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Rules for proportioning turbines.
89. In making the designs for the Tremont, and other turbines, the author has been guided by the following rules, which he has been led to by a comparison of several turbines designed by Mr. Boyden, which have been carefully tested and found to operate well.
Rule 1st. The sum of the shortest distances between the buckets, should be equal to the diameter of the wheel.
Rule 2d. The height of the orifices at the circumference of the wheel, should be equal to one tenth of the diameter of the wheel.
Rule 3d. The width of the crowns should be four times the shortest distance between the buckets.
Rule 4th. The sum of the shortest distances between the curved guides, taken near the wheel, should be equal to the interior diameter of the wheel.
The turbines, from a comparison of which the above rules were derived, varied in diameter from twenty-eight inches to nearly one hundred inches, and operated on falls from thirty feet to thirteen feet. The author believes that they may be safely followed for all falls between five feet and forty feet, and for all diameters not less than two feet, and, with judicious arrangements in other respects, and careful workmanship, a useful effect of seventy-five per cent, of the power expended, may be relied upon. For falls greater than forty feet, the second rule should be modified, by making the height of the orifices smaller in proportion to the diameter of the wheel.
90. Taking the foregoing rules as a basis, we may, by aid of the experiments on the Tremont Turbine, establish the following formulas.
Let D = the diameter of the wheel at the outer extremities of the buckets.
Let Dd = the diameter of the wheel, at the interior extremities of the buckets.
Let DH = height of the orifices of discharge, at the outer extremities of the buckets,
Let DW = the width of the crowns occupied by the buckets.
