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A rotary windmill
By adamg on Sat, 02/25/2012 - 9:21pm
But the Mazda goes hmm ... Deer Island also has two "normal" windmills.
Ed. note: I have been schooled on wind things. This is a "cowled turbine," not a rotary windmill - no Dutch people in wooden clogs were harmed in the making of this interesting structure.
Deer Island is a fascinating place to walk around. Look outward as you walk along the path, and there are great views of the water, from Boston Harbor to the open ocean.
Of course, it's hard to ignore the giant sewage-treatment plant, especially the giant "eggs" that house the sewage-munching bacteria.
The paths are open year round, even on days like today.
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Comments
i always have to think of
i always have to think of giant greek vases. and find that very funny.. :)
didnt know you could get that close! we were there 2 weeks ago, and then also were almost blown away, didnt make it to the vases.. next time!
thought
I always thought that those tanks looked like giant grenades.
HAHAHAHA. giant
HAHAHAHA. giant grenades!
never thought of that but now i cant think of greek vases anymore. hahahahaha. grenades
What's it sound like?
Is the new turbine working? I visited last the summer when it was still being built.
From the southern end of the "island," the eggs are partly hidden behind a hill, so they look like a compound of a Bond villian, or a base in a sci-fi movie. The facility gave me that vibe because every now and then the P.A. would blare something ominously echoey ("Gerry, pick up line 2").
Wasn't spinning yesterday
I don't know if that's because it's still not operational or because it was turned off due to the wind speeds (however, the traditional turbines were spinning just fine, with their "thwip, thwip, thwip").
Eggs are in the movie The Box
Which has a low-tech sic-fi look to it.
What makes that a 'rotary
What makes that a 'rotary windmill?'
First, it's a wind turbine, not a windmill. Windmills mill stuff - turbines produce electricity.
Second, they're all rotary - they rotate.
Um, cuz it's round?
Yes, you are right - it's not used to grind wheat and it spins around (or, presumably does when it works, since I have no empiric evidence of my own to disprove the kidlet's theory that it's just a giant piece of public art). But unlike other wind m, uh, turbines, when it's stopped, it looks round, rather than like a weird-ass propeller. Round things can be said to be rotary, such as, oh, traffic rotaries, the logos for certain clubs for businesspeople or the key part of the old Mazda engines whose ads I obviously have not been able to shake.
What rotary engines do
You're certainly free to dig
You're certainly free to dig in your heels on this, though I have no idea why you would. What we have here is a wind turbine with a shroud around the blades. Such turbines are not called 'rotary' by the people who make them or use them. Things have names to separate them from other things. A donut is not a rotary pastry, though the first amendment does indeed allow you to call it such.
Whatever.
That's called a "cowled" turbine
The outside part is called a cowl, the funky scallopped part just inside that is called a lobed mixer. Together, they concentrate and accelerate the air passing through. The design is cheaper, safer, and is supposed to allow the turbine to operate efficiently at a much wider range of wind speeds.
The cowled turbine at Deer Is. (short vid) is a 100-kW demonstration model from Flo-Design, which is a local company that is an innovation leader in this very cool tech.
Don't know why it wasn't operating when you visited - scheduled maintenance perhaps.
Come! See the poop!
Beyond walking around Deer Island on the trail for the great views, you can also schedule a group to go get tours of the plant itself, which (I think) is well worth it. You get an appreciation for just how much work goes into a piece of infrastructure that's so critical to our way of life in the Boston area and yet is completely invisible for most of us. Some cool history, nifty science and you get to go inside the eggs! ...well not actually inside them, but into the base of the things.
You can also bike around Deer Island
on that same trail. For most cyclists. the best way to Deer Island is to take your bike on the Blue Line, get off at Orient Heights, and ride from there through Winthrop to Point Shirley.
Something else you can do at Deer I.
Fly your R/C slope glider.
When the wind hits the hillsides right, it creates lift and you can keep your plane up forever. The north side is particularly good because it's bigger and steeper.
This is a friend's P-51 with Tuskeegee Airmen markings on a gorgeous northeasterly day