Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1909-08-05
KILBOURN PLANT
STATES MARVEL
Engineer Broughton Writes of
Maqus SWenson's Enterprise.

AG UIS pONSl pIdiil VI TIE SOutH-
ern Wisconsin Power company at Kill
bOurn is now complete and the power
from the plant will be sent to Mil
waukee in a few days for the run
ming of the cars Oh the Beggs' line.
The origin of the power plant and
the opening up Of the vast possibili-
ties for this company is credited to
Phil Spooner, brother to former Sen
ator J. c.. Spooner 1t was Mr..
of taking advantage of the oppor-
tunity offorded by nature and har-
Messing the powers of the Wiscon-
sin river at Kilbourn In company
with Magnus Swenson they went ovel
the ground carefully and months of
| careful preliminary survey and OBJ
servations were made by Daniel w.
Mead, one of the most prominent
hydraulic engineers in the country.
For Small Towns.
Originally the idea was to trans
nit the power generated to some
such adjacent towns as Portage, Bara
boo, Madison and Kilbourn, and it
was not until about one year ago tina
the idea of selling the power in Mil
waukee was conceived. John l. Beggs
president and general manager of the
Milwaukee Electric Railway and
Light company, thought that much
of this power could be utilized by
his company at Milwaukee, and after
several months of investigation agree
to take a certain amount of power
| delivered to a substation which he
would construct at Waterfowl and
thence convey the electric current to
| Milwaukee over his own lines.
The contract with Mr.. Beggs has
proved to be one of the most valu-
able assets of the power company.
By the terms of the contract T. M.
E. R. and L. company agrees for a
term of twenty-five years to take the
equivalent of 5000 horsepower, and
further agrees to take the entire out
put of the power company at any
the present Beggs contract the South.
ern Wisconsin Power company will
receive a yearly revenue of $780,
600. From the remaining power the
company will receive an income Of
$4,000 a year, thus making the
gross earning power Of the entire
plant 100000.
Story by Engineer.
For the last seven months the
work of installation and general SUI
pervisiOn of the power plant has been
in charge of H. P. Broughton, an en-
gineer of experience and ability. Mr..
Broughton tells the story of the
building of the great plant as fol
lows:
''The first ground for the dam was
broken in January, 1907, under the
supervision of our chief engineer, D.
W. Mead. Perhaps less than the av-
erage number Of setbacks in such a
work have been encountered and to-
day We are ready to turn on the
juice for the Milwaukee wire. The
present output of the plant is rated
at 5000 horsepower and when the eX-
tension plans are consummated we
will be able to supply maximum
output of Is, 900 horsepower. Our
plant at present consists of four units
Of 1000 horsepower each, known as
Bicycle, 3-phase alternating general
ors driven by 5000 rated horsepower
turbines manufactured by Wellman,
Seaver, Morgan company of Cleve-
land, 0.
Line to WatertoWn.
E'The greatest problem for all n.y.
dro-electric plants to solve is the
market for the power generated and
in this respect the Southern Wiscon-