Brass water turbine model

Brass water turbine model

Machinery--Models; Water-power--United States--History; Water-power--Massachusetts; Machine industry--Massachusetts--Orange; Hunt, Waite & Flint; Turbine industry--United States--History

Machined brass working model (3 x 3 x 3.5 inches) of a large water turbine of an advanced, highly efficient type that was used to power New England mills in the late 19th century. The model is easily disassembled to show all its internal parts and how they interact. It has a freely spinning rotor with a clutch device on the end of its shaft, and an operable rack-and-pinion-driven gate that demonstrates how an operator of the full-sized unit would activate and deactivate the turbine by opening or closing off the flow of water to it. Every nut, bolt, screw and individual rotor vane has been fabricated by hand and meticulously finished. This was probably a salesman's or a company executive's model, used by a representative of the turbine manufacturer to demonstrate the product in faithful miniature to mill owners and millwrights who were the prospective buyers of full-size units. It bears a brass nameplate engraved 'Hunt, Waite & Flint/Pat'd June 15, 1869/Orange, Mass.'

Hunt, Waite & Flint, Orange, Massachusetts

C/WMARS http://www.cwmars.org

1869?

Photographed by Eric Weber

Permission to publish the image must be obtained from the Williamsburg Historic Society by writing to ddarienzo@cwmars.org or Meekins@cwmars.org. The Williamsburg Historic Society, Williamsburg, Mass., must be credited as the original source of the item for all use.

In the collection of the Williamsburg Historic Society, Williamsburg, Massachusetts

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WHS 84-1 Water turbine model