The news & observer., 1905-06-23
Developments That Will
Cost S7,OOO,OOO.
A CYCLOPEAN SCHEME
Construction Of Dam, Building Of Rail
road and Purchase Of Quarries Are
All Parts of This Work NeCes.
sarY TO The Completion OF
the Whole.
Especial to News and Observer.)

Especial to News and Observer)
Baltimore, Md, June 22.-Special
correspondence in this weeks Manu-
facturcrs' Record from Mr.. Albert
Phcnis describes at length the work
of $10,QO0,000 Pittsburg, Pa, cor
poration now under way for the de-
velopment at Whitney, n. c., of one
of the most important water powers
in the country. Mr.. Phenis says:
work is being energetlcally push
ed on the first massive dam to be
built. When completed this first plant
will have turbines and an electrical
equipment of 10000 horsepower ca
pacity. In time a second dam and
plant will be put in ten miles below,
which will have d capacity of $4,000
horse easily giving this de-
velopment rank among the greatest
undertakings of the kind to be found
in the world.
'Fherc has already been blocked
out work that will cost about $4,600,-
600 and the development of the sec
ond power would add another ST.
500. 900 to the cost, making a total
investment of over $7,000,000. This
sum includes the construction by the
company of about 6 12 miles of rail-
road For the purchase of lands, the
purchase and development of the
granite quarries and the construction
Of the railroad there was required
about $2,0O0,000.
1.-THE work now under way includes
the construction of the dam and the
digging of the canal IL miles long
from the dam to the noWer house.
The dam which will be of the ogee
type of construction, is to be built of
coursed granite, cut to specifications,
and to lay to half inch joints on the
faces. The courses Will range from
"a to 80 inches deep. The most mas
sve construction will prevail through
out the work, many of the stones in
the dam and spillways weighing as
much as ten tons. The dam will be
fifty eight feet wide at the bottom
and will have height of thirty eight
feet above the river bed 1t is de-
signed to withstand a flood discharge
Of 200, 900 cubic feet a second. There
will be massive abutments on either
side to the height of twenty feet
above the crest of the dam. The dam
will rest on solid rock throughout its
entire length and the abutments will
connect with solid rock. Thus, ce
mentcd together, as the stones of the
dam will be, and built into the rock
on the bottom and at each end, the
dam will literally become a part Of
the geology of the country and will
be as enduring as the eternal hills.
"At the lower end of the canal the
water will be conveyed from a fore
bay to turbine wheels by a steel pen
stocks, each about $50 feet long. Pow
er will be developed under a head OF
about 120 feet. Details of the power
house construction have not yet been
determined, but it will be built of
stone and brick, with granite trim
mings, and will be of immense pro-
portions some 400 or 500 feet long,
it is liknly-ard will cost about $2SS,-
000 The turbines, electric generators
and penstocks will cost $9040 900, the
canal and spillways $567,000. and the
dam $596,950. This work, practically
all of which is under contract ag-
gregates $2,355,950. When lines are
constructed for the transmission of
power to adjacent towns-for which
there is already a considerable de-
mand--an estimated additional ex-
pendture of $234,000 will be re-
CURED
This development is but one of sew
eral under way in Piedmont section
Of the South all contributing to the
expansion of industry and prosperity
there. They are but part of the on
ward march of the South observed in
building operations in such comLsuni-
ties as Richmond, Memphis, Chatta-
nooga New Orleans and Atlanta, in
he record of more than a hundred
and fifty new industries or additions to
existing ones at Nashville in $50 weeks
and in the growth in banking. For
instance, the auditor of Mississippi
reports that during the past twelve
months the number of State banks in
Mississippi has increased from 1873 to
22S and their resources from SAL, 1,375,-
931 to $4S,SS2,048. This increase is
characteristic of practically the en-
tire South, where the rapid extension
of business, both industrial and COM
mercial, has compelled such addi-
tions to banking facilities. And yet
there is no sign of tendency for any
decrease in the organization of new
banks, but on the contrary there
seems to be a steady enlargement or
the number