Openai/6918df1d-e2d4-800e-91a9-ccfb4e5549cc

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gpt-5-1

User: What can you tell me about this atypical gauge?

What can you tell me about this atypical gauge? What is it measuring? It's in a power plant

Assistant: This gauge is unusual, but there are several strong clues about what it is and what it measures.

This gauge is unusual, but there are several strong clues about what it is and what it measures.

🧭 What the gauge is

It appears to be a vacuum/pressure gauge, more specifically a vacuum gauge calibrated in kilograms-force per square centimeter (kgf/cm²), with a very small positive-pressure region. The style and scale strongly resemble Bourdon-type industrial vacuum gauges commonly used in older or Soviet-era power plants, refineries, or boiler rooms.

🧪 Evidence from the dial

• The scale runs from 0 down to –0.76 kgf/cm² (or sometimes written as –760 mmHg in equivalent units). - –0.76 kgf/cm² ≈ full vacuum, because 1 atmosphere ≈ 1.033 kgf/cm².
• The small positive range up to 0.04 kgf/cm² is typical on combination vacuum/low-pressure gauges.
• The numbering thickness and typeface match older metric vacuum gauges rather than steam pressure gauges.

🏭 What it is measuring in a power plant

In thermal power plants, vacuum gauges like this are used in systems where maintaining a strong vacuum is essential:

→ Condenser vacuum measurement

Steam turbines exhaust into a condenser where steam is pulled down to a vacuum to increase turbine efficiency. Vacuum gauges in the –0.6 to –0.76 kgf/cm² range are standard here.

Also possible:

• Vacuum deaerator system
• Condensate extraction lines
• Vacuum-primed feedwater equipment
• Evaporators or vacuum distillation units (less typical in pure power plants)

🧱 Clues from the surroundings

• The pipes are large, insulated, and heavily corroded—consistent with condensate or low-pressure steam service.
• The location looks like a cold-side turbine hall or auxiliary systems room, not a high-pressure boiler area.
• The large-diameter pipes feeding into a horizontal drum suggest a condenser or vacuum manifold rather than high-pressure steam piping.

✔️ Conclusion

The gauge is almost certainly a vacuum gauge used to monitor condenser or low-pressure steam-system vacuum. It’s measuring negative pressure (vacuum) relative to atmospheric pressure, expressed in kgf/cm².

If you want, I can:

• Identify the piping configuration,
• Explain what the four valve wheels are doing,
• Or try to deduce the exact subsystem from the layout.