Energetics
"Energetics" Section of "Stefan Procopiu" Science and Technique Museum
The section entitled "Energetics" was the first one within the museum prima. It was opened to the public on 1 March 1961 and throughout the years it was subject to several modifications and improvements from the museotechnical point of view. This section has several sectors, meant to show the evolution of the main forms of energy, including aspects of worldwide technique and achievements of the Romanian technique thanks to the contributions of representative personalities such as Dimitrie Leonida, Dumitru Vasescu, Conrad Haas, Henri Coanda, George Constantinescu, Stefan Procopiu.
The map of Romania with the power supply sources points out the hydro- and thermo-electrical plants, the atomic plant and the high tension wires built during the period 1950 – 1990. The energetic system of Romania was founded in 1953, when the thermo-electrical plant of DoiceÅŸti started functioning.
SUN ENERGY
Sun energy is in fact inexhaustible. It is also the cleanest form of energy on Earth and includes caloric, light, radio radiations or other types of radiations produced by the sun. The huge force of this energy is behind almost all natural processes that take place on the Earth. Yet, it is rather difficult to capture and store it in any form (mainly heat or electricity) so to enable its future usage. The heat generated by the sun can be used mainly at producing hot water for domestic usage, the heating of the thermal agent for house heating and the heating of pools. There are also air conditioning installations which work with the help of sun energy which is the main form of energy necessary to the cooling of the air.
TIDE ENERGY, GEOTHERMIC ENERGY AND BIOGASE ENERGY are other forms of alternative energy presented by graphic means..
WIND ENERGY
The oldest wind installations were used in Ancient Egypt (ca. 3 600 years BC) at pumping water and milling grains. Later on, wind energy was used at creating sailing ships, wind mills, and irrigation pumps. Since the 20th century, wind energy or the energy of “the blue coal” has found its most effective usage in producing electric power.
HYDRAULIC ENERGY
More than 3000 years ago, in China, India and Middle East, hydraulic wheels were used. Later on, the energy of running water was used to assure the power necessary to the functioning of wind mills. By graphic means, in the museum are illustrated various types of water wheels used at wind mills throughout Romania. The introduction of modern hydraulic machines, the turbines, led to the usage of the inexhaustible energy of water for the production of electric power. The maquettes of the hydraulic turbines of Francis (invented in 1849 and used in waterfalls of average size of 30-
THERMAL ENERGY
The oldest application of thermal energy dated back to Antiquity. Thus, Heron of Alexandria, during the 1st century AD., built the first device using the force of steam, the so-called “aeolipile” or the “rotating sphere”. The maquette of this device is exhibited in the museum. Centuries later, in 1679, Denis Papin built the first installation containing a piston steam cylinder, named marmite. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen, in England, creates a device entitled “steam-air” with practical application, whose maquette is also exhibited in the museum. James Watt built in 1764 an experimental steam engine which included a condenser, and in 1785 the first industrial device “with double action”. The applications of the steam engine with external combustion are to be found in the field of transportation, in car and railway engines.
The thermal engines with internal combustion, in four phases, with electrical combustion, have their starting point in the attempts of the German inventor Nicolaus August Otto, who in 1867 created the thermal engine using gaseous fuel, and in 1878 the benzene engine. The first automatic combustion was invented by Rudolf Diesel, in 1897, with wide practical applications. A series of very valuable original airplane engines with internal combustion are exhibited in this sector.
The jet engine and the rocket engines have been developed and improved during the 20th century. In 1910, Henri Coandă invented the first airplane with turbojet engine. The sector dedicated to this field presents aspects in the evolution of the jet vehicles, the working principles of the gas turbines, maquettes of gas turbines, of the three phase rocket with liquid fuel (Saturn V) and of “Columbia” space shuttle. The exhibition also includes the original turbojet engine R.D.-10 A, which was initially mounted on the Russian school airplane IAK-17 UTI, a model produced during the period 1947 – 1950.
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
The most used form of energy, electricity, is an indispensable element in all forms of activity. Some forms of electricity were used already in Antiquity. Thus, in China, during the 3rd century BC; the natural magnet was known due to its property of attracting iron. Thales of Milet (625-547 BC), rubbing an amber stick to a piece of leather, noticed a state which was given the name “electricity” only in 1600 by the English physicist William Gilbert. The oldest electrostatic devices were built by the Dutch Otto de Guerike in 1663 and the French physicist Jean Antoine Nollet, in 1748. The museum exhibition includes the model of Whimshurst’s experimental electrostatic device (built in 1880). An important contribution to the problematic of capturing atmospheric electricity was the one of Benjamin Franklin, who in 1752 invented the lightning rod. Alessandro Volta is the one who in 1800 invented the first electric pile.
Graphic representations are included in the museum exhibition in order to illustrate some of the most important discoveries in the history of electricity: Oersted identifying electromagnetism in 1819, Ampère setting the bases of electrodynamics in 1820, Faraday establishing the electromagnetic induction in 1931, Joule discovering the thermal effect in 1843, Maxwell assuming mathematically the electromagnetic waves in 1864 and Hertz pointing them out in în 1888.
The construction of the first electric engine with batteries, built by the Russian physicist Iacobi in 1834, as well as other types of historical electrical devices are explained through graphic representations.
Particularly valuable are the original electrical devices exhibited in the museum, as well as the devices with continuous current, alternative current, converters, rectifiers and transformers built by companies such as Siemens, Ganz, Brown-Boveri, Thomson, Gramme-Schuckert, contributing thus to the understanding of the evolution of electrical devices. The presence and development of the electrical devices allowed the introduction of electricity for various purposes: lighting, transportation, tele-transmission of energy. These aspects are illustrated both by graphic panels and by original items such as several types of lamps with electric arc initially used at public lighting of the city of Iasi at the beginning of the 20th century.
ATOMIC ENERGY
At the end of the 19th century, the great discoveries in the field of electricity and chemistry created the possibility of deciphering the intimate structure of the matter.
The museum presents through graphic panels and practical experiments the main phases in the evolution of the researches which determined the clarification of the structure of the atom and the peaceful applications of nuclear energy. This sector includes important discoveries and physical phenomena which contributed to the development of science and technique: cathode rays, thermo-ionic emission, photo-electrical effect, X rays, natural radioactivity.
There are presented a series of discoveries carried out during the 1st half of the 20th century and which led to the application of atomic energy but also to the first artificial transmutation (Rutherford–1919), artificial radioactivity and Frédéric Joliot-Curie – 1934), fission of the uranium (1939), controllable chain nuclear reaction, used at the first experimental atomic reactor (Enrico Fermi-1942), nuclear or thermonuclear fission reaction.
In this sector, one can find the methods and devices for the detection of radioactive substances (Geiger-Müller counter, Wilson camera, ionising chamber), few examples of the peaceful usage of the atomic energy, types of atomic-electric plants and the maquette of the first atomic reactor of 2000 KW made in Romania at the Institute of Atomic Physics in Bucharest (1955).