The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-07-16
hARNESSED FARM STREAM

OF II. NJ. Call, a small trout stream has
been harnessed so its wasted energy
may b. used for electric light and
power. For many years this small
stream flowed through the farm with
out lifting a finger, figuratively speak
ing, TO help with a single chore about
the farm. Now ii is very busy every
night grinding out electricity TO light
the farm home, the yards and the
farm buildings, as Well as furnishing
current by day to drive the small
motors for pumping water and other
chores. The stream is no more than a
mile long, although fed by never fail,
ing springs. In the summer you may
easily step across the little brook.
Seven years ago the stream was har,
messed to turbine and generator and it
has been in successful operation ever
since. The dam is about $50 feet
long, 300 feet of which is dirt. requir
Ing over 2ooo yards. This was taken
from a bank near at hand by means of
scrapcrs. Sixty feet of the dam is
constructed of concrete for the over
flow and to furnish a wasteway IN
times of freshets. 4 concrete wing is
built at each end of the overflow to
retain the earth where the dirt joins
the concrete. This concrete spillway
is located in the center of the dam
where the old creek originally flowed.
1t is twelve feet from foundation to
top of overflow and Is feet high at the
wings, 1t is about 3 feet thick at the
bottom and tapers to II inches at the
top. At the end of this pipe in the
breast water, a penStoCk is built with
two large gates on one side which slide
up and down perpendicularly. These
can be opened in times OF freshets or
to draw off the pond. In order to in
crease the amount of fall and obtain
more power, a ditch was dug 800 feet
long to carry the water from the tur-
bine thus utilizing the fall below the
dam. One hundred and fifty feet of
ditch is tiled with 1S-inch tile.
At the end of the dam, leading from
the pond about so feet down stream,
a race is built forming a channel s or
10 feet wide. At the lower end is
built a brick wheel pit plastered with
cement. connecting with the 1S-inch
tile and with a power house 10 by y
feet above. For the generation of
power a turbine wheel is installed.
This is 17h inches in diameter, works
under a head of II TT. s in, of water
and produces about 6 horse power,
which is sufficient to furnish about 20
lights of 16 ca~ndle-power. The wheel
when running at full capacity, requires
359 cubic feet of water per minute
and a speed of 242 revolutions. The
transmitted by shafting, gears and belt
to a 110-volt electrical dynamo which
runs at 1900 revolutions and a capacity
of one hundred 16 candle-power lights.
The power is transmitted from the
power house to the farm buildings
about 1900 feet distant, by means OF
two copper wires nearly the size of a
common lead pencil. The house, barns
and all o~utbuildings are wired with
modern electrical fixtures. In the cat
tie barn, the insulated wires run
through 3-4-inch conduits and all
switches are enclosed in asbestos-lined
boxes, making it practically %ire-proof.
The switchboard is located in the house
and from there lights can be thrown
on or off in the various buildings. BY
an automatic apparatus connected
with wires running to and from the
gate supplying the water at the power
house, the turbine can be started or
stopped from the house. This is the
secret of operating with such a small
normal flow of water, as only the sur,
plus is wasted. All bearings on the
machinery are of the self-oiling ring
bearing type, so that oiling is not
necessary more than one in two weeks.
The plant has been in operation
since the sixteenth of December, 1897.
The power is used principally for hight
ing and pumping water. At present
Two motors are in use, n for pump
ing water and the other for cutting
corn fodder and grinding feed. 1t was
also a great labor V in mixing 175
barrels of cement for barn foundation
and concrete silo. The water is back
"a up by the dam TO cover an area of
about 8 acres, located in a valley and
surrounded by a luxuriant growth OF
vegetation, making a very attractive
SPOT in summer and furnishing a fine
place for bathing and boating and for
harvesting ice in winter.
The outlay for the construction OF
this plant was greater than would gen
rally be required for a similar plant
Under most conditions, because it was
rncascarv IN construct a long dam and