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» \ i N Hy UY VOL. XIX.-NO. 32./ ey : ; oe —- = = = Fe ; - OPENIN aye NEW-AbhERICAN LOCK. } The new 800-foot American lock at Sault Ste. Marie was opened at nine o’clock Monday morning, August 3, when the revenue cutter Andy Johnson, the Hancock, of Detroit, and the river and harbor tug Antelope en- tered the chamber, while a number of steamers assem- bled in the vicinity gave a hearty salute with their whistles. On the Hancock were Col. J. G. Lydecker and family, Lieut. J.B. Cavanaugh, and Miss Poe, of Detroit, and the entire corps of civil engineers connected with the construction of the lock and the adjacent surveys. About 300 citizens were on board the Johnson. The intermediate and upper gates only were used, and the lock filled in 13 minutes and emptied in eight minutes. The new lock is 800 feet in length between the gates, by 100 feet in width, and 43 to 45 feet in depth. The depth of water over the upper sill is 22 feet, and over the lower sill 20 feet. The lift is 18 feet. The side walls are each 1,100 feet long, built of Kelley’s Island limestone, transported thither from Lake Erie in the rough, and dressed there. The walls are 20 feet thick at the base, and retain this width for 10 feet in height, when, by five two-foot offsets five feet apart, they are narrowed to 10 feet in thickness. From the east end for 282 feet the walls are 45 feet high, and from that point westward 43 feet high. At either end the walls are 36 feet. thick from base to top. ‘The faces of the lock wall consist of 23 courses of stone. Part of the first course and the cappit g course are about 1% feet thick, and for the intermediate courses the stones were cut 6 feet long by 3 feet wide by 2 feet in thickness. The cost to the government, for the actual work cn the masonry, exclusive of all clerical help, is $1,085,469. In connection with the new dock _ is a magnificent power and office building of stone and brick, to cost about $100,000 when finished. While the building will not be com- pleted until late in the fall, the basement, which contains the machinery, is entirely finished. _ Here are installed two 30-horse- power turbines, which will drive three three-plunger single-acting high-pressure pumps that will deliver pressure to loaded accumu- lators, where it will be stored under a pressure of 300 to 500 pounds per square inch, ready for use, and delivered io the engines as required. The exhaust, or discharge from the engines, will be returned by means of.a sepa- rate set of piping toatank in the engine room, and used continuously. ‘The pressure fiuid is a limpid min- eral oil, which will be used in both warm and cold weather. The lock chamber can be filled or emptied in from 6 to8 minutes. Atthe inaugural lockage all the valves were notin use, which accounts for the greater con- sumption of time. The water is let in through six culverts which run longitudinally under the lock floor, coming into the lock through the openings shown in the illustration. The pumping machinery, which will be used for en- tirely emptying the new lock in case of accident, was designed by Julian Kennedy, of Pittsburg, and cost ap- proximately $88,000. It is also in the basement of the power-house, and consists of three centrifugal pumps, each 30 inches in diameter of discharge. ‘These are to oe Cf #- be driven by three Westinghouse compound : engines of 350 horse-power each. . Steam for~this plant is fur- nished by a battery of water-tube boilers, set in steel casings. It is expected that the lock can be emptied in six or sev n hours. The pumps were built by the Southwark Foundry & Machine Co., Philadelphia; the engines by Church, Kerr & Co., Pittsburg; and the boilers by the Babcock & Wilcox Co.,, New York. The operating plant consists of six machines, which are used in moving the gates; 12 engines for opening and closing the valves by means of which the water is let into and out of the chamber, and two hydraulic cap- stans, together with the pumps, accumulators and pip- ing necessary to operate them. There isa gate ma- chine for each leaf of the working gates, which are styled the upper, lower and intermediate gates. : Hach gate machine consists of two 3-cylinder, single-acting hydraulic engines on one shaft. These engines drivea 6-foot winding drum, on which the cables are wound. The drum is driven in either direction by a series of internal planet gearing. ‘The gears are controlled by two friction brakes in such a manner as to revolve the drum in one direction: when one brake is set, and the size, and carried on solid steel trunnions 10 inches in diameter. The valves are three inches thick on the edge and 16 inches in the middle. When they are opened there is an effective passage of 64 square feet. The upper guard and lock gates are 26 feet 6 inches in height; the intermediate and lower gates are 43 feet in height, and the the lower guard gate 25 feet 6 inches in height. The gates are all of the uniform length of a trifle over 55 feet. They are the largest gates of steel in the world. Each leaf of the smaller gates weighs about 100 tons, and the larger ones 190 tons. Each leaf has two air pumps and air chambers, situated near the bottom of the gates, and the two water chambers a few feet above the center. The air and water chambersare used in conjunction to preserve the equilibrium of the gates and to prevent undue strain upon the quoin posts, or hinges of the gates. The air pumps are operated by hand from the tops of the gates. The gates, with the anchorages, cost $203,000. Willard S. Pope was the contractor, and they were built by the Detroit Bridge and Iron Works. _ The hydraulic capstans are two in number, one being located at the upper, and the other at the lower end of the lock, on the south side. They are similar in appearance to the THE NEW AMERICAN LOCK. Interior view of the chamber before filling with water. reverse direction when the other is set. The gates re- volve, when opened, into semi-circular recesses in the sides of the lock, thus leaving the full width available for the passage of vessels. The working parts of the gate machines are of the finest steel, with bearings of bronze. Each machine weighs about ten tons and stands 5 feet high, while the drums are 6 feet in diam- eter. The cable on each gate machine runs through sheaves in passages through the walls to the bottom of the chamber, where it is connected with the gate. The gate machinery is entirely different from any in use for similar purposes, and represents a combination of hoisting machinery and the best hydraulic practice. Six of the valve engines are placed*-at the upper, and 6 at the lower end of the lock. These are direct-acting, horizontal cylinders and move the valves by means of connecting-rods which run from the. crossheads to the valves. These engines are operated by vertical valves placed on the top of the south wall, which are connected with them by piping in such a way that each valve controls two engines. ‘Twelve valves are used in filling and emptying the chamber. These valves and frames are of the best wrought steel, 8 by 10 feet in ordinary navai capstan. They are driven by three single-acting oscil- lating hydraulic engines, and each will develop a hauling power of 19,000 pounds on an ordinary line. The capstans will be used, