The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1912-10-04
WHAT WE OWE TO WATER
WHEELS.

OhC' IN thio NOuhly oiOhC thS w
tai developed waterpower is equal
to six million horses and this is but
a small part of the horse power
which might be utilized from falling
water. Conservative engineers esti-
mate that ultimately we will be using
some 200,0O0,O00 horse power dew
eloped from falling water. OF course
this enormous amount of energy will
not come into daily use until our coal
supply diminishes perceptibly, MAX
ing it cheaper to construct huge dams
and power houses than it is to mine
and handle coal.
The waterwheel is really our first
power producer. The Chinese claim
that they were using water power a
thousand years before we began to
/ record time at all But, for a long
time, human labor was so cheap it
did not pay to develop power pro-
ducers and the waterwheel was not
readily adopted. History records
that as far back as IA B. c. crude
waterwheel served to operate small
mill in Rome. This wheel was
driven by the current of swiftly
moving stream.
These first waterwheels were
nothing more or less than large wood
en- wheels with paddles fixed to the
outer rim. The motion and pressure
of the current, moving at the rate OF
three or four miles an hour was
sufficient to turn the wheels and the
power was transmitted with belts
and wooden shafting.
The next development in water
wheels was large overshot wheel,
a few examples of which exist in old
mills to this very day. This type of
wheel was over twenty or thirty
feet in diameter and it was located
below waterfall. The water was
piped to the top of the wheel where
it dropped down and filled numerous
buckets affixed to the rim. The
weight of this water, of course was
sufficient to turn the wheel. These
wheels, being so large, carried enor-
nous weight of water and gave con-
siderable horse power.
And next came the man who dis
covered that curved blades could be
fastened to the bottom of vertical
shaft in such a manner that the i'm
pact of water would force the shaft
around. Instead of using running or
falling water he derived his energy
from the weight from a column OF
water enclosed inside a large wooden
cylinder. The weight and pressure
of this water varying with the weight
of the column, forced it against the
blades of the waterwheel with great
force, whirling the shaft very rapid
ly. This was the frs" impact
wheel and the father of all turbine
waterwheels of to-day.
The turbine waterwheel was a long
time coming in the perfect and econ
omical form so we'll known today.
For hundreds of years the old fash
toned "undershot" wheels were re-
volving mill stones and the heavier
and more powerful 'overshot' wheels
were used where greater power was
required. The first turbine water
wheels were far from being perfect,
but even at that they were vastly
better and stronger than their wood
en- ancestors. Those first water
wheels seldom gave more than fifty
horse power and that Is practically
no power at all when compared with
the mighty turbine wheels OF this
age.
Today there are many types vi
waterwheels suitable for any sized
stream and for any height of fall.
There is the "low-nead" wheel for
streams of little fall and the power
full impulse" wheel for falls OF over
a thousand feet where the water pre-
c,,ra 10 onormous
Without waterwheels we could not
utilize the energy of falling water
and this would be calamity indeed
What would happen to us after our
coal supply gives out is a question?
Either we would have to move to
the tropics or the scientists would
have to discover some new way of
keeping us warm in winter
Waterwheels did not really come
into their own until 1t was discover
ed that the energy of falling water
could be readily changed into electri-
city through the medium of water
and generators and transmit
ted for hundreds of miles over the
-, ~, %o; IN, and 1acorfc tho hngV |