The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-09-18
A BIG DAM.
The Great Power Plant of the PeIzer
Company.
Columbia State.

Columbia State.
" .LL1AMsToN, Aug. 31.-Your cor
respondent had the pleasure of visit
ing the justly famous and unique Pei
zer dam, two and a half miles below
the big Pelzer mills on Saluda River,
near what is locally known as Hol-
lands Ford, little below, opposite,
the town of Williamson, in Anderson
county 1t is, indeed, picturesque
place. The turbid waters of the
swiftly flowing Saluda, rumbling and
tumbling, jumping and humping,
splashing and dashing, whirling and
twirling against, over, by and between
the boulders of rock that bestrew it's
pathway, maddened by their contact
with and their impediment by the Pei
ger wheels, come sweeping boldly and
gracefully from behind the wooded
hills to the north, are abruptly turned
by promontory, jutting out Of the
eastern bank, in southwesterly
course, then suddenly forced to as
sumo direct southerly course by an
outcropping hill on the western side,
forming an aqueous crescent, its horns
pointing to the east. These hills are
sharply undulating to the water s
edge, receding to the east and west
and rapidly rising as they recede, un-
til almost mountainous proportions
are reached, thus forming with the
high dam erected across the river and
valley at it's narrowest point, a vast,
deep semi-circular basin, holding an
immense head of water. These hills
are we'll wooded with variety Of tim
Der indigenous to this Piedmont re-
gion, with here and there huge bould-
ers Of gray granite cropping out Of the
hills, like grim sentinels keeping
sleepless vigil over the noisy, playful
waters as they romp along below,
forming a scene which, viewed from
below, is beautiful and enhancing.
This dam is being built by the W. A.
Chapman Company, Providence,
Rhode Island, the same firm that
built the big Columbia duck mill. 1t
is unique in that it is the first and on
ly one in the world built from it's in
ception solely for the purpose Of gen.
Grating electricity to be used for man
ufacturing purposes. 1t will be COM
pletc in about five weeks, being lit
tie over seven hundred feet in length
and forty-fve feet high at its highest
point, the base being twenty-six feet
in width and in places extending thir-
ty-fve feet below the river bed (this
on account of securing a solid founda-
tion). This width is maintained un-
til the dam reaches height Of eleven
feet, then there is an Offset of three
feet, then every seven feet until a
width of six feet is attained at the
top, giving rollway Of three hundred
feet in length at the eastern end, end
ing in an abutment ten feet higher
than the rollway, dove-tailed and ce-
mented to the granite hill. This roll
way is ten feet lower than the rest Of
the dam, designed to throw the cur
rent Of water from the power house,
which rests on the western part Of the
dam in case of freshets and high wa
ter. There will be a finishing cover
ing of timber on top of the dam two
feet high. The dam is pierced just
east of the power house by two large
food gates, with four conduits or
pipes, with a combined volume of
eighteen cubic feet. The dam will
contain, when finished, over twenty
thousand cubic yards Of stone mason
ry. Just above the level of the floor
Of the power house and twenty three
feet above the river bed, the dam is
pierced by FIVE large iron tubes or
drums, projecting nine or ten feet in
to the power house, in which revolve
horizontally FIVE large turbine water
wheels Of the Victor patent of one
thousand and twenty-eight horse pow
er each, giving a total capacity Of FIVE
thousand, one hundred and forty
horse power. The power house men
toned above is built to contain the
machinery necessary to generate the
electricity for running the new Pelzer
mill, which machinery will be more
fully described further on. The pow
er house is hundred and ten feet
long by fifty wide, and it is sixty feet
from the top of the power house to the
bottom of the wheel pit. Its northern
wall is built up with the dam, it's 9th
er three walls resting on five arches,
built upon five stone piers sixteen feet
apart. It is foored with bedded stone
covered with concrete to a depth of
eighteen inches with two-inch finish
of pure Portland cement. In this
house will be, besides the five large
wheels mentioned above, five genera
tors with their complement Of fixtures,
consisting Of nine large pieces aggre-
eating hundred and ninety-four tons
weight, or about eighteen tons each:
These heavy pieces were transported
from the railroad to dam, two and a
half miles, on rollers with tackle and
block, it taking day and half to
transport one piece. In addition to
these there is movable crane of
twenty tons capacity for lifting and
placing this pondcrous machinery, and
so nicely is it adjusted and so smooth
ly does it work, I am told that
twclvc-year-old girl can move any one
of the heavy pieces with ease with it.
It would be we'll to say right here that
only three Of the FIVE wheels mention
cd are put in now, as they are more
than sufficient to run the ffty-6ve
thousand spindle mill now being filled
with machinery, three miles away at
Pelzer, and the fact that eyerythipgis
prepared to put in the others is sure
prophecy that another big mill will be
built at Pclzcr in the near future.
From the large tubes which contain
the wheels extend downward five large
elbow-shaped iron fumes at an angle
of about forty-fve degrees to the
wheel pit below, passing the water
from the wheels through the arches
and discharging it through the space
between the stone piers spoken OF
above. Owing to the plan or princi-
plc upon which the Victor wheel is
constructed it is more desireaole to
develop the force Of suction rather