Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-05-26
IContinued From First Fage.)

tC0ntlnued From First FageD
generation that he estimated would
generate half the power of Niagara
four times that of Muscle Shoals.
At Passamaquoddy, which reaches
from the Northern Maine boundary
into New Brunswick, the tides range
TO 81 feet. The bay covers leo square
miles. A bay half as large-Cobs-
cook Bay-lies wholly within Maine
bounds. Coopers plan was to drop
the Passamaquoddy head of water
into Cobscook Bay, trapping the drop
of q feet at each tide in vast gener-
ators, to produce. he figured. mere
than 10000 100000 kilowatt hours of
= current year.
When he had to give up the pros
pect Of Canadian cooperation, ne re-
duced his scheme to At the American
waters of Cobscook Bay, where there
is tide drop averaging Is feet
The present scheme is to catch the
power of the falling tide by turbines
placed in a dam that will divide
Cobscook Bay.
A 4-mile dam will divide the bay
into an upper and lower pool
Another dam with hinged gates
will separate the lower pool from the
outer bay. shutting out the tides and
keeping the lower pool at low tide
level. A third dam will divide the
upper pool from the outer bay. Its
gates will be opened at the crest of
each incoming tide to fill the pool, and
then closed to keep it at high tide
level.
Each Tide to Fill Pool.
The difference in levels between
the upper and lower pool will average
Is feet. and this will furnish the
head of power The water will fall
continuously from the upper to the
lower pool through the turbine gen.
orators in the middle dam. The
emptying of the upper pool will be
replaced at the crest of each tide by
opening the gates for 2it hours. The
gradual filling Of the lower pool by
the flow from the upper level through
the power house will be drained by
opening the outgoing gates for three
hours at each dead low tide
The power house. to be located at
the Eastport end of the dam. will be
capable of generating 100000 horse
power.
The Quoddy power plant is to be
built by Army engineers. Maj. Philip
NJ. Fleming. one Of the key men in
the Public Works Administration, has
been detailed to the task. Dexter
Cooper has been hired by the ad-
ninistration as conSultant to guide
in bringing his dream to reality. He
Is getting now the thrill he antici-
pated 10 years ago when. in the early
flush Of his enthusiasm for the
Quoddy scheme, he said:
Think of the thrill Of taking this
power all over the State Think of
the villages that can be resuscitated
Maine going back? No such thing.
You can't say country Is retrograd-
ing when not half Of its resources
have been tapped"
Private Engineers Scott.
Critics who have called the Quoddy
scheme unsound still want to be
shown. Power company engineers
. have called it "a Townsend plan for
the State of Maine" Something
that happened when a dream got
into politics was one scoffing sum-
mary of it.
The president of the Maine Cen
trail Power Co. says that there is no
market for the Quoddy power The
secretary of the Maine Associated In
dustries says that electricity can be
generated nearly as cheaply by steam
and that the Quoddy project was no
use unless as a political gesture"
The president of the Bangor Hydro
electric Co., on the other hand said
he would welcome ANY enterprise
that would benefit the State of
Maine" He did not see any compe-
tition with his company for five years