The Adventures of Caleb Best

Notes of explanation:
Hue - pronounced WAY
Hui - pronounced Hughy
Hua - pronounced Huwa
Dati - IndoDutch term for Papa
Baki - IndoDutch term for Brother
Onkla - IndoDutch term for Uncle

Bic and Phillip arrived in Wellington and were met by government officials and Charles Baker, Chief Engineer of Rotorua Power Corporation, Ltd. They had to get work permits signed by the Ministry of Industry and make arrangements for labor subcontractors to supply the workers for the project. They spent the weekend touring the city and were fascinated by the huge museum, "Te Papa". On Monday morning, they flew to Rotorua to meet with the local authorities and Rotorua Public Power Company management. The plant was to be located on land owned by the Maori People, and their concerns also needed to be met.

After a week of negotiations, a contractor was hired to begin opening a road to the construction site at Mamaku. A small test bore had previously been bored to a depth of 4,000 meters and was blowing hot gases at 5,300 degrees. The new bore would be 8 inches and a depth of 10,000 meters. If the gas temperatures and volumes were consistent with that needed to support a power generator, construction would automatically begin, not to exceed $176,000,000 USD plus T&M of 22%.

They issued conditional fabrication orders to American Piping and Boiler in Honolulu for two hot gas steam generators and to Mitsubishi Electric for two 150 megawatt turbine-generator sets. Because of poor telephone service, they were forced to locate their construction office in Rotorua, some miles away.

Bic was expecting the bore to go very slowly, like the one in Hawaii, but just the opposite was true. They copied Hue's steam collar to prevent scalding the bore crew in case of blowout. The first 4,500 meters, the bore sunk like a stone, but then, they started hitting solid stone and they had to fight their way down. They kept measuring the temperature of the bit shaft as it would come out of the blowout preventer and it was an ever-increasing temperature. By the time they started hitting solid stone at 4,600 meters, the gas temperature had risen to 5,100 degrees. As the bore worked its way downward, they started having problems with the bits, they would come up, out of the bore with the teeth shaved off of them. The local supplier was at a loss to explain why the teeth were being damaged, so the manufacturer, Zinkler Tools, flew a representative and two engineers in from Bremerhaven, Germany to inspect the job.

Bic called Hue and asked him if he wanted to meet with the tool company representative and Hue told him, "Bic, it is your job, run with it!"

Zinkler suggested a different bit design, it was a slight improvement, but still not satisfactory. After several weeks of experimentation, they finally had a bit that was marginally satisfactory and they continued the bore. They were running around the clock in order to beat the rainy season. Bic and Phillip worked opposite 12 hour shifts once the bit problem arose.

In a hunch, Bic wrapped up a package of stone pieces he had pried out of the bit and mailed them to Hue, asking him to have Ian MacDonald run an analysis on them. A week later, Ian called him, "Bic, those rock samples were loaded with zirconium."

Bic replied, "So, what is that?"

Ian laughed, "Well, it is only slightly less hard than diamonds, it makes great costume jewelry!"

Bic asked, "What can we do to cut through the stuff?"

Ian replied, "About the only thing I can suggest is a diamond-edged bore bit."

Bic told Phillip what Ian had said the next day and together they decided to give Zinkler a call and discuss Dr. MacDonald's findings with them. Because the date line differences, they had to wait three days to contact Zinkler Tools in Germany. They understood immediately what Dr. MacDonald was describing and they shipped out four new bore bits that afternoon.

After the new bore bits were put in service, the bore proceeded with little problems. They occasionally hit pockets of steam, but the preventer collar kept it contained and nobody got steam blasted. The bore inched its way down past 7,000 meters and the rock started becoming plastic and sticky. Zinkler had already sent them bits of a slightly different pitch and the bore crew changed out the boring tool.

They began having a problem with the flexible drive shaft, when the tool started bouncing on the plastic rock, the shaft would whip in the hole. They feared it would snap, so Bic ordered the bore stopped while they designed some dampeners to be attached to the flexible shaft. After they bolted the cyclic dampeners to the shaft, the whipping became almost non-existent and the trip downwards continued.

After Hue's experience with radioactive rock chips, Bic had bought a Geiger Counter and had it handy every time the bit was extracted. They started getting pulses on the counter, as the bit passed 8,100 meters, Phillip was holding the counter when it shot up into the red zone. He ordered the bore stopped and had all the crew back away from the hole.

Bic was in the office at Rotorua and he radioed him of the problem. Professor Tulles was in the office speaking with Bic when Phillip's radio call came in. The two men jumped into Bic's Land Rover and they headed for the jobsite.

While they were waiting, Phillip ordered the bit extracted and had the rock chips laid out on a lead apron. When the radioactivity first showed up, they had ordered lead aprons for the entire drill crew. Dr. Tulles ran the counter over the rock chips and then asked them to be poured into a lead-lined sample container and he would have them analyzed at the University. Bic ordered the crew to take the rest of the day off, with pay, and they would begin again in the morning.

