Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1895 — A Remarkable Dam. [ARTICLE]

A Remarkable Dam.

One of the most remarkable dams in the world for height and construction is that by which the Vymwy River (Northern Wales) is enabled to supply water to the city of Liverpool, some seventy miles distant In building this dam a great trench was at first excavated across the valley for a length of 1,100 feet, a width of 320, and a maximum depth of 60. The masonry was started in tills trench. It consists of Irregular blocks of slate wedged together and thoroughly bedded in Portland cement mortar, the faces being formed of cut stone blocks fitted together with great care, the greatest height of the dam being l/R feet Its most remarkable feature Is the lack of any channel to carry off floods, the surplus of the lake flowing down the front of the dam, which is curved to permit as free a descent as possible and prevent the formation of eddies at the bottom. The lake formed by this main dam covers an area four and three-quarters miles long, from onequarter to five-eighths of a mile wide, and holds largely over twelve million gallons. The aqueduct leading from the intake tower to the distributing reservoir, about two miles from the city, is sixtyeight miles long, and consists principally of a large cast-iron pipe line from thirty-nine to forty-two Inches In diameter. There are a number of reservoirs and tanks along the line, and at one place Is a gpfeat filtering plant. The polo, or ole, is an Andalusian dance of Oriental origin. The music is slow and melancholy, while "the dance Is full of wild contortions of the body, the feet being hardly llftod from the floor. jWagner, the composer, spent no small share of his time when a boy in the police court, where his father was the clerk.