The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-05-03
BY Which Mississippi Makes Eleetr'.
city at keokuk by the Rush Of
Water Through Wheels
In Power House.
HALLS AND CORRIDORS
Sunday Visitors May Now Stroll
Through Immense Passages
Which the Water viii
Soon Fill Forever.

Readers Of The Gate City should cut
out the following article and carry Il
with them when they visit the water
power works on Sunday afternoon.
Thus used, It will give them better
appreciation Of the great work than
they can get in any other way.
Work on the largest power house
in the world is now far enough adj
vanced for the Sunday visitor to see
something of how the thing works,
and to appreciate something of the
immensely of this greatest water pow
er development the world has ever
seen
The power plant consists essentially
of thirty units. each like the others
strung along in a row close together
for a third of a mile. Some of the
concrete chambers and tunnels In
which units will be placed have had
their lumber clothes removed and are
accessible to the investigating sight
seer. They are at the upper end OF
the power house basement in the Iowa
division of the largest construction
works in the world under private man
agement. /.
Standing In the Forebay.
The visitor who takes advantage of
the stopping of work on Sunday and
the consequent admission of the pub
lie to the works. may walk up to the
upper end of the thiry-five acre cof
ferdam. There as he looks at the sol
Id concrete wall rising in the air -
which is only the basement of the
power house-he will see row of
rectangular windows in the immense
mass of concrete. These should be
his first concern as a sightseer.
He should realize that he is stand
ing in the forebay. between the power
house and the seawall where the great
waters will be concentrated to rush
through and turn the turbines. He
should take the route. at first, which
the water will follow as 1t changes
motion and weight into electricity.
4
Into the Turbine Wheels.
Entering one of these openings. the
visitor finds himself in tunnel with
smooth concrete walls, and some
what curved direction, with the cell
ing % feet high and the floor about
feet wide and constantly growing
wider He is in one of the four intakes
to the turbine When he gets through
the long hall, he may look back and
see the other three halls which are the
other three intakes for that one tur
bine wheel.
This will be after he has walked on
into the scroll chamber that surrounds
the wheel. Here he finds circular
corridor 80 feet in diameter, Just a
little emaller than a full size front
yard, with the light streaming down
through a large circle at the top that
sugg ests dome over a circular cor
ridor-but 1t really is a straight cylin
der running upward to what is now tbs
sky and the floor of the power house
The Gigantic Turbines.
He will see circular of square
concrete columns around this cylinder
but he must imagine that they have
been removed, as they will be soon
For where those pillars are is where
the outside of the turbine is to be. ant
those pillars practically mark th'
circle of the turbine which will re
place them.
The water will come in through tn,
hall like intakes, just as the yisto
did, but with more force and through
all four at once instead of only one
Whirling around the circular scroll
chamber in which the visitor nov
stands. the water will strike the tur
bine with equal force and velocity a
every point on its circumference, pas
through the wheel and go on dow
through the draft tubes into the tai