Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1890 — LINKED BY TOE LOCKS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LINKED BY TOE LOCKS.

WHERE THE GREAT NORTHERN LAKES MEET.

The Great Canal at Saint Mary's River a Marvel of Engineering Skill, bn* a Still Greater One in Process of Cngatruetion— Progress of the Work.

T. MARY'S River improvements began in 1852, when a grant of 750,000 acres of public land . was made to the I State of Michigan, from the sale of which the canal was built, says a correspondent of the Chicago Herald, writing from Sault c Ste. Marie, Mich. Ground was broken June 4, 1853, and

exactly two years and fourteen days from that date the steamer Illinois had the honor of being the first boat to be locked through. This lock had two chambers, each 70 feet wide and 350 feet long, between gates, passing vessels drawing a maximum of eleven and one-half feet. Water was admitted to the locks through openings in the leaves of the tipper gates by means of butterfly valves ■which were worked with a rack and pinion. Seven minutes was required to fill the upper lock chamber, and fourteen minutes to fill the lower one. The volume of water in the upper lock, when filled to the level of the canal above, amounted to 3,757,000 gallons. Valves in the lower lock gates allowed the water to escape, and it only required fourteen

minutes to empty each lock chamber. For thirty-one years these locks were in commission, and then they were abandoned. To-day there is a vast hole in the ground partially filled with steam drills, huge derricks and tawny Italian laborers that occupy the sites of the old locks, which in turn forms part of the chamber of the new lock now in course of construction. This masterpiece of engineering skill will be 800 feet long between the gates. 100 feet wide, and feet dee.p. Its capacity will be 3,440,000 cubic feet. The depth of water on the miter sills will be 20 feet, and the lift of the lock 18 feet. The volume of water in the lock, when filled to the level of the canal, will be 23,338,000 gallons, over six times the capacity of the first one built It is expected that four vessels, each 350 feet long and 46 feet wide, can pass through at one lockage. Work was begun in the spring of 1887. It is under the supervision of General Orlando M. Poe, U. S. A., the engineer in charge of the canal improvements, and the estimated cost of the lock, together with the enlarged canal, which is to have a navigable depth of 20 feet, is in.the neighborhood of 55,000,C0J. The contractors should have finished their work of excavating last June, but leakages and other drawbacks delayed them, so General Poe granted a six months’ extension. He might as well have given them a year, for it is safe to say the big lock will not be read}- for the masonry until after navigation opens next spring. Still, the contractors are crowding the work as rapidly as possible, and have lately put on a night force. The present lock through which all vessels must pass en route to and from Lake Superior has long been considered one of the most remarkable structures in the world of its kind. When, in 1855, the St. Mary’s Falls Canal was constructed for the purpose of enabling the traffic by water between Lakes Superior and Huron to overcome a fall of twenty feet four inches in the St. Mary's Strait,

which is the connecting waterway between these two important lakes, it was expected that the difficulty was solved for years to come. : But scarcely a decade passed before the volume of business had increased sq largely that it was easy to figure the first lock would, before long, prove wholly inadequate. From the shores ,of Lake Superior came a wealth of ir?n and copper together with millions of feet of and to carry this through the canal taxed the Iqck beyond its capacity. A new and larger one bfecame an absolute .necessity, and.to supply this demand the United States,,Government in 1870 lot the first contract forthe improvement of the canal, whifih resulted in its enlargement and thcnbuilding of the magnificent lock in to-day. The canal, originally 5,400 feet long, was increased to 7,000 feet and the depth from to sixteen feet. Its width is variftple—the least width being 108 feet at the movable dam. Vessels are protected Against injury from the

