The Republican journal., 1920-01-01
The Central Maine Power Plant
at Skowhegan.
Continued from last week.

The station will contain five generating
units OF the most modern type and each
one of them will generate more power
than all the power developments now IN
operation at Skowhegan.
Present engineering plans call for the
complete installation of at least one OF
these generating units by next summer
and the other four will be added as soon
as is possible. They will be classed as
the largest waterwheel assemblies III
Maine.
Five vertical waterwheels, set IN con-
crete foundations, with heavy shafts exo
tending up to the poWerhouse 1loor, ~
feet above water level, will be connecteo
to the generators. Each of these water
wheel assemblies will weigh over 1O TONS
and the weight of each generating unit
will be more than 400 tons. The reVoiV-
ins parts of the units alone VIII weigh
more than 80 tons each.
The powerhouse itself will be COM
bined brick and steel structure OF Design
that will make it an object OF beauty ana
nride to Skowhegan. The building Will
be 40 feet wide and $50 feet long, with
big. modernly equipped switching room
occupying one end. A huge travelling
electric crane with a 40 ton capacity Will
be installed in the room over the gener-
atina units for lifting parts of them for
repairs.
When one powerhouse is completed and
at least one of the big units is turning out
power, the engineers will turn their eff
forts to the building of two new dams,
one in the north chanI 500 feet long
and one in the south chthhel 200 feet in
length. These dams will be of massive
concrete construction and equipped with
specially designed gates and regulating
apparatus to control the flood flows of
the river to give maximum protection to
the surrounding territory at flood times.
They will also have log sluices so the
thousands of logs may come down the
river without interference and without
damage to the dams.
There is something stirring for the
spectator watching this little army Of
men in their battle with nature. Imagine
these pygmies daring to say to the river
eve want piece of Ian you are flowing
over and you must move OFF, 1maginS
pushing these rushing, angry waters bacE /
and back from the land these men wan,
to use! Driving the dashing stream inc
by inch from it's cwn bed with the !
pygmy efforts-and holding it there!
Fearless men riding on the tumultuoE
breast of the very waters they are def
ing, the while they build part of the coffT /
dam from RATS! They fear not the wal
ers themselves, nor the cold of Wint'r
nature calls in to aid her in this fgt |
against man. The waters may gathr
themselves together, the rain may core
to aid in making the flood-but the brsns
MI cd pot1 .
brute force-and the Golfer dam holds!
The Kennebec is stream of moods no
man can tell what the eccentric stre3m
may do at any time. Floods are not he
product of any given season--they re
the result of combined climatic nd
weather conditions up river 1t is lis
that makes the fight With
the stream so thrilling and spectacula,
A short time ago, when the cotferam
was in the making, the Kennebec mae
desperate attempt to wreSt back the art
of its bed the presumptous pygmies lad
taken from it. A heavy rain on fTzen
ground for miles up the stream suffice to
make flood.
Now the very nature of the river bed
at Skowhegan renders flood there lore
dangerous to the efforts of man TIM at
almost any other point, for just tlow
the town the high rock banks narrow
very perceptibly. The engineers Dund
with their measurements that TSe of
one foot above the dam, means a Use of
two feet below it, where the cofferom is
constructed. The rushing water annot
crowd through the narrowing was be-
low the town and so sets back.
So when the word came from u river
that flood was in the making, tie en-
gineers stood back and watched suits.
They did not fear any great internal
damage to their partially complied cof-
ferdam, for they had built it W h just
such emergencies in mind. Ovcnight,
the waters rose angrily and rapiIy and
morning saw the water below tie dam
not one, or two, but five and a hIf feet J