Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-17
THE BIC HOLE
POWER PLANT
It Is Inspected By Butte Off
Gals and Citizens.
A MAMMOTH ENTERPRISE
Details of Generation and Trans
mission of Electricity Ex-
planned.

A distinguished party Of Butte officials
and citizens visited the Big Hole plant
of the Montana Power and Transmission
company as the guests of that concern
yesterday. The expedition left Butte on
a special train at 10 O'Clock yesterday
morning. The party was in the custody
of George II. Barker, president Of the
big concern which has succeeded so we'll
in Harvesting the waters of the Big Hole
| river for Butte's benefit. H. w. Turner,
manager OF the Butte Lighting and Pow
err company, and Max Hebgen, superin-
tendent of both concerns and the engineer
who planned the Big Hole plant.
Those comprising the party were Mayor
J.. Fl. Mccarthy, County Commissioners
William D. Clark, G. G. Terrell and Ed
ward Mathews. City Treasurer Ben. E.
Calkins, City Clerk J. E. Callan, Marco
Medin, j. B. Virtue, j. w. T~rowbridge,
fCharles Bausman. Thomas Bryant, Chief
Of Police J. J. fLavell, Captain James Ley
den, a. B. Keith, Mark Drum, J. L. Do
bell, "A. J. Seibenaler, E.. D. Elderkin,
/ William Gemmell, M. J. Sheehan, John
McMurray, Henry Kroger, w. F. Noyes,
City Attorney Lamb, John Ferns, City
Engineer F. s. Bichenbach. Joseph Ar
chambault, John Britt, Hugh Smith, Err
nest H~ardcastle and G. r. Brown.
The trip was made without incident.
C~onveyances were waiting at Divide and
the guests were taken to the power plant,
thee miles up the river from tn estation.
The plant Is a marvel. Across, be-
tween the canyon walls is built a stone
dam $50 feet in length with 22O-feea spill
way at the end. This dam backs up the
Big Hole water for three miles, and just
in front Of the dam the water is IS feet
deep. The water is discharged from the
dam by a series of 1O-foot steps and fur
nishes power for four Liffel wheels, and
electrical generators. The wheels have
a 65-fOOt head of owe and the minimum
capacity of the plant is 5000 horse power,
with a maximum capacity of several
times this amount. For lighting Butte
1000 horse power is required so it will
plant has an abundance of power and Is
capable of lighting three or four cities
of Butte's population.
The visitors We're shows through the
power house and the method of general
ing and controlling the tremendous cleo
trical strength vas explained to them in
detail. They were told that it was al
most certain death to touch the innocent
looking switchboard, as with a current
of $4,000 Volts the electricity is hard to
control. They inspected a large machine
the transformer-in which the electric
ity enters at a voltage of 800 and in dis
charge at a voltage of $4,000. This is
done for the purpose of saving the loss
in transmission as the greater the voltage
the less the proportionate percentage of
loss of power. After leaving the trans
former the fluid is conducted over 81 miles
Of copper wire to Butte and at the plant
of the Butte Lighting and Power COM
rany is put through a communication
and the voltage reduced to the necessary
strength. Six wires, each about the size
Of a lead pencil, have been built to
transmit the power. OF these only three
are in use, the other three being held in
reserve.
After spending an hour at the plant the
guests were taken back to Divide and en-
tertained at dinner at the Hotel Wunder-
Itch, after which they left for Butte. They
were taken through the plant Of the Butte
Lighting and Power company and the
system of receiving n utilizing the
power explained to them.
The trip was a thoroughly enjoyable
and instructive one, every courtesy being
shown the visitors.