The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-29

Duluth. Minn., April 2S.--This coun- try Is on the verge of an era when thanks to the aid given by electricity, distant reservoirs and rivers will fur nish the power to light streets and buildings, run trolley cars. pump the water supply and keep machinery mov- ing in mills and factories In American towns and cities. The water wheel is almost as old as history itself but dur ing the nineteenth century 1t was out rivalled by steam as a power producer.
 Now, among the other innovations due to twentieth century ingenuity comes a new era of usefulness for one of the most venerable among mechani- cal appliances. In the State of New York, where the mighty Niagara has been placed in bondage on the one side and water powers on the upper Hudson are also being developed. electricity will flash along the power lines practically across the entire State. Similar power developments haze also been made at points in the Great West and plants are in process of construction in other sec- tions of the country.
 Work which is now being completed near this city is a good illustration of what is involved when man seeks to use in this way the pent-up energies or rivers and streams.
 When the waters are harm and made to supply power to be transmitted by electricity OCT long distances, the engineers refer to 1t as hydro electric Great Northern Power Company. which, In this case, Is doing the work of har- messing the waters began the construc- tion of its first plant only little over year ago; but since then 1t has built a great reservoir, dug a canal about two miles long, ending in a forebay of some 40 acres, laid three great pipes. each about a miles in length, and Is erecting a power house on the bank of the river.
 To do these things required regi- ment of about a thousand men organ ized in companies and living in villages which sprung up almost in day at points along the works. A railroad four miles In length was built to facili- tate the handling of materials. Exca- yating has been done by great steam sho,:els which with every movement of their mighty arms left several tons or earth and rock.~ Concrete mixers have manufactured many thousands of cubic yards of artificial stone as enduring as the granite of the everlasting hills. The coming of winter is not allowed to interfere with work of this kind and concrete was made when the mercury was far below the zero mark. Then the material was heated and when 't had been turned into concrete and put in place it was kept warm until long after 1t had hardened. Near the rising dams stood great skeleton towers from whose tops stretched cables along which ran the buckets carrying mate rial 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 Califor- mia contributed from their supply of timber; earnest manufacturers made the structural steel for the power house and supplied the great water wheels and generators; from the bed Of Lakn Superior were taken the pebbles ana 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 which are now being corn- pleted are located on the St. Louis River flowing into St. Louis Bay, which forms the harbor of this city. The engineers found a point where the river broke through a slate ridge. By closing the openings in this natural barrier an arti- ficial lake was made covering about 4S0 acres. The lake is mile and half in length across the river valley and half a mile wide. It 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 It's 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 1,150 feet long, or over fifth of mile, 37O feet of its length being devoted to the spillway over which will flow the surplus water of tho river. The aver age height of this splllway section Is 40 feet, or greater than that of three story dwelling. In the construction or this one dam 10000 cubic yards Of con- crete were used. Had this concrete been erected in the form of shaft 20 feet square, it would haze risen to a height of about BIO feet, or nearly hair as high again as Bunker Hill Monu- ment.
 Near the main dam is one which IS built in the form of an arch, whlch sweeps in a graceful curve into the waters of the artificial lake and de- rives its strength from it's form' 1ust