Picture posting is enabled for all :)
Historically water wheels used elm since it does not rot in water (or does so very slowly). It is also the wood which makes up most of a lock gate in a canal. I seem to be out of step with everyone else here since I felt no empathy for these people at all. Inpartcular I was amazed that a retired Army engineer (implied but never stated) and a physicist who claimed to have done a lot of research should design an overshot waterwheel when by far the most efficient form is an undershot one. ???
Quote from: Larkspur on April 01, 2006, 07:44:34Historically water wheels used elm since it does not rot in water (or does so very slowly). It is also the wood which makes up most of a lock gate in a canal. I seem to be out of step with everyone else here since I felt no empathy for these people at all. Inpartcular I was amazed that a retired Army engineer (implied but never stated) and a physicist who claimed to have done a lot of research should design an overshot waterwheel when by far the most efficient form is an undershot one. ???My understanding is that an overshot wheel is far more efficient and does not require fast flowing water. Overshot wheels convert flow into torque far more efficiently (upto 65% for wood), whilst an undershot wheel is less efficient (upto 35%).
I have a feeling the builders saw them coming, as they often do with 'incommers' who apparently have money to burn ;