CORNISH ENGINEERS

MEET AGAIN

Institute Hears Story

of Hayle

During the war the Cornish In-stitute of Engineers suspended activities, with the exception of occasional meetings of the council of the Institute.   On Saturday evening a fresh start was made, when,  at the opening meeting for the session in Camborne School of Mines, the President (Mr. E. Todd) read a paper on "Generation of Electricity  at    Carn   Brea  and Hayle Stations."

After dealing with the story of electrical distribution in the Cam-borne area, from the end of last century,   Mr. Todd referred to the coming into being, in 1931, of the "Grid,"  and   to  the  fact  that  by 1939 the demand for energy on the Hayle Station was such that the generating capacity was increased to 32,500 killowats.   It was, found that by  this  time,   the Hayle Es-tuary   at certain tides did not pro-vide sufficient circulating water for the Station's war-time require-ments, and to overcome that diffi-culty arrangements were made to impound water in the nearby Carnsew Pool, To make the Pool into a reservoir   of sufficient capacity, a certain amount of dredging was carried out by means of electrically-driven gravel pumps mounted on rafts, increasing the storage by several million gallons. The reservoir being on the opposite side of the estuary from the Power Station, the water was conveyed through a tunnel driven under the bed of the   Hayle River,  a distance of 1,500 feet, and connecting the in-let   shaft with  the  outlet  shaft   at the pump house. About 1,600,000 gallons of water an hour were re-quired for condensing purposes.

Mr. Todd explained details of the further   large extension scheme now being undertaken to the works, and invited members on the occa-sion of their next summer meeting nay visit of inspection.

Mr. Todd reported that  Mr   Wil-liam Hosking of Redruth, had ten-dered his resignation as joint secretary of the Institute and the Council, in recognition of his long and valuable services, had elected him an honorary  life  member.   Mr. F. B. Michell, of Redruth, had been elected to succeed him.

Mr. Todd    was    thanked by   Mr.   J. H.    Trounson  (retiring   president) and Mr. J. H. Bennetts.