THE WATER WHEEL.
Summer found us again on Willow Clump Island with heads full of new
ideas. Bill had come across an old copy of Ewbanks' "Hydraulics" in the
school library. It was a book describing machines of the
ancients--principally devices for raising water. Rather dry reading, I
thought, even though it was a wet subject; but Bill seemed to find it
absorbingly interesting. I came in late one afternoon, after a glorious
game of baseball, only to find Bill poring over the yellowed leaves of
the "Hydraulics" as fascinated as most fellows would be over a detective
story. It exasperated me to note that he thought more of this old book
than he did of our baseball team.
"Bill," I exclaimed, "what's got into you? I can't for the life of me
see what is so entertaining in that prehistoric book."
"Oh, go way. Don't bother me," was the surly reply.
But I wouldn't be put off that way. Quickly I snatched the book from his
grasp and threw it out the window.
"Now, sir," I cried, "maybe you will kindly explain to me why you
persist in studying that old volume, to the neglect of our baseball
team."
"Don't get so excited, old chap," he replied. "That book is all right.
I'm studying up some new schemes for next year's expedition to Willow
Clump Island. Why, there are lots of things in that old book that we can
make." And he proceeded to unfold his plans, sketching out some curious
designs of water wheels and pumps.
By the time school closed for the summer Bill had thoroughly digested
that volume, and was ready to reconstruct many of the ancient machines.
THE WATER WHEEL.
Our first work on reaching the island was to erect a water wheel, or
"noria," as it was called in the book, in front of the camp. It had been
a great nuisance to keep our filter barrel full. Every few days we would
have to form a bucket brigade, passing pails of water up the line until
the barrel was filled. Now Bill proposed to do away with all this bother
and let the river do the work for us.
SURVEYING FOR THE WATER WHEEL.
We first determined the height of the upper filter barrel above the
level of the river. This was done with our surveying instrument, which
was set level with the top of the barrel. We sighted with the instrument
to a long pole that was held upright at the edge of the water. The pole
had been marked off into feet with white chalk marks, and on sighting
through the sight holes we found that the hairs came in line with the
eleventh chalk mark. The top of the filter was, therefore, 11 feet above
the level of the river. Bill figured that it would be necessary to
construct a wheel about 15 feet in diameter in order to raise the water
to the proper height.
[Illustration: Fig. 250. Surveying for the Water Wheel.]
TOWERS FOR THE WATER WHEEL.
[Illustration: Fig. 251. Frame for Large Tower.]
First we built the towers to support the wheel. One tower was 16 feet
high and the other only 10 feet. The large tower was made something like
a very tall and narrow saw-horse. Two stout poles 17 feet long were
flattened at their upper ends and nailed together, with the ends
projecting about a foot, as shown in Fig. 251. At the bottom these poles
were spaced 8 feet apart by a cross bar, and about 9-1/2 feet from the
bottom a pair of boards were nailed to opposite sides of the pole to
serve as supports for the axle of the water wheel. Another pair of
17-foot poles was now similarly fastened together and then the two pairs
were spaced about 12 feet apart and connected at the top and bottom with
boards.
[Illustration: Fig. 252. The Large Tower.]
[Illustration: Fig. 253. V-shaped Trough.]
At the top two smooth boards were used and these were nailed to the
inner sides of the projecting ends, which were tapered off. In this
manner a V-shaped trough was formed. The boards were firmly nailed
together at their meeting edges so as to prevent them from warping
apart. A diagonal brace at each corner made the wedge-shaped tower very
substantial. A number of cleats nailed to one of the poles provided a
ladder by which we could mount to the top of the tower. The shorter
tower was a three-legged affair, made of three 12-foot poles. At first
two of these were flattened and nailed together at their upper ends, and
they were braced at the top and bottom. The third leg was then nailed in
place and braced by cross bars connecting it with the other two poles.
THE WHEEL.
[Illustration: Fig. 254. The Small Tower.]
[Illustration: Fig. 255. The Hub.]
