Old Pelton wheel from Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station, Germany. The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an impulse -type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. [1][2] The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the traditional overshot water wheel. Many earlier variations of impulse ...
One of the fathers of hydroelectric power, Lester Pelton invented the first water wheel to take advantage of the kinetic energy of water rather than the weight or pressure of a stream. The speed and efficiency of Pelton's wheel made it ideal for generating electricity. Pelton was born in Vermilion, Ohio. He migrated to California in 1850, in the midst of the Gold Rush. Failing to strike it ...
A Pelton turbine or Pelton wheel is a type of hydro turbine (specifically an impulse turbine) used frequently in hydroelectric plants. These turbines are generally used for sites with heads greater than 300 meters.
Pelton experimented with high-head nozzles and water wheels, tinkering with at least 40 different configurations until he developed a split bucket water wheel. Pelton's impulse water wheel was a key to tapping the vast waterpower of the mountainous American West.
Pelton Waterwheel Collection is an ASME landmark, is the Collection on the origins of the Pelton turbine and its principle of the "splitter" bucket.
These instances helped Pelton to come up with a relatively simple, yet ingenious, plan. The result was the Pelton wheel, otherwise known as the impulse water turbine. The wheel essentially uses cups, or buckets, that are split down the middle by a metal divider, so that in effect two cups are mounted side-by-side at each “spoke” in the wheel.