Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-26
MIGHTY NILE DAM FINISHED.
British Work a Assuan Also Spares
Famous Temple of Philae.

one Ci the most imports 1T anu udrIlR
works of modern engineering is brought
! 70 a successful issue. The design of
! the " DIRK and the site chosen for il are
| both due to Sir William Willcocks, and
| the work from first to last has been
carried out by British engineers and
| contractors. TO paraphrase Sir Will
| liam Willcock'S own words the dam
and the services it renders Egypt are
but the outcome of an age-leng series
of efforts for the irrigation of the
country begun in the remote past when
Menes constructed the great dyke at
Memphis. The system then inaugural
| ed, and known as irrigation. is
the system of flooding the eultivable
lands during the annual rise of the
Nile, thereby securing a thorough sup
ply of the soil and plentiful supply
| of subsofl water which may be raised
| by mechanical means after the river
| has fallen.
This system has been maintained
ever since, and given the Egyptian eli
mate and the quality ana conditions OF
the Nile food. Decentralization mas
stood without a rival as a practeai
scheme of hydraulic engineering Tor
many thousands of years In those an
eient times the absence of masonry
regulators made ii more difficult to
control floods than to provide addition
al water. Nowadays the provision oil
additional water is more difficult thah
protection from floods. Both, however.
are equally important. The need Tor
additional water was felt 80 wears age
when modern conditions and require
ments began To affect Egypt. Efforts
were made Ivy the distinguished French
engineers in the employment of Niche
met Ali Pasha to design works that
should make more extended use OF
the fertiliZine Nile flood.
These tentative ideas and efforts were
IA move in the right direction. but for
tunately Mehomet Ali was deferred by
his European advisers from executing
them on his own lines; for he desired
10 pull down the Great Pyramid to
furnish stone for his Nile dam. Later
came the Barrage at calliuh north OF
Cairo. but the construction d this. the
pioneer work of it's kind, was attended
bv all the difficulties that arise from
a bad foundation. dilatory othcialdom.
and Oriental ideas of finance. Large
sums OF money and vast labor were
expended; vet the Barrage failed ana
its failure so discouraged the Egyp-
tan government that the whole ques-
ton was dropped.
From time to time suggestions were
put forward for damming the river or
creating great reservoirs, but the for
mer failure stood in the way of new
efforts. BY the early eighties Sir Colin
Scott Moncrieff had taken in hand the
Egyptian irrigation question, after
distinguished career in India, and as
his assistant. in 1889, came mir. William
w.llcocks who also had had considera :
BILE experience on irrigation works IN
India One of his first works was the
repairinG of the Barrage. and the sue
cess that in 1857 attended this gave new
life to the question of reservoirs: SIT
Colin Moncrieff deputed Colonel Vest
ern and Mr.. Willeocks to examine ana
report on the various schemes that had
been brought before the Government
and then shelved. Among these schemes
were some that proposed dams across
the Nile at different places but on eN-
animation it was found that the river
bed was quite unsuitable az the points
recommended.
InpTt WIS dISD dnOtIti ltdSoi N'Af
such of these schemes as might include
dams further south than Assuan We're
unsuitable. Some of the more import
ant summer crops Of Egypt are incap-
able of STANDING a 10 days drought
and these crops might perish whiie
their supplies of water were flowing
down the river bed from too remote q
reservoir. 1t was important therefore
that dam. and the store of water held
ND by it, should be as close as posi-
BILE to the more extensive and tefthe
stretches of cutivable land in tine ncrth-
ern country. Assuan seemed To ne the
ideal spot where the requisite condi-
tions could be obtained. and IN lHs?
Mr.. Willcocks went there to study the
site. In 1890 he became director-rener-
81 Of reservoir studies, Col. Western
having left Egvnt in that wear. and the
Willcocks report on the site Tor Nile
dam appcar red i'm 1882 and 1894. An m
tnrnatiopal commission composed "f SIR
". Baker. NJ Boule. and Signor Tofrl-
cell approved Of the proposals
But there again financial dithcultic"
arose; then came til" Sudan rebelioh'
and for four wears the completed pro-
iect Iay in official pigeon nolfs. A"'epS
the few far-seeing men who saw clear :
" the immense increase in agricultural
prosperity that would be Brought about
nv n reservoir and consequently ~
GREG Sod returns from taxation was sir
Ernest casseI. In 1898 he came Tor
ward with funds. Sir Y. Baker. as ms
consulting engineer and Sir John Airo
&c Co. as contractors. undertook 10
complete the Assuan dam and the AS
suit weir by December. 1895. me
| Egyptian government advised by sir
William Garstin. accepted the offer:
| the official foundation stone was lald
BY the Duke of Connaught ON Febru-
arv 70. 1899. and the work CONNECTED
| bv December. 1902. a year in advance
of the time aareed upon. at cost o.
| two and half million pounds sterling
AS originally designed the dam Wouiu
| have meant the submereence, Tor sew
eral months in each year, of the rem
pies OF Philae, which stand On an IS
| land lust above it,and to avoid this
| antiquarian catastrophe the plans We're
| modified in 1898 SO that, as Temporarily
| completed in 1902, it had height oil -
metres. Bat in 1894 the necessity OF
Il 4 -