rocky sides of the canal by a revetment of pier work, the general height of which is four feet above mean water level. The material is pine timber one foot square. The chamber of the lock is 515 feet long between the gates, eighty feet wide, narrowed to sixty feet at the gates. The depth of the water on the miter sills is seventeen feet. The volume of water in the lock chamber when filled to the level of the canal above amounts, to 9,888,000 gallons, nearly three times more than that in the old lock, but less than onehalf the volume that will be contained in the one now unde The walls are of limestone. The cut stone was obtained from Marblehead, Ohio, and Kelley’s Island, Lake Erie. There are 34,207 cubic yards of masonry in the construction, of which 35,000 barrels of cement were used, every barrel of which was tested before it went to the wall. The foundation is on rock throughout, a Potsdam sandstone of different degrees of hardness. A floor of timber and concrete extends across the bottom of the lock and five feet under each wall. The miter-sills are oak timbers 12 by 18 inches, and fastened in place by bolts ten feet long, fox-edged and concreted in the rock. The estimated capacity of the lock is ninety-six vessels in twenty-four hours. The limit was nearly reached two years ago, when eighty-four vessels were locked through in one day. A prettier piece of masonry does not exist anywhere in the United States. The total cost of the canal enlargement was almost $2,250,000. Two minutes is required to open or close the lock gates, eleven minutes to fill the lock and eight minutes to empty it. The water reaches the lock from two culverts under the floor. These culverts

are each eiirht feet square and extend from the well above the upper lock gate to the well above the lower gate. The water is admitted into the culverts through a grated well. The covering of the culverts is the floor of the lock. The water passes into the lock chamber through fifty-eight apertures in the lock floor. Each ’ aperture has an area of three square feet. The filling valves through which the water enters the culvert are two in number and are located in the well just above the upper lock gate. Each valve when shut closes the entrance to one of the culverts. Each valve is ten feet wide and eight inches deep and is made with horizontal castiron axles and frames, to which a covering of boiler Iron is bolted. The two emptying valves through which the water escapes from the Jock are located in the well Just above the lower lock gate. Their construction is similar to that of the filling valves Just described. The power for the machinery is obtained from two thirty-inch turbines. Water is brought to the wheels through a supply pipe from the canal above the lock. Both are connected by spar gearing to the ma'n shaft. There are four gate engines, one for each leaf of the upper and lower lock-gates and four valve engines, one for each of the filling and emptying valves. The pump for emptying the lock is in the cellar of the machine house. It is centrifugal, run by a belt from the main shaft, and is about eight feet below the surface of the water. When the water is to be pumped out of the lock, which is usually done twice a year, the guard gates above' and below are closed. Seventeen hours is required to empty the lock with the pump. The guard gates are only used when repairs are being made to the lock. They are opened and closed by means of temporary block and tackle operated by a power capstan. This capstan Is on the lock wall near the machine house. It is run by belts from the main shaft, and is utilized for warping vessels in and out of the lock. Both leaves of the

upper guard gate are provided with valves with which to fill the lock after the water is pumped out. The lock can be filled these valves in about one hour. The movable dam is about 3,000 feet from the lock and is designed to check the flow of water so that the upper guard gates can be closed in case the lock gates are accidentally carried away. It consists of an ordinary swing bridge, one end of which can be thrown across the canal. A scries of wickets are suspended side by side from a horizontal truss hung beneath the bridge and abutting at either end, when the bridge is closed, against heavy buffers securely anchored to the masonry. One end of each wicket can be let down until it rests against a sill in the bottom of the canal. When the wickets are all down they form a vertical bulkhead or dam. There are twenty-three of these wickets, each supported in an iron frame. Over nine thousand five hundred vessels passed through th*< lock last year,

the actual freight carried amounting tu ">516,022 tons iq addition to nearly twen-ty-six'" thousand passengers. The steady increase in business and tedious delays that oftentimes arise have convinced the Government that a single lock cannot accommodate the commerce of the Northern lakes, so on recommendation of Gen. Wifzel, of the War Department, Congress

finally authorized the construction of another lock and the improvement of Hay Lake channel. The new lock will be built on very nearly the same lines as the present one, only ft will be larger in every way, as already described.

THE LOCKS AT SAULT STE. MARIE.

AWAITING THEIR TURN AT THE LOCKS.

REPAIRING A BROKEN VALVE.