We were now ready to make the wheel. From Lumberville four 1/2-inch
boards, each 3 inches wide and 15 feet long, were procured; also a bar
of iron 3/4 of an inch in diameter and 2 feet long. At the center of one
of the boards a block of wood 4 inches long and 4 inches in diameter was
nailed on for a hub. A 3/4-inch hole was now drilled through this hub
and the board. Holes were also drilled into the other boards at their
centers. Then they were all strung onto the bar and spaced like spokes
at equal angles apart. Bill had figured it out some way that the ends of
the boards should be just about 5 feet 10-1/2 inches apart. When the
boards were all arranged we nailed them together at the center, and
connected the ends with narrow tie boards, as indicated in Fig. 256.
THE BUCKETS.
[Illustration: Fig. 256. The Water Wheel.]
Eight large tomato cans were now procured and fastened to the spokes at
the ends on the inner side, that is, the side the hub was nailed to. We
couldn't very well nail on the cans, so we punched two holes in the side
of each can and then secured them to the spokes by passing bolts through
these holes and the boards.
THE PADDLES.
[Illustration: Fig. 257. A Paddle.]
Then we cut sixteen paddles of the form shown in Fig. 257. Eight of
these were 12 inches long, and the rest measured 18 inches. A slot 3
inches deep was cut in each paddle of just the right width to slip over
the tie boards. The shorter paddles were fastened on just back of the
spokes, and the rest were secured half-way between each spoke. The
paddles were braced by stretching a wire from one to another all the way
around the wheel.
THE RECEIVING TROUGH.
[Illustration: Fig. 258. How the Paddles and Cans Were Attached.]
[Illustration: Fig 259. The Receiving Trough.]
Our next task was to nail the receiving trough in place on the higher
tower. We set up the towers on land and mounted the wheel between them
with the axle resting in the crotch of the short tower and in a deep
notch cut in the cross boards of the larger one. The cans on the wheel
faced the larger tower, but the hub at the center and a block nailed to
the larger tower spaced the wheel far enough out so that the cans did
not strike the tower as they revolved. We carefully measured the
distance between the spokes and the larger tower, and then built a
square trough of a size to just fit into this space. This trough was
nailed across the end of the V-shaped trough on top of the tower, but a
notch was cut in the side so that the water would pour from the square
or receiving trough into this V-shaped one. The square trough was about
8 feet long and its sides were 12 inches high; but at the ends we had to
cut them down to a height of but 6 inches, so as to permit the cans to
pass without hitting them.
SETTING UP THE TOWERS.
Our filter was located nearly 20 feet from the end of the river, and in
order to get a good current of water to revolve our wheel we had to
place it about 15 feet from shore. This necessitated building a trough
line 35 feet long. Ten feet of this line were already provided in the
top of the tall tower. This tower was now set up in place with the legs
firmly wedged into holes excavated in the bottom of the river. The legs
on the shore side were sunk a little deeper, so as to tilt the trough
slightly shoreward. The outer end of the trough was about 12 feet above
the level of the water. We needed but one more tower to support the
remainder of the trough line. This tower was built like the first one,
but was much shorter, as it was erected on land and the level of the
trough at the top had to be 5 or 6 inches lower so as to make the water
flow. We connected the towers by another V-shaped trough section. This
we nailed to the under side of the first trough and to the inside of the
second trough. The latter was then in the same way connected by a trough
section with the upper filter barrel. We now rigged up our shorter tower
about a foot from the taller one, wedging in the legs so that the top
came level with the slotted boards of the other tower.
MOUNTING THE WATER WHEEL.
Then came the task of mounting our wheel in place. We were working in a
pretty strong current and found it no easy matter. In the first place,
the wheel was floated down to the towers, but there it got jammed and we
couldn't lift it up. One of the paddles was broken and a bucket wrenched
off before we could disentangle the wheel from the towers, and then the
wheel was carried quite a distance down-stream before we could drag it
in to shore.
Our next attempt was more successful. This time we anchored the wheel so
that it just cleared the towers, then fastening a couple of long guy
ropes to it, we raised the wheel on edge, while a boy stood on each side
holding the ropes to keep the wheel steady. The anchor rope was now
slowly paid out and the wheel was rolled in between the towers. This
done, the wheel was lifted up and the axle rod was pushed in, with the
ends of the rod resting in slots of the boards on the tall tower and in
the crotch on the shorter one. To prevent the axle rod from working
endwise out of its bearings, we nailed pieces of wood across the crotch
and the slots against the ends of the rod. Then we cast off the anchor
rope and our wheel started work, the cans dipping up the water as they
were carried around by the wheel and pouring it out of the top into the
receiving trough, from which the water flowed down into the filter
barrel.
