Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1887-1890, 1890-01-08
THE GREAT DAM.
ENGINEER TANNING ARRIVES TO
START THE WORK.
Some of the Details of Construction
Large Force of Men Will be Elm
~ployed-No Greater Power
on the Continent.

j. 7. Tanning, the hydraulic engineer,
and his son,R. b. Tanning, have arrived
from their home in vt. Paul and will be-
gin at once preparations for the con
struction of the great dam across the Mis-
souri, river at the Black Eagle falls. The
purpose of Mr.. F%anning's visit at this
time is to consult with contractors who
desire to bid on the work and to make
such explanations of the plans and speci-
ications as will enable those who desire
20 compete for the contract to bid intelli-
gently. He will remain a week or ten
days and during that time will be pleased
to furnish to those desiring to bid on the
work any information they may wish.
THE PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS.
A TRIBUNE representative was shown
the plans and specifications of the dam
by Mr.. Tanning today. Some of the pro-
visions are briefly as follows: Bids will
be received at the general office of the st.
p, M. & NJ. r. r., in st. Paul, addressed
to j: T. Tanning, until Feb. 9th. Each
bid must be accompanied by a certified
check for $1,000, as an evidence of good
faith, ETC., which will be returned if con-
tract Is not secured.
The dam and headgates will be ap.
proximately 1,1OO feet long, and will re-
quire the placing OF 100000 feet of tim.
Der, $4,000 feet of plank, IA tons of iron
work and bolts, 5000 cubic yards of stone
filing in cribs, s,40O yards of gate cham
Der masonry, 70 sets of head gates and
2 sets of waste gates.
The exact location of the dam is 800
feet above the Black Eagle falls.
There will be a gate chamber contain
ing three pairs of head gates on each side
Of the river and n waste sluice between
the westerly end Of the dam and the gate
chambers. These will be of cemented
masonry.
The o"verfall section of the dam will he
a timber crihhed structure filed with
stone.
The excavations for the gate chambers
and wing walls will be made down to
solid rock that has not been disturbed by
frost action.
The crest of the dam will be covered
with boiler plate one-quarter of an inch
in thickness and four feet in width.
ADDITIONAL FACTS.
These are but a few of the general de-
tails, the full specifications covering
'everal pages of closely printed matter.
Mr.. Tanning will have general super
vision of the work, which will require
his presence here a goodly portion of the
time during the summer. He has also
charge of the dam at Spokane Falls,
WHICH is now being built. The height
Vt the dam at the lowest point will be 10
feet and at the highest about is feet. The
Masonry OF the gate chambers will be 10
feet higher than the dam, or about 25
feet in height. The penstock is the great
iron pipe, nine feet In diameter, through
which the water is conducted to the
smelter will be LOO feet in length and
as there are to be six of these it will be
seen that the B. & M. works will require
but one-sixth of the power that will be
available on the completion of the dam.
The gate and sluice masonry on the
westerly side of the river are to be first
constructed.
The entire works are to be progressed
50 that one-third of the dam and the
westerly set of gate chambers and sluice
gates may be brought into use on or be-
fore the LIST day Of July, 1890, passing
400 cuhic feet Of watar nar sacond into