biography
| name: |
Pelton, Lester (Allen)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1829–1918)
|
| biography:
| Inventor and engineer, born in Vermillion, Ohio, USA. He was a carpenter when he joined the gold rush to California in 1849. He became interested in the water-wheels used to drive mining machinery, and devised an improved type of undershot wheel powered by a jet of water striking pairs of hemispherical cups. He was granted a patent in 1880, later selling the rights to the Pelton Water Wheel Company of San Francisco. Pelton wheels are in use all over the world for high-head hydro power generation, at efficiencies approaching 90%. |
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