The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-07-20
AMONG RAILROAD MEN.
Steel Dam Contract of the
Santa Fe Let.
Wisconsin Bridge Works the
Successful Bidder.
Capacity of the Reservoir Will Be 2,
esting History in Connection
With the Arizona Dam
Building
Building.

new steel dam near Seligman, Arizona,
the only dam of the kind in the United
States, has been let by the Santa Fe en-
cheering department to the Wisconsin
Bridge works. Work will be commenced
on the dam at once, and it is expected
part of October.
This steel dam will be located in a
mountain canon between the two big
stone dams which the Santa Fe company
is now constructing, one at Seligman and
the other at Walnut, Arizona. Its con-
struction will be an experiment, as steel
dam for water storage purposes has never
been built before and if it proves success
full it will probably be the means of doing
much toward making the Arizona and
New Mexico deserts fit for habitation, as
steel dams can be constructed at much
less cost than dams of masonry.
The capacity of the reservoir in connec-
ton with the dam will be 2, 100000 gallons
Ninety thousand gallons of water are used
daily by the Santa Fe in that locality.
and the water held in the reservoir will
last about one year. When the three
dams are completed there will be suffi-
cient water to experiment in irrigation
after supplying the railroads. The price
of water in Arizona, which is now go cents
a barrel, will also be reduced by the con-
struction of the dams.
In this connection the San Francisco
Chronicle says:
president Ripley of the Atchison, To-
peka and Santa Fee railroad has let
contract for the construction of two big
dams of masonry in the Arizona desert,
region which is visited by rains but once
a year. The dams will be at the mouths
of two canons or gorges, u or IS miles
distant from the railroad; one of them the
in hi oh fhn oil of
prehistoric age lived.
zone of the canons is about 800 feet wide
at it's mouth and the other about 300, but
the walls of the latter are more precipi-
tOus-they are almost perpendicular-the
decline from the mountain is not so sharp
and consequently it will hold nearly if not
quite much water. Each of these dams
will hold $4,000, 900 gallons of water-enough
for the company's use along the Arizona
division for IS months, including losses
by evaporation and seepage. The dams
will be 40 feet high, constructed of sand
stone quarried near by, and laid in Port
land cement.
1.-The outer face of the masonry will be
in the form of a letter S, thus conforming
to the natural fall of water from such
height and avoiding the wear and tear
of sudden precipitation.
Between the two dams of masonry.
be constructed a smaller dam of iron. The
cost of this dam will be much less in pro-
portion than the stone reservoirs, but it
will not last nearly so long, and it is to
be put in as a comparative experiment.
The stone reservoirs will cost about $780,
600. The interest on this sum is about 80
1-3 per cent of the present cost of hauling
water to the tanks which they will sup
ply The water will be piped from the re-
TO he fon ba of
road. The enterprise has led to another
experiment which may result in a dis
covery of even greater value.
I'm the valleys and the mountain
sides where the dams are to be construct
ed are deposits of volcanic cinders, SINH
lar in color and apparently in ingredients
to the lava cinders from Mount Vesuvius,
from which was manufactured the ce-
ment in which was laid the masonry of
Coliseum, aqueducts, and viaducts of
Rome, which have withstood the ravages
of time for more than 1000 years.
Twenty barrels of the Arizona cinders
have been sent to Denmark, where the
best Portland cement in the world is
made This lot will be tried in the manu-
facture of cement and if it should prove
valuable works will be established in Ari-
IONA.
Chemists of the company will 1also ex-
pertinent with 10 barrels of the cinders at
Topeka. A heavy portion of the expense
on account of long transportation by sea
and rail, of the construction of the stone
reservoirs in Arizona will be the Portland
cement, which goes from Belgium by sea
to Galveston and thence by rail to the
place of use If equally good cement can
be manufactured on the ground the ex-
pense of construction will be cheapened
50 per cent more.