S. Morgan Smith

S. Morgan Smith
	Discarded S. Morgan Smith turbines at Warrior Ridge Dam in Petersburg, Pennsylvania
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1877
Successor	Allis Chalmers, Voith Hydro
Headquarters	York, Pennsylvania
Products	Turbines

Last updated June 16, 2023

S. Morgan Smith was an American manufacturer of turbines, founded by Stephen Morgan Smith in York, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1877 shortly after Smith received a patent for an improved turbine. It became the country's largest manufacturer of hydroelectric turbines. The company's ability to manufacture large equipment was utilized during World War I to manufacture machines used to make large artillery guns and in World War II to make various large components. The company was purchased by Allis Chalmers and later spun-off to Voith Hydro.

History

Smith held a washing machine patent which he exchanged in 1874 for part-ownership of the York Manufacturing Company which was founded to produce the machines. His partner, Oliver J. Bollinger, signed over his rights to an 1870 turbine water wheel. Bollinger left the company in 1875 to produce an improved turbine at his own company. Smith took over improvements on the 1870 turbine, and received his first turbine U.S. Patent 185,788 on December 26, 1876, 17 days after the application was filed with the US Patent Office, for an improved turbine waterwheel. Smith personally retained the patent rights to the "Success" turbine and contracted with York to manufacture it.^[1]

Smith founded S. Morgan Smith in 1877 when it made its first sale of the turbine to a mill in Paradise Township, York County, Pennsylvania.^[1] Smith used York Manufacturing and other machine shops to manufacture his products through the 1880s.^[1] The Smith company was incorporated in 1886^[2] and built its first factory in 1890, then employing 20 workers.^[3] The company expanded to 166 employees by 1899 and was ranked as the 10th largest factory in the county.^[1]

By 1908, the company was manufacturing the McCormick turbine, the New Success turbine, and its newest model, the Smith Turbine.^[4] The company's turbines were operating across the US and in many foreign countries producing waterpower to operate mills that spun cotton, sawed lumber, ground flour. Hydroelectric turbines powered melting furnaces at steel mills, pumped water for irrigation, and generated electricity for the lighting and transportation. By 1920, the York plant was the largest manufacturer of turbines and employed 750 employees.^[2]

World War I

The York plant turned to the war effort, beginning with the manufacture in 1915 of two 50-inch (1,300 mm)500,000 lb (230,000 kg) gun boring lathes that Bethlehem Steel ordered. They also produced a 480,000 lb (220,000 kg) slicing lathe and 12 30-inch (760 mm) boring mills. Later, Bethlehem placed orders for even larger machines, including the nine machines necessary for Bethlehem to product guns with up to a 20-inch (510 mm) bore. Another 14 large gun lathes were ordered, making the plants output 90% war related production. The designs were further expanded to fill an order by US Steel for still larger machines for large gun production at a new gun plant at Neville Island. These machines would have weighted over 1,500,000 lb (680,000 kg) but were not completed before the end of the war.^[2]

World War II

During World War II, Smith continued to manufacture turbines and other equipment to power other industries' war production. Direct war production included aircraft carrier hydropneumatic catapults, gun mounts for the 8-inch gun M1 and 240 mm howitzer M1, other equipment and parts for aircraft carriers, landing barges, ship engine parts, armor plating, turret rings, tracks and frames for tanks, and a variety of other parts.^[5]

Wind

By the 1920s and 30s, the industry was suffering from a lack of new hydroelectric projects as most dam sites had been developed. The company president in 1939, Beauchamp Smith, decided to turn to wind turbines for new opportunities. Wind turbines could power electric generators, as well as pump water for pumped-water storage for hydraulic generation. Smith partnered with Palmer Putnam, an engineer who had been working on a wind generator since 1934. The first Smith-Putnam wind turbine was operational in August 1941. The machine was a two-bladed 1.25 MW turbine with a 53 m (174 ft) rotor diameter. It ran at a constant speed by adjusting the angle of the blades as the wind speed changed. The turbine was connected to a 600rpm General Electric generator. The generator, the world's largest at the time, was installed on a mountaintop near Rutland, Vermont.^[6]^: 56–58

The site was picked because it was within range of the customer, Central Vermont Public Service, the ridge was high and sharp which meteorologists believe caused accelerated wind speed, and had tree deformities suggesting wind impact over many years.^[6]^: 59

After cracks in the blades were welded in May 1942, the turbine ran until February 1943 when the main bearing failed. Repair, much slowed by World War II delays, was completed in March 1945. Three weeks later, one of the eight-ton blades broke off the turbine permanently ending its operation.^[6]^: 59

This project, which operated for over a thousand hours, demonstrated that wind power could be generated and supplied into the nation's electric grid at the MW-scale. The experiment was ended because it was not believed at the time that electricity could be generated a cost competitive with other sources.^[6]^: 63 It was the largest wind turbine ever built until 1979.^[7]

Related Research Articles

A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windmill</span> Machine that makes use of wind energy

A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, by tradition specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but in some parts of the English-speaking world the term has also been extended to encompass windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications. The term wind engine is also sometimes used to describe such devices.

George Westinghouse Jr. was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential of using alternating current for electric power distribution in the early 1880s and put all his resources into developing and marketing it. This put Westinghouse's business in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who marketed direct current for electric power distribution. In 1911 Westinghouse received the American Institute of Electrical Engineers's (AIEE) Edison Medal "For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system." He founded the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1886.

A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.

The Ganz Machinery Works Holding is a Hungarian holding company. Its products are related to rail transport, power generation, and water supply, among other industries.

