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Show A Strange Hoosier Waterpower By A. E. MARSH. ATBRPO WER was the foundation Wof our industries. But this humble hum-ble agent of producing energy - was abandoned in favor of the pryyr- more flexible and available steam WjiK&f when the coal fields were opened. wtmmmmit steam was hailed as the giant of civilization, but had scarcely established itself when it, too. was found too clumsy, and the electric current, which could be carried many miles over a slender wire, while steam could ' be carried only as many feet through a cumbrous cum-brous pipe, became the monarch of our mills. In the last decade gasoline, which does not need even the slender wire, but can be carried in the most convenient tin can, has assumed a large share of the burden of relieving man of physical exertion. And now. after the others have had their inning, millions are being be-ing spent to develop waterpower again. Niagara, which for years was useful only as an artist's model and a spooning ground for Mr. and Mrs. Newly wed, has been "harnessed" to light the streets of Buffalo. The Great Falls of Montana, the International Falls on the Canadian-Minnesota border, the mountain torrents tor-rents of Switzerland, the Victoria Falls in central cen-tral Africa, which, 16 years ago were almost regarded as a myth of the explorer; even the humble St. Anthony "falls" at Minneapolis are earning their living. The turning of water into horsepower has given employment to the wits of our greatest engineers, and the most complicated projects have been put through to adapt the power plants to the varying condl.waa found in the different streams, and some of these stand today to-day as our greatest triumphs of engineering. But for native ingenuity doing something with nothing, getting results with neither tools nor materials, nothing but pure Yankee ingenuity, the mill which stood for many years on the brink of a little waterfall in Jefferson county, Indiana, between the little Presbyterian Presby-terian college town of Hanover and the Ohio river, and only recently has fallen into disuse, dis-use, deserves a Carnegie medal. The stream, which has less than three miles of length from its source in the hillside springs to its mouth in the Ohio, was so insignificant in-significant that it was. never graced with a name. But in the old days, before some unexplained unex-plained geologic changes occurred, it carried a flow of water 20 feet wide and three deep, with the speed of a mountain torrent. About half a mile from the Ohio it spread out suddenly sud-denly over a flat rock 40 or 50 feet wide, and plunged over its brink a sheer 90 feet. The rock was of hardest limestone, -but underneath was a stratum of schist and rotting slate, so that a cave, like the Cave of the Winds at Niagara, was hollowed out. It made a quite roomy, and, strange to say, dry apartment, and was approachable in but one point, which was hard to find. During the War of 1812 a hermit lived in a hut built in this cave and spent his time compounding com-pounding salt petre, which he sold to the powder-makers. He disappeared as mysteriously as he came, and for a year or two the falls were left to roar out their own destinies. In 1S15, among the settlers who rushed west after leaving the army was a shrewd miller, William Gordon, in whom the hard sense of his Scotch heredity was well mixed with a shrewdness acquired of Yankee environment. He came down the Ohio in a flatboat and stopped at every settlement seeking a location for a mill. He stopped at Hanover, and while rambling through the hills on a hunting expedition, expe-dition, stumbled on the falls. He was struck with the vast waterpower going to waste, and when he made inquiries about It he was an- swered that the people had neither the means or the materials to make use of it. But Gordon was not that kind of man. He pitched his tent near the falls and lived with them day and night for several weeks studying study-ing how to overcome the handicap which the lack of the proper facilities made to developing develop-ing the power. He finally discovered the entrance en-trance to the hermit's cave, and explored the falls from the rear. He finally announced to the farmers of the settlement that he would have a mill running, ready to grind their corn by the time of the fall harvest. He announced at the same time that he would buy all the cow's horns that could be found in the community. The idea of mixing cow's horns and a grist mill was rather confusing to the country folk, but they were willing to be shown, and came from miles around, and even from Kentucky, across the river, bringing all the horns they could find, which they gladly donated when the plan was explained to them. Gordon and his two sons had rigged up a stout oaken shaft across the brink of the falls, on which was mounted a wooden wheel three feet in diameter, with wide flanges. Over this ran a pair of log chains, joined at intervals by cross chains, much in the form of the chains used on automobile wheels. To these cross chains, which were about six inches apart, they riveted the cow's horns, tips downward. down-ward. The chain carried over a thousand horns, and they served as an excellent substitute substi-tute for the buckets w:hich Gordon had neither the materials nor the tools to make. A little mill was set up on the bank, and soon Chain-Mill Falls was the busiest spot in the county. For 15 years the cow horns sang their little song as they ground their grist, until finally the mill could not take care of the business, and Gordon had to turn engineer again. He explored behind the falls, and found that a portion of the rock had scaled away, leaving the shelf over which the water flowed a bare 20 feet thick- This gave him the idea, and he proceeded to put it into execution at once. The stream was dammed to one side, exposing expos-ing the rocky bed half way across, above the falls. Gordon procured dynamite and sunk a shaft 5 by 15 feet to the cave below, about ten feet back from the brink of the falls. A dam was built at the brink, so the entire flow was diverted through this hole. A new two-story two-story mill was built and a bigger chain hung in the shaft, to which huge wooden buckets were fastened, and Gordon found to his joy that he had more power than he had any use for, and actually had to remove every third bucket to lessen the speed. |