The Hood River Glacier, Hood River, OR., November 9, 1905, page 1
POWER PLANT IN OPERATION
Addition To City's Resources
Description of Its Construction and Advantages -- Has Capacity of 500 horsepower
and Cost $30,000.
About a mile up the Hood River valley, partially hidden
by a clump of trees, is an unpretentious looking building housing an enterprise
that is perhaps to be more closely identified with the comfort, convenience
and prosperity of the city of Hood River than any institution that has over
been erected within or near its confines. It is the new plant of the Electric
Light & Power company, with a capacity of' 500 horsepower, and is obtained
from the most economical motive power known to man -- water.
While it takes just as much power to produce a given
quaintly of electrical a horsepower as it does to produce an equal number
of steam horse-power, electrical power, with the exception above noted, is
the most economical in use today. The reduced cost of electricity is in its
conductivity -- in the fact that it can be conveyed so far away from its
base of supply in an almost undiminished quantity and that it can be utilized
in so many ways. Therefore, who you have combined water power with electricity
you have reached the some of economical motive power.
The erection of the plant itself was quite an undertaking
for its promotion and reflects no small credit upon them, as it also does
on the manufacturing resources of Hood River, for practically all the material
for its use apart from the machinery was made in this city. The boards for
the wood stave pipe, which is five foot in diameter and 3000 feet, in length,
were dressed and prepared in the box factory of the Davidson Company, consumed
140,000 feet of lumber. The pipe is banded with half-inch round iron bands,
bolted together at the ends with an arrangement which allows them to be loosened
or tightened, according to the expansion or contraction of the wood. Two
carloads of iron rods were used in the construction of these bands, which
were made by Snow & Upson, who bought special machinery and ordered to
complete the contract.
Near the powerhouse and rising out of the top of the
pipe is a stand-pipe 43 feet high and about two feet in diameter, with a
sluice at the top, which extends downward and empties into a ditch constructed
to carry away the waste water. The standpipe is necessary to relieve the
strain on the flume when the pressure is too great. Paralleling the railroad
embankment for about 1400 feet the pipe runs under the proposed tracks of
the new railroad through a culvert, rounds a sharp point on the riverbank
and crosses the stream over a bridge of the suspension type. Continuing 1300
feet up the valley, it reaches the dam, which is constructed in a narrow
defile in the river, with bluffs rising 200 or 300 feet on each side.
To construct the dam required one of the nicest engineering
feats of the work, as the water here is both deep and swift and the fall
from this point to the power house is 56 feet. It is 105 feet across from
side to side of the river, 60 feet wide at the base and 20 foot wide on the
spillway, with a height of 12 feet. Constructed on the crib plan and braced
with huge logs it looks as though it will last for all line. In fact it has
already been subjected to one of the severest strains it is likely to ever
bear during the recent high water, when driftwood and logs borne down stream
by the swift current became caught above the structure and caused a vast
quantity of water to pour over the spillway. The water gates consist of two
outside ones protected from the driftwood by strong guards, and one inside
at the point of intake by which the pressure of the water can be more or
less controlled. There is also a waste gate constructed on the opposite side
of the dam through which such a volume of water passes as to astonish the
beholder. The construction of a fish ladder is about completed as required
by the state laws.
The span of the bridge is 180 foot with approaches on
each side and is amply strong to bear the weight of the big water
way.
In the power house the machinery is of the latest
construction, consisting of two generators and their exicters, switchboard
and latest devices for controlling the current.
Twin turbines 18 inches in diameter furnish the power
for the electrical They are of the McCormick new type high speed and were
especially manufactured for this purpose. The distinctive feature about them
being that they are directly connected to the same shaft that oper-ates the
generator.
The selection of the site of this plant is a very good
one as while it is almost as low as the river bed it-self, which is necessary
in order to obtain such a fine fall of water, it is protected from high water
in the river by the railroad embankment at this point. The generator and
dynamos are placed on a concrete foundation varying from 12 to 11 feet thick,
thereby reducing the vibration to a minimum. The water wheel is of the McCormick
patent, built by the S. Morgan Smith company of York, Pa., and the generator
of the Bullock manufacture, of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is of the latest revolving
field type and was supplied by their agents at Seattle, the Bogart-Bates
company.
The plant was put in operation for lighting service on
Nov. 1, and on Nov. 12 a 24-hour service for both light and power will be
inaugurated. It is now supplying power for 1450 lights, but has a capacity
of between 5,000 and 6,000 lights.
A 40 horsepower induction motor, with accompanying electrical
apparatus, is being placed in the Davidson Fruit company 's plant to operate
its refrigerating machinery, and a number of business places in this city
are going to put motors in to supply power for various purposes.
The plant is complete in every de-tail and is far superior
to many to be found in towns of much greater magnitude than Hood river, and
presents an opportunity to manufacturers seeking a location where transportation
facilities will be in a year or so be as good if not better than most places
in the state, and within easy access of Pacific Coast points, while avoiding
the high taxation that prevails in large cities.
To place the entire plant in operation cost $130,000.
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© Jeffrey L. Elmer