The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-11-24


have been laboring to hasten the glad
day Of completion have been sprinlsled
with bitches Of all sorts.
To the inexperienced eye Of the lay
man 1t seems as if the work remaining
to be done before the gates may be
opened would require six months at the
least, vet it is really but a trifing job
compared with what has already been
accomplished
The Work Today.
visited the Office of the construction
company this morning and got q pass
to the power house.
When you enter the building, you are
at once impressed with its size. The
walls arc pierced with three tiers Of
windows, as a three story building
would be, but there is but one floor. and
that is on level with the ground The
entire interior is therefore one vast
apartment, a sort of imperial chamber,
SO to speak, where the power of falling
water transformed into and manifested
by that mysterious and subtle thing men
term electricity, viii be supreme when
ever the puny human beings that are
making ready for its reign shall have
completed their work.
Today not more than 100 worl1men
were IN evidence Earlier IN the history
2, 900 mon were sometimes employed. at
once. That was when the drilling and
blasting and hosting of broken rock
out of the great holes that have been
made to get the water to and from
the wheels We're going on. In all there
have been 80 victims to the demon of
accident-not many when the nature
of the work and the mum Der engaged in
it are taken into consideration. Some Of
the unfortunate men fell down the 17S
foot deep wheel pit, some were crushed
by falling rock, timber or iron, while
one, and only one, came to his end d.
rectly through the explosion of powder.
Three Pairs or Wheels In Place.
According to the charter of the COM
pany, it may utilize enough Of tho wa
ter Of Niagara stream to furnish 1907
600 horsepower, but it is at first pro-
posed to make use of only a small frac-
ton of that amount. Three wheels, or
rather three pairs of wheels only, in
stead Of 20, the full complement neces-
sary tothe developmentof 90, 600 horse
power, viii be put into commission at
the beginning They are already IN
place, resting securely on their fOunda-
tions at the bottom Of the big black
wheel pit. Each of these machines is 80
inches in diameter and viii yield about
5. 600 horsepower, or 10, 600 horsepower
in all.
The wheel pit, at the bottom Of which
the three pairs of wheels are now wait
ing to be put to whirling and to work
ing, is 40 feet long and IT'S feet deep, /
and it and the wheels are all ready for
business. But their revolutions would
be for naught if the water were turned
on now, because the dynamOs are not
yet in place at the top of the pit In
fact, they have not yet arrived from
the shop Of the makers, and their foun-
dations even are also still incomplete.
Little else can be done now till these
dynamos are placed. and that is the
reason why SO few men are employed at
present
II IS essential to the perfect working
Of a dynamo that it shall be solidly
placed. These 5, 600 horsepower gener-
ators viii be furnished with probably
the best foundations that have ever been
built for such a purpose. They are to
be Of cut stone, with tops dressed till
they are perfectly level and as near alb
solute smOothness as human skill can
make them On top of each foundation
2 ton iron base, made in one casting,
viii be bolted, and on top of this base
the dynamo itself viii be set. The
stonework of two Of the foundations
has already been completed but that
for the third seems hardly begun as yet
This morning the workmen were engag-
ed in the rather difficult and delicate
work Of lowering one of the big castings
to the foundation. The sketch that ac-
companies this letter viii give the read
er an idea Of how the work is done and
base casting.
AsI have said. each Of the wheels or