Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-12
REASON FORI IT.
Engineering Experts
Say the Dam Was
Poorly Remade
BY MEREST NOVICES
Did Any Practical Engineer
Have a Hand in the
Building of Ii?
HOW THE WORK WAS DONE.

rBY ASSOCIATED PRESS,
NEW YORK, June 1.-THE Engineering
Neaos will publish in its forthcoming issue
the following results of a survey and exam
ination of the Johnstown dam, and of in
uuiries in Johnstown and Pittsburg, by
which various facts not yet made public
were ascertained:
The first break in the dam occurred in July,
1856. and was caused by a defect in the culvert
through which two-feet discharge pipes were
carried for letting out water from the bottom
of the reservoir. This break did comparatively
little damage, the discharge having been quite
slow, wholly from the bottom, and choked from
time to time by the fall of material from above.
1t carried out only about half as much material
from the dam as the last break, or about 5000
cubic yards. Enough Of the dam remained to
make little pond about eight feet deep above
the dam. which stayed unused until in May,
1875 the property, consisting of somewhat over
500 acres, was sold to Congressman Jonn Reilly.
The lake itself was 400 acres in size not aslarge
as has been reported.
When the Club Took Hold.
After holding the property unused until 1879,
Mr.. Reilly offered it to the late Colonel B. F.
Ruff, an old and successful railroad and tunnel
COubdCbOI anu buO OElBludlOI VI luc OOubA
Fork Fishing and Hunting Club for the sum
of 5000 Colonel Ruff interested two other
Pittsburg gentlemen in the project, and stated
TO them that the dam could be reconstructed
for not over 81 500. and that he would take the
contract to do it for 81, 7O0 We have this and
the following facts on the most unimpeachable
authority On this basis the club was organ
lied. and for some time these three gentlemen
were the only persons in it No one of them is
now connected with il. Colonel Ruff's idea had
70 bo dos oplu
40 feet high. but it soon appeared that to cut
down the spillway or waste weir, which is
through rock, would cost more than to recon-
stTuct the dam to its original height, and, by
the time this had been done, the total expendi-
ture, as shown by the pay rolls, had been
slightly over $1,000, or about 20 cents per cubic
yard
There still remained the work of riprapping
the slopes and other miscellaneous work, as to
which our information is less precise, being
only that it may" have cost $1,000, but not
more; bringing the total cost up to the very
small figures of $1,000 which have been
gwen on other authority in newspaper dis
patches. This work was all done IN the summer
of 1880 The original dam was estimated TO
cost SlSS,OOO and actually cost nearly S240 600.
NOT n Practical Engineer at All.
Colonel Ruff engaged as foreman and super
intendent for this a Mr.. Pearson, a cousin of
the present Mayor of Allegheny City. Il is the
general impression around Johnstown and
Pittsburg, among those who know anything
about it. that Mr.. Pearson was the engineer
of the repairs, but this is incorrect. He has
never been an engineer, but after 1880 was en-
ployed in the local freight department of the
PENNSYLVANIA Railroad, at Pittsburg, until he
formed his present connection, which is with
the firm of Haney Co., general teamsters for
the Pennsylvania Railroad freight department
We were also told by some that Colonel Ruff
was the engineer" but this also is incorrect
So far as we can ascertain by diligent inquiry
he not only was never an engineer,
but he had never been engaged be-
fore even as a contractor water
works or dam construes5o1s-4hew be was ever SO
employed at an twould appear that It must
haEeaDee Co an unimportant extent. In fact,
<out Information is positive, direct and unim-
peachable, that at no time during the process
of rebuilding the dam was an engineer what
ever, young or old good or bad, known or un-
known. engaged in or consulted as to the work;
q fact which will be hailed by engineers every-
where with great satisfa actiop, as relieving them
as a body from heavy burden of suspicion and
reproach. The precautions taken against fail
ure were only such as an old railroad contract
or's knowledge of hydraulic engineering indi-
Gated were admissible without further IN
creasing contemplated investment of $780,
which had to be increased at last by over
$4,000
The Work of RecOustructIou Careless.
Information gathered for us by Mr.. T. S.
Miller, NJ. E, of the Mdgerwood Manufactur-
ing Company, corresponds with that gathered
by us from other reliable sources that the work
of reconstruction wasd done with the slight care
which these facts make probable. The old
material which had caved in was left un-
touched; the top of The dam was worked down
onto ii; the old pipes and culvert which Still
remained in somewhat injured condition,
were covered over with earth and permanently
closed, a double row of hemlock plank sheet
p1ling being driven across the old channel.
There was no careful ramming in watered
I -frrrd drrrfr 41aor,
and some tons of hay and straw were filled in
TO stop it. The dam was finally made fairly
tight, but always leaked at the bottom, aud
of late years the leakage had been in
creasing. The original crest height of the
dam was decreased from i 10 8 feet and
the spillway was shortly after obstructed, with
gratings to retain fish, and trestle bridge built
structed a. BY siii about inches high; (2)
by an iron tishguard Is inches high, composed
of half-Inch rods II inches apart, or q inch in
the clear, or close enough to readily catch
leaves and fine brush; (S) by an by inch
stick floating cornerwise, sliding vertically on
a rod at each end, and armed with closely
driven nails to keep fish from jumping over;
(4)-by the posts Of the trestle bridge closing
about per cent of the opening and (5l at the
time of the break by ragged piece of drift 10
feet long and feet in diameter.
Might Have Averted the Disaster.
Had the bridge and all its obstructing at
tachments been cut away in time, the disaster
might possibly have been averted.
We have investigated carefully the various
specific reports that the dam was periodically
OF occasionally inspected by engineers, but find
no evidence that it was ever inspected and ap-
proved, even once by any engineer commits
stoned for that purpose who by any stretch of
charity would be regarded as an expert. A
few inspections by local or junior engineers
have from time to time been made, some ap-
proving but none of either kind came from
sources which would command much weight
in the profession. The report that certain
Pennsylvania Railroad engineers reg
ularly inspected the dam is de-
MED by number of officers
who should know, and is unquestionably with
out foundation. The dam was a contractors
dam Engineers had nothing to do either with
its construction or its maintenance. Mr.. J. s.
Parks it is true, who was in charge of the
efforts to save the dam, was an engineer by ed
ucation, but he is very young man, only
wear or two out of college, and did about all
that could have been done except to clear away
the spillwsy
To raise the whole area of the lake ten inches
per hour which is the reported rate before the
flood, required an accumulation of only ,023
feet per second, and that much more spillway
capacity would have saved the break. Two
feet more height of crest would have given it.
The sag in the crest was therefore the immedi-
ate destroying agency.
MAKING HOUSES HABITABLE.