The Topeka state journal., 1905-09-30
Power of a e-inch Stream of Water

Imagine perpendicular column of
water more than one-third of a mile
high, twenty-six inches in diameter at
the top and twenty-four inches in diam
eter at the bottom. Those renarkable
conditions are complied with, as far as
power goes, in the Mill Creek plant,
which operates under a head of $50
feet. This little column of water, which
II liberated, would be just about enough
to make a small trout stream, gives
capacity of $500 horsepower, or enough
| power to run good-sized going
vessel AS the water strikes the buckets
| OF the water wheel it has a pressure of
SoO pounds to the square inch. What
| this. pressure implies is evidenced by
the fact that the average locomotive
carries steam at q pressure of 100 or
| 200 pounds to the square inch. Were
this stream, as it issues from the nozzle,
turned upon a hillside, the earth would
fade away before it like snow before a
Jet of steam. Huge boulders, big as
city offices, would tumble into rGvir:e.s
with as little effort as clover burr is
carried before the hydrant stream on a
front lawn. Brick walls would crackle
like paper ,and the hugest skyserapers
/ crumble before a stream like that of
the Mill Creek plant.
1t takes a powerful water wheel to
Withstand the tremendous pressure. AT
Butte Creek. California, single jet
of water, six inches in diameter, issues
from the nozzle at the tremendous xe-
locity OF twenty thousand seel a min
ute. 1t frnpinges on the buckets of what
is said to be the most powerful single
water wheel ever built, causing the lat
ter to travel at the rate of ninety-foul
miles an hour, making four hundred
revolutions a minute. This six-incE
stream has capacity OF twelve thou
sand horsepower. The water for op-
Grating the plant is conveyed from Butte
Creek through a ditch and dis charged
in a regulating reservoir which i:
fifteen hundred feet above the power,
house Two steel pressure pipe lines
thirty inches in diameter, conduct th'
water to the owerhouse.-Hamiltoi
Wright, in The World Today, for Oc
tober
Wallace Irwin's Educational Struggles
Wallace Irwin, the writer of humor
born in Oneida, New York This i
what happened to him in his earl.
days, according to his own story:
My father, who was on the Iumbe
business, removed to the booming min
ing camp of Leadville, Col, in 1880. TIL
schools of Leadville, at that time. wer
struggling htfully along, closing wit
every strike, smallpox epidemic, o
4 squabble in the board of education, S
my early training was by fits an
father bought cattle ranch in a smal
way, and was put to herding cows
again to the detriment of my education
was, however, an enthusiastic reade
of grown folks books and swallowe
a great deal of stuff too heavy for m
young digestion. Consequently, wheT
in my fourteenth year, we removed t
Denver and I was allowed to go to
civilized school, I found to my surprist
) that, although I was rather long q
the English poets, I was exceedingl
short on spelling, pronunciation an
. arithmetic. 1 was given a brief exami
; nation and humiliatingly relegated t
!. the third grade among babies half m
age. I remember that the first day W
were given singing lesson. The littl
shavers in the class were raising the
childish voices in song when the teach
er held up her ruler severely. There
some one singing bass i'm this class
she said. I plead guilty, and the nez
day was recommended for promotion.
Success.