[SEL] Mt. Wilson?????

[Frank DeWitt]

It appears that the Mt Wilson Observatory is out of danger. 
http://joy.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/fire.php

I just want to take a little bandwidth to write why Mt willson is so 
important to us engine people.  (Many of us have been there and seen 
for them selves but for the others.)

There is a Fairbanks Morse Type RE with a directly coupled to a 
generator capable of producing 40 KW of power at 125 Volts D.C  Add 
to that, it is still in it's original location, and surrounded by the 
equipment it originally ran and it is truly amazing.

This engine was restored by Ken and Larry Evans and others.  Larry is 
a regular contributor to this list and is the expert on Mt Wilson.  I 
am just adding opinion.

Because the observatory was originally designed to run on DC and 
involves many unique mechanical devices and because everything is on 
top of a mountain, a lot of it is still there and still 
working.  Wonderful old winches, motors that are collectors items in 
there own right.  DC motor control panels.  DC lighting control 
panels, and many more "Antique mechanical items.

Further investigation shows things like a wood fixture "Wiffle Tree" 
for lifting a 100 inch mirror.  Also a large worm and worm wheel 
(perhaps 12 feet.) How did it get up there (It was built in pieces 
and hobbed in place!

How do you re coat a 100 in mirror that is on top of a mountain?   Ask Larry

If you are into the sciences and people of science you can have your 
picture taken in the same place as Albert Einstein or Edison or Edwin 
Hubble or Albert Abraham Michelson.
He worked out the speed of light on that mountain in 1925

Here is Larry's web site.
http://www.oldengine.org/members/levans/


Frank



I want to know how God created the world.
I am not interested in this or that phenomenon,
in the spectrum of this or that element.
I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.
--Albert Einstein--