6,000 HP at 80 RPM: Henry Ford's Gasteam Powerplant

I know you've felt them. Standing on a concrete railroad station platform with 7,000 hp diesel locomotive gently idling while mumbling the ground under your feet. Or standing over a steamship's engine, watching the long connecting rods flow easily back and forth in rhythm to a soft thump, thump, thump in the room. If you've walked down the sidewalk on the other side of the retaining fence as a six car NASCAR draft blows by, you know your heart pounded as if to match the beat of 5,000 hp screaming by in a thirty foot long game of follow the leader.

Engines charged with moving large objects across great distances, or smaller objects at great speed have a tendency to disrupt the air with enormous sound waves that we feel as much as we hear. They pound like the hammers of hell.

Then there are also engines that go nowhere, simply producing enormous amounts of power while sitting leisurely in place. Stationery engines can muster unbelievable power with only a hiss or a tiny whine. But stationary engines get no respect. They do their jobs steadily, dependably, year after year without notice or fanfare. They pump liquids, push air, exhaust air, make electricity and power just about anything that has rotating, revolving or reciprocating movement. 
 

The Ford Museum in Dearborn displays some stationary engines that were used to generate electricity. Standing on a catwalk overlooking a larfe engine I found the powerplant from the Highland Park plant fascinating. The old Model T plant, made obsolete by its replacement, the Ford Rouge plant, employed 36,000 people on a 305 acre plot smack in the middle of the city, cranking out over 3,000 of the black beauties each day.

Each of these engines cranked out 6,000 hp at just 80 RPM, producing roughly 4,500 kw. There were nine of them scattered throughout the plant; that's roughly 54,000 horsepower generating 40,500 kw.

They were large: 82' long and 46' wide. They had matched (square) bore and stroke at 72” each. The technical details are furnished by the Ford Museum here and additional pictures courtesy of the Ford are here.

The brass plate on each engines carry the following credits:

Courtesy of The Ford:

Material

Brass (Alloy)
Metal

Dimensions

Diameter: 18 ft  (Flywheel)
Height: 21.5 ft
Diameter: 36 in  (Bore)
Diameter: 42 in  (Bore)
Width: 45.625 ft
Diameter: 72 in  (Bore)
Length: 72 in  (Stroke)
Speed: 80 rpm  (1.33 Hz)
Depth: 82.083 ft
Horsepower: 6000 hp  (4474.20 kW)

Inscriptions

Builder's plates on gasteam engines: 11 (and 12) / COMBINATION / GASTEAM ENGINE / BUILT BY / THE HOOVEN OWENS RENTSCHLER CO. / HAMILTON OHIO / FOR / FORD MOTOR COMPANY / DETROIT
Builder's plate on generator: CROCKER WHEELER COMPANY / AMPERE, N.J. / (plate is too high to read more data from the floor, but other data on the plate should include an engine serial number of 196948 [according to the vertical file]
Builder's plates on seven data plates with distinct serial numbers that are difficult to see from the platform: RICHARDSON / AUTOMATIC SIGHT FEED OIL PUMP / MODEL M (serial number) 4 FEEDS / THE RICHARDSON-PHENIX CO. / MILWAUKEE
Builder's plate on Edwards triplet air pump: WHEELER CONDENSER / AND / ENGINEERING CO. / NEW YORK / No. / 04665 / SIZE 18x12
Builder's plate on Edwards triplet air pump: WHEELER / CONDENSER & / ENGINEERING CO. / NEW YORK / No. 04665 / DATE 1918
Builder's plate on drive motor for Edwards triplet air pump: CROCKER-WHEELER COMPANY AMPERE, N.J. / No. / 261941 / SIZE 149DA TYPE CCM / 30 HP AT 90125 RPM / ARM. No. [SEE END / OF SHAFT OR HUB] / PATENTED Serial number on end of triplet pump/drive motor shaft, at motor end: 261942
Builder's plate on oil separator: COCHRANE / VACUUM OIL SEPARATOR / PATENTED OCT. 11, 1892. / MAR. 31, 1896. / HARRISON SAFETY BOILER WORKS / MANUFACTURERS / PHILADELPHIA, PA Admin. serial[?] number plate on circulating pump oval tag: 50072
Builder's plate on circulating pump triangular plate: NO. / 2997 / MANISTEE IRON WORKS CO. / REES / RoTURBo / TRADE / MARK / MANISTEE, MICH U.S.A. / FEET HEAD / 100 / OR LESS AT / REVS. 1150
Builder's plate on circulating pump rectangular plate: CAUTION / THIS PUMP MUST NOT BE STARTED / UNTIL FULLY PRIMED AS INTERNAL / BEARINGS ARE WATER LUBRICATED. / WATER SHOULD FLOW FROM TOP / PET COCKS ON STARTING
Builder's plate on drive motor for circulating pump: WESTINGHOUSE / ELECTRIC & MFG. CO. / PITTSBURGH, PA., U.S.A. / DIRECT CURRENT MOTOR No. 180L TYPE SK / CONSTANT SPEED SHUNT WOUND / 150 H.P. 230 VOLTS 525 AMPERES 1100 R.P.M. / STYLE No. 154450B SERIAL No. 2270786 / (patent dates. . .) / 1662 (3-11-15)

