This book is included in the Self Reliance Water & Wells section.
PREFACE
A considerable portion of the matter contained in this
work has appeared in a serial form in the monthly issues of
Leffel's Illustrated Milling and Mechanical News, but has
been carefully revised and corrected for republication in
this form ; while the remaining chapters and illustrations
are entirely new, being now printed for the first time.
While the series of articles on this subject was in progress
in the monthly journal referred to, the degree of interest
with which it was received by the milling public was
indicated by frequent requests from all parts of the country
for files of the paper containing the complete series. The
number and the urgent character of these applications,
with most of which the publishers were unable to comply,
the earlier editions of the paper being soon exhausted,
suggested the expediency of publishing the series entire,
in a form which would admit of fully supplying both the
present and future demand. It may also be said, in further
justification of this course, that in view of all the circumstances
of the case and the amount of labor and outlay
required in the preparation of these articles with the illustrations
accompanying them, it seemed desirable that the
results attained should be put in more permanent shape
than it is possible to give them in a periodical publication.
The collection of materials for this work occupied a period
of over three years, and the facts embodied in it were
gathered from all sections of our country, so that for American
readers at least we may venture to hope that it will
not be found wanting in comprehensiveness and variety.
Abstract and technical features, it will be observed, have
been uniformly avoided, our object being to make this
volume useful in the highest possible degree to every person
owning water power or interested in any way in its
utilization. To this end we have chosen the presentation
of the subjects discussed in this volume in the most direct
and practical form ; and whatever may be its deficiencies
in other respects, we trust that by minuteness of detail
and distinctness of description it may be rendered serviceable
to the class of readers to whose favor it is respectfully
commended.
JAMES LEFFEL & CO.
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO.
Contents
Introduction Material and Form of Dams A Beaver Dam Log Dam for Soft or Sandy Bottoms A Safe and Economical Dam Hollow Frame Dam Rip-Rap Dam Crib Dam Dam for Rock Bottom Pile Dam The Housatonic Dam at Birmingham, Connecticut Plank Crib Dam The Moline Dam Boulder Wing Dam Brush, Stone and Gravel Dam Curved Plank Dam for Rock Bottom Construction of Dam Between Coffers Stone Dam near Frankfort, Kentucky An Iron Dam Pile and Boulder Dams Stone Dams Dam at Lawrence, Kansas Dam on the Tassoo River, Hindostan Lock and Dam at Henry, Illinois Crib Dam with Plank Covering Plank Dam at Gilboa, Ohio Frame Dam at Clifton, Ohio Timber Dam at New Hartford, Connecticut Log Dam for Narrow Streams Frame Dam on Mad River Dam at Osborn City, Kansas Stone and Timber Dam Dam for Quicksand Bottom Overhung Apron Dams Stone Dam with Plank Covering Timber Dam at South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts Stone Apron Dam Pile and Frame Dam Pile and Brush Dam Log and Plank Dam Frame Dam with Sheet Piling Double Crib Dam Trestle Dam Light Frame Dam Dam for Rock and Sand Bottom Race and Reservoir Embankments Head-Gates for Races and Canals Gauging the Supply to Water Wheels Weir Dam Measurement of Water To Measure Water More Accurately Measurement of Large Open Streams
INTRODUCTION.
The household proverb that "Fire is a good servant, but
a bad master," is true in an almost equal degree of water,
its opposing element. Under the intelligent control of man,
the power of water is one of the chief instrumentalities in
promoting human comfort and spreading the blessings of
civilization. The uses to which it may be turned are so
various, and the products for the manufacture of which it
is a serviceable agent are of such manifold forms and minister
to so many wants of our nature, that the country
which is possessed of abundant water power is looked upon
as especially favored by Providence. But this invaluable
servant, if once it bursts over the bounds which have been
set for its action, becomes a destructive scourge, laying
waste the very fields whose tillage it had made profitable
and bringing to poverty, in an hour as it were, a whole
community, whom until then it had sustained in prosperous
industry. More than one such instance occurs in our own
memory and doubtless in that of every reader, where an
insignificant stream along whose banks thousands of men,
women and children have earned for years a secure livelihood,
has risen in its might and swept away with its swollen
torrent all the fruits of those years of labor, often not
sparing even the life of the laborer himself, and in a single
day inflicting damage which a generation may not see
repaired.
As the first step in the improvement of a water power is
the construction of the dam, so the first consideration in
that work is strength and durability. While the builder
of a mill is bound to consult economy in the means he
employs in obtaining a sufficient fall for the purposes of his
business, and diverting from its natural channel that portion
of the stream which is to be made directly available,
the economy which does not provide a sure resistance to
sudden floods is very apt to prove the worst form of extravagance
in the end. The tremendous power which a
stream acquires in time of high water is seldom properly
estimated when it is seen moving tranquilly within its
usual bounds. When the day of disaster comes, the trifling
neglect which brought it on is regretted, but too late for
remedy. Our object in the present volume is to offer a few
suggestions which may be of practical value to our readers,
in regard to the methods by which a dam may be economically
built and yet be of effectual service and the greatest
attainable durability. The power of water being by far
the cheapest motive power which can be applied to manufacturing
purposes, it is important to inquire how it may be
employed with the least expense, without sacrifice of
strength and utility.
We may perhaps safely venture the assertion that in this
volume is presented a larger number and greater variety of
dams of different styles, materials and methods of construction
than can be found illustrated in like manner in
any other work upon the subject; for although a vitally
important branch of the business of milling, it has generally
been suffered to pass with comparatively slight attention.
The building of the mill itself, the application of the motive
power and the construction of the machinery for its
transmission, are matters upon which innumerable authorities
may be consulted ; but for the erection of the dam,
which may be justly regarded as the very foundation of the
enterprise, the mill-owner has been left in a great measure
to his own devices, aided by such conflicting counsels as he
can obtain from his neighbors and his mill-wright. It has
been our aim to supply in some degree this manifest
deficiency in the literature of the milling business, and to
present the results of a somewhat extended experience and
observation in a form which will render them of service to
others who are seeking information on this subject.
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