War of the Worlds (hiding spot)?

[Mark Sedenquist]

A week or so ago, I stayed overnight at Great Falls, Idaho alongside the Snake River. What is really wild is that the local utility has built some sort of turbine device that captures the energy of the natural waterfalls and creates electricity, but you can't see anything obvious.



But the sound, oh my, the sound. It sounds alot like that weird sound those tri-pods made in the recent "War of the Worlds" movie as my brother, Dan , so aptly pointed out. Weird.


This one (above) is a close-up.


And this one (above) shows where those turbines must live -- but darn hard to see. Do you have any idea how this works? There are no visible power lines leaving the area.

Mark

[RoadTripper Brad]

Are you sure those are Electric generation units? They look more like what is up in Washington to create Salmon Spawning areas and Irrigation Siphon Points.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Are you sure those are Electric generation units? They look more like what is up in Washington to create Salmon Spawning areas and Irrigation Siphon Points.

Yep, I am sure -- there was a cryptic sign, located on the walk near the falls, explaining that the sound (vibration) was the result of the city's experimental power generation project which was commenced to meet a portion of their self-sufficiency goals. Believe me, the sound was noticeable inside the car a block away -- still don't know how the turbines worked though.

mark

[RoadTripper Brad]

Looking at the photos, it doesn't appear there is any turbine fins on the outer portion of the dam wall... perhaps it's generated by the vacuume caused by the water being forced up against the wall and over the lip.

If you read a fiction book titled "the city of ember" and it's sequil (both classified as young adult, but great for people of all ages... just a great story), you might notice that the sound you hear is somewhat similar to the sound from the fictional hydroplant for this city. I know it won't answer any questions, but I figured it was close to the subject and is a good read.