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1902.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. 21 GREAT WATER POWER CANAL FINISHED. The great water power canal at the Sault, which has just been finished, after four years of construction and an expendi- ture of $5,000,000, is regarded by engineers as one of the most magnificent works of its kind in the world. Like a river, 220 ft. broad and deep enough to float the biggest vessel that sails the lakes, the canal divides Sault Ste. Marie into a city of two parts, with the island portion, now for the first time completely sur- rounded by water, the business section, and the balance of the city given over to the homes of its citizens. The canal is 2 1/3 miles long, from the mouth of the intake above the rapids to the overflow far below the entrance to the ship canals. The average width is 224 ft. and the depth is 22 ft. The intake has an area of more than 15,000 sq. ft., through which will flow a volume which is estimated to be 30,000 cu. ft. per second, with a velocity of about 2 ft. per second, or about 114 miles per hour. The entrance is 891 ft. wide and 18 ft. deep. In its excavation some 300,000 cubic yards of material were removed. At a point about 1,000 ft. east of the entrances the intake merges into the canal proper, the dimensions of which are outlined above. A cross section of the canal at this point measures 4,425 sq. ft. For a distance of 4,100 ft. from this point the canal is cut through solid rock. In cutting out the channel through this rock formation the sides were first cut out by chan- neling machines. 'The rock was then drilled, blasted and exca- vated and the sides wherever rough were 'smoothed off with Portland cement. 'The bed was similarly finished. The immense labor necessary to accomplish this can be scarcely comprehended. The appearance of the canal bed, before the water was turned in, was as smooth as the exterior of a stone building. For the bal- ance of the distance the canal traverses a formation of sand, gravel and clay, the excavation of which was not attended by such difficulties. From the point where the rock formation leaves off to the entrance to the power house the sides and bottom of the canal have been planked with the best hemlock timber to be found in northern Michigan. At a point above the water line the tim- bering ceases, and the remainder of the sides is paved with rock. Above that the banks are beautifully sodded, and a row of trees, recently planted at the company's expense, borders each side of the great waterway. The object of planking beneath the water is to reduce the friction, thus securing as large a fall as possible at the point where the water power is secured. The lower 3,000 ft. of the canal is on a continuous curve of about three degrees. The construction of the portion of the canal which traverses earth necessitated the removal of 1,500,000 cubic yards of material, and 15,000,000 ft. of timber were used in the flooring and sides of the canal. The canal in its course through the city crosses thirteen streets, and at the present time is spanned by five steel bridges, one more is under construction, and others are projected by the city for the future as business demands them. At the lower end the canal widens out into the forebay, or millpond, for the pur- pose of securing sufficient frontage for the uniform distribution | of the water to all of the turbines, which are installed along the river face of the forebay in the power house. Because of this expansion the water issuing from the canal will at once disperse and enter the turbines at a velocity of 2 ft. per second. The river front of the forebay is closed by the power house, the duplicate of which cannot be found in the United States. It is constructed of red sandstone, is 48 ft. over a quarter of a mile in length, is 100 ft. wide and 125 ft. high. The massive building sets upon a foundation of piles covered by log sills and caps, and covered with Portland cement concrete to a depth of three feet. The cost of building this foundation alone represents a snug little fortune. She substructure consists of eighty-one masonry walls 100 ft. long, 20 ft. high and 3 ft. thick. The stalls or pits thus formed, aside from supporting the building, serve to deliver the water from the turbines into the river. 'The penstocks are all of uniform dimensions, 40 ft. long, 15 ft. wide and 20 ft. high. The dynamo floor occupies space on the same floor on the river side of the power house. The floor above is used for the machinery, which converts the energy of the water into electrical power. 'The energy to be developed by this immense engineering achievement is estimated at 40,000 H. P., developed by 320 tur- bines. Four of these turbines in pairs are placed in each penstock. All of the turbines are joined to one high shaft of pressed steel. Thus the power is produced to turn the dynamos awaiting on the floor above. 'The electrical equipment of the power house con- sists of eighty dynamos. After converting the water power into electrical power the latter will be' transmitted by feed wires to the doors of the various plants, which are either in course of construction or projected, and which are expected to use the power produced. Among other things, the power will be used to light the streets of the Sault and to propel its street cars. An interesting side feature of the canal is the big moveable dam constructed at the head of the canal to control the volume of water 'This was built by the Detroit Bridge & Iron Co., and the completed structure. it is estimated. represents a cost of not less than $100,000. The dam is made up of four "leaves," 50 ft. long and 28 ft. high, suspended from and operating between piers and solid masonry. When the water is entering the canal freely these leaves are suspended, and when it is desired to stop the flow, the leaves are lowered against a sill in the canal bed. Still another interesting feature is the ice rack, which occupies a space just at the entrance of the forebay. 