The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1871-12-04
THE OHIO RIVER.
Letter from George IN. ThnrstOn.
ESQ.,, President of the Pittsburgh
Board of Trade.


the Improvement OF the ONO, along tn
whole length of the river, gives som
hope tha. the subject is now to be take
up in earnest. Should a movement b
aaain made for that purpose, it shoul,
not he with view of obtaining one o
those small appropriations, so hardi'
wrung from Congress, to have fey
snags taken out here, sand bar scoop
ed out there, and half dozen ridges O
stones placed half way across as man,
slopes in the rivers he'd 1t should b
no spasmodic effnlt from two or thret
cities, to have such temporizng and tri
fling improvements attempted, but per
sistent, united effort, on the part Of al
the States interested, to haze the OH
made the most magnificent ship canal ii
the acorld l use the term with du
consideration, and see no reason why al
that is conveyed in the expression ough
not to be realized; nor how any othe
Improvement will put the navigation O
the Ohio into such condition as will
meet the present and future requirement
Of the people.
The three most prominent plans tha
have been proposed for the improvement
of the Ohio are-first, the "reservoi
system" of Mr.. Elliott, who was suppor
ted in his views by Mr.. Morris; second
the plan of Herman Haupt, ESD, of low
dams with open sluiceways; the "locl
and dam" system, in use on the Monon
gahela slack water.
The leading objection to the reservoir
system Of Mr. Elliott was that the res
ervoirs of the size required are imprac
ticable of construction, from the impos
sibility of procuring sites ;the permanen
obstruction thereby of importan
streams; the excessive cost from expen
ses of construction, damages, etc
The plan of low dams with oper
sluice ways, as proposed by Mr.. Haupt
inaorsed by Mr.. Roberts, are pronounced
practicable by Mr. Morris, is feasible
supplying, on testimony adduced, sufii
cieEt water, when the river is at three
feet natural stage, to maintain six fee
navigation, and costthg, according to ar
estimate of Mr. Roberts, only little
over S3,000,000 AS the natural stage
Of the river is for one-half of the yeal
below three feet, return to the reser
voir system of Mr.. Elliott becomes ne
cessary to o certain extent as 1880 CoC
600 cubic feet Of reserved water will be
necessary to maintain six feet stage dU
ring q certain portion Of the year. Wer1
it necessary to return to the reservoir
system OF Mr.. Elliott, in all its magui.
tude. to support Mr.. Haupt's low dam
system, then the pan would be also un
satisfactory but as it requires only a
reservoir system of about one tUenty-
fifth Of Mr.. Elliott's, it would seem that
such reservoirs might be constituted
with good results.
The lock and dam, or slack water sys-
TEN, as presented by MANY years trial
on the Monongahela, is also feasible
and the cost within the bounds of a sum
that there would be hope of obtaining
from State or national authorities The
reports Of the Monongahela slack water
show, however, that even Under that svs-
tenn reservoirs would be required to
maintain six feet uninterrupted naviga
ton. This system shows also a certain
amount of delay in navigation, and a
cost of maintenance, that system of
low dams with open sluices, with chutes
or short canals two hundred feet wide,
connected with pools, is free from.
1t would seem, then. that a comhma
ton of some of the features of these
three plans into one system, adapted to
the topography of the river, would ac-
complsh the long wished for continuous
six or eight feet of navigation, with q
greater depth at seasons, when the river
has, from natural causes. a greater food.
From figures given in Mr.. Haupts plan,
it seems that series of ten feet dams,
when the slope of the river bed is uni
form, will form pools of twelve miles
long, in which the water will be six feet
at the upper end. AS the river bed, in
stead of being uniform, presents series
of shoals and rapids, ten feet dams will
frequently extend the pools to thirty
miles. In these pools, the difference in
and below the dams will be four feet,
which will be overcome by long chutes
two hundred feet wide and of six feet
depth. The discharge of water through
such an opening, with fall of four and
three tenths feet per mile, would be Z, )
800 cubic feet per second. The regular
discharge of the Ohio, at a two feet
eight inch stage on the Wheeling bar, is
$500 cubic feet per second; requiring a
supply from artificial sources of only 5,
800 cubic feet. Statistics show that
there are not over six weeks, yearly, du-
ring which the river is at so low stage
as to supply only $500 cubic feet; and
therefore the whole yearly amount ne
cessary to maintain six feet stage
would be but 27,475, 100000 cubic feet.
This amount can be further lessened by
extending the length the chutes project
into the pools below the dams. Calcula
tions show that whenever there is nat
ural flow of water Of three and a halt
feet the ten feet dams, with chutes Of two
feet fall to the mile, will maintain q nav
igation of six feet without the aid of sup
plying reservoirs. If the channels OF
chutes are prolonged so as to reduce the
fall in the level of the water to one foot
per mile then the quantity of water in
the Ohio, when the river furnishes nat
ural flow Of two feet eight inches on the
Wheeling bar, will maintain six feet
stage without the aid of reservoirs, after
the pools have once filled
Statistics of the flow of the river show
that for an average period OF six weeks
annually, the OHIO River has but two
feet depth of water The deficiency OF
flow between two feet and two feet eight
Cat which latter depth six feet stage
would he maintained under the low dam
AID long chute system, without reser-
voirs, after the pools fill, wonld be, for
six weeks, 4 $50, ,0000 900 cubic feet. A
bulk of water that would be contained
in reservoir the slaclwatering of the
Allegheny River would easily furnish
l t will he seen from this aeagre state
.ment of details, and these Statistics ia