The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-09-25
Will Be in Op, Grafton Within
Ten Days,
After Three Years Of v tork Mont
gomery is About to h'ecelv''
Power Which Will Cheap en-
Electrical Service. W

81 am assured by the contractors
that the water power plant a. Tallas-
see will be completed and in opera
ton within ten days"
This announcement made yesterday to
a representative of The Advertiser by w.
+. Vandiver, President of the Montgom-
cry Water Power Company. is fraught
with meaning to the industrial progress
of Montgomery. 1t is believed that it
portends vast improvement in the COM
mercial and industrial interests of the
Capital City of Alabama.
1 The water power plant at Tallassee has
been in course of construction since 1899
and is said to be the greatest plant of
the kind in the South and one of the
greatest in the. United States. When it
| Is completed. as it will be within ten days.
it will deliver 5000 electrical horse power
! in Montgomery. distance of twenty-nine
miles and it is confidently believed that
when additional improvements are made
| the plant will furnish sufficient power to
supply all of the industries of Montgom-
cry.
The water power plant at Tallasee was
built by the International Hydraulic
Company for the Montgomery Water
Power Company. The contract was SUBJ
let to w. A. Chapman & Co., of Provi-
dence, r. l., but since the freshet of
January %. 1902, during which the great
dam broke and delayed the work, the
contract has been under the immediate
supervision of ]. NJ. Mccarthy. vice
president of the International Hydraulic
Company assisted by f. Philbrick, a
competent civil engineer.
The plant comprehends the construc-
ton of a dam across the Taliapoosa Riv-
ON "A a mint IN miles "a
Tallassee Falls. twenty-nine miles from
Montgomery and to generate 1000 horse
power and transmit the power electrical
iy to Montgomery. The large copper
wires will bring 10000 volts into the city
These wires are strung by way of the
Upper Wetumpka road on substantial
poles
Mr.. Vandiver Interviewed.
while the plant will he ready for OPP
Grafton within ten days. said Mr.. Van
diver. sit will not be formally transfer
red to the Montgomery Water Power
Company until thirty days thereafter. The
contracts with the manufacturers who
furnished the great water wheels and i'm
mense dynamos. provides that the plant
must be operated successfully thirty days
before it will he accepted. The contrac-
tors are to deliver Immediately in Mont
gomery 5000 electrical horse power. The
capacity of the plant is to be 1000 cleo
trical horse power. 1t is the intention of
the Montgomery Water Power Company
to raise the dam ten feet in the future
so as to increase the capacity of the
plant to 5000 horse power. With each
ten foot raise of the dam we are as
sured that we can get an additional LOCO
| horse power
+ "The- delivery Of this water power in
| Montgomery will mean a Cheapening of
electricity to the consumer 1t will be
the policy of our company to give our
| patrons the benefit of the reduction in
cost of producing the power. The Mont
| gomery Light and Power Company will
| be merged into the Montgomery Water
Power Company. but we will by no
| means abandon our plant in North Mont
| gomery. In fact we have recently i'm
proved that plant and it will he of great
service to us in our improved facilities.
practically everything in Montgomery
using electric power will he operated by
| the power from Tallassee. Both street
| railroads will use it.. We have con-
| tract with the Montgomery Street Rail
way which does not expire until Feb
ruary and we have made a long term
| contract with the Montgomery Traction
| Company"
Description Of Plant
| The hydraulic, work at Tallassee is said
| to be the prettiest ever seen in this sec
| ton, consisting of granite masonry dam
| of an average height of forty-two feet
placed on granite bed, the thickness
! OF which has never been discovered, and
possibly never will be- The thickness of
the dam at the top is seven feet; at the
| bottom thirty-five feet.
The spill way is $40 feet long and the
| bulkhead wall 20 feet making a total
length of dam of $50 feet.
The top of the bukhead wall is sew
| enteen feet above the crest of the spill
way. In the top of the spill way are
ten openings or sluices provided so that
the flow may not he interrupted during
a possible low stage of water. combined
with a possible temporary closing down
of the plant. These openings, six feet
deep by eight feet wide ARE closed by the
use of stop logs.
The top of the dam has a coping of
cut stone, each stone being thirty inches