The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-07-14

an hour is required to drive a wheel.
Winds exceeding this velocity are avail
able for at least eight hours day in this
country. According to the figures of the
windmill experts, a ten-foot wheel with
16-mfle hour wind will raise twenty
gallons of water twenty-five feet in min
ute. A 16-foot wheel will raise sixty-five
gallons of water twenty-five feet in a min
ute If the water is to be raised fifty feet
the results are about one-half as large.
The cost of operating a 16-foot Wheel in
Guiding interest on the first cost and every
other possible item, is about 21a cents an
hour.
Drive wells should not be relied upon to
supply water for mill, and their use has
led to many disappointments. The well
should be dug and an ample supply OF
water guaranteed, so as to utilize the
power of the mill to it's full capacity. In
the selection of a pump the irrigator will
be guided by the amount of water to be
lifted and the depth of the well. The
windmill makers are the best men to con-
suit for this, as they desire to secure the
greatest results possible with the mills
they sell. The pump should be not less
than three inches in diameter.
Windmills average in cost from $50 to
$780, Storage tanks may be built for from
800 and upward. On an average five
inch pump will discharge $50 cubic feet an
hour. A five-inch pump will irrigate six
acres if running constantly, or two acres
running one-third of the time. The aver
age mill will irrigate direct from one to
three acres. If assisted by a reservoir it
will irrigate from three to ten acres. In
theory a twenty-five foot mill, working
eight hours a day for 120 days, will raise
forty acre feet of water twenty-five feet,
and if storage capacity for one-half this
amount is furnished twenty acres can be
irrigated with this mill. There is one
three-mill plant and reservoir at Larned,
Kan, which irrigates sixty acres success
fully.
1t is the small irrigator of limited means
who is seeking most earnestly for way
to mitigate a threatened drought. He
does not in any case contemplate large
and expensive plant such as would be
built by wealthy company seeking an
investment in irrigation projects. This
small irrigator, therefore, has nothing to
do with the expensive turbines or steam
plants of the big ditch companies with
thousands of dollars of capital at their
command. Hot air and gasoline engines
are coming into favor, however, especially
in the west. Their cost has been much
reduced their operation is better under
stood and their effectiveness for the work
desired better appreciated. They are
small and compact, easily put up and can
be operated by unskilled labor. Hot air
engines are still expensive, however, cost
ing about 800 to each acre irrigated, first
cost. Gasoline engines cost from $500 to
5000 for one large enough to irrigate ten
to twenty acres. This is about $50 per
acre for installation, and they are operat-
ed at cost of $1.2 per acre irrigated.
One of the curiosities of mechanics is
the siphon elevator. At first glance this
appears to violate law of nature. 1t
has been used successfully to irrigate
small tracts of land, but its use on
large scale has not been attempted in
this country. 1t is a French invention
and a genuine mechanical curiosity. 1t
is pipe in the form of a siphon, with the
outlet lower than the source of water
supply, as is necessary to create a vacuum
and operate to elevate the water. At
the top bent of this siphon is an air
chamber. At the bottom of the inlet pipe
is valve which allows ingress, but no
escape of water. At the bottom of the
lower arm is a stop cock, which, when
open, allows water to escape, thus Gre
ating a vacuum and setting the machine
in motion. The water rising to the bent
meets a valve in the air chamber, which
it forces forward until shut. The water
being cut off is raised, and at the top is
a puppet valve held by a spring. This is
forced open and some water escapes into
a trough outside. This relieves the pres
sure on the other valve and it again opens
thus raising more water from the inlet
pipe This process is rapidly repeated, as
many as 400 pulsations occurring in
minute, and the flow from the top bent
of the siphon is almost continuous. At
sea level one of these costing 81 200 raised
eight acre feet, fifteen feet in twenty-four
hours. 1t is possible that these machines
can in time be made cheaper and SO eff
fective as to come into general use.
The storage reservoirs should be on the
highest point of land to be irrigated. They
had best be built on top of the ground
with artificial banks so as to secure all
the fall possible. Sometimes a gully or
raYine can be found and damned across
the mouth. In the prairie country, how
ever, this is rarely possible. These tanks
should be round and a firm clayed gravel
is the best material for the banks. The
slope of the entertainments should be at
least to 1 on the inside to 1 the
outside. If difficulty is met with in Sc
curing a soil which will hold water
thin layer of cheap asphaltum will rem
edy the trouble.
1t is safe to say that the owner of 100
acres or less of fertile west Kansas land
will feel amply repaid in mind and pocket
for the construction of an irrigation plant
which will insure him against any posi-
BILE loss of crops through drought.
Everybody Says So.