A very old hydro power plant

What's inside the oldest Czech hydro power plant in Písek, generating electricity since 1887 (before this, it was a water mill). Water turbines, wooden gears and a flat belt transmission! Sadly, the generator isn't the original one any more.

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[_wave_]

Never seen Skoda branded voltmeters before.
I love how you (presumably as a tourist) were allowed to roam around and approach heavy working machinery up close, without physical barriers and without being closely supervised.

[robertatpierpontbeach]

I liked the fan blowing on the pillow block bearing. In the copper mine mills, we used fans to temporarily cool the bearings until we could change them out with a new set. Your cat would have been a great attention-getter during the fan scene. I enjoyed the video!

[whitesapphire]

One good reason for wooden gears in this application - There is a lot of inertia in the drive train. If anything stops sudden, upstream (toward the turbine), or downstream (toward the machine room), those wooden gear teeth will shear away, thus avoiding damage to the drive train or machinery attached to it.

Example; If a large lump of wood found its way into the turbine and stopped it dead. Imagine the mass, and therefore inertia, in the generator and drive shaft. The turbine stops in an instant, but the generator and shaft, with all that mass, is going to continue turning. There would be a conflict between driving and driven gears. So, build a gears system that will break up and save the rest of the machinery from breaking bearings and twisting shafts.

In a more modern scenario, one might use flange couplings and shearbolts instead, but the result is the same, and the method is the same - a deliberate weak link in the power train.

[Ugri]

Old windmills had everything made from wood, axles, gears, blades. Some are still in working condition here in Estonia.

[KeritechElectronics]

Looks, sounds and probably also smells absolutely friggin' lovely! The big flywheel and transmission brings back the memories of steam engines powering whole factories. And oh my goodness, what a breathtaking control panel! Thing of beauty, joy for ever. The "video telemetry" made me laugh :)

[d.k.]

Danke!
Thanks for sharing this.

I like this old and still working maschines...
Instant fall into love to the LaRgE panel of powermeters

[antibrevity]

Very cool. Thanks! The museum was opened in 1997 after "extensive reconstruction" and that might be when the 110kW generator went into service as it's dated 1992 and was probably sourced second-hand to save a few koruna. They only run the generator for tourists, so it's not being used most of the time.

[RODALCO]

What a beautiful vintage power station, great set up with the wooden gears and the belt drive to the 75 kW alternator. And those Skoda meters on marble panels. Thanks for showing. (Never knew that Skoda made meters)

[DadofScience]

This is an awesome video, mate. Thanks for the tour!

[prt]

Wonderful. Too bad that many of these stations were closed accross Europe while we are starving for clean energy. A friend of mine running a foundry had a similar one, except the last belt was made of leather and the 300kW generator dated back in 1920s..

[diylithiumguy]

Very cool video! I often visit old water-wheel grist mills (make corn meal from corn) and love seeing the the belt setups and old wooden gears.

[dragonrider]

That's really cool. I love older machines and buildings like this one as they actually have some visual flavor.
I didn't even know that a 3 phase motor could be used as a generator. I tried this myself to no avail. (Got around 30 mV at the highest slowly turning up the speed until it was rotating at nearly twice it's rated RPM when powered.) Maybe it's one specifically designed so it can be a motor or generator?

[JohnnyX]

Dobry Den. Found the museum on Google Maps and had a look at all the pictures on there. What a beautiful place to visit. Where you just visiting also? I am coming to Prague in March next year for a holiday and my birthday. I wanted to go to Brno but no direct flights from UK. I will look at the all day travel by train and see Pisku/Pisek? if time allows, but definitely going to see Brno. My plan is to live in Czechia when I retire as it is a beautiful country and I am learning the language in small steps. I hope to find my Czech friend who was living in the UK but went back home. We lost touch in 2019 :( Everyone I have spoken to from Czechia has been very kind to me and all hope I find him. Thank you for sharing your visit. What an amazing little museum! český a hrdý! Děkuji

[lmwlmw]

Awesome to see these relics still working.

[dr.zarkhov]

Love that you had such unfettered access to get good closeup views. Thanks for sharing this.

[uncontrollabledogs]

Great video. Can't believe that belt has no guard around it.

[KulKlas]

I been working in this kind of place here in sweden and the volt meter here was mad by ”A.S.E.A” and have swastika symbol betweed the letter! I think the place was built in the beginning of 1900s! I working as a carpenter, and we make a concrete mold to a new intake to the a new turbine!

I think i was klinker on the grund but wery dirty! This place look like you can eat on the ground! Look like a “mint condition”

The second place, we rebuild a new place for a new turbine and a new intake!.

Nice video and nice to se! 👍🏻

[twocvbloke]

Here in the UK, in Durham city, they turned the former site of an old watermill into a modern hydro turbine on the river Wear in the city centre, using the existing weir (yes, they're pronounced the same way!) to feed the river water into it, all to generate power for the new builds they were doing in the area, that's what they said at least, it all goes into the grid before it goes to the properties... :P

[Dev]

reminds me of my grandpas hydro power plant, except less dodgy. We literally have a power meter only show a tenth of the power for some magical reason

[putteslaintxtbks]

I went to the falls in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the early 1970's and the door had been left unlatched on an old power plant there, I think the city used it till sometime well into the 60's, really wanted to go in and check it out, but chickened out, but another door was wide open, but it was just stacked full of firebrick. I would guess it would have looked much like this plant. Last I went up there with my kids in the 90's, I'm pretty sure none of it was there anymore. Kind of wish I went home and got my camera and done a self tour.