Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-08
WATERS SENT OUT.
Nashua River Turned into Aque-
duct at South Clinton.
Party Of Metropolitan Board Put in a
Notable Day of Inspection of An
Interesting Work,
Special Dispatch to the spy.l


Southboro, March THE waters Of
the Nashua river are at last on their
way to Boston. At 1904 IL o'clock this
morning the gates leading from the
temporary Golfer dam and fiume to the
mouth of the huge brick aqueduct at
South Clinton, were raised.
Very little for1nality was observed.
Chairman Sprague of the Metropolitan
water board and Chief Engineer
Stearns each grasped crank connect
ing by means of gears with two endless
screws. These screws were attached to
the gates proper. After a few turns,
they gave way to the workmen, who
finished the job. 1t took nearly Is min
utes to raise the gates so that 100 mil
lion gallons of water could start each
"a hours for Boston.
At the first turn of the handles, Mr..
Fitzgerald of the Sudbury basin, gave
a toast, If it might be termed such, to
the effect that he hoped the water
would prove a great blessing to the
people Of the metropolitan district
The party arrived at South Clinton at
925 from Boston, and Immediately left
for the site of the big dam. They first
inspected the big aqueduct and overflow
house, and then turned on the water
Open barouches containing Messrs.
Evans and Wolcott of the board, Chief
Engineer Stearns, T. f. Richardson,
engineer of the dam and aqueduct de-
partment, Engineer Fitzgerald and a
Spy representative, left for the gauging
manhole The water reached here at
10.5S o'clock, a distance Of about two
miles. AT 11.05 a. m. there were feet
of water; but this soon dropped to two
feet.
Lighted candles attached to the heads
of flour barrels had been put in at the
head Of the aqueduct, as soon as the
flow of water became regular, but none
appeared at the gauging manhole, up to
the time that the party left for the ter
minal station. The candles were put in
five minutes apart, and by this means
the speed of the water could be OBJ
tanned.
One of the party shouted down the
tunnel and the echo could be heard
growing fainter and fainter for 20 Sec
onds.
Through South Berlin under the ASA
bet bridge, was the next direction. No
stop was made at the bridge, but the
beauty of its outline, construction and
soft, gray color, was generally COM
mented on and highly praised.
AT Northboro time was taken to eat
substantial meal at Mrs. MerrilPs, which
Mr.. Richardson had thoughtfully ar
ranged for.
Hoping to anticipate the arrival of the
water at the terminal station, dinner
was hastened. The station was reached
soon after o'clock, but the water had
arrived first, and was rushing over the
dam or river and bubbling out into the
open channel. 1t arrived at 1888, COW
ering the 91s miles in nearly 2 hours
and 80 minutes.
At this station is self-acting instru-
ment for recording the height of water
at any hour of the day. The papers
are sent to Clinton, where it can be
figured out how much water has been
sent through during the past "a hours.
The upper and lower dams and also
the regulating dam at the head of basin
No. 5, or, more correctly speaking, the
Sudbury reservoir, were visited. Some
of the technical points in the construc-
ton Of the dams were pointed out for
the benefit Of the newspaper men pres
ent.
After looking over the upper end of
the Sudbury basin, which has been con-