The next morning, Bic ordered the bore seal to be cracked and they tested the escaping hot gases for radioactivity, the detector registered zero. The crew dropped a new bit and proceeded with the bore. Every few hours, they sampled the hot gasses, but no more radiation was detected.

It took another month of steady boring before the bit reached the planned depth of 10,000 meters. They withdrew the bit and flexible drive shaft, then closed the wellhead stopper. They had designed several venturi nozzles to measure the hot gas flow, with thermocouples welded to the inlet and outlet of the venturi. They started with the smallest venturi and opened the stopper. The blast was so loud, it was necessary for everyone to wear ear protection, the exit temperature on the 2-inch venturi was 2800 degrees at full blast. That temperature would have been only marginal for a hot gas heat recovery system, but as they increased the venturi size to the planned 8 inches, the temperature rose to 5,100 degrees Fahrenheit or 2,815 degrees Celsius. That was well within the design specifications for the project.

Bic notified Hue of the results and then called Dr. Tulles, telling him that they were invoking the automatic provisions of the contract and would be placing the confirming orders for the plant equipment that day. Dr. Tulles did ask for one change, that a radiation detection system be included on the wellhead and also on the recovery boiler stack. Bic agreed that was a good idea and promised to incorporate those changes into the instrumentation package.

There would be a two-week delay as construction materials were delivered. It was graduation time back at Sacramento State University and both Bic and Phillip had every intention of being there for Hui's graduation. They caught a JAL flight out of Wellington, headed for Tokyo, with connections on another JAL flight to Honolulu and on to San Francisco. It was going to be tight, they would arrive in San Francisco the night before Hui's graduation, but it was the best connections they could get at the last minute.

Hue was also headed to San Francisco from Hilo, along with Ian, 'Chito and Paul and said they would make sure someone would gather them up and get them to Sacramento on time.

It was a bleary-eyed pair that Concho met in San Francisco. He picked them up in Danny's Expedition and carried them to Fairfield. They slept the entire way and woke only when Hue was shaking their shoulders.

Everyone trooped up to Sac-State, eager to watch the latest Best Boy graduate. Jay and 'Tal kept smiling, everyone knew that they had a surprise up their sleeves. Hue had a pretty good idea, but he kept his mouth shut.

They got seated for the ceremony and, after the preliminaries were over, the University President, Dr. Thomas Granger, took the microphone, "Ladies and gentlemen, guests and families of our graduating class, I am indeed honored to present a student of exceptional caliber, a member of a family who has made a tradition of excellence at this institution for the last several generations. I call on Mr. Hui Best, this year's Valedictorian Speaker, Mr. Best."

They watched as Hui strode out onto the podium and began, "Thank you, Dr. Granger, guests and my fellow graduates. First, I would like to ask my brother, Hua Best to come up here with me." Hua had the look of a startled bandit, his eyes wide and frantically looking for a way out. He finally mounted the podium and joined his older brother, Hui continued, "What you see is two brothers, two brothers who had been surviving in the jungle of Tonga by stealing food and fruits. Two brothers who were at the end of their ability to survive. Two brothers who would have died. Two brothers who were gathered up by a young man and made sons of his older brothers. That young man, is my Uncle, Mr. Hue Daniel Best. Please stand, Onkla Hue." Hue stood and the crowd looked at him. Hui continued, "This is my Uncle, this is the man who has made myself and all my cousins what they are, what they will ever be. On behalf of my cousins, my brother and myself, I announce the establishment of the Hue D. Best Engineering Scholarships, Scholarships that will provide for two seniors each year to participate in a work/study program for one year prior to their graduating. This program will result, if they complete their studies, in a Master of Science Degree to be awarded by Sacramento State University. I charge you all to strive and reach for the knowledge to make us all greater than we are. I charge you all to do what I shall do, follow the example of my Uncle Hue Best, help those who are helpless to survive and excel. In doing this, our people, indeed our world, will be a better place for those who follow us. Without people like Onkla Hue, none of us can be what we are."

The graduates stood, with wild cheering, as Hui and Hua walked, together, across the stage to collect Hui's diploma. Only 'Tal and Danny had known before hand what was going to happen on that podium, the rest of the Family was speechless.

'Tal and Jay went running up to their sons, hugging both of them. They looked at Hui with pride and asked, "Well, what now?"

Hui said, "Onkla Hue says I can go to New Zealand and understudy Bic and Phillip on their project, then he is going to send me out on my own!"

Both 'Tal and Jay knew that Hue would never send their son on a job he was not prepared to handle, so they just smiled and agreed with him. Two days later saw Hui, Bic and Phillip back at San Francisco Airport, waiting for a JAL flight to Tokyo, with connections to Wellington.

As soon as Bic and Phillip had returned to the project, they began pouring concrete, floors and walls went up as fast as concrete would cure. They knew that Norm Anderson at American Piping and Boiler would not let any grass grow beneath his feet and they were correct. Thirty days later, they had a shipping notice that the boilers and all auxiliary equipment had left Honolulu in the MS Highlander and would be in Taranga Harbor in thirty days. Mr. Ito sent them notice that they were having problems obtaining turbine blades for the steam turbines but they expected to ship all the equipment in not later than 45 days.

