Thursday, February 13, 2014

And The Hyperverse Wept...

James Delingpole has ended his blog at the Telegraph.

"Today is the day when I must bid you all farewell. I have been appointed Chief Sustainability Consultant at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, working directly to one of my all-time heroes Ed Davey, with a juicy, taxpayer-funded salary, a ring-fenced pension and a bio-fuel-powered Aston-Martin just like the Prince of Wales's"
Yeah, he's off to pastures new, wish I was. Go give him a proper "Well Done!"
And then go read his latest piece for The Spectator on Mark Steyn and  the Michael Mann lawsuit.

7 comments:

Leonard Jones said...

On steam turbines, there is a device called an overspeed trip.
A governor is used to control the speed of the turbine,but a mech-
anical lever triggers the inlet in the event the turbine "Runs away,"
causing the inlet valve to slam shut.

Bird shredders have to run at a constant speed to maintain 60hz.
I believe this is done by feathering the propeller blades. This is a failure of a safety device.

Anonymous said...

"Bird shredders have to run at a constant speed to maintain 60hz."

This is partially correct.

"I believe this is done by feathering the propeller blades. This is a failure of a safety device."

Here, you are correct.

(And, having worked for a few years in this industry, I could watch this .gif for hours.)

Soylent Sage said...

Well, Anon, having cursed the industry for a few years, I could watch it for hours too.

Leonard Jones said...

I did mention prop feathering as a speed control. It is logical to
assume that this would also be the means by which an overspeed is dealt with.

The only other way to stop rotation would be physical or dynamic braking.

Once an overspeed was detected, the blades should have turned
leading edge into the wind thereby stopping rotation.

Leonard Jones said...

PS as a longtime Millwright, 1,800 RPM is a sweet spot for engine
driven generators producing 60hz
power. The number of windings in
a generator determines the speed.

Bird shredders turn a lot slower, so they are equipped with a gearbox to
increase RPM to a multiple of 60.

My last two jobs were with paper mills equipped with 747 jet engines
driving a Co-Gen. Maintaining RPM was essential to establish line
frequency.

ooGcM taobmaetS said...

The 60Hz frequency is maintained by two control sub-systems (and the power grid itself) in many wind turbines: (1) the feathering control in the hub of the rotor, and (2) a pair of big-assed AC/DC and DC/AC power converters & energy storage bank. The two sub-systems together can correct for low/high wind speed to a degree.

drew458 said...

I was going to remark about the revolving door between journalism and government being in place in the UK as well, but if I don't assume it goes around at 60Hz I won't fit into the rest of this thread.