The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-31
Seven Million Dollars Invested Power Plants That Can Transmit
1900 Horse Power to Mines and Other Industries
Many Miles Away.


ers and roasters and is transmitted
through aluminium wires
The Pioneer Plant.
With an annual rainfall that will
probably average between twenty-five
and thirty inches, and drainage area
OF ABOUT 500 square miles, the river
fiowing down the Ogden canyon is of
such proportion and the topography of
It's course is of such character that it
affords an abundant water power which
has been recognized as of great value
Tor many years. The slope of the
stream in the upper valley is gradual,
while in the six miles of the CANYON
there is a total fall of nearly 500 feet
Inc ogden canyon is a narrow, winding
gorge, walled in by precipitous noun
talns, and possessing a grandeur that is
surpassed by few other portions of the
| Rocky mountains. The flow of the
river varies greatly in different seas
onS. In May and June when the snow
on the, mountains is melting, a maxi
mum flow of 1880 cubic feet per second
mas been measured, while q minimum
or eighty subic feet per second is the
record for August and September I'm
der the supervision of c. tx Bannister
as chief engineer, preliminary surveys
Aoi Ills DldHl were maze IN 1884 ana
1888, but not until the beginning of 1896
were the plans of definite location and
the actual construction of the work
commenced
The plans of the company contem-
plate the ultimate utilization of the
entire flow of the river. to accomplish
which to the best advantage will neces-
state the construction of large stor-
age dam and reservoir at the upper
end of the canyon, and this storage
feature forms the only portion of the
system that is not yet completed. At
present, small crib dam with tern
porary headworks has been built a
short distance above the site of the
large dam, which gives the necessary
head for filling the pipe, but does not
provide for any considerable storage of
water.
The permanent storage reservoir.
when completed, will cover an area of
about 1000 acres. and will have a ca
pacity of nearly IL, 900 00O, 00t. gallons.
a nine-inch tunnel has been eXcavated
through the solid rock around the south
abutment of the dam, which, at ordin-
airy stages of the river, will be the sole
outlet for the water in the reservoir.
About 100 feet below the tunnel. and
connected to it by a rivetted steel pipe
eight and One-half feet in diar.eter.
the main gate house is placed The
main conduit is a pipe line with an
internal diameter of six feet. Its total
length is 31,600 feet, of which $1,000 feet
consist Of wooden stave pipe. and the
last $500 feet, at the lower end, of riv-
cited steel piping. There are eight tun-
nel5 in the rock. the longest of which
is 667 feet, also eight steel bridges, with
a total length of $50 feet, besides a'tim-
her trestle. The maximum hydrostatic
head on the wooden pipe is III feet,
giving a pressure of fifty pounds per
square inch. Steel pipe is use at the
lower end of the conduit for toresGures
exceeding fifty pounds per square inch.
The pipe line divides into two
branches at the power house, delivering
into steel receivers laid on either side
of the building. These receivers are
six feet in diameter, and are each pro-
vided with five two-foot delivery pipes
leading into the power house to the
main water wheels. and one fourteen
inch pipe for the excite wheels. The
plant is designed for ten 1O00-horse
power water wheels and generators.
five on each side of the building. Only
five of these are installed a present.
The transmission line is thirty-seven
miles long, and consists of two circuits
of three No. B. & S. bare copper wires.
The current reaches this city at po-
tential of 1880 volts, and is reduced
to the original $500 for local diStribu-
tion.
One of the most interesting features
of this plant is the immense seventy
two-inch valve placed at an H'oow of
the steel pipe line, about LOG feet from
it's junction with the wooden conduit.
This valve measures eight feet IN
height, and four feet from face to face
of flangeS, and is twenty-four and one
half feet in length. 1t has a total
weight of $1,000 pounds, and twenty
four horses We're required TO move its
heaviest piece.
Big Cottonwood Power Plant.
The Big Cottonwood canyon de-
pouches on the Salt Lake valley at a
point about twelve miles southeast of
the city. 1t is about sixteen miles long,
and at its lower end is a steed and mar
row gorge between precipices of quartz
lite rock rising from 1000 to 5000 feet
above the stream. The creek is fed
by the melting SHOWS and springs from
the surrounding peaks. which rise to an
elevation of from 10000 to 1900 feet
above the sea level. AT the head of
the cannon, about 5000 feet above the
sea level, are several small lakes set in
granite basins.
The water for the Big Cottonwood
Power company's works is diverted
from the stream at point about three
miles from the mouth of the canyon,
into a small reservoir. From this reser-
voir it is conveyed in four-foot steel
pipe through a tunnel about 500 feet
long, and thence down steep slopes to
the power house. The total head is $50
feet. The pipe delivers into a receiver
four feet in diameter from which the
water passes through curved cast iron
pipes TO the nozzles of the Pelton water
wheels. There are six water wheels,
four of 600-horse power. each driving
the main generators, and two smaller