi, around went the engine with the belt connected generator. And almost immediately afterwards before I could disconnect the house from the grid and backfeed the welding socket to carry the house - the grid power came back.

Heartbreak. All dressed up and nowhere to go!

Now I have a 10 horse Coleman Powermate which starts on the second pull.

Joe in NH

Years ago, a couple of us visited Eckel's place (and also George Green's in Lambertville NJ). In the conversation that ensued, Eckel said that he was the first person to loop an autogyro.

Just a little bit of trivia.

Herb

Earle Eckel led a very interesting life and a tribute to him was written by Revell Eckel in a 1979 issue of "The Steam Automobile" magazine. It is on page 19.

http://www.steamautomobile.com/archivepdf/SAv21n1.CV01.pdf

A more in-depth biography was written about him in this article.

Eckel

I was surprised his steam power plant as written in the Popular Science article was not mentioned in any of these write-ups of his life's work, as it seemed like a very ingenious setup. He solved problems that the experts thought could not be solved, like making the coal travel up a 20-degree slope which he solved by changing the pitch of the auger in the 12' length.

A very fascinating man.

I toured Henry Ford's home called Fairlane in Dearborn, MI some years back. Nice big house, with garage and power house reached through a tunnel from the house. We were told the garage had a turntable so Mrs. Ford did not have to back out of the garage. Her electric car is in the Ford Museum. The garage had an elevator to the second floor, where Ford's workshop was located. Not open to tours, unfortunately.

The power house was designed by Ford's friend Thomas Edison's company. It was on the tour. It had primary hydro power from the Rouge river next to the house. There was a nice big steam plant to back up the hydro. Then there was a battery house to back up the steam. The guide said the night Henry died, there had been a storm that killed line power and flooded the whole power house and the batteries had not been maintained. Ford died by candle or oil lamp light, just like his folks had when he was born.

Larry

my meeting With Earle

MAMaxwell said:

A while back was a thread titled "Tidy Generator Room" which I enjoyed seeing the photograph of and reading the discussion about it.
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/tidy-generator-room-252469/
This reminded me of an article in the June 1949 issue of Popular Science magazine that a neighbor gave me many years ago. I did some checking online under Google Books, and sure enough, it is online now. Here is the link below:

Popular Science - Google Books

Go to page 2 in the magazine where the table of contents are and then under the heading "PS Features" is "Home Steam Generating Plant" on page 178. Click on this and it will go right to that article.

This was Earle Eckel of Washington, New Jersey that was quite involved with Stanley steamers and Autogiro airplanes back then, but also setup this neat power plant which appeared to be pretty much automated after it was on line. He even used the exhaust steam to heat his home and shop.

It was mentioned he could start cold without outside power or "black start", but had outside power available. - It was interesting how he would sink in the 60 cycles with outside power, using a 220 volt light bulb flashing which would go out when the two phases canceled each other out and the load would be switched over to his own generator.

He had one of the neatest little horizontal steam engines I have ever seen with a 5" X 5" cylinder and operated at 165 r.p.m., turning a 3 Kw generator (alternator) at 1,800 r.p.m.. It was single phase at 115 volts.

I have always wondered what happened to this setup, as I have never heard anymore about it.

Mark

Click to expand...

I met Earle in the early 1970s. He had a place in Washington New Jersey and I believe he said he had hydro electric powering his house and his museum. He mentioned he was friends with Thomas Edison and wasn't sure about that until I went to Thomas Edison's car museum and there was a car with a sign that said from his friend Earle Eckel. He showed me a picture of one of LBJ daughters riding in his 1903 Stanley Steamer at the time of her wedding. He showed me pictures of his auto gyro, I am not sure, but I think he delivered mail with it. He told me he sold Stanley steamers and also opened some gas stations. In his museum were several cars and all kinds of information on steam engines. I wish I could remember all he said, but it was a long time ago.