The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-01-01
WASTED POWER.

power. E. T. Tannatt has the follow
ing concerning this topic in the North
western Stockman and Farmer, which
will apply equally we'll to the Pacific
Northwest:
We have noted in a very large num-
Der of irrigating bitches and canals
of the state, places where it was nee
essary to give an excess of fall in
order to reach the lands served by
the ditch or canal. In some of these
cases drops have been used, and the
water required to fall upon platform
of plank from a height of from five to
fifteen feet In other cases we have
noted great trenches cut in the land.
with holes into which a good sized
house could be buried, and all caused
by the excessive fall of some ditch.
It has often been a cause of wonder
why more of our mechanically in
clined farmers, and farmer boys, did
not make use of some of these powers
to assist them in their work In grind
ing chop, turning the grindstone, run
ming the churn or separator, and the
thousand of other little items which
go to make the work on the farm tire
some and disagreeable.
We have in mind a large red barn,
in this state, not far from which runs
an irrigating ditch which carries about
six hundred statutory inches of water.
This ditch runs from early spring to
late in the fall. Not more than two
hundred feet from the barn is hole,
possibly twenty feet deep, fifty feet
wide and several hundred feet long,
;aI, hoe yUochn6 ont nv the
ditch. The farmer has attempted to
stop the inroads of the water by plac-
ing a plank drop and filling the barn
yard manure into the hole. Where
the drop occurs he mas a fall of about
ten feet, and could with little work
secure two or three feet additional
within the length of his barnyard.
Let us see what this power would
mean to him. Suppose that he only
makes use of the ten-foot fall which
is now at the drop. This amount OF
water will furnish him II theoretical
horsepower. If he will place water
wheel (either breast or overshot) at
this place he would be able to develop
from 7 to II horsepower, depending
upon the design of the wheel. He
could easily arrange so as to lift his
wheel out of the way of ice and water
during the months of the year when
not in use. Many of our farmers will
go into debt for a gasoline engine or
from to 10 horsepower, when for
very small part of the cost of same
they could harness the water of the
neighboring canal, make it's power an
advantage rather than disadvantage,
n1unc tiron and
Why do not more of our young men
about the farm give such matters
their attention?
In order to assist in ascertaining
the amount of power you can develop
from such a stream, use the following:
Find out how many inches of water
you have running in your ditch. Di-
vide this number of inches by 40 and
you have the number of cubic feet
per second" or second feet" the
stream is delivering. Now take a car
penters level and straight rod and
measure the vertical height between
the surface of the water above the
drop and below; this height we call
the head" in engineering. Every Gu
bic foot of water weighs about 6212
lbs. Now take the number of second
feet of water, multiply that by 621A
and you have the number of pounds
of water which passes over the drop
in one second of time; multiply this
amount by the head" lin feeD and
you have the number of foot pounds
developed by the water in one second
of time. Now one horsepower is just
equal to $50 foot-pounds in each Sec
ond, so if we will just divide the num-
Der of foot-pounds which the water
produced by $50 we will have the re-
quired number of horsepower the
stream is capable of developing, as
the engineer would say, the "theo-