The Korea General Machinery Trading Corporation (Korean: 조선기계무역총회사) is a North Korean machine company. It is headquartered in the Tongdaewon District near the capital, Pyongyang.

The Voith Group[fɔʏ̯t] is a German manufacturer of machines for the pulp and paper industry, technical equipment for hydropower plants and drive and braking systems. The family-owned company, which operates worldwide and has its headquarters in Heidenheim an der Brenz, was founded in 1867.

Folsom Powerhouse State Historic Park is a historical site preserving an 1895 alternating current (AC) hydroelectric power station—one of the first in the United States.

Wind turbine design is the process of defining the form and configuration of a wind turbine to extract energy from the wind. An installation consists of the systems needed to capture the wind's energy, point the turbine into the wind, convert mechanical rotation into electrical power, and other systems to start, stop, and control the turbine.

Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind. King Hammurabi's Codex already mentioned windmills for generating mechanical energy. Wind-powered machines used to grind grain and pump water, the windmill and wind pump, were developed in what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan by the 9th century. Wind power was widely available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later, requiring sources of fuel. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in arid regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for livestock and steam engines.

The Siemens Energy Sector was one of the four sectors of German industrial conglomerate Siemens. Founded on January 1, 2009, it generated and delivered power from numerous sources including the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and natural gas in addition to renewable and alternative energy sources. As of October 1, 2014, the sector level has been eliminated, including the Siemens Energy Sector.

Croton Dam is an earth-filled embankment dam and powerplant complex on the Muskegon River in Croton Township, Newaygo County, Michigan. It was built in 1907 under the direction of William D. Fargo by the Grand Rapids - Muskegon Power Company, a predecessor of Consumers Energy. The 40-foot-high (12 m) dam impounds 7.2 billion U.S. gallons (6 billion imp. gal/27 billion L) of water in its 1,209-acre (489 ha) reservoir and is capable of producing 8,850 kilowatts at peak outflow. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Clipper Windpower is a wind turbine manufacturing company founded in 2001 by James G.P. Dehlsen. It designed one of the largest wind turbines in the United States, manufactured in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was working collaboratively with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. As of 2020, hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. Wind turbines are an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy, and are used in many countries to lower energy costs and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. One study claimed that, as of 2009, wind had the "lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions, the least water consumption demands and the most favorable social impacts" compared to photovoltaic, hydro, geothermal, coal and gas energy sources.

The Smith–Putnam wind turbine was the world's first megawatt-size wind turbine. In 1941 it was connected to the local electrical distribution system on Grandpa's Knob in Castleton, Vermont, US. It was designed by Palmer Cosslett Putnam and manufactured by the S. Morgan Smith Company. The 1.25 MW turbine operated for 1100 hours before a blade failed at a known weak point, which had not been reinforced due to wartime material shortages. It would be the largest wind turbine ever built until 1979.

GE Wind Energy is a branch of GE Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric. The company manufactures and sells wind turbines to the international market. In 2018, GE was the fourth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world.

The Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex, also known as the Paulo Afonso Complex, is a system of three dams and five hydroelectric power plants on the São Francisco River near the city of Paulo Afonso in Bahia, Brazil. The complex exploits an 80-metre (260 ft) natural gap on the river, known as the Paulo Afonso Falls. Constructed in succession between 1948 and 1979, the dams support the Paulo Afonso I, II, III, IV and Apollonius Sales (Moxotó) power plants which contain a total of 23 generators with an installed capacity of 4,279.6 megawatts (5,739,000 hp).

Mechanicville Hydroelectric Plant is a 18.3-acre (7.4 ha) national historic district located at Mechanicville in Saratoga County, New York. The listing included one contributing building and three contributing structures. The district dates to 1897 and includes notable Queen Anne architecture.

UKRAINIAN ENERGY MACHINES JOINT STOCK COMPANY or TURBOATOM is one of the strategic state-owned enterprises of Ukraine, determining to a considerable degree energy and national security of the state. The plant is among the top ten turbine construction companies in the world, amongst other major actors such as General Electric, Siemens, Alstom, JSC Power Machines, Andritz Hydro, Voith. The company specializes in the production of steam and other turbines for: thermal power plants (TPP); nuclear power plants (NPP) and combined heat and power plants (CHP); hydraulic turbines for hydroelectric power plants (HPP) and pumped storage power plants (PSPP); gas turbines and combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) for thermal power plants; other power equipment.

GE Renewable Energy is a manufacturing and services division of the American company General Electric. It is headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France and focuses on the production of energy systems that use renewable sources. Its products include wind, hydroelectric and solar power generating facilities. It is the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer.

References

1 2 3 4 Smith, Stephen. "#10 S. Morgan Smith Company". york daily record. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
1 2 3 William Bradford Williams (1921). Munitions Manufacture in the Philadelphia Ordnance District. A. Pomerantz & Company, Printers. pp. 570–573.
↑ "Voith Celebrates 125 Years of American Hydropower Manufacturing in York, Pennsylvania". prnewswire.com. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
↑ Michigan Technic. 1908. p. 37.
↑ "The York Plan". yorkhistorycenter.org. Map item #58, S. Morgan Smith Company. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
1 2 3 4 Brandon N. Owens (August 27, 2019). The Wind Power Story: A Century of Innovation that Reshaped the Global Energy Landscape. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-79418-0 . Retrieved December 12, 2020.
↑ "A Pioneer is Vindicated". Kiplinger's Personal Finance . January 1981. p. 24.