The motive force for sliding, turning, and drilling in this shop is water. While many of the large machines run from a large water wheel that distributes its power with shafts and belts, some are run by separate water motors. This is one built to run a single machine. the side panel is removed so you can see the water wheel inside that is driven by a jet of water coming in from the right. Several of these in the shop were made on site.
Below is a Pelton wheel that a competitor (Pelton) designed to be a bit more efficient than the one Knight designed. Pelton's trick is the divider in the center of the cup and helps (I'm not entirely sure how) transmit more force to the wheel. They were in any case, similar in effect.
Last, we come to the place where the pieces are cast. There are two very large furnaces here that use coke to melt the metal. Today, for the demonstrations, they use a small, gas fired heater to melt aluminum. Once the pattern is used to create the mold and the two halves of the mold are assembled and weighted (to hold them together against weight of the hot metal), the molten aluminum is poured in.
Here is a video of the pour.
Once the metal has cooled, the two halves of the mould are separated and the now dry sand is removed, revealing the freshly cast objects.
Among the many jobs done here are the decorative metal columns and arches along the streets in Old Sacramento, the hoists down in the mine at Kennedy and Argonaut, and many other pieces that supported the gold mining industry. This place played a central role in the mechanization of gold mining in California and the development of the modern industrialization of the state.
Hard, hot, dirty work...all of it.
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