Historic Hood River
Post-Industrial Still Life
5-2-2012
Notes
This derelict piece of a hydroelectric generator was already an antique when Alva Day found it alongside the Hood River in 1931. There’s a good chance this was the generator that powered the earliest electric lights in Hood River, such as this one.
Alva Day identified this as an “Old 125 cycle.” Around the turn of the last century General Electric manufactured single phase 125 Hz generators. Before worldwide 50 Hz and 60 Hz AC power generation standards were adopted, there were a wide range of frequencies. Any device with an AC motor, even a simple clock, would need to conform to the local power generation standard.
l.e.
Are we looking at parts of a water wheel?
Arthur
Not exactly. A power generator has a rotor and a stator. The stator (foreground) is the fixed part with magnets. The rotor (rotating windings) is attached to the shaft (right side). There is a second stator in the background, and I’m not sure what that is to the right in the middle. None of these parts contacts water during operation– the water turns the rotor shaft through a mechanism which isn’t here.
Arlen Sheldrake
Electrial power generation in Hood River has a long and I think interesting history. On my writing "bucket list" isdigging out some of this history and how the Mount Hood Railroad played a significant part in some of the construction including the pipe flume railroad easement and the requirement to remove it once power generation stopped at Powerdale. PP&L has some great photos in their archives.
Arthur
Arlen, if you get to writing we have hundreds of photos documenting power generation at Powerdale, Tucker Bridge, Dee, and elsewhere in the county. Alva Day worked for Pacific Power and took his camera wherever he went. Max Moore was also in the power business. Next winter I’ll post some spectacular photos of failures of the flume and the resulting ice gardens.
Ranger
I would think the stator in the background is the other half of one complete set up.
Jim Gray
My Grandfather installed a waterwheel generator on Trout Creek to provide electrical power to his house before commercial power was available in the area. I remember going to look at it about 200 yards above the intersection of Dee Hwy. and Trout Creek Rd. in the fifties, though no longer in use, it was washed away in the flood of 64.