The record-union., 1893-02-22
IN HARNESS.
Tremendous Power That VIII Be
Wired From Folsom.
From $4,000 to 10000 -Horse-Power
Available-A Great Thing for
Sacramento.

The average man has little idea of the
tremendous power possibilities resulting
from the big Folsom dam in the Ameri-
can River, says the San Francisco Post of
last evening.
The dam was all done some time ago,
and for three miles back the tast-tlowing,
gold-washing, swirling river of pioneer
days is a very respectable, well-behaved
lake most of the year. Just now it has
current, and it piles over the massive
masonry, forming wide crystal ribbon
over three feet thick.
These untamed Sierra rivers object to
being harnessed, and had the masonry
here not been built by expert engineers,
and were the whole work not monu-
ment of engineering skill and enterpris-
ing capital, the river would have had the
upper hand long ago. If any figures can
give an idea of the great structure, the
fact that there are more than l00,000 cubic
yards of solid masonry should indicate
the character of the structure.
Two canals are to come from the dam
perhaps more. The east side canal,
-averaging fifty feet wide and six feet deep,
has now been cut down for nearly half
mile. About quarter of mile down
the State Prison Directors were granted
fall of two feet. 4 fine. stone power
house ffss been built here. When the
canal pours in on the powerhouse wheels
| there will be developed force that every
| Prison Director may well prize more
| highly than almost any earthly thing,
except reappointment.
| The power that the State gets here is
| estimated to be from 800 to l,000-ho
power. Experts say that amount of
power in Sacramento would yield the
owner a revenue represented by capital
of fully Sl,030,00O. There are boundless
openings for using this power at the
prison. DynamoS have already been
| fixed up; more will be put in; cordage
| factory is on the list.
1t was part of the agreement that prison
labor should help perform the work be-
| low the prison, as well as above. So it is
that crowds of striped backed men with
numbers on are now at work. They labor
with the leisurely industry of menlwhose
motiVe-power is force not will. The water
they are working the way for is helping
them. There are hydraulic scoops and
contrivances worked by the power stored
| behind them in the completed canal.
This ditch is to be built to Folsom town
and beyond. Just near the town engi-
neers have marked a site for a dam on
the canal. This point will be eighty feet
lower than the big dam above. Engineers
make dizzy calculations of the amount of
power this fall will develop. Fully 0.OGO-
horsepower is a reasonable figure; surely
1900 or 1900 can be reckoned on the
year through.
There are now three different electrical
companies figuring upon putting up a
power-house at this point. House. canal
and equipment will be all in place in
from six to nine months. So says C. e.
Livermore, one of the managers of the
enterprise. Then the transmission of the
power thus gained from nature will be-
gin. At least 1000 orse-power.is spoken
for by the American River Lumber Com
pany, corporation that now has the logs
| brought down by the river from the 81
ezra forests miles away, and booms them
at the dams above.
At the start 3.000-horse-power must be
wired to Sacramento. and that is only the
beginning. This figuring leaves 5000
horsepower at the most conservative
estimate. 1t will be for sale. More cleo
trio roads or manufactures at Folsom or
Sacramento. or at points anywhere
within radius of 100 miles-further than
this, perhaps, in time-may draw on this
cheaply developed yet everlasting power.