ainer. These get into the guide
blades in the cylinder and quite effectively stop them up. Therefore,
the blades should be gone over very carefully, and any such additional
accumulation removed. Examine the glands and equilibrium ports for any
dirt or broken parts. Particularly examine the glands for any deposit of
scale. All the scale should be chipped off the gland parts, as, besides
preventing the glands from properly packing, this accumulation will
cause mechanical contact and perhaps cause vibration of the machine due
to lack of freedom of the parts. The amount of scale found after the
first few inspections will be an indication of how frequently the
cleaning should be done. As is discussed later, any water that is
unsuitable for boiler feed should not be used in the glands.

In reassembling the spindle and cover, very great care must be taken
that no blades are damaged and that nothing gets into the blades. Nearly
all the damage that has been done to blades has resulted from
carelessness in this respect; in fact, it is impossible to be too
careful. Particular care is also to be taken in assembling all the
parts and in handling them, as slight injury may cause serious trouble.
In no case should a damaged part be put back until the injury has been
repaired.

If for any reason damaged blades cannot be repaired at the time, they
can be easily removed and the turbine run again without them until it is
convenient to put in new ones; in fact, machines have been run at full
load with only three-quarters of the total number of blades. In such an
event remove the corresponding stationary blades as well as the moving
blades, so as not to disturb the balance of the end thrust.

Conditions Conducive to Successful Operation

In the operation of the turbine and the conditions of the steam, both
live and exhaust play a very important part. It has been found by
expensive experimenting that moisture in the steam has a very decided
effect on the economy of operation; or considerably more so than in the
case of the reciprocating engine. In the latter engine, 2 per cent. of
moisture will mean very close to 2 per cent. increase in the amount of
water supplied to the engine for a given power. On the other hand, in
the turbine 2 per cent. moisture will cause an addition of more nearly 4
per cent. It is therefore readily seen that the drier the entering
steam, the better will be the appearance of the coal bill.

By judicious use of