The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-11-18

through which several great paSsen-
ger steamers are moving 1t only takes
minutes for a ship to pass
the canal thus saves two hours Tor
the steamers between Keokuk and
Montrose.
It reouired a half day to send h
first ship through the great LOCKE at
The lock was put into opera
ton within forty-eight minutes AFTER
it was completed, and the first ship
was worked through 1t IN less than
fifteen minutes. The keokuk lock is
wider than the ocks at Gatun. 1t is
not so long as the Mississippi steam
ers are short. The actual dimensions
are: Width, 10 feet; length on the
inside, 400 feet: lift, 40 feet, with con-
crete walls SO feet high and from 8 to
33 feet in thickness The dry-dock is
$50 feet wide by 4s3 feet I
There is a wall from the canal lock |
which runs to the p~owerhouse. We
pass along this wall and gradually
reach a great building Of concrete. |
which looks like a mighty factory, or
perhaps more like a marble palace, far
out in the river. 1t is, however, only
one-third Of the width Of the river
from the Missouri shore, the lam ex-
tending from one end of it to the
Illinois Shore, which is more than
nine-tenths Of a mile away. The pow
er-house is built parallel with the
river. It's foundations are in the bed
rocks about twenty-five feet below the
surface of the limestone of the Mlssis-
sippi, and the height is that OF a
seventeen-story fat. The building has
four floors, and it has a floor space OF
something like twenty acres. The
ceilings are exceedingly high on &C
count of the mighty machinery, and
on the bottom floor, where the genera
tors are, I saw a travelling crane which
can lift an entire turbine, and carry
it from one end Of the powerhouse to
the other.
We first enter the generating room.
This is filled with the mighty electric
| generators. Each of these is as big
as a haystack, and it rests over and is
set in a great well of concrete and
steel eighteen feet in diameter. This
we'll contains the mighty turbine wa
ter wheel, which is moved by the
force of the Mississippi. The water
is admitted to each turbine by four
different openings, each Of which is
protected by a guarded
BY a gate. The water SO strikes the
wheel that it has a spiral motion, and
as the turbine flies round it in turn
move the generator above, producing
a continuous current Of electricity
force of 10, 900 horses all pulling to-
gether. When the works are com
pleted there will be thirty Of these
grea turbines and h generators
and their aggregate force will be more
han 800, 900 horsepower. Each OF
these generators creates enOugh cleo
tricity to light an automobile road
around the world. and altogether they
would keep bright a milky way from
the earth to the moon.
It is hard to conceive the size ano
delicacy of this massive machinery. A
single turbine weighs $780, 00 pounds
and the wheel and the machinery
/ above it, all of which rest on a single
2 bearing, weigh more than a half mil.
l lion pounds. Think of balancing 25(
} tons on a single bearing, and making
it work with h uniformity and-ex
actness of a watch and you have SOM
t conception of this turbine cOnstruc
ton.
e Moreover, the whole is so CAREFUL.
n regulated that the machinery auto
matica1ly produces just the amount o
power required. DR.. Barr tells III
!. that a few tons of more or less worl
at any point along the line will afeC
4 the generators producing it He say
that whenever a woman stops a stree
car in St. Louis the effect Of that stop
page is felt, and the regulation chang
=. ed here in this power plant more tina
100 miles way. When the street ca
- stops the speed Of these turbines be
a comes lnflnlteSlnaIly slower, and VINE
:, it starts again they increase. TIL
:. general regulation is done by the wal
- er load which is regulated by raisin
- or lowering the gates to the dam, an
11o automatically by a sensitive governO
le which is connected with machinery S
l fine that the turbines are regulated
Is the exact amount of their load Tn
81 work is the result of experiment
IN which cost altogether about $4,000 t
CD to bring about the present perfection
u Indeed, a great deal of the machil
cry at Keokuk was invented for tn
OF power plant, and the rhine 81
: much Of the other machinery we
Vn made after plans which many eng
Ut neers said could not work. They a
les all either the choice or the ~inventif
lat of Mr.. Hugh T. Cooper. the eneinee
in-chief. and, l might say, the origin
tor and cxoatoE Of tia plapt + W