Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-06-08
UPON WHOM DOES 1T REST?
An Endeavor To BE Made to Fix the Re.
sponsibility-The Dam Condemned

An Endeavor To BE Made to Fix the Re-
sponsibility-The Dam Condemned.
JoHNsTowN, Pa, June S-Coroner Evans
jury, impanelled on the case of Mrs Hite OF
Johnstown, to endeavor to fix the response
billy for the disaster, held another session in
Kernville and adjourned until next Wednes-
day. In selecting the case of Mrs. Hite, DIR.
Evans was careful to get a food victim
about whose identity there could be nc
doubt and whose death by the food could be
thor oughly authenticated. At the next ses-
sion testimony as to the safety of the South
Forl; dam and the culpability of the proprie-
tors will be taken.
Heavy Burden for the Club.
So far as investigation by reporters is con-
cernsd the responsibility lays with the South
Forl Hunting club. The New York Sun
CORE spondent says that when they leased the
lake they CLOSED the waste gates, through
which all the water that had ever before ac-
cumulated in Conemaugh lake had found a
safe and speedy exit 1t is measurably GER
tain hat had the waste gates been maintained
the dam would never have given away.
They were removed, it is said, because when
ever they were opened the game fish with
cape. The fish have escaped all the same, and
the lives of 5000 to 10, 900 human beings have
gone with them.
How the Dam Was Built.
'As to the dam itself. 1t has been repre-
sented that it was built from top to bottom
of heavy masonry and with the assistance of
the best engineering skill There was no
masonry at all in fact, nor any engineering
nj he 1arra cir IL
gigantic heap of earth dumped across the
course of a mountain stream between two
low hills. 1t was faced on each side with a
layer of heavy, rough stone, loosely thrown
together and uncsmented This pile of earth
was about seventy-five feet high and ninety
feet thick at the base. AT the summit it
was leveed off so as to be about twenty feet
wide, and a wagon road crossed it. 1t was
an orc mary dirt road, and there was no rock
or mas onry beneath it. The width of the
stream at the bottom of the dam was about
forty feet. At the top the dam was about
400 feet long. 1t was built straight across
the gap, and neither face nor back was
curved. The slopes were about the same on
both face and back.
The Great Sluice Pipes.
"The builders placed In the forty foot space
at the bottom, where the creek ran, five huge
pipes, each as large as hogshead These
were covered by an arch of massive masonry,
and were arranged to be opened OF closed by
levers in a tower that was built in the center
of the dam. These five big pipes were calcu-
lated to be large enough to carry off all sur
plus water that could ever be poured into
the lake above and which could not escape by
the regular exit, which was sluiceway
around one corner of the dam at a level of
eight or ten feet The sluiceway and waste
gates never failed to do the work for which
they W sre designed, and there is no reason to
suppose that they would have failed to do SC
at the present time and for the future had
they been maintained as the builders con-
templa1ed. The dam was originally built by
the Pei nsylvania canal for a feeder"
Competent Authority at Last.
Since the above was written an examina
ton OF the dam has been made by A NJ
wellington and F. p. Burt, associate editor
of The Engineering News, of New York, ana
their report condemns the dam, both in it,
Original construction and In its repairs. They
say it vas a single wall of earth with NJ
central wall of masonry or even of puddled
clay; that it was constructed in a manner
wholly unwarranted by correct engineering
practice even thirty years ago; and the fact
that it stood so long as it did was due to the
quality of earth of which it was built
which was of a clayey nature No engineer
of known or good standing could possibly
have built it, for its construction violated
the moss elementary and widely understood
requirements OF good practice.