The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1908-11-19
THE MccALL's FERRY WATER.
POWER

POWER.
In an article in the Technical World
for December Mr.. c. F. Carter gives
much interesting information concern
ing the water power developed il the
Susquehanna river at McCalls Ferry.
The work of development was begun
in October, 1905, by the McCalls Fer
ry Power company, an organization
with capital stock of ten million dol
lars, with Cary T. Hutchinson as
chief engineer in charge. The plant
is not vet completed and will not be
until the latter part of 1909 on account
of the panic last fall. When in run
ming order the power will be gener-
ated by ten pairs of the largest tur-
bines ever built Each pair of tur
bines is coupled direct to an electric
generator twenty-seven feet in diam
eter and weighing one hundred and
forty-five tons. Each pair will gen.
crate 1880 horsepower. The max
lmum capacity of the plant under ia
vorable conditions will be $4,000
horsepower at the power house; but
the loss in transmission, by floods and
other adverse circumstances is ex-
pected to reduce the total available
for delivery to about 100000 horse
power.
The work of damming the Susque-
hanna river was one of great magni-
tude The stream drains basin with
an area of $4,000 square miles, and
floods are extremely sudd9 violent
and destructive. Not infrequently the
river attains the remarkable record
of a flow at high water equal to 225
times its volume at low water. 1t is
navigable for only five miles above
its mouth, Notwithstanding it is, with
the exception of the st. Lawrence.
the largest stream flowing into the
north Atlantic. Beyond that point the
Susquehanna is so full of rocks and
shoals and rapids that nothing but an
occasional raft at high water has ever
passed down. At McCalrs Ferry the
best available spot for the erection of
a great power plant was found At
that place the river is divided into
two nearly equal parts by an island
standing we'll up out of the water,
forming sort of longitudinal dam
that was very useful in turning the
river into one channel or the other in
the course of construction Among
other great natural advantages is that
ha ,;4z
rocky gorge between the eastern
shore and a chain of islands in which
the water flows eighty-fve feet deep.
forms natural tail-race on which
comparatively little work was re-
CURED. Preliminary to the work Of
building the dam it was necessary to
construct permanent concrete bridge
1000 feet long with arches of forty
feet span and with a roadway fifty
feet wide carrying four railway tracks
at cost of 100000. but as the in
| terest charges on the capital amount
to $4,000 month it Is estimated
that the bridge will have fully paid
for itself in interest saved through
/ expediting the work In the concrete
mixing plant the material is handled
almost entirely by gravity at the rate
of 10000 cubic yards of concrete in
ten-hour day. As II is mixed If is
/ transferred to cars which are hauled
out to the works by small locomotives
at a speed of twelve miles an hour.
Here the concrete is taken UP bv two
travelling cranes each with four b,oms
lO9 feet long. which hoist 1t to the
particular spot where it Is needed.
SO swift and methodical are the
movements that the concrete is in
place in the dam within ten minutes
after it is mixed.
McCall's Ferry is within SEVENTY
miles of Philadelphia. Wilmington
Harrisburg. York and Lancaster.
where established industries now con.
sumo 100000 horsepower generated bv
steam. The demand is so greatly
ID excess OF the supply that the
MccalFs Ferry Power Company is IN
position to make advantageous terms
| with the most desirable patrons for
the 100000 horsepower it will have for
sale. At present the cost of an arc
light in Baltimore, the current for
which is supplied by steam power is
about s95 year while 1t is estimated
| that a satisfactory profit could be
made by supplying the light from
the plant on the Ssuquehanna at s27
a -