They got the buildings enclosed just as the rainy season began. Between storms, piping began to snake out from the hot gas well to the boiler building and they were able to get most of the in-plant roads paved. The boilers arrived on schedule and it took a "Lo-Boy" each for the two boilers and another two for the auxiliary machinery. They rode caravan from the harbor to the plant site, it was a four-day trip of grinding gears and roaring engines to get it all to the site. Two huge mobile cranes were needed to offload the boilers and set them in place. The roof on each boiler house had removable panels and they dropped the boilers into place from above.

Work began immediately to make up all the connections for the boilers and insulators and metal smiths followed the fitters, getting the piping insulated and covered. Bic and Phillip put Hui in charge of installing the two turbine generators.

As the boilers were being installed, Mr. Ito of Mitsubishi Electric notified them that their equipment had shipped that day. The rainy season was nearly done with and everything was drying out. The Lo-Boys met the Chan Maru in Taranga Harbor to make the slow trip bringing two steam turbine generators sets to the plant site. Several culverts had to be strengthened in order to take the tremendous weight of the generators. Hui was sure he aged ten years getting them to the work site!

The day after they were set on the foundations, Hui was on the telephone to Mr. Ito at Mitsubishi Industries in Japan, telling him that they were ready for him to align the machines and make the final electrical connections.

They had all the piping connected, except the steam lines to the turbines. They filled both boilers with clean water and proceeded to "boil them out", removing all the oils and greases that had accumulated inside the boilers during manufacture and installation. After boiling out the boilers for several days, constantly flushing the residue out the bottom blow valves, they added boiler chemicals to the feed water and began to raise steam pressure. They brought the pressure up to 1250 psig over the course of three days, checking for leaks and faulty fittings.

Bic ordered the blow-off vents opened slowly, until both boilers reached design flow rate. Hot gas inlet temperature at design flow rate was slightly higher than predicted, but well within design limits. The Mitsubishi service mechanics were aligning the turbine generators and making the final electrical connections to the buss.

After operating the boilers for three weeks at design output, Mr. Ito indicated he was ready to roll the turbines. They installed the final spool pieces in the steam lines and bled steam into the turbine casings to thoroughly warm all the metal parts and then slowly brought both turbines up to 100 rpm in 10 rpm increments. They let them run at that speed for a week before shutting them down and changing out all the oil in the sumps and bearings.

After replacing the oil, they again started the turbines and brought them up to 1,000 rpm in 10 rpm increments. They planned on running them at that speed for a week before replacing all the oil a second time.

After replacing the oil a second time and examining all the bearings, they slowly brought the turbine speed up to 1,500 rpm and held it there for three more days. They then flashed the exciter windings with direct current from a bank of batteries and brought the exciter voltage up to 85 volts. They examined the casings of both exciters, checking for "hot spots" for two days continuously running a thermograph detector over the external casings.

Finally, after four weeks of testing, they slowly brought the turbine speed up to 3,000 rpm and the exciter up to 125 volts. The frequency meter read exactly 50 cycles and main winding output on both generators stood at 11,500 volts. They left the two generators run at that speed and condition for three more days before energizing the main breakers.

As soon as the turbines were under load, Bic ordered the bypass vents closed and both boilers put into "Automatic". He ordered the load raised on the generators slowly over two days, until both generators were operating at rated load, 150 megawatts each. They left the system running at rated load over the next week, taking readings from the hot gas flow and steam flow. At rated load, the hot gas temperature slowly rose to 2,950 degrees Celsius. The entire system was stable as a rock and was carrying a major portion, if not all, of the North Island load.

After the system had been "online" for thirty days, the Power Authority was ready to accept the project as complete. They had a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the front gate and dignitaries from Wellington pontificating on the technological advance the system represented, but the old Maori Shaman said it best, "This power station represents freedom for our people."

Bic made it a point to tell all the officials that the system was made possible by the engineering work done by his cousins, Concho Best and Paul Duncan. It was their work in Hawaii that developed the machinery and technology permitting such an installation to be built. The royalties earned from the process had been signed over to the Best Family Scholarships in California and in Hawaii, so that young engineers and technologists could be encouraged to dream and then build such systems!

The crews gathered their tools and equipment for transport back to their home bases and Hui, Bic and Phillip packed up all their tools and instruments for shipment back to Hilo. It had been a long project, but they had a sense of satisfaction in its completion, plus a new Family member with whom to share the engineering load. Hui was a valued member of their team and had already proved himself! They sent all their freight to Wellington for air shipment back to Hilo and they took Hui with them as they toured Wellington a second time, their primary target was a second visit to Te Papa Museum. Hui was descended from Polynesian peoples and he stood in awe of the exhibits. He was determined that he and his younger brother, Hua, would make a return visit to the land of their birth, Tonga.

The End

Look for more adventures of this talented family in CALEB'S SONS' ADVENTURES, surely they will add more family members along the way.