The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-09-09
BUILDING BIC
POWER PLANT
Winnipeg River Company
to Expend S9,OOO,OOO and
Develop 100000 h. p.
TO BUILD DAM
AND BIG RESERVOIR
Expects to Have the Largest Hydro
Electric Power Plant in the World -
Will Give Winnipeg the Cheapest
Power of Any City.

WINNIPEG, Man, Sept. 9,-Seventy |
miles away in the wilderness, at Little Du
Bonnet Falls on Winnipeg river north
east of the city, the Winnipeg River Pow
or Co has begun work on what is claimed
to be the largest hydro-electric power
plant in the world 1t will cost $9,000,000
and will develop 100000 continuous "a
hour horsepower, which engineers declare,
is enough to drive the wheels of all the
industrial machinery now operated in Can
ada. The gigantic undertaking will give
Winnipeg cheaper water power in great
er quantity than any other city i'll Amer
lea
The first step in the stupendous project
will be the building of dam of solid
concrete, 1000 feet long and of a maxi
mum height of 20 feet across Winnipeg
river at Little Du Bonnet Falls The dam
will create a reservoir from so to 20 feet
in depth extending several miles up the
river to- the second Macarthur Falls and,
by raising the rivers level will drown
out Grand Du Bonnet Falls where the
Eight turbines of $1,000 horsepower
EACH of four-runner, horizontal-shaft type,
will be installed in pits in the concrete
substructure The water from the reser-
voir will pass directly into the turbines
at 10000 cubic feet per second. Scienti
tic equipment will protect the dam from
danger of ice in winter. Two broad
guage ice sluices will permit drift ice to
pass around the dam and to prevent ice
jams below, channel will be blasted
through the rock ridge over which the riv-
cr pmnges at White Mud Falls several
miles down stream.
| To bring in the vast amount of materi-
al necessary for mixing concrete to be
used in the dam, power house, navigation
| locks, log slide, fish way and other de
tails of the structure railway spur Is
miles long will be built TO connect the
| site with the Canadian Pacific railway at
| Lac Du Bonnet to the southeast Several
hundred men are now at work ON this
| spur.
| The power generated at the plant viii
be conveyed to Winnipeg by double
| circuit transmission line supported across
country on structural towers 81 feet high.
A second double-cirewt line will connect
the power mouse With the power pant
at the Winnipeg Electric railway at Pima
wa higher up the river. \ double-loop con
nection will thus be maintained between
the city and the source OF power.
Winnipeg river flows from Lake of the
| Woods into Lake Winnipeg and is 16l
miles long. Government engineers who
made an elaborate survey of the stream
several years ago, declared it held Tho
greatest possibilities of power deve1op
ment of any river on the continent They
estimated its total potential hydro-elec
tric energy at $4,000 continuous horse
power and selected nine falls as the mos
advantageous sites for the building 0
power plants Two of these sites aread,
have been utilized, The pioneer plant i
that of the Winnipeg Electric railway a
Pinawa. The other in operation is tn
Winnipeg Municipal Power plant at Poiu
du Bo;s. The new plant at Little D.
Bonnet Falls will be the third great ste
in Harvesting the river for industrial pun
| noses