Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-05-12
ELECTRICAL POWER IN MAINE
Address by John r.. Graham to Bos-
ton Merchants.

gor Railway & Electric Co., was the prin-
cipal speaker on the occasion of the visit
of the Boston Merchants association to
Bangor last Thursday, and he devoted a
large part of his remarks to the future
electrical development in Maine and the
Ellsworth power dam.
In introducing Mr.. Graham, President l.
K. Stetson, of the Bangor board OF trade,
said: IF we had hundred uien like this
Bangor would become second and a
greater Boston" Evidently Mr.. Graham s
reputation extends beyond the limits of
his adopted state. for he was cheered by
visitors as well as townsmen as he stepped
to the edge OF the platform. He began,
too, by expressing one little chunk OF wis
dom not in his prepared manuscript, but
which made some o. the Boston men sit
up with interest.
Take business proposition to Bos-
TOM said he, land they look at you as
though you were trying to sell gold
brick. Take the SAM proposition to New
York, and in twenty minutes you've got
your money" Whereupon one of the
q
voice sufficiently loud for his companions
to hear: 'The truest thing that's been
said on the whole trip MIR. Graham
continued:
s'Gentiemen OF the Chamber of Com
merce of Bosto =: lam glad to meet you here
tonight, especially as You have come from
my old grounds of activity in and around
Boston. lam perhaps known to a good
many of your members, as years ago l
helped to incrsase the prosperity Of your
community as much as any other irdi-
vidual. l had charge of nearly all the
represented the city of Quincy in the Leg
islature, and was one of the committee on
rapid transit, starting the present subways
of Boston.
81 have been in Maine some seven years,
and in that time have brought in money
from outside of the State amounting to,
about five or six million dollars. One Of
the most important developments is the
water power at Ellsworth. hoped to
have the pleasure of getting you down to
Ellsworth o look over the hydro-electric
power plant recently built there, but as
that plant, thought it best to bring the
plant to you, and have done SO by means
OF stereopticon views. which will be ex-
hibited here tonight.
II do not intend to make any extensive
remarks on the water powers in Maine, as
= ho tS 4, foA hnt -
the most unique hydro-electric develop
ments that there is in this country at
Ellsworth. The dam, which is seventy
two feet high, instead of being solid is
hollow, being built on the principle in
vented ~ the Ambursen Hydraulic Con-
fifteen feet, Duttresses OF concrete were
built parallel with the dow OF the stream.
These buttresses are shaped somewhat
like the letter A, and are about 100 feet
wide at the base and from sixty to seven
ty-one feet high. They form the supports
OF deck or slab OF reinforced concrete,
which, extending across the river, forms
the real dam; these slabs OF artificial stone
range from three feet in thickness at the
bottom Of the dam to eighteen inches near
the crest, and being made OF rich mix
trre OF concrete carefully graded, are alb
soiutely impervious and efiectuaily cut of
the flow OF the water. 7-
SIN the finish and all the details OF
construction it cannot be excelled by
any other plant. While the development
is not large at the present time (2,5O0 h.
P.), we can develop up to $4,000 Il. p,
and everything is ready for that develop
ment except the machinery, which can be
put in at any time. The two Nightmares
of water power development when used
by public service corporation are clint
mated from this plant, that is, anchor ice
and backwater. We can at very little ex-
pense store water that will run this plant
TOR six weeks for its full development,
il it should happen that there was no rain
.fal during that time. The storage lake
would extend from twelve to fifteen miles
in length and three miles in width, over
level, soggy land.
"From an engineering point of view
there is practically no limit to the distance
w WHICH eieStrlcity CAL De transmitted,
the only consideration is economy. The
location of the plant should be so as to
make the transmission profitable. The
distribution of electric energy from the
generating plant to the lamp would seem
at first glance to be simple matter, but in
fact the problems involved are of great
scientific and technical interest.
"for instance, in our Ellsworth plant
we have one generator that transmits cur
rent thirty seven miles to Bar Harbor and
Northeast Harbor in one direction, and in
another direction thirty miles to Bangor,
where it runs the cars and furnishes light.
1t also runs cars twentyfi five miles farther
on to Charleston, that is, ninety-two miles
between the extreme points. And when
you consider that the voltage does not
materially change in all that distance, you
will agree that great engineering problems
have been successfully overcome.
.'Long- distance transmission is not only
an accomplished fact, but has already
shown substantial evidence OF effect on
n, oil md sat, : ha<