Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-12
WORSE AND WORSE
THE sd sIrUAr1OH IN rHE FLOOD
ED OBSTACLES.

Pneumonia, Diphtheria. Measles and Othe
Diseases Rife Among Survivor
The stencil from the Bodies of Hen an,
Animals U~nendurable The Sights q
III Stone Bridge.
JoHNsTowH, June IA. n. Wellington
with F. p. Burt. associate editor Of tn
Engineering Newsn Of New York, hal
completed al examination o. the dan
which caused the great disaster. yelling
ton states that the dam was in every re
spect Of very inferior construction and o
q kind wholly unwarranted by good engin
eering practices Of thirty years ago. Bott
the original and reconstructed dams wert
OF earth only, with no heart wall. but
only riprapped on slopes.
The original dam, however, was made in
rammed and watered lacers which still show
strength in the wrecked dam. The new end
merely added to it's stability. but it was,
to all appearances, simply dumped in like
an ordinary railroad fill, or, II rammed.
shows no evidence Of good effect from it.
Much Of the old part is standing intact,
while the adjacent parts Of the new works
are
WHOLLY ASKED FF.
There was no central wall OF puddles or
masonry, either in the new or in the old
dam, although it had been invariably the
practice Of engineers for thirty or forty
years to use OF one or the other in building
high dams of earth.
The reconstructed dam also bears marks
OF great carelessness in having been made
two feet lower in the middle than at the
ends. It should rather have been raised in
the middle, which would not have concen.
trated the overflow. for it would have oc-
cured at the ends instead Of in the center.
Had the break begun at the ends, the cut OF
the water would have been so gradual that
little or no harm might have resulted. Had
the dam been at once cut at the ends,
when the water began running over the
centre, the sudden breaking Of the dam
would have been at least greatly diminished
and possibly prolonged SO that little harm
would have resulted.
THE CREST OF THE OLD DAM
had not been raised in the reconstruction
OF 1881. The old overflow channel through
the rock still remains, but owing to the sog
OF the crest in the middle of the dam, only
five and q half feet of water is in it instead
of the seven which was necessary to run
the water over the crest; and the rock spill.
way, narrow at the best, had been further
by close grating to prevent the
escape Of fish, capped bygood-sized timber,
and in some slight degree also by q trestle
foot-bridge.
The original discharge pipes at the foot
OF the dam had been permanently closed,
reconstructed, and this, while q minor
compared to others mentioned,
reduced the possible rate Of the
discharge.
The net effect Of all the differences OF
condition was that the dam, as it stood,
much safer against excessive foods,
apart from it's inferior construction. than
the original dam would have been with the
crest only three and q hall to four feet
above the bottom OF the rock spill-way in
stead Of the seven feet.
sAlarge amount OF the old riprapping and
wall still remains intact and is of ex-
quality.
1t does not appear that there was any
yreat amount of leakagethrough thedam be-
lore it broke. Destruction zane from the
water flowing over the top.
wellington said nc engineer OF known
and good standing for such q work could
have been engaged on it, since, in
The particulars mentioned it violated the
most elementary and universally under
stood requirements Of good practice.