The Shoebox

Snack Time (1968)

These youngsters are taking a break while touring Merrimack Station in Bow.

Students Tour Amoskeag (c. 1970s)

Who doesn’t want to learn how a power plant works? Here, hydro employee Frank Bellefeuille is pointing out the instrumentation and controls at Amoskeag Hydro Station. The 17.5 MW renewable plant—located in Manchester’s millyard—continues to be a popular destination for students today.

2012-09-07: Thanks to Mark and Wendy Vattes for updating us with the employee’s name. According to Mark, “My Dad, John Vattes, a PSNH retiree, confirmed that the PSNH employee pictured in the photograph is Joseph Francis “Frank” Bellefeuille. My Dad worked at the Amoskeag Hydro in the 1960s and early 1970s with Frank, who is also my Mom’s uncle.”

Flip the Switch (c. 1960s)

Opening the railroad switch for delivery of new train loads of coal to Merrimack Station in Bow, NH.

The Jacona (1931)

The Jacona was a “unique floating power plant” that PSNH used in Portsmouth from 1931–1945.

From Everett Sackett’s Fifty Years of Service:

The Company would have been hard pressed to generate enough energy to meet the demand during the depression and the war which followed, if it had not acquired a unique floating power plant in 1931. This was the Jacona, a ship which had been started by the government during World War I but never completed. NEPSCo had purchased the hull in 1930 and converted it to a 20,000 kW power plant to anchor at Bucksport, Maine to furnish power to a new paper mill there pending completion of the Bingham Hydro Plant. When it was no longer needed at Bucksport, PSNH at first leased and then bought it from NEPSCo. It was anchored and connected to transmission lines at Portsmouth. It represented a third of the steam and a sixth of the total generating capacity of the Company. On March 17, 1945 the Jacona was seized by the United States government and taken for use in the war effort … To cover the loss of the Jacona, work was rushed on the new J. Brodie Smith Hydro Plant on the Androscoggin at Berlin and on a transmission line with a capacity of 40,000 kW connecting the Company’s lines at Nashua with the New England Power Company at Tewksbury, Massachusetts. 

Photo date: September 4, 1931

Cooling Off (1955)

An operator opens one of the condenser valves at Schiller Station in Portsmouth, NH. When the valve is open, river water is able to cool off the exhaust steam from the turbine—which sits above the condenser—thus squeezing the last bit of energy out of the steam to maximize unit efficiency. This completes the Rankine cycle, converting heat into energy. The same valves exist at Schiller today. 

Visiting the Power Plant (1968)

Two boys at Merrimack Station’s Open House for Unit #2.

2012-06-15: We originally placed this photo at the original Merrimack Station open house in 1961. Eagled-eyed retiree James O’Gara noticed the transformer for Unit #2 in the background. As he points out, Unit #2 didn’t come online until 1968!

Original Control Room at Merrimack Station (c. 1960s)

Installing Amoskeag’s Turbine (c. 1920s)

This picture shows the installation of the Unit #2 water turbine at Amoskeag. Amoskeag Station in Manchester, NH on the Merrimack River was completed in 1924 by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. PSNH purchased the facility in 1936. The three original turbines total about 16 megawatts and continue operation as valuable renewable resources. There have been dams of one sort or another at the Amoskeag Falls since 1806.

2012-04-13: Thanks to Bob for the updated info!