The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-05-21
Turns the Wheels OF Industries
Over Twenty Three
Miles Away.
GIVES SACRAMENTO LIGHT.
EXcursionists Ride on Streetcars
Propelled by the Far.Reaching
Currents.

| SACRAMENTO, CAL, May 2o.-The
excursion train of the General Electric
| Company of New York and the Sacra-
mento Electric Light and Power Company,
which arrived in this city a. noon to-day,
carried the representatives of the largest
aggregation of California capital, esti-
mated at over 5000, 0O0. They are the
guests of these companies, invited to view
the electrical transmission works at Fol-
| som. The train was part of the Sunset
Limited vestlbule service and was made
up of one composite car, two sleepers and
diner.
The party left Market-street wharf at Q
O'Clock and the run to this city was made
In two hours and forty-6ve minutes. The
party consisted of bankers, capitalists and
others interested in large manufacturing
interests, besides several notable repre-
sentatives of foreign powers and interests.
The excursion was arranged for the pur-
pose of giving an ocular demonstration
of what had been accomplished in the
establishing of the largest and longest
distance electric-power transmission in the
world.
After brief stop in the capital city,
during which the train was invaded by
committee OF society ladies headed by
MIS-. T. B. Hall, Mrs. G. B. Katzenstein
and Mrs. 0. W. Erlewine, who decorated
the guests with boutonnieres of delicately
tinted flowers, the train pulled out and
passed rapidly through the beautiful Sac
ramento Valley, with its miles and miles
of orchards, vineyards and hop fields.
whose green foliage gave no evidence of
the late frosts which had proved so dsas-.
trous to the orchards OF less favored To-
calities, until the historical town OF Fol-
som was reached. Here the entire party
was transferred to fatcars and taken di-
rectly to the great dam.
The dam is a massive structure of gran
lite laid in Portland cement. 1t is $50 feet
long, SO feet high in the center, 81 feet
wide at the base and % feet wide at the
crest 1t contains about As, $50 cubic yards
of solid masonry. 1t is provided with a
heavy wooden shutter or dashboard six
feet high, which at high water is lowered
into recess in the crest Of dam.
At low water this shutter is raised by
hydraulic pistons, the depth OF the basin
is increased by six feet and additional
storage capacity provided Normally the
dam forms a storage basin or reservoir
| three and half miles long, with a
capacity of Is, 0G0. 600 cubic yards of wafer.
At either side of the dam are massive
granite bulkheads and three headgates
operated by hydraulic machinery, each
head gate Is feet wide, opening into the
| canal.
The east side canal is divided into three
sections. The first, stretching as far as
the State canal, where the water falls
about seven feet, is cut out OF the solid
| granite and extends a distance of 1900
feet. The second section is 1000 feet
long. and on the completion of this the
terms of the State labor contract were full
filled. Thus far the canal is built along
the face of the cliff. The third section of
the canal is an earth ditch, excavated by
the Folsom Water-power Company, and
tons 2 and carries broad-gaugo rail-
road track.
The total length of the canal is $500 feet.
Section l is SO feet wide on top and 40 feet
on the bottom. The depth is feet. All
the water passes through the State power
house. through Leffel turbine wheels, de-
velop;ng some 800 horsepower used for
air compressors, electric lighting and
other purposes. Thence the water con-
tinues on to the Folsom power-house, at
the side of which is an immense log basin.
Here the jurisdiction of the Folsom
the Sacramento Electric and Power Com
pany begins.
The power-house is built on the site of
an old placer gold mine, where fall of
tifty-five feet is available at high water
1t is on the west side of the town of Fol-
som, is.cut about sixty feet deep and is
100 feet wide and $50 feet long. The n.y.
draulic apparatus consists of four pairs of
thirty-inch wheels of the Mccormick hori-
zontal shaft turbine type, each pair of
1260-horsepower capacity at 800 revolu-
lions operating under head of tlfty-five
feet. The steel penstocks are eight feet in
| diameter and each wheel has two draft
| nf ho h
Lycard type, and these are assisted
by heavy fywheels fitted to the water
wheel shafts. The hydraulic plant also
includes two special horizontal wheels for
the exciters.
The water after having passed the tur-
blnes is discharged into tailrace canal,
which will distribute water for irrigation
over the country south and west of Folsom.
| The power-house is a two-story brick
building. The water-wheels are placed in
the air between the forebay and the wall of
the structure, through which the turbine
shafts pass. To each shaft is coupled q
$50 K. w. Zone thousand horse-power)
general electric three-phase generator, the
largest OF their type yet constructed. Each
is A-pole machine, delivering current at
60 cycles 800 volts and running at 800 r.
P. M. The exciters are pole 80 XIV.
generators, either one OF which is of suf-
tcient capacity to excite the fields of ali
four generators.
From the generators the current passes
to the generator switchboard and thence
to nine step-up transformers in the upper
story OF the power-house. The capacity
OF each transformer is $50 K. w. They are
cooled by air blasts from blowers driven
by induction motors. In these transform
ers the pressure is raised from 500 volts to
II. 600 volts and the current passes to the
high tension transmission lines, carried
out of the power-house through porcelain.
! lined holes in the wall.
The pole line is double throughout run
ming to this city, distance of twenty
three miles.
After a thorough inspection of the dam,
canal and prison power-house the party
was escorted through the interior of the
prison and its surrounding grounds and
returned to Folsom, where it visited the
lower power house, containing the gem
Grating plant of the Sacramento Electric
Light and Power Company.
Returning to Sacramento, the party was