'This is designed to intercept the ice, logs or other obstructions which may find a way into the canal and divert them into a spillway through which they are conducted into the river. _ One of the serious problems which confront the engineers in planning the canal was the question, the effect of opening such an immense waterway would have upon the level of Lake Supe- tior. Upon this problem the opinions of the very best engineers in the country were secured, and the result was the construction at the head of the rapids of what are known as "compensating works." 'To compensate for the loss of water caused by the opening of a new outlet from Lake Superior which would dis- charge 30,000 cu. ft. per second twenty-four hours a day, 305 days in the year, a submerged weir, or dam, built upon timber cribs secured to the rock bed of the river, filled with concrete with the weir of concrete upon this foundation, was constructed. These compensating works are located at the head of the rapids, just west of the international bridge. Completed, with water filling it brimming full, held in check at its foot by a power house of immense proportions, turning the wheels of machinery sufficient to run the mills of a manufac- turing city of 500,000 souls, the great American Sault power canal stands to-day as the achievement of the genius and daring of one man, F. H. Clergue, who saw the opportunity, grasped it, enlisted the capital, employed lieutenants of the highest skill, and to-day sees the realization of the idea which formed in his own brain but a short four or five years ago. In the industrial history of the great northwest this canal will always stand as an enduring and significant monument to his memory. IMPRESSIONS OF HON. J. ISRAEL TARTE. The Hon. J. Israel 'Tarte, minister of public works of the dominion government, has returned to Ottawa from his tour of inspection of the great lakes. "I left on July 8," said he, "and have been away a month. 'he one thing I have learned as the result of my trip is that we, the people of Canada, must hurry up and keep abreast of the times or close up shop." Continuing, the minister said he was struck with the prosperity of Canadian trade and the natural facilities which the country of-_ fered. All that was wanted now was to spend money to deepen the waterways. He was amazed at the little that had been done and the immense amount of trade Canada had lost in conse- quence. The commercial activity of the United States people appealed to him when he saw that in one short piece of St. Mary's river they had spent $8,000,000 deepening a channel to 21 ft. The great harbors of Duluth, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and every city in the United States, Mr. Tarte said, haye no natural advan- tages over those of Canada, but that the people were willing to spend money for their improvement. They have built wharves, elevators, etc., and have fitted themselves for the trade. Mr. Tarte said he was of the opinion that the St Lawrence route should be lighted and fitted cut with gas buoys and other aids to navigation which would make it possible for the large steamers to come and go freely at any hour of the day or night. oe his opinion the St. Mary's river is a much more difficult river to navigate than the St. Lawrence, yet is so well assisted artificially that it can be safely navigated at any time. Besides this, the minister says that Canadian rivers and the harbors of most every town on the great lakes need to be dredged out to the depth of 22 ft., so as to accommodate any size of vessels. He is so strongly impressed with this idea that he is going to cancel contracts now in consideration for dredging to the depth of 18 ft. and substitute 22 ft. as the required depth. Mr. Tarte said he would also like to see a fleet of Canadian vessels built in order to carry Canadian grain, and thinks that if the Canadian Pacific railway and the other Canadian roads would assist in the scheme, there would be a great future for Canada, attended by immense trade stccesses. He was much impressed with the harbors of Midland, Collingwood, Parry Sound, Fort William, Port Arthur and. other Canadian towns that he visited, but in most of these he found the same difficulty, a lack of depth of water for the larger steamers, while across on the United States side the harbors were dredged out and fully equipped for the trade. The minister also took a trip over the Canadian Northern railway towards which he expressed himself favorably and also said he was pleasantly surprised at the energy that Mr. Bocth had displayed and the amount of trade he was carrying over his road. 'The minister was full of new transportation ideas and said that if Canadians were ready to spend the necessary money to equip the ports of Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, St. John, and those on the lakes and the Georgian bay, and to fit out the waterways so that they might be navigable at all times, the trade of Canada and a part of the United States would come through Canadian waters, over Canadian railways and in Canadian ships to the sea. His trip, he said, had taught him a great lesson of what might be done by Canadians to secure their legitimate share of the business of the world, while the people of the United States had been spending money in a proper way, even in Canadian waters, and on this account had become sich a mighty commercial factor.