The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-07-30
kEokUK wATER.PowER NOTES.
Randam Snap Shots ut the Worlds
Greatest Single Water-Power
Development Promoted by
the Public Near
Its Site.

The Keokuk dam is the largest
power dam in the world and is nine
tenths of a mile long.
The power house is third of
mile long, half city block wide and
the heighth of fifteen story sky
scraper.
The dam makes deep lake of q
hundred square miles area above the
dam, the only deep water navigation
above St. Louis. There is no enect
whatever on navigation below the
dam, war department engineers say
after an exhaustive investigation.
The company moved cemetery at
Montrose, Iowa, to the perfect sat
isfaction of the people, the church
and the town, the dam OvertlOWing
the old cemetery site.
The generator floor of the power
house affords standing room for the
entire population of Wyoming.
The ice foe above the dam in win
ter weighs over 100000 tons.
Turbine generators installed are so
sensitive that every time a woman
stops a street car in St. Louis, $50
miles away, the quantity of water
reaching a water wheel is lessened.
The electric current is sold in COM
petition with the cheapest coal In
America and yet displaces it's use.
1t is believed that the concrete dam
and other structures will last at least
5000 years. The oldest dated con-
crete is about 5000 years old and
not so good as that used at Keokuk.
The water power development In
the Mississippi river is the result OF
forty years of work by the people of
Keokuk, the last ten years being con-
tinuous, strenuous efforts to induce
capital to build tho works. The pro-
motion money came out of the city
treasures of Keokuk, Iowa, and
Hamilton, Illinois, at either end OF
the dam-and every cent of it was
later paid back into the treasures.
The concrete masonry is nearly
exactly equal to the stone masonry
in the great pyramid of Cheops. The
water power works were built In
about two years.
The quantity of water going
through the thirty giant water wheels
every week is enough to supply New
York City for a year.
The actual saving by factories over
former steam power is from one
third to one-half, as shown by exper-
fence since the water power began
operating. The total saving runs
into millions of dollars per year.
The Keokuk lock has the same
width as those at Panama and a lift
one-third higher than any on the
Isthmus. The adjoining dry dock is
one per cent smaller than that in the
Brooklyn navy yard. Both lock and
dry dock were built entirely at the
expense Of the company, to become
the property of the United States,
with power for their perpetual oper-
alton at once upon their completion.
The water wheels are four times
as large in dimensions as any ever
cast before. The generators are the
largest ever built to date
The lake formed above the dam
saves the government a million dol
lars at once for channel making. 1t
saves annually a capitalization of
about 100000. The United States
gets many millions of dollars bene-
fits at no money cost except to the
water power company.
Roosevelt signed the franchise act
in 1905. and it provided that every
detail should be approved by the chief
of engineers of the war department
who in posed on the company the
duty of building lock of Gatun
class and the largest dry dock In
fresh water for the United States
government, with power for their
perpetual operation.
This water power conserves sever
al million tons Of coal every year.