Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-06
River Power for Distant Cities


rr,u1s country is on the verge of en-
ara when, thst nks TO the aid given
bv electricitu, distant reservoirs
ood rivers will f,s rnish the power to
,,,.ht .treeta ana tsuildings. run trolley
80 n,,,nn the vsa er supply and keep
...,,,norv yoovins. in mills and fac
.n-toe In American A.owns and cities.
THE water wheel is almost as olo az
,.,atar,, ,teeif hut dnring the nineteenth
na5t,,yv is was ouihivaied by steam as
a power producer. - ,..,o,., .,o,,,
Now among tn D othef hHoNatiOiio
,NH, tr-ontietb century ingenuity
ee,,,o. a new era , NJ usefulness for one
of the most veneri Lble among HeCilt,l-
-, annI,anoes. IN the state of New
WI where the mighty Niagara has
t,oa, nloced in boi iiage on the one side
ara water powers ON the upper Hudson
are also being developed, electricity
will flash along tie power lines practl-
rally across the entire state. S1rnilar
mower developme ntb have also been
made at points ia the great west ana
plants are in process OF construction ln
other sections of the country.
When the waters are harnessed anu
s,,ade to supply DC Ivver to be transmitted
bv electricity over long distances, tne
engineers refer tn 1t as hydro-electIlc
development Work which Is now pc
ing completed near Duluth is a goon
ilinstration Of w hat is involved when
nan seeks to use in this way the pent-
lIp energies of rivers and streams. Ine
Great Northern Flower company, whicn
IN this case is ping the work OF mar
Messing the waters, began the consfruc-
tion of it's first plant only little over
a year ago, but since then 1t has built
great reservoir, dug canal aboud Two
miles long ending, in forebay of some
forty acres, laid three great pipes, eacn
about a mile in ength, and is erecting
a power house on the bank Of the river.
To do these tn ings required regi-
ment OF about a thousand men organ
ized in companies and living IN VlllaSes
which sprung uIb almost in a day at
points along the, works railroad
four miles in len 9Th was built to facili-
tate the handling of materials. EXca-
waiting has been done by great stesm
shovels which with every movement OF
their mighty arms lift several tons OF
earth and rock. Concrete mixers nave
manufactured m any thousands of cuplc
yards of artificial stone as enduring as
the granite of the everlasting hills
The coming of winter Is not allowed 10
interfere with. work of this KIND ana
concrete was made when the mercury
was far below the zero mark. Then the
material Was heated and when it had
been turned into concrete and put i'll
place it was kept warm until long after
il had hardened. Near the rising dams
stood great skeleton towers from whose
tops stretched cables along which ran
the buckets carrying material to the
places where it was needed.
All parts of the, country were drawn
upon for material to be used in the
work. The redwood forests of Cali
fornia contributed from their supply OIL
timber; eastern manufacturers made
the structural steef for the power house
i fIn
and generators; from the bed of Lake
Superior were taken the pebbles and
sand to become parts Of the concrete
and in the planning of the plant not
only American engineers but experts IN
far off Switzerland were called upon to
aid in the preparation of plans for the
work.
The works whichi are now being COM
pleted are located 'bn the st. Louis river
flowing into st. Louis bay, which forms
the harbor of Du uth. The engineers
found point where the river broke
through a slate ridge. BY closing the
openings in this natural barrier an arti-
fetal lake was made covering about 4SO
acres. The lake is mile and half in
length across the river valley and half
mile wide. 1t is; a picturesque sheet
of water, in the midst of which, where
stood two rounded hills in the valley,
now appear a couple of islets.
To keep this body of water in check
required the erection of fifteen dams Of
varying sizes. There is a main dam,
for instance, which is located across the
channel where the river made its way
through the ridge of slate. Here there
was an old timber dam which the en-
gineers summarily, removed with the
aid of some large charges of dynamite.
The concrete BARRIER which has taken
the place of this timber structure, is
115O feet long, or over fifth of mile
$40 feet of it's length being devoted to
the spillway over which still flow the