The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-06-01
GREAT WATER POWER.

in Need OF Fire Engines.
II every town in the country was as
free from disastrous confagrations as |
Bangor the fire insurance companies,
providing they could get any business,
would soon grow rich enough to put
up ten-story Office buildings at every
cross road. for here they do little but
collect premiums, seldom being called
upon to make good a loss. Although
nearly all the dwellings, and consid-
cradle proportion of the business struct-
ures in this city, are built of wood, a
fire of any consequence is rare occur
renee. and it is now twenty years since
q disastrous conHagration has visited
the place. The reason OF this is that
there is too much water handy; water
is one of the two things plentiful in
Bangor, land being the other. Many
alarms are rung, but the fires are so
quickly drowned out that they amount
to little or nothing, and even the small
boys of the town have long since ceased
chasing the hose trucks. knowing that
there is no fun ahead. The city sup
ports a good fire department, having
half a dozen hose companies, three
steamers and a hook and-ladder truck
equipped with the famous Bangor ex-
tension ladders. But the steam fire
engines are very seldom taken out. be-
cause there is rarely any need for their
services. the drowning-out process be-
ing accomplished by means Of one OF
the finest systems OF water works in
the country.
This system was constructed by the
Holly Company of Lockport, N. T.,
and has now been in operation about
thirteen years. The water is taken
from the Penobscot, one-and-a~half
miles above the business center of the
city, at which point big dam was
built across the river at an expense OF
t25O,OOO. The dam is 900 feet long,
from 30 to IS feet in breadth at the
base, and has sluiceway for RATS and
logs SO feet wide by 81 in length.
The whole volume Of the Penobscot
falls over this great dam, and when
the river is at freshet pitch the
sight there is grand. At the pump
ing station they have 225-horse
power engine which was used the frst
year the system was in operation, but
ever since then water power has been
used extensively, the five original
wheels. with two recently put in, hav-
ing a pumping capacity of 10,500.-
600 gallons daily, whereas only
about 100000 gallons are ordinarily
needed. There are twenty-five miles
of street mains in Bangor, besides sew
eral miles in the opposite town of
Brewer. supplying 200 water takers
and nearly 200 hydrants, public and
private. The pressure in the mains is
80 great that even in the moot elevated
parts Of this billy town the hydrants
will throw stream through a long
:. line of hose further than steamer
can. When an alarm is rung in the
hose companies. on arriving at the
scene of the fire, simply couple the
hose to the nearest hydrants, and are
then prepared to wet down church
steeples or set the surrounding coun-
try aAoat. having lots of power and the
whole Penobscot river behind them.
Thus it is that Bangor goes un.
scorched, while other places are burn
ing up all around. The Penobscot
water, in its everlasting plentitude,
keeps down fires, is good to drink, and
s0ftens down the rugged, untamed
spirit of prohibition whisky. But it IL
not an unmixed blessing, for some day
when the right alarm is rung, it may
prevent US from getting rid of the city
hall. which is thought to have beer
built A. d. 1850, after design brought
over here by the Norsemen.-BangoI
(Me.) Cor. N. Y. Sun.