The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-03-25
The Viles Electric Plant at MiddIesex.

On the fifteenth day of last May, those
works OF natural art known az the Middle
sex narrows were the scene of the first act
towards the erection of the present electric
plant. With but a vague idea of the won
derful power confined within those walls OF
rock, Mr., Almon came to Middlesex and
began cutting the brush away, preparatory
to blasting out the canal. Since then, amid
the gossip" of the people of the near vi
cinity, the work has gone steadily on, until
now it is fast nearing its stage of compile
ton. Tue correspondent visited the plant
one day last week, and informed Mr.. Al
mon that he was a representative of the
WATERMAN, upon which Mr.. Almon set the
machinery in motion, and courteously gave
the reporter the following information:
The power-house is a brick bui. ding with
a frame roof, being 104 feet long and thirty
five feet wide, aud is situated at the lower
side of the large stone bulkhead, which is
thirty feet in height. From the bulkhead
and under the power-house run the two
large penstocks, thirteen and eight feet, re-
spectively, in diameter, through which the
water is carried to the wheels. The first
work towards the construction of the plant
was the blasting Of a canal 600 feet long,
twelve feet deep and twenty feet wide, it
re quiring 1000 pounds of dynamite to &C
complish this work, and the erection OF a
wooden dam, about forty feet high, near the
Narrows bridge-this being necessary to
turn the course of the water into The canal.
This work occupied nearly all last summer.
Below and adjoining the power-house is the
wheel.house. 1t is a frame building, 104
feet long and thirty-six feet wide. Within
this will be placed the three Alcott high
duty, turbine, forty-two-inch water wheels,
and the large ~f1y-wheels, eleven feet in di-
ameter and sixty inches wide, from which
the power is transmitted to the pulleys on
the main shafting-these being six feet in
diameter and sixty-two inches wide. The
main shafting is on the farther side of the
pc wer-house, and is ninety-five feet long,
six and one fourth inches in diameter be-
tween The wheels and eight inches in diam
eter at the wheels to which the power is
transmitted The three water. wheels will
be of seven hundred horsepower capacity
each, and are intended to propel eight
Westinghouse dynamos when completed.
The belt which transmits the power from
the hy-wheels to the main shafting is I'M
doubleday the largest in the state, il being
Of three-ply leather (meaning three thick
nesses), ninety feet long and ffty.two inches
wide, and inspires one with its magnificent
power as it flies over the immense wheels.
There is a fall Of thirty feet through the
penstocks, which, together with a fall of
eighteen feet through the vacuum draft
tubes, makes a total of forty-eight feet fall.
The draft-tubes lead from the water wheels
TO the river, which they enter under water,
the penstocks joining the water-wheel box
at the upper end and the draft-tubes at the
lower end.
The plant is at present equipped with
only one dynamo, having a capacity equal
to 5000 incandescent lights and weighing
10000 pounds-the capacity above desig-
mated being more than that of all the dyna-
mos in Barre and Montpelier combined
The plant when complete will have eight of
these dynamos, the capacity being the same,
with the exception that the arc-light dyna-
mos are made smaller. The present dynamo
makes six hundred revolutions a minute
Two important features of these dynamos
and the manner of their arrangement is
that they can be used for lighting or power
purposes, or both, at the same time; and
that In case of accident the dynamos can all
he run from any one wheel. The entrance
to the canal is guarded by a ~gate-house,
now nearly complete. by means of which
much of the damage generally caused by
ice can be prevented. 1t requires a ca
pacity of 800 horse power to run The dynamo
now in the plant. The plant is now being
equipped with adequate heating apparatus,
and when complete will be equipped with a
large marble switchboard, twenty feet long
and ten feet wide, from which all the wires
will be strung. The main building is con-
structed 80 that there Is practically no dan
ger Of fire, the dynamos being well insulated
from the floor, which is soon TO be cemented.
The wires enter the building at the cupola
on the roof, and are now attached to a small
temporary switchboard. The row of dyna'
mos will extend through the building near
the center, for handling which the building
is equipped with a travelling crane. The
construction OF the plant is in every man
ner a modern one, and the machinery with
which the building has been supplied is the
best the worlds inventors have yet pro-
duced. No adequate idea of the immense
power, and the work that it is possible TO
accomplish with it can be conveyed by
tongue or pen. Even during its process Of
construction, predictions have been many
that 1t would be a failure; yet, though
fraught with many accidents and u%nfortu-
nate occurences-such as the leak in the
dam, and the hindrances caused by high
water-it is developing into one of the
largest plants of its kind, and brings into
utility a water-power that has too long re-.
NAMED idle and useless. IL Is OK pected
that the plant will be in operation this
week, and a visit to 1t would be time we'll
expended.
For the foregoing meager description the
reporter IL indebted principally to the
courtesy Of Mr.. Almon, who has been in
charge of the construction of the plant. 1t
is destined to be a source OF magnificent
light and power production. MIR. Viles' on