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Description
Interior view of Storrie power house and portrait of a machinery use to wind coils taken in Fall 1927. Donor/Source of Loan. Rob Hanford (loan). Audio Tape #12B-410. Soon to be loaded coils for winding, Fall 1927. This interior view of the powerhouse is looking west (down river). Notice the inverted "Feather River Power Company" that will be relieved into the building's face when the concrete has been poured. The roof of the building was the last part to be completed, allowing the moveable steam crane to lower the heavy pieces of electrical equipment into the building. This equipment was then moved around and into place by the permanent overhead crane seen in Glenn M. Way 132 and Glenn M. Way 133. The piece of equipment in the lower right hand corner (4) is the rotor, which has not been set in place yet. GMW assisted Charlie Johnson, a general electric employee, in doing all the winding on the rotors. GMW knew Johnson in Oakland, because while working in the red car barns in Alameda, he would often go to General Electric to pick up equipment. "these here (rotors) had to be set so we could turn it to lay in the stays and coils, there were flat coils in there, insulated. One, two, three coils in each place, and tied together in back and out to the commutator there, were in back of the pelton wheel, and the pelton wheel slid onto the (shaft)(7). The coils in the back had to be soldered, and then we put stays in, and then the grooves you see there (on rotor) were where you put the special bands, coated wire that would't corrode. Glenn M. Way is fairly certain that the person in front of the rotor is the Powerhouse (electrical) inspector that lived in the house up above J. Brown. He was employed by R.C. Storrie & Co. "The conduit, the wiring, the breakers, and all the switches and everything had to be ok'd by him." The inspector would not do any kind of "hands-on" work, he was a record keeper, and would number each conduit and circuit, and mark them completed. Way would work with Johnson in the late mornings and afternoons after completing his tasks up at Portal Camp. His work on the traction motors and alternators while serving his apprenticeship in Alameda qualified him for this work. "I never had any trouble with Charlie Johnson..., he liked to bend his elbow a bit, and sometimes wasn't too stable. Sorry to say that."
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