Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-08
Water Galore.

Plans for providing this section
with water for irrigating and for do
mestic purposes have occupied the
minds of our best citizens for some
years past. Artesian wells were the
first means tried, and they had no.
thing novel or striking in them, their
boring, the results thereof, or the
use such results might be put
to. But in some places where
artesian water could not be
obtained, where nature had failed to
furnish a direct supply, and where
plenty Of water meant to convert a
desert into a new Eden-here new
circumstances called for new methods.
The great mountain chain all around
us, with its vast plateaus on the top,
were known to be reservoirs of water
whose volume was inexhaustible.
The question was how to get
this unlocked from its rocky prison
at the proper point. A Moses to
strike the rock became-to use
threadbare expression-a long-felt
want. At last some one thought of
digging a we'll in most novel man.
ner. Instead of sinking shaft
straight down in the earth, he went
to the base OF the mountain and ran
a well in horizontally. In every
case tried this proved successful. The
suggestion, no doubt, came from min
ing, where such shafts are often run,
and where water is often encountered.
The writer first saw the experiment
tried in Portland, Oregon, some l5
years ago. 1t will be practised a
great deal in South California in the
future.
But the mountain caf1ons furnish
natural channel for the conveyance of
water from the mountain tops to the
plains. Unfortunately-or, perhaps,
fortunately in many cases these
streams sink in the sands and are lost
before they reach any point where
they are useful. To pipe the water
down these cafions is a costly and
difficult task. For half dozen years
the matter of sinking a dam in
these arroyos in order to force
the water to the surface of these
gravel beds has been under discus
sion, but none had the temerity to
put the thing to the test, until Judge
R. M. Widney tried it at the mouth of
the Pacoima cailon. 1t is interesting
to know how much water he found at
the bedrock, underneath fifty feet Of
gravel. When he first sunk his trench
in which his wall was to be laid up,
he encountered go large flow OF
water, that the work could not
proceed until he had put in a centri-
fugal pump worked by steam with a
capacity of 5000 gallons minute. As
the wall was prolonged from the shoul-
der of the mountain towards the CEN
ter of the gap where the dam was be-
ing laid, the water increased in
volume, showing what had been cut
off behind was following the wall
to seek an outlet somewhere
else. Two pumps had to be
put in. When more than half
the dam had been constructed, thus
forcing the water which had escaped
along line 800 feet in length, to pass
over gap of 200 feet, the third pump
was called into requisltion. Some ac-
cident to the machinery caused a
stoppage of a few days, and in this
time the ground above the line Of the
wall became so saturated with water
that it required three days Of constant
pumping before the men could work
in the trench. When the last fifty
feet came to be closed the whole
stream was found concentrated al
that point, and so great was the flow
that the three pumps had to be run at
their utmost capacity to keep the water
out OF the cut. The boilers we're kept
charged with 100 pounds of steam to
the square inch. The throttle-valves
of the engines were pulled wide
open, and a struggle Of a life and death
order between the pumps and the
stream was maintained night and day
in order that the men might go on
with the building of the wall. At
times the conflict was so sharp
between the two gigantic powers that
anxiety was at the highest pitch as to
which would win. 1t was most
interesting point in the problem, as
indicating the fact that there really
was large stream Of water below the
gravel.
The experiment Of Judge Widney
will not be without fruits. Many others
will follow this good example. Already
Captain Wm. Blanding has visited
the intere sting work at Pacoima in
order to study the matter. He has in
lview : similar enterprise for the Sol