Link 1 · water
Delivers
Radunia Canal
The canal was built by the Teutonic Knights in 1348–1356 to bring water to Gdańsk and drive mills; the wheels of the Great Mill used its water. Head and flow: undetermined.
V2 source [1] · to be verified
Mills on the Radunia
The same river, two ways to work: one ends in flour, the other in electricity. This compares routes; it is not a ranking.
Link in the chain — both tracks will show it at once
Water mill
Schematic of a typical mill. The arrangement of the Great Mill's wheels is not documented here.
Link 2 · rotation
Turns
water wheel and gearing
In a typical mill, a water wheel turns a shaft, and gearing carries the motion to the working machinery and adjusts its direction and speed.
general description, not a document
Link 3 · work
Grinds
grain into flour
The drive moves the grinding device. In this schematic the work stays on site: rotation becomes work on the grain.
general description, not a document
Product
Flour
for use at the mill
Hydroelectric power station
Bielkowo · commissioned 1925 · diversion scheme
Bielkowo is shown. Łapino is described in the Explanation section.
Link 1 · water
Shortens the path
diversion of the Radunia loop
Instead of flowing around the whole bend, part of the water was sent through an artificial channel: the diversion scheme concentrates the head at the power station. The operator gives an impoundment height of 44.5 m.
V2 source [2] · to be verified
Link 2 · rotation
Turns
three Francis turbines
The operator gives three hydro-generating sets with Francis turbines. The runner takes energy from the water and passes the motion through a shaft to the generator.
V2 source [2] · to be verified
Link 3 · work
Converts
motion into electricity
The generator converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, which can be sent to consumers away from where the turbine works. The result does not have to be used at the river.
general description of a generator
Product
Electricity
to the grid, out of the valley
Common and different
Link 1 · water reaches the machine
In common
Different
Model calculation · not a measurement
How much power does the water have before anything extracts it?
Model: gross hydraulic power P = ρ · g · Q · H (ρ = 1000 kg/m³, g = 9.81 m/s²), i.e. about 9.81 kW for every m³/s and every metre of head. Useful power is P multiplied by the efficiency η. The values of Q, H and η are assumptions for playing with the calculation; they do not describe the actual output of any facility.
Without JavaScript: for the example Q = 4.0 m³/s and H = 44.5 m (the impoundment height given by the Bielkowo operator, used as an assumption) the model gives 1,746.2 kW gross and 1,484.3 kW useful at an example efficiency of 85%.
Model result
- Gross power
- 1,746.2 kW
- Useful
- 1,484.3 kW
- Losses in the model
- 261.9 kW
At Q = 4.0 m³/s and H = 44.5 m the model gives 1,746.2 kW gross, of which 1,484.3 kW is useful at η = 85%.
Explanation · scope of the material
What we know about each facility and what we do not
The same order of links for three facilities. The descriptions come from the V2 material and point to sources; they were not re-checked in this run. A missing figure means no figure, not zero.
Water mill on the Radunia Canal
- Water
- Canal built in 1348–1356 by the Teutonic Knights to bring water to Gdańsk and drive mills [1].
- Rotation
- Water wheel and gearing — a description of a typical mill, not documentation of the Great Mill.
- Work
- Grinding grain on site; the product is flour.
- Figures
- Head, flow and power: undetermined. We do not carry power station parameters over to the mill.
- Note
- The canal is not the same as the later cascade of power stations on the river.
Bielkowo power station
- Water
- Commissioned in 1925; part of the water was sent through an artificial channel instead of around the river loop (diversion) [2].
- Rotation
- Three hydro-generating sets with Francis turbines according to the operator [2].
- Work
- Generator and grid: electricity can be sent out of the valley.
- Figures
- Impoundment height 44.5 m according to the operator. Power, flow and net head: not in the material.
Łapino power station
- Water
- An earth dam closed off the valley and created a reservoir (1927 per V2); according to the operator, an old paper mill, a sawmill and some buildings ended up under water. They are not marked as visible ruins [3].
- Rotation
- A pipeline in the body of the dam carries water to the turbines; V2 gives Francis turbines — type to be checked in the source [3].
- Work
- Generators. After wartime destruction the power station was rebuilt and put into operation in winter 1945 under Prof. Alfons Hoffmann; the storm weir regained its original functionality only in 2001 [3].
- Figures
- Head, flow and power: not in the V2 material.
Active facilities — observe from a distance
Bielkowo and Łapino are active energy facilities. This page does not set out routes or viewpoints. Look only from public roads, bridges and marked places; do not enter the power station grounds, the dam crest or the working river channels.
The drawings are schematics
The pictograms and tracks are this page's own schematics, not a map or a technical drawing. Sizes and proportions do not correspond to any facility. No photograph is embedded: version V2 used an external photo of the weir at Bielkowo (file on Wikimedia Commons, per V2 by Krzysztof Rakowski, CC BY-SA 3.0; status not checked in this run).
_-_panoramio.jpg){kind=link}
What was removed from V2
A quiz with scoring — comparing the tracks itself shows the roles of the links. A notebook with browser storage and export — not needed to understand the topic; V3 neither saves nor reads anything. Notes saved earlier in V2 (key atlas-v2-1) remain in the browser and can be deleted in its settings.