Knight Foundry

Knight's Foundry and Shops or Knight Foundry was a foundry for castings, and a metalworking operation in the Eureka Street Sutter Creek, California. The plant was built in 1873 to supply heavy equipment parts for the gold mines and lumber processing of the Gold Countrys and to enable the repair of machines. Samuel N. Knight developed a cast iron Impulse water turbine, which was a forerunner of the Pelton turbine. Turbine wheels of this type of the first hydroelectric power plants in California, Utah and Oregon were installed in some. The plant is the last driven by water power foundry and metalworking operation in the United States. A Knight Wheel with 105 cm diameter drives the main longitudinal cutting device, some minor water-powered motors are used to drive other machines. The plant was introduced on 1 July 1975 in the National Register of Historic Places.

History

Samuel Knight came in 1863 from Maine to California. Developed by him Knight Wheel was the first water turbine in which the nozzle from which the water flowed, was arranged so that the high-pressure jet auftraf slightly outside the center of the turbine bucket. Thus, the water power was used more effectively. In the 1890s, the company has more than 300 Knight Wheels had produced, which were used throughout the Western United States.

Lester Allan Pelton competing Pelton turbine was developed in 1878 and was based on a similar principle. It used instead of but two adjacent spoon, the water jet was directed between. This proved in 1883 a direct comparison of both types as efficient. The Pelton Wheel became the industry standard. The superior design Pelton appreciative Knight designed an improved electrical controller, which improved the flow of water for each type of turbine, which was based on the momentum principle.

During the California gold rush was the foundry one of many such establishments in the area, of which articles were produced that were needed at that time, such equipment for mining or parts for street lighting, as the area prospered and the cities grew. When the gold rush was over, the foundry remained in business because they shifted to products that could not be produced by mass production. In addition, Knight developed equipment for the mining, foundry held a total of eight patents for machines that have been developed in the operation, one of them after death Knights. Knights pump for dredgers were used in the dredging of San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound and the Willamette and Columbia River.

Knight died in 1913, leaving ownership of the foundry his employees. The company remained in their possession, died by 1970 the last of the former employees. After that, the foundry was purchased by Carl Borgh, an air and space engineer from California, who was previously a customer of the company.

The foundry was in operation until 1996, when Borgh retired and then was operating as a museum on. But the business was not enough to cover the cost of insuring the facility. Borgh died in 1998 and the executor sold the property in 2000 to Richard and Melissa Lyman, a couple that professionally concerned with the preservation of old buildings. Your purchase was intended that the factory had as long as an owner, to the non-profit organization, founded by documentary filmmaker Andy driving forest had collected sufficient funds. Driving forest had come to Sutter Creek to make a documentary about the plant. However, the organization founded by him not managed to collect enough money and finally agreed the city of Sutter Creek in 2007, the estate to buy from the Lyman's, though she still believes it is the non-profit organization owned.

Work process

By woodworker, a model is made ​​of hardwood that is perfected with lathes, sawing and planing. All these devices are driven by water power. The model is then placed in a box, together with a mixture of charcoal, bentonite clay and pitch. This mixture then is cured, thus forming a mold. The wooden model is then removed by dividing into two halves the mold. Later molten iron is introduced into this mold. When the iron is solidified by cooling, the two halves of the mold are separated and the finished casting may be removed.

Current Status

The foundry was purchased by the City of Sutter Creek. Half of the purchase price has been raised through donations and grants. One half of the purchase price was financed by guarantees and donations; almost the entire cost of the restoration of the land in the amount of 1.3 million U.S. dollars could be applied. City and the Knight Foundry Corporation hope in 2009 to complete the escrow and to begin the restoration and 2010 with the redevelopment of the site. It is planned, except for guided tours and exhibitions offer workshops in order to preserve the historical craft. The project envisages addition to operate the foundry to a limited extent to historical iron machine parts, lamp posts and other iron components exchange in style with other historical buildings in the region.

The foundry is a California Historical Landmark # registered 1007 and registered in the National Register of Historic Places. It was reported by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME ) as a Mechanical Engineering Historic Site and was declared by the Smithsonian Institution to one of America's Most Endangered Places.