 

But there were larger, more powerful engines from this era, so why were these nine powerhouses unique? Because they're hybrids, running on a combination of gas internal combustion and steam...Ford invented the Gasteam engine. The gasoline engine on one side of the generator offered efficiency while the steam engine (coupled to the other side of the generator) exhaust from the gas engine to build its head of steam providing “regulation and reliability”. Ironically, the power of the steam engine was used to spin and start the gas engine. And with an 18' flywheel, the reciprocating engines delivered smooth, even power.

The Journal Electrical World described this novel creation in a journal written in 1914, two years before the first power plant was installed:

It is claimed that this combination "gasteam" en

gine, as it is called, will give the economy of a gas en

gine and the reliability of a steam engine. As a gas

engine operates most efficiently when fully loaded, the

set will be so designed that the gas side will always be

working at full load. Except for overspeeding, there

will be no governing on the gas side, all governing

otherwise being done on the steam side. In case of

trouble on the gas side, the steam side, it is declared,

will be able to pull the entire load with a late steam

cut-off.

The two gas cylinders of the engine will be of the

four-cycle, double-acting type and will be water-cooled.

Each cylinder will be 42 in. in diameter and will have a

stroke of 72 in. The tandem compound condensing unit

will have a high-pressure cylinder 36 in. in diameter and

a low-pressure cylinder 68 in. in diameter and will oper

ate with a stroke of 72 in. The low-pressure cylinder

will be connected to a surface condenser, which in turn

will be placed in a closed heater. The vacuum will be

regulated to correspond to atmospheric temperatures.

During the winter months the vacuum will be reduced

to about 18 in. The entire amount of circulating water

will be pumped through all the factory buildings, which

are heated by hot water.

Superheated steam will be used with a pressure of

175 lb., and the high-pressure cylinder will be equipped

with poppet valves, while Corliss valves will be em

ployed on the low-pressure cylinder. The exhaust from

the gas engine will be conducted into a steam superheater

placed in the steam line between the high-pressure and

the low-pressure steam cylinders, thus utilizing waste

gases for reheating the high-pressure exhaust steam.

Part of the exhaust gases will be shunted through the

jacket of the high-pressure steam cylinder, which ac

cordingly will eliminate any steam-heat loss in that

cylinder. The exhaust gases will then be conducted to

the boiler-feed water heater and will heat all the feed

water required for the steam boilers. Feed water for

the heater will be secured from the water used for cool

ing purposes in the gas-cylinder jackets, where it will

be brought up to temperatures of from 150 deg. Fahr. to

180 deg. Fahr. This water will finally be raised to a

temperature of about 250 deg. by means of the exhaust

gases as previously mentioned.

I can't link to only the article but the bound edition is available to read here courtesy of Google Books. Look for PDF page number 550. It will be page 528 as numbered in the journal.

The one thing I couldn't do while visiting the Ford was to watch the power plant run, but this video with Henry Ford beside a running power plant is amazing. No pounding here, just 6,000 horsepower running smooth and quiet at a whole 80 RPM.