|
Items in cart [4] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 14
OCR for page 15
ROBERT ALT BAKER, SR.
1907-1982
BY JOHN W. SIMPSON
ROBERT ALT BAKER retired executive vice-president of the
Public Service Electric and Gas Company of New Jersey,
cried on December 8, 1982, at his winter residence in Stuart,
Floricia. He was a pioneer in the field of steam power plant
design, particularly in relation to the use of high steam
pressure and high temperatures and the application of
computers to automatic control. He was also one of the elec-
tric utility industry leaders in the introduction of nuclear en-
ergy for electric power generation.
Robert Baker was a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, and
graduated from Lehigh University in 1930 with a degree in
electrical engineering. After graduation, he joined Public
Service Electric and Gas Company of New Jersey as a caclet
engineer. He subsequently mover! steadily through a series
of assignments and was named vice-presiclent in charge of
electric operations in 1965 and vice-presiclent of combiner]
electric ant! gas operations in 196S, a position he held until
he became executive vice-president. After his retirement
from the company in 1974 ant! until his death, Bob was an
associate of Overseas Advisory Associates, Inc., of Detroit,
Michigan, an energy management consulting firm.
Robert Baker was active in a number of professional or-
ganizations. His activities includecl being named a fellow of
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the In-
15
OCR for page 16
16
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
strument Society of America, and the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. He became a member of the National
Academy of Engineering in 1967. Also in 1967, he was pre-
sented with the George Westinghouse Gold Medal by the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers; in 1973 he was
awarded an honorary doctoral degree in engineering by Le-
high University. He was the author of numerous engineering
papers.
Bob Baker achiever! an important and notable position in
the field of steam power plant engineering, particularly in
the areas of design ant! construction and in the operation of
many units incorporating pioneering concepts. Examples of
some of the innovations that were envisioned and designed
under his leadership include the first power generation unit
in the country to use steam at a temperature of I,100°F, the
first central station unit to employ austenitic steel piping, and
major use for the first time of the Croloy ~ 6-~-2 welding elec-
trodes.
Joint studies with manufacturing engineers ant! utility
staff, including Bob, resulted in the first use of what was to
become a common arrangement in the industry: cross-com-
pouncI, 3,600-rpm steam power generation elements, with
high-pressure elements on one shaft, the reheat turbine on a
second shaft, and identical low-pressure elements on each
shaft driving iclentical half-size generators and boiler feed
pumps. Bob also assisted in the development of large hy-
draulic couplings for boiler feed pump drives ant! was
among the first to use main unit shaft-driven boiler feed
pumps.
Other important pioneering areas of Bob Baker's work in-
cluded his activities in automating steam plants and his con-
tribution to the development and application of large gas
turbines for electric peaking and emergency service. Under
his guidance the largest such unit in the world was installed
at Sewaren, New Jersey. The unit makes unique use of large
aircraft jet engines as its power source and is capable of de-
veloping full power from a cold start in four minutes. In ad-
OCR for page 17
ROBERT ALT BAKER, SR.
17
dition, Bob, together with other associates, hac! the vision
and gave impetus to the work that led to the development of
a large pumped storage project and to one of the largest
mine-mouth generating stations in the worm.
Robert Baker was an early leacler in the introduction of
nuclear energy for the production of electricity. He was also
· ~
a leader in implementing the concept of constructing com-
plete nuclear power plants in a factory and then floating the
plants to their final locations.
.
He was particularly instrumental in his company's order-
~ng of four such units, which in turn permitted the concept
to be developed, a factory to be built, and a construction per-
mit to be issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Un-
fortunately, a lack of projected load growth did not permit
this project to proceed to completion. The concept was cle-
velopect to a sufficient degree, however, that it may well prove
to be a leading method of generating electricity at some time
in the future.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
robert alt
