The Water-Power.
The rapids in the river at this point were known as the Great Rapids, or South Hadley Falls, and in a distance of one and a half miles there is a fall of 60 feet. This immense water-privilege had for some time attracted the attention of capitalists; and when, in 1847, the channel was gauged at low-water mark, and the volume of water passing found to be 6000 cubic feet per second,—equal to 30,000 horse-power,— it required no prophetic vision to discern that this would in the near future become one of the great manufacturing centres of America. It only required energy, enterprise, and capital for its development, and these were forthcoming.
In the autumn of 1846, George C. Ewing, of the firm of Fairbanks & Co., of New York, began negotiations for the property at this point, which at the close of three months were finally and satisfactorily concluded, and the transfer of about 37 acres was made in March, 1847. Soon after, the property of the Hadley Falls Company, and the mills mentioned above, were also purchased by Mr. Ewing, and thus he succeeded in accomplishing what others had failed in. Mr. Ewing is still a resident of Holyoke, and may justly point with pride to the success of his mission, which added another flourishing city to the constellation that has rendered the commonwealth of Massachusetts famous both at home and abroad.
The first company incorporated for the development of the enterprise was composed of Fairbanks & Co., of which firm Mr. Ewing was a member, together with a number of Boston and Hartford capitalists. Its capital was fixed at $4,000,000, and J.K. Mills, of Boston, was chosen treasurer; John Chase, of Chicopee, and P. Anderson, a West Point graduate, engineers; and George C. Ewing, land-agent.
The Messrs. Fairbanks withdrew from the enterprise in January, 1848, when Mr. Ewing resigned, and C.B. Rising succeeded him as land-agent. In the same year the property passed into the hands of Thomas H. Perkins, George W. Lyman, and Edmund Dwight, who were incorporated as the Hadley Falls Company, "for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a dam across the Connecticut River, and one or more locks and canals, and of creating a water-power, to be used," etc. This company was organized with a capital of $4,000,000. The purchase of 1100 acres of land was the first move made, thus enabling them to prosecute the gigantic task of damming the waters of the Connecticut without let or hindrance.
The work was at once commenced, and on the morning of November 19, 1848, the great am was completed and the gates closed. The filling of the dam required several hours, and it soon became evident that the engineers had greatly underrated the pressure of the volume, as a portion of it near the centre soon gave way, and finally, at about two o'clock p.m., when the waters had nearly risen to the top, the costly structure gave way, and with a mighty roar the pent-up waters rushed down the accustomed channel.
This was a severe blow to an enterprise that was by some deemed Quixotic in its inception and prosecution, but its farsighted progenitors saw nothing to discourage them to the successful accomplishment of the grand project.
"Wise men ne'er sit and wait their loss,
But cheerily seek how to redress their harms."
The building of the dam was at once renewed, and Oct. 22, 1849, was successfully completed one of the greatest engineering feats of modern times. The following description of the dam, and the water-power of Holyoke, is from the pen of J.P. Buckland, a resident of the city, and may be relied upon as accurate:
"This great structure, about one-fifth of a mile in length, is flanked by abutments of massive masonry, and may be described in detail as the dam and the apron which now appears in front of it. The former has a base of ninety feet, and rises thirty feet above the original level of the river. It contains four million feet of sawed timber of large dimensions, all of which is submerged, and so insured against decay. A mass of concrete and gravel protects the foot of the dam, and the upper portion is covered to the thickness of eighteen inches with solid timber, while the crest is protected its entire length with sheets of heavy boiler-iron. The dam was completed Oct. 22, 1849, and as the river ceased its flow over the rapids and rose against the ponderous barrier, thousands watched the gathering flood with eager interest; and when the slowly rising waters reached the crest, and fell in one broad sheet to the rocky bed below, it was a time of genuine triumph for the engineers who planned the successful structure and the capitalists who built it.
"In 1868 the gradual wearing away of the rocky bed below the dam by the constant action of the falling sheet of water decided the Holyoke Water-Power Company, which had meanwhile succeeded to all the rights and property of the Hadley Falls Company, to commence the construction of the apron which now forms the front of the original work,—an undertaking second only to the building of the great dam itself in magnitude and cost. The new portion was even more massive in character than the old, and was built into the latter so as to form with it one solid structure of timber ad stone. The work was completed, in 1870, at a cost of $263,000, and by rendering the further wearing of the foundations impossible established the durability and permanence of the dam beyond all future question. All the masonry of the abutments, bulkhead, and the waste-weir immediately below is of heavy ashlar work, built on the solid ledge, and massive enough to withstand the great pressure to which it is subjected. The bulkhead, one hundred and forty feet long and forty-sex feet wide, is surmounted by the extensive gate-house.
"The system of canals is laid out on a grand scale, commensurate with the volume of water to be distributed. Twelve huge gates, each fifteen feet long by nine feet wide, and weighing more than four tons, and two others of half that width, and eleven feet in length, all operated by a water-wheel in the abutment which actuates the powerful gate-machinery, admit the water to the upper level canal. This main artery of the system, starting with a width of one hundred and forty feet, and a water-depth of twenty-two feet, extends eastward past the great water-weir about one thousand feet, and then weeps southward in a right line for a distance of more than one mile to supply the upper tier of mills, the width gradually lessening at the rate of one foot every hundred.
"To trace the still longer course of the level canal, we begin at its southerly end opposite the terminus of the grand reach of the upper level, and follow it northerly for a mile and more, parallel with the first-described canal, and four hundred feet easterly from it, this portion serving as a raceway for the upper level, and also as a canal for the supply of mills below; and thence we follow it easterly and southerly for a mile and a quarter more, at a distance of about four hundred feet from the river, this marginal portion of the second level affording mill-sites along its whole length, from which the water used passes directly into the river. For two thousand feet this canal has a width of one hundred and forty feet, and thence the ides gradually converge to a width of one hundred feet, which is continued to either end, the average depth of water being fifteen feet. These two canals, extending in broad parallel water-courses through the central portion of the city, and spanned by iron bridges, from any one of which the eye takes in the whole long stretch of water, make a unique and pleasant feature of the place.
"The third level canal, one hundred feet wide and ten feet deep, is also a marginal canal, with mill-sites along its entire length, and beginning at the southerly end of the second level extends thirty-five hundred and fifty feet to the other terminus of the same canal, thus making with the latter a line of marginal canals around and near the whole water front of the city. The mills on the upper level have a head and fall of twenty feet, and the difference between the second and third levels is twelve feet, while that between the marginal canals and the river varies from twenty-three to twenty-eight feet. The upper level canal, throughout its entire length, and large portions of the others, are walled with substantial stone-work to the height of three feet above water level.
"Three overfalls of cut granite, with suitable waste-gates, allow the water to pass directly from each canal to the next lower, independently of the supply derived from the mills above. To maintain a uniform head in each of these canals, watchmen are constantly on duty, whose sole business it is to regulate the inflow from the river, and the outflow at the several waste-weirs and overfalls; and so effective are the means employed, and so thoroughly is the system carried out, that the height of water in either canal is not allowed during the day or night to vary one inch from the established water-level at any moment in the year. Whether the mills are running or idle, the long lines of canals are always full to the prescribed gauge mark; a constant quantity in time of winter floods and summer droughts alike, making a pleasing and profitable contrast in the experience of the manufacturers who have removed hither from the water-powers which fluctuate between abundance and scarcity."
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