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Traditionally, a penstock is an enclosed pipe that brings water into a mill for use in a waterwheel or turbine. A mill history didact would insist that the channel that brings water to the millwheel is a head raceorleat as long as it is entirely in-ground and open-topped, but becomes a flume if the water enters an open-topped wooden trough above ground level, and a penstock if the water enters a pipe.
In colonial America, leats fed undershot and breastshot wheels, flumes or penstocks fed overshot and pitchback wheels, and penstocks fed Francis or Loeffel turbines.
Unfortunately, the term penstock has been abused since at least Medieval times, and variously means a feed pipe, a sluice gate, a turbine's outlet gates, or a head race with no consistency whatsoever....
Can we assume that the "they" in "They need to be maintained by ..." refers to penstocks, rather than the turbines in the preceding sentence? If so, I think "They" should be replaced by "Penstocks". Peter Delmonte (talk) 02:41, 25 December 2013 (UTC)Reply
