Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-13
THE AIDS TO NATURE,
continued From First Page. ]

citizens under subsidy from the Government
and used for the ordinary commercial pur-
poses OF milling, manufacturing, fish cul-
ture, etc., but with the obligation on the
part of the owners that they should be filled
or emptied at the order of the officer in con-
troll of the river works; however, the inter-
ests of private business would probably CO.
incide with the demands OF the public serv-
ice and little control would need be exer-
cised.
The further details of the appliances to
accomplish these ends will be published in
later papers. Our present purpose is to set
forth comprehensive plan for controlling
the flood waters after the Improvements are
made.
The system would be under the control of
a general officer centrally located, having a
staff Of subordinate officers and large or
| ganiZaton of operatives scattered through
the length and breadth of the valley. All
stations would communicate by telegraph
at short intervals with the central office
ANY unusual rainfall would be Immediately
reported and compared by the central office
| with tables from which necessary measures
Of control could be readily determined.
How Floods Could be Handled.
Let US suppose it to be the summer season
when there may be local floods, but general
foods are extremely unlikely. The dams
are all closed, the river beds are all full of
water, and navigation goes on in all parts
| of the system. Suppose now the Central
Office should receive notice of local area of
great rain fall liable to produce floods in
| one or more important tributaries. When
| the rainfall reaches flood matk the officers
| in charge of the tributaries about to be
| flooded are notified to empty their rivers;
and the officers commanding stations in the
lower reaches of the tributaries and
the Mississippi are notified to lower
their water a certain amount, sut-
| ficient to accommodate the conf
ing food. The tributaries being emptied of
| their waters, their dams would again be
closed and the flood waters, or large
portion of them impounded, thus mitigating
the flood in the said tributaries by, as it
were, extending the high water through a
time long enough to insure its safe re-
moval. Doubtless many such local floods
would occur during the navigation season,
but none of sufficient magnitude to require
a general opening of dams or suspension of
navigation.
As the food season proper draws on, say
in November and December, it would be in
order to examine the river bees by inspec-
tlon, or by soundings, and to locate any OBJ
structions in the main channels by the for
might be reported or be likely to occur. In
case any serious distractions were found
the engineers would direct the setting of the
portable caisson jetties in position best
calculated to wash out such obstruction,
when the dams were opened and
the velocity of the current augmented.
The time of flood having come all vessels
would be notified to betake themselves to
harbors of refuge, and as soon as they were
safely bestowed the dams would be opened
and the waters would come out with rush,
emptying the rivers from one end to the
other and in their impetuous outflow wash
ing away distractions and securing the
rivers wherever such action was necessary.
Coming Floods Provided For.
The mill dams, fish ponds and other
small basins and reservoirs at the extreme
headwaters of the tributaries would also be
emptied. Thus the system would be
emptied from one end to the other and pre-
pared for the coming floods.
When the floods commenced it would be
the duty of the officers commanding stations
in the lower Mississippi and main part of
the Ohio, Red river and other principal
tributaries to keep their channels clear and
empty, unless otherwise directed from the
central Office; while it would be the duty of
the officers commanding stations in the
smaller and higher lying tributaries to catch
and impound the flood waters.
This would be time of great activity at
the central Office. Hourly reports of rainfall
would come in from every station in the sys-
TEN, and by reference to their appropriate
tables the probable rise in each and every
stream, however small, would be determined
and the officers accordingly instructed, here
to release and there to 1mpound, the govern
Ia ho1 10 Rof
the lower reaches of the principal rivers and
to impound it in the higher levels of the
subordinate tributaries.
Practical Working of the System.
Let Us show as a practical exam
pie OF the working of the system
how it would have operated in the
case of the disastrous floods of 1882 The
whole system being supposed empty, the
stations in the lower Mississ vpi would be
directed TO drain off the waters as rapidly
as possible leaving their dams open for
that purpose; while the stations in the small
tributaries in the lower part of the valley
would be directed to impound or to let go
their waters according to the state of the
main river. Thus all the waters from the
small and low-lying tributaries would be
either impounded in their own beds or
drained off through the Mississippi before
the vast floods of the Ohio and the Red
river would be due.
The first food waters of the Cumberland
and other tributaries of the Ohio rising lar
to the south would now come booming down
their courses into the Ohio and so into the
Mississippi, which would be prepared to re-
ceive and remove them. The officers of the
liCumberland and Tennessee would now be
L instructed to close their dams and fill their
! rivers full, relieving the lower Ohio and
| Mississippi in expectation of foods from
those tributaries OF the Ohio rising in the
northern part of the Appalachian chain and
| the States bordering the Great Lakes, the
first flood waters of which streams would be
allowed to drain off, and large portion i'm
pounded later on, as in the case OF
the Tennessee and Cumberland as lust
| described. These measures and the closing
of the dams in the Ohio itself, filling its
basins with water, would relieve the lower
Mississippi preparatory to receiving the
floods of the Red river and other rivers
flowing in from the western table lands and
mountain regions, which floods are generally
later in date than the floods in the Ohio and
its northern tributaries, but reach the lower
Mississippi about the same time. To furt her
relieve the lower Mississippi the waters OF
the Mississippi above Cairo, of the M is
souri, and of their tributaries would also be
impounded.
High Water Periods Prolonged.
The course pursued with respect to the
Red river and all other large tributaries
would be similar to that adopted on the
Ohio. The floods in the Upper Mississippi
and Missouri being much later In point OF