A 50 ft. vertical chain driven tower at a mining operation is continuously being loaded at the top with rock?
as it slowly descends to a loading area. It can only move very slowly to accomodate the loading and unloading. I'd like to harness the energy produced by the tower's gravitational power and generate electricity by inserting a horizontal drive shaft through center of tower, and gear it to the chains on the tower. Tower produces constant 70,000 lb gravity force which would be the force or torque on the turning drive shaft, but the shaft can only turn at 4 rpm, so I need resistance from gears and a generator. How do I generate electricity with such low rpm but high torque force? Is there enough torque there to turn the drive shaft with a huge flywheel gear welded to the end of it, allowing every 4 rpms of the shaft to turn the big flywheel at much greater rpms, which high speed flywheel would be geared to a generator to generate electricity? Maybe a 40 or 50:1 gear ratio? Bigger question: Would that big of a gear ratio somehow wipe out the benefit of the 70,000 pounds of force?
why not attach the armature of your electric generator directly to your reduction gearing.
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