Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Volume 21 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... select a site for manufacturing purposes unhampered by a lack of water for power. If each petitioner were supplied perpetually with coal in sufficient daily quantities to provide the same quantity of energy at a steam-engine flywheel as was yielded at the water-wheel shaft by the water diverted, he would obviously be fully compensated for his loss, other things being equal, and perhaps much more than fully compensated. But other things are not equal, and he may require a further sum before his total loss is made entirely good to him. How much this extra sum will be must depend upon conditions, which will vary with every case, respecting the amount of water diverted; the maximum and minimum flow of the water before and after the taking; the size of the water power, and the size of the necessary auxiliary steam plant. It may be that the quantity diverted is so large a proportion of the whole as to leave no value to what remains; or that the turbines formerly used were too large to be used efficiently after diversion. These are details of relatively insignificant importance. The fact is that the greatest cause of the disagreement between the two sides, in the Kettle Brook water cases, is traceable to the lack of positive knowledge, on the part of both sides, as to the actual available quantity of water flowing each day in the year at each privilege. The petitioners claimed that the amount was 5,500,000 gallons per day throughout the working days in the year; that is to say, it was a fixed and invariable quantity. But while the civil engineers, who testified for the city, allowed 5,500,000 as the correct figure for the average flow, they claimed that there were frequently whole days when there was practically no flow of water at all. Now, if...