COOLING THE FILTER BARREL.
[Illustration: Fig. 260. The Water Wheel in Action.]
The trough line was very leaky and a great deal of water splashed out of
the buckets. But for all that, within a few moments our barrel was full
and overflowing. We hadn't figured on its filling so rapidly, but we
soon found a way of utilizing the surplus water. It was led to a
half-barrel in which we washed our dishes, and from there it flowed
through a ditch back to the river. The water for the wash barrel was
taken from the top of the upper filter barrel. But we let the lower
filter barrel flow over so that it would be kept wet on the outside. Our
filter was fortunately placed at a point where a good breeze struck it,
and we shoveled away the earth that had been piled around it so that the
wind playing on the wet barrel evaporated the moisture, making the water
inside very cool.
THE CANVAS BUCKET.
[Illustration: Fig. 261. Bottom of Bucket.]
This same trick was used for cooling our drinking water whenever we went
off on an expedition away from camp. We had a heavy canvas bucket, the
kind used on ships. We would fill this bucket with water and then hang
it up in the wind. The water seeping out of the pores of the bucket
would be evaporated by the wind, and this would, in a few moments, make
the water inside delightfully cool. Such buckets may be bought for $1.50
to $2.00 apiece, but ours was a home-made affair, and made somewhat
differently from the store kind. The canvas used was the heaviest we
could find. A piece 9 inches in diameter was cut out for the bottom. A
ring 7 inches in diameter, made of heavy brass wire, was laid on the
canvas, and the cloth was turned over it and sewed down the inside of
the ring. For the sides of the bucket we cut a piece 14 inches wide and
23 inches long. The upper edge was strengthened by a piece of light rope
held in place by hemming the cloth over it. The lower edge was now sewed
to the bottom, just inside the wire ring and then the ends of the piece
were joined, completing the sides of the bucket. The bail of the bucket
was formed of a piece of rope fastened to the roped upper edge of the
bucket.
[Illustration: Fig. 262. The Canvas Bucket.]
But to return to the current wheel; the day after it was completed, when
I went over to Lumberville for the mail, I was met by old Jim Halliday,
who wanted to know what sort of a rig we had out on the river. I told
him, and after a dint of much persuasion, induced him to take a ride
back in the scow with me. He had never visited our camp and hadn't
realized how handy we were with the tools, because, with the exception
of the current wheel, all our work had been done on the opposite side of
the island. We made him a guest of honor, showing him over the whole
place. The bridges struck him as remarkably clever, but what pleased him
most was our current wheel.
"I swan," he said. "Ef that ain't jest the thing I have been awantin'
for the past twenty year. What'll ye sell me the hull plant fer, boys?"
MR. HALLIDAY'S WATER WHEEL.
[Illustration: Fig. 263. Mr. Halliday's Water Wheel.]
We thought he was fooling at first, but when he had assured us that he
was in earnest, Bill told him that we needed our own plant, but we could
build him a similar and even better current wheel for any amount he
thought it was worth to him. The figure settled on was six dollars (a
dollar apiece) for our work, Mr. Halliday paying for the material. It
was not a large sum, but it seemed a lot to us, and considering the
scarcity of money in that region it was pretty generous pay. We built
Mr. Halliday's current wheel just like our own, except that the paddles
were much broader, and instead of using cans for the buckets Mr.
Halliday supplied us with small dinner pails. The method of fastening on
the pails is shown in Fig. 263. A stick was nailed across the end of
each spoke and the bail of the pail was held by a screw eye threaded
into this stick. The pails would hang straight, holding all the water
without spilling a drop until the receiving trough was reached. This
trough was fastened high enough to strike the bottom of the pails as
they went by, tipping them over and emptying them of their contents.
From the trough the water ran directly into a large cider barrel and
from here was carried through a pipe to Mr. Halliday's barn. A stopcock
was here provided so that he could turn the water on or off, as he
desired. The use of pails was a great improvement on tin can buckets.
Fully three times as much water was poured into the receiving trough,
because not a drop was spilled out on the way up.