Leffel Turbine

Leffel Turbine. . , Displayed here is a hydraulic turbine made by the James Leffel Company in Springfield, Ohio. This machine was discovered in 2004 during a project to improve trail landscaping on the site, It was buried at a depth of about 12 feet and was only discovered because there were metal rods protruding from the ground that showed its location. Since there was already another turbine located on the site that powered the blast for the furnace, the purpose of this machine was not immediately clear. There were poorly documented references to a sawmill located near the furnace but it took considerable research, and some luck, to confirm that application., The turbine shows some damage; there are broken parts as well as a few missing. A visitor to the site identified the turbine as a Leffel product which enabled us to obtain details about the operation as well as identify the missing components., The Leffel company is still in business and still makes turbines using. the same design. More modern materials and methods are used, but the design is the same., We were able to obtain an 1877 Leffel catalog which suggested installation methods as well as details of putting the machine to work. An unexpected bonus was a listing in the back of the catalog of all Leffel machines then in operation. This machine was listed as powering a sawmill here in East Canaan confirming the rumors of a sawmill and indicating that this turbine was in place and in operation in 1877!, The diagram of the turbine (taken from the 1877 catalog) shows the parts of the machine. The gate arm and one link rod are missing from this turbine and were not recovered when the machine was removed from the ground., The turbine is controlled via the gate shaft coupling which was connected to a control mechanism as shown in the sawmill drawing. Rotating this shaft opened and closed the gates, thus determining the amount of water that could enter the turbine. The volume of water, in turn, controlled the power output (and speed) of the machine., Even though the gate arm is missing here you can find the link rods and see how they moved the gates to open and close them. We did not recover any of the shafts and/or gears that connected the turbine to the machinery in the mill., One interesting feature of the design is that the bearings in the machine are made from wood! As indicated in the drawing, the upper and lower bearings are made from lignum vitae, a tough tropical wood., We discovered during preservation of the machine that the bearings have not seized and the runner is capable of rotation., [Caption:] , Sawmill Structure. Compare the drawing above from the 1877 Leffel catalog with the sketch below drawn by Superintendent William Wallace showing the sawmill here at beckley. They are remarkably similar and show how the turbine was mounted below the mill.,