The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-08-23
PICTURES TO Be
SHOWN AT YIN. G. A.
H.oh Tension Club Meeting to be
Held Tomorrow Evening
In Association
Auditorium.
ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT
RIo California Job to be Shown IN
Detail on screen-some Fea-
lures Of Gigantic
Construction.

The regular meeting OF the High
Tension club will be held In the 7. n
G. A. auditorium on Tuesday evening.
at 500 o'clock This is to be an
open meeting and women, accompan.
led by members of the club, are In
vited.
Moving pictures will be shown OF
the Big Creek hydro-electric develop
ment built by the Stone & Webster
engineering corporation for the Pa
cific Light and Power corporation, OF
Los Angeles, Calf. The object Of the
development Is to supply electric en-
ergy generated in the Sierra Nevada
mountains to Los Angeles. the current
being carried at $4,000 volts over a
transmission line PAL miles long.
The magnitude of the enterprise will
be better understood when 1t is noted
that before the work could be com
menced, it was necessary to construct
ffty-six miles of standard gauge rail-
road from Ell Prado. point on the
Southern Pacific line near fresno, to
Cascade, through the mountains, TO-
lowing the gorge of the San Joaquin
river most of the way. The difference
in elevation between the ends of the
railroad is about 400 feet and the
work was finished FIVE months after
1t was started.
In addition this, an incline rail
road nearly 1000 feet long. having a
maximum grade of eighty-fTe per cent,
was built from the Cascade yards to
the top of the hillside, towards the
reservoir, and tracks were laid to the
dam sites and gravel pits from two 70
elk miles away.
The main points OF interest in con-
nection with the development are as
follows:
Location-in the c Sierra Nevada
mountains about seventy miles east of
Fresno, California.
1t provides water storage Of 1870,
G00, 900 cubic feet in natural mountain
meadow, through which Big Creek
flows. 1t is on the floor of this mead
ow-6. 800 feet above sea level.
From the reservoir, water Is carried
through a tunnel twelve feet in diam.
eter and $3.50 feet long through a
granite mountain. From the tunnel
the water passes through steel pipe
line, seven feet in diameter and $50
feet long. Of 3 inch and Y inch steel
plates.
The seven foot steel pipe terminates
at the top OF the abrupt slope 1912
feet above power house No. i. Lap
welded steel tubes carry the water
from this point down to the turbines
These tubes at the upper end are for
ty-two inches in diameter and e of
an incr thick; at the power house. the
point of maximum pressure, they are
twenty-four inches in diameter and one
inch thick.
At power house No are two i'm
pulse water wheel units, each develop
ing 10000 b. p. under an effective
head of 1900 feet. After passing
through power house No. ! the water
Increased by that taken from a stream
known as Pittman creek. enters a
tunnel twelve feet in diameter and 21,-
300 feet long. driven through granite
The head available for power house
No. 2 is 1880 feet. The hydraulic and
electrical equipment IN the two power
houses Is practically the same
The electrical equipment consists
of two 1880 kv-a generators In each
power house with transformer equip
ment stepping the voltage up to 10000
volts, with insulation designed for a
future operating voltage of 10000
volts.
Three THOUSAND, four hundred and
one steel towers carry two aluminium
three wire circuits 241 miles to Los
Angeles.