Spiral Turbines
Fantastic Spiral Turbines from the 1930s (special thanks to Paul Dunlop for the heads-up) From Marvelous soft-steam-punk ambiance in the photos. These one are from Germany. Speaking of history repeating (or not) though, these things are still being made. (from has lots of flow-analysis diagrams) You can get them off alibaba Or for small hydro-power applicatiosn – these from the Czech Republic (which is one of my fav places) But back to the age of steam though… (or in this case, steam meets electricity) I love the lighting in these photos. Cinematic – reminds me of THX1138, although the design aesthetic is a 100 years older. Something to do with attention to the light. Anyway – these things are called Francis Turbines – invented in France in the 1800s – James B. Francis (from Massachusetts) applied maths to the design and took the efficiency from 80% to 90%. … So…