Water power in many of the States is abundant and contributes largely to
their prosperity. Its proper development calls for the services of the
civil engineer, and as it is the branch of the profession with which I
am most familiar, I propose to offer a few remarks on the subject.
The earliest applications were to grist and saw mills; carding and
fulling mills soon followed; these were essential to the comfort of the
early settlers who relied on home industries for shelter, food, and
clothing, but with the progress of the country came other requirements.
The earliest application of water power to general manufacturing
purposes appears to have been at Paterson, New Jersey, where "The
Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures" was formed in the year
1791. The Passaic River at this point furnishes, when at a minimum,
about eleven hundred horse power continuously night and day.
The water power at Lowell, Massachusetts, was begun to be improved for
general manufacturing purposes in 1822. The Merrimack River at this
point has a fall of thirty-five feet, and furnishes, at a minimum, about
ten thousand horse power during the usual working hours.
At Cohoes, in the State of New York, the Mohawk River has a fall
of about one hundred and five feet, which was brought into use
systematically very soon after that at Lowell, and could furnish about
fourteen thousand horse power during the usual working hours, but
the works are so arranged that part of the power is not available at
present.
At Manchester, New Hampshire, the present works were commenced in 1835.
The Merrimack River at this point has a fall of about fifty-two feet,
and furnishes, at a minimum, about ten thousand horse power during the
usual working hours.
At Lawrence, Massachusetts, the Essex Co. built a dam across the
Merrimack River, commencing in 1845, and making a fall of about
twenty-eight feet, and a minimum power, during the usual working hours,
of about ten thousand horse power.
At Holyoke, Massachusetts, the Hadley Falls Co. commenced their works
about 1845, for developing the power of the Connecticut River at that
point, where there is a fall of about fifty feet, and at a minimum,
about seventeen thousand horse power during the usual working hours.
At Lewiston, Maine, the fall in the Androscoggin River is about fifty
feet; its systematic development was commenced about 1845, and with the
improvement of the large natural reservoirs at the head waters of the
river, now in progress, it is expected that a minimum power, during
the usual working hours, of about eleven thousand horse power will be
obtained.
At Birmingham, Connecticut, the Housatonic Water Co. have developed the
water power of the Housatonic River by a dam, giving twenty-two feet
fall, furnishing at a minimum about one thousand horse power during the
usual working hours.
The Dundee Water and Land Co., about 1858, developed the power of the
Passaic River, at Passaic, New Jersey, where there is a fall of about
twenty-two feet, giving a minimum power, during the usual working hours,
of about nine hundred horse power.
The Turners Falls Co., in 1866, commenced the development of the power
of the Connecticut River at Turners Falls, Massachusetts, by building a
dam on the middle fall, which is about thirty-five feet, and furnishes
a minimum power, during the usual working hours, of about ten thousand
horse power.
I have named the above water powers as being developed in a systematic
manner from their inception, and of which I have been able to obtain
some data. In the usual process of developing a large water power, a
company is formed, who acquire the title to the property, embracing the
land necessary for the site of the town, to accommodate the population
which is sure to gather around an improved water power. The dam and
canals or races are constructed, and mill sites, with accompanying
rights to the use of the water, are granted, usually by perpetual leases
subject to annual rents. This method of developing water power is
distinctly an American idea, and the only instance where it has been
attempted abroad, that I know of, is at Bellegarde in France, where
there is a fall in the Rhone of about thirty-three feet. Within the last
few years works have been constructed for its development, furnishing a
large amount of power, but from the great outlay incurred in acquiring
the titles to the property, and other difficulties, it has not been a
financial success.
The water powers I have named are but a small fraction of the whole
amount existing in the United States and the adjoining Dominion of
Canada. There is Niagara, with its two or three millions of horse power;
the St. Lawrence, with its succession of falls from Lake Ontario to
Montreal; the Falls of St. Antony, at Minneapolis; and many other falls,
with large volumes of water, on the upper Mississippi and its branches.
It would be a long story to name even the large water powers, and the
smaller ones are almost innumerable. In the State of Maine a survey of
the water power has recently been made, the result, as stated in the
official report, being "between one and two millions of horse power,"
part of which will probably not be available. There is an elevated
region in the northern part of the South Atlantic States, exceeding in
area one hundred thousand square miles, in which there is a vast amount
of water power, and being near the cotton fields, with a fine climate,
free from malaria, its only needs are railways, capital, and population,
to become a great manufacturing section.
The design and construction of the works for developing a large water
power, together with the necessary arrangements for utilizing it and
providing for its subdivision among the parties entitled to it according
to their respective rights, affords an extensive field for civil
engineers; and in view of the vast amount of it yet undeveloped, but
which, with the increase of population and the constantly increasing
demand for mechanical power as a substitute for hand labor, must come
into use, the field must continue to enlarge for a long time to come.
There are many cases in which the power of a waterfall can be made
available by means of compressed air more conveniently than by the
ordinary motors. The fall may be too small to be utilized by the
ordinary motors; the site where the power is wanted may be too distant
from the waterfall; or it may be desired to distribute the power in
small amounts at distant points.[1] A method of compressing air by means
of a fall of water has been devised by Mr. Joseph P. Frizell, C.E.,
of St. Paul, Minnesota, which, from the extreme simplicity of the
apparatus, promises to find useful applications. The principle on which
it operates is, by carrying the air in small bubbles in a current
of water down a vertical shaft, to the depth giving the desired
compression, then through a horizontal passage in which the bubbles rise
into a reservoir near the top of this passage, the water passing on and
rising in another vertical or inclined passage, at the top of which it
is discharged, of course, at a lower level than it entered the first
shaft.
[Footnote 1: _Journal of the Franklin Institute_ for September, 1877.]
The formation at waterfalls is usually rock, which would enable the
passages and the reservoir for collecting the compressed air to be
formed by simple excavations, with no other apparatus than that required
to charge the descending column of water with the bubbles of air,
which can be done by throwing the water into violent commotion at its
entrance, and a pipe and valve for the delivery of the air from the
reservoir.
The transfer of power by electricity is one of the problems now engaging
the attention of electricians, and it is now done in Europe in a
small way. Sir William Thomson stated in evidence before an English
parliamentary committee, two years ago, that he looked "forward to the
Falls of Niagara being extensively used for the production of light and
mechanical power over a large area of North America," and that a copper
wire half an inch in diameter would transmit twenty-one thousand horse
power from Niagara to Montreal, Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. His
statements appear to have been based on theoretical considerations; but
there is no longer any doubt as to the possibility of transferring power
in this manner--its practicability for industrial purposes must
be determined by trial. Dr. Paget Higgs, a distinguished English
electrician, is now experimenting on it in the City of New York.
Great improvements in reaction water wheels have been made in the United
States within the last forty years. In the year 1844, the late Uriah
Atherton Boyden, a civil engineer of Massachusetts, commenced the design
and construction of Fourneyron turbines, in which he introduced various
improvements and a general perfection of form and workmanship, which
enabled a larger percentage of the theoretical power of the water to be
utilized than had been previously attained. The great results obtained
by Boyden with water wheels made in his perfect manner, and, in some
instances, almost regardless of cost, undoubtedly stimulated others to
attempt to approximate to these results at less cost; and there are now
many forms of wheel of low cost giving fully double the power, with the
same consumption of water, that was obtained from most of the older
forms of wheels of the same class.