Olin Lathrop wrote:
> Marcel Birthelmer wrote:
> > For those interested in water power and its use in industrial times
> > in the US, the book "Waterpower in Lowell, MA" may be of interest.
> > I bought it on a whim, not having much knowledge or experience with
> > water power, and I found it a mostly interesting, if (ironically)
> > mildly dry treatment of the use of water power in revolutionizing
> > industrial operations around that time. It's not a highly technical
> > treatise, but more of a historical perspective.
>=20
> For anyone that might be interested in such things and find themselves in
> the area, much of the water works and related infrastructure is now part
> of the Lowell National Historic Park. The canals are still largely intact=
..
> One of the old industrial buildings, Wannalancit Mill, has been restored
> and turned into a museum. A bunch of years back I heard of plans to run
> the turbine at Wannalancit Mill for real as a demonstration, but I don't
> know if that ever happened. There is also a museum in another area, with
> canal tours available. It's all rather well done, and worth a afternoon
> if you're interested in such things.
>=20
> Dave may chime in with more accurate and complete information.

Yes, the turbine is indeed operational, and you can see it. In fact,
I was there just a few weeks ago. The automatic speed control is an
interesting study.

Also, it turns out (I didn't know this before) that a lot of important
basic research on the design of water turbines was done in Lowell. They
rediscovered the site of where this was done in the process of building
the new Jeanne D'arc Credit Union building in downtown Lowell, and they
went to some effort to preserve what was there while constructing the
building above the site.

To this day, the canal system is still used to generate power -- nowadays
in the form of a 13-MW (IIRC) hydroelectric station at the foot of the
Pawtucket Falls. There are actually four stations throughout Lowell
producing a total of 24 MW from both the Merrimack and Concord rivers.
(Google "Boott Hydropower")

What a great city for an engineer who's interested in the history of
technology to live in!

-- Dave Tweed
--=20
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