The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
GENERATE POWER . BY BIG KEOKUK DAM Will Add 100000 Horse Power to Supply IS CLOSE TO ST. LOUIS Already 60,000 Horsepower Has Been Sold to St. Louis Con
 cerns By Contract for
 Ninety-Nine Years

| comparable with steam is 37.00Oo00 horse power At Keokuk, Ia, 40 miles from l St. Louis, a dam now being built across | tue Mississippi river will increase the hydro electric output by 200, GOO horsepow
 CT. an addition of 121a per cent to the | total power now developed in the United States.
 It is correctly estimated that one horse power is required for every five persons l in manufacturing and lighting, hence
 the 6ani at Keoku< will supply a popu-
 laton or 1oOGoOo Within transmission
 distance of Keokuk are s,555 800 persons,
 or within 150 miles. in which zone St.
 Lotus comes, population of approxi-
 matei5' 100000 persons.
 Alieady 6o,000 horsepower from the | keokuk dam have been sold to St Louis by contract for 99 years subject to equit-
 able adjustment at TO year intervals,
 based on the then cost of coal An im
 mediate gross income is assured the com- pany of s1 ,9S9,000 by this contract. This power will go to the North American
 company and be divided between the Union Electric Light & Power Co.,, anc the United Railways.
 | The potency of 100000 hydro-electric power can be better grasped when it is | understood that this will save 100000
 tons of coal year to posterity by Dlak- | ing it's use unnecessary. This amount | of coal would fill 75000 coal cars. and
 r'ake chain S5 miles long.
 Two hundred thousand horsepower rep re sents a force capable of lifting one ton | of matter about Il miles in the air every second, or of lifting Il tons one mile in
 the air every second it would keep 4O00- 09 inc andescent bulbs of S2-candle power
 each burning continuously, or drive three | ships the size of the Lusitania 2S miles an
 hour. This power is equivalent to that produced by POO locomotives of 100 tons
 each; or would draw passenger cars
 weighing 40 tons each to the extent of
 more than 15 miles long
 l At a conservative estimate one horse
 power will produce $2Oo worth of finished | product yearly, hence the annual power
 produced by the keollul dam will be
 worth 400o0,00O
 | The storage for conditions of low water
 above the Keokuk dam amounts to about 1 G,00e acre feet, or enough to cover the State of Rhode Island nine inches deep. The lake above the dam will extend up- | stream from 40 to 60 miles and will have
 a depth of from 10 to 30 feet, It will be
 practically without current and will be stationary as to depth at all seasons. It | will be the finest regatta water in the
 vest, and it is expected that all the boat 1 races Of the west will be contested here. | About fifteen piers of the dam have | been constructed on the Illinois side of the river. and on the Iowa side the coffer dam ground the site of the power house has been built and the site unwatered, laying bare the bottom of the Mississippi river eyer an area of about B acres. In this area the tail race is being blasted in the solid rock of the river bed.
 The problem of building the dam and the rower house and lock and dry dock has Leen rendered comparatively simple because of the enormous store of materl | ais found at hand, and the opportunity to do nearly all the work by machinery. At present all the work is being done by about 1500 men. and there is not a team on the job The machinery is operated by compressed air from two power plants one on either side of the river, and by stream trans. An individual telephone system covers the work connecting both sides of the river with the engineers of fces in a building in the business section of keokuk and automobiles carry the engineers from one part of the work to the other.
 The rock taken out of the trench for the tail race under the power hosise will
 
 the construction of the power house. The rock for the concrete Of the dam Is taken from surface quarry on the Illinois side | of the river within 300 feet of the dam site The sand is pumped from the bed of the Des Moines river a short distance | below the rapids and is hauled to the sites of the work in the companys own | trains operated over the tracks of the I'tlrington and Wabash railroads. On hoth sides of the river are storage yards | and cement houses. The story of the Keokuk project runs back tn 1S4S when the people of Keokuk Ia; and Hamilton, Ill., tried to form a conp4ly to build wing dam. In 1856, | RobeN E. Lee. then United States en- gineer officer, surveyed the Des Moines Rapids, across which the dam is being built md to the secretary of war recom- mended the site for a power plant.
 From that time to the present several efforts have been made to establish com ranies to build a dam at Keokuk. but not urtil 1905. when congress passed ' hiii granting the right to construct 1t to a rambler of Keokuk men was any req 1rogre ss made.
 In March of this year was work begun on the construction of the dam, and thus far 25 per cent of the expense
 ncide ltal to it's buildings has been met 1 and the work is seven weeks ahead of schedule great deal of the expense so far has been for land necessary for fioNaGe right the right of way for the trans mission line to St. Louis and in the work preparatory to the building of the dam,
 Ono deals in big figures, in writing of the keolSuk dam. With the exception of the Assouan dam built by the British government across the Nile the Keokul< | dam. 456s feet long will be the longest 1 In the world. The spillway section will be i2iS feet in length. The height will l be S2 feet above the river bed and the base 1" feet wide.
 The upper face of the dam will be yer | tical but the downstream face will be an i ogee curve, the upper portion a paraboa over which tile water will spill, the lower poriion an arc of a circle which will l throw the water horizontally away from the toe of the dam. | On top of the spillway will be placed | 11o steel flood gates, 30 feet wide and II feet high, supported by concrete piers l These piers will be feet thick and will be integral with the dam. The piers support an arched bridge, from which the rates will be operated with electric hoists ! By manipulating these gates the water | ai,ove the dam will be kept at a nearly I constant level all the time
 1be dam will be built of solid concrete withou, reinforcement of any kind. It y,ill be firmly locked into the rock bed of the r.ver in trenches and will be practi- cal,y q monith.
 The power house will be built on the Iowa shore and nearby will be the ship Flock and dry dock. The power house