Alternator Air Chamber

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 21mm · f/8.0 · 1.3s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A sealed access hatch above the alternator air chamber, steel columns framing the space. The air chamber was part of the cooling system for the station's turbo-alternators. The earliest of these, from Dick Kerr and Co. of Preston, England, entered service at White Bay in 1917.

Edition

Open edition

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Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Alternator Air Chamber
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-003
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1.3s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 21 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The air chamber of one of the alternators at White Bay Power Station sits at the side of the generator, the cylindrical steel vessel that handled the cooling-air circulation for the rotor and stator. The chamber is around the height of a person, painted pale industrial green, with inspection doors at multiple positions on its face. Brass nameplates above each door give the alternator specifications: maker, rating, voltage, speed. Pipework and ducting run from the chamber to the alternator casing and to the air-cooling plant elsewhere in the building. The door covers are bolted shut.

Alternators of White Bay's era were air-cooled, with circulating air carrying heat away from the rotor and stator windings to a separate cooling plant. The air chamber managed that circulation, separating supply from return and providing access for inspection. White Bay ran three generations of alternator across its working life: the early 750 RPM Willans & Robinson and Dick, Kerr units from England (8.7 MW continuous), the later 20 MW Parsons units (from 1928), and the 50 MW Parsons units that ran into the 1980s. The plant closed on Christmas Day 1983. The air chamber in this photograph is from one of the longer-serving generations of plant.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A sealed hatch looms above the air chamber, once a critical access point in the intricate systems that kept the turbines running. Now rusted and worn, it stands as a relic of an era when precision and caution dictated the station’s operations.

Brett Patman

The series

White Bay Power Station

2015–2018 · 124 photographs

Bricklayers laid 3.7 million bricks at White Bay across three and a quarter years of Phase 1 construction, on Wanngal Country at the western edge of Rozelle. The New South Wales Government Railways ran the build through its own Construction Department. By 3 July 1913, boilers and alternators were running before the buildings that housed them were complete.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.