Show THOUSAND SPRINGS POWER development by OWEN H GRAY one of the most unique water powers in the west vest is that which has been developed during the past year at the famous thousand springs in southwestern idaho the springs are located on the north end of the snake river about eight miles from the town of wendell they have for years been a favorite resort for picnic parties and sight seers A large part of the state of idaho is over laid with a great lava sheet which covers the sedimentary rock below to a depth of a hundred feet or more at the point in question the snake river channel is about three hundred feet deep and its north bank shows a line of contact between the lav lava a and the sedimentary rock at a height of about one hundred and eighty feet above river level water from a lar large lare e drainage area to the north and east finds its way through the more or less porous and fissured assured lava un come from all parts of the drainage area or it may include the waters from one or more of the lost rivers in idaho the stream has an average flow of about cubic feet per second and is quite uniform in temperature and quantity varying little during the seasons of the year several unsuccessful attempts have been made during the past twenty or thirty years to develop the power of this falling water springs power company was organized surveys and a study of the general conditions at the springs were begun at once to determine the best method of making the development and excavation was commenced a few days later the plant went into commercial operation on november 1st ast 1912 the plan adopted for collecting the water and conveying it to the power house is A al P jr aa 51 1 1 r 4 5 Y al mink W 3 fig I 1 view showing construction of wall and canal til it reaches the impervious rock below and then along the plane of contact in the direction of its dip until it finally breaks out of the river bank in the form of innumerable springs these thousand springs extend for a distance of about 1400 feet along the contact line and are so close together and so large as to present an appearance of a water fall of great beauty the exact sources of the water is unknown it may the method of collecting the water has been the chief problem and various plans have been proposed one company started to drive a series of tunnels into the bluff along the contact plane it was thought that by means of cross cuts all of the water could be intercepted and brought out through the tunnels work on this plan was abandoned however after the driving of a few short tunnels in the therall fall or of 1911 tho the present thousand shown in the illustration tra tion A concrete wall varying in height from three f feet to sixteen feet and in thickness from two feet to eight feet was built along the outer edge of the impervious rock shelf after first excavating the covering of broken lava and earth back for a distance of from fifteen feet to twenty feet so as to form a canal back of the wall at a point above the power house site the shelf was cleared to a width of about forty feet to form a small forebay from K which steel pipe lines carry the water through the concrete wall and down the cliff to the power house at its base the initial installation was for horsepower only but the design of the fore forebay wall and spill ways is such that the complete development of about horsepower can be made by simply continuing consulting engineer dooly block salt lake city the canal and wall so as to collect all of the water and by adding additional pipe lines and machinery without disturbing the original installation the wall for the first installation is feet long and collects approximately one third of the water that this m method ethod of volt transformers disconnecting switches and electrolytic lightning arrestors arresters are all mounted out of doors the transformers are equipped with wheels chees and that they may be stand on steel rails so provided for the rolled upon a low truck purpose and then rolled into the power wk MIER A vr 41 V ad fig 2 general view of development gathering the water is the correct one is shown from the fact that the cliff below the wall shows no signs of leakage the water which formerly emerged being sealed off completely the construction of this wall was made rather difficult owing to the provision which had to be made for handling the water there was of course no way to stop the water from entering the space back of the wall so it had to be diverted from the new work by means of sand bag dams placed just back of the wall forms and caused to pass out through sluice gates in i n the finished portion on account of the constant temperature of the water which is about 60 degrees fahrenheit no provision had to be made for handling ice and the intake consists mere merely ay of a simple screen and a cast iron head gate in front of the opening to each of the two steel pipes no gate valves are used at the turbines but the head gates are so arranged arran ged that they may be buic quickly kly closed from the power house by means of a tripping rope the present equipment of machinery machiner r consists on of two 1500 HP pelton francis type turbine each direct connected to a westinghouse ing in ghouse hOus alternator the power hou house s e building is made of the lava rock picked up in the immediate vicinity and is designed to resemble a mediaeval media eval castle with tower minarets mina and battlements the color and appearance of the native lava rock is especially adapted to this type of architecture in the lower part of the tower is placed the switch board while tho tb upper part is divided into two rooms tor lor the station operators the high tension apparatus including house where they may be picked up by the crane whenever it may be necessary essary ne sary to make any inspection or repairs the placing of this high tension tem ion apparatus out of doors removes the most dangerous elements from the power house and effects a considerable saving in the cost of installation the entire output of the plant is sold ta lists john dern of 0 salt lake ou I 1 president and lafayette rail hanchett chett 1 eral manager the plant was design d 6 built under the supervision of 11 the writer ik A ak X Z A D as Z 1 ALL fig 3 concrete wall and terminals under contract to the great shoshone twin falls water power company work on the final development deve OP has now begun the canal is being extended so as to collect all a of the water the thousand springs spring s power company is composed of salt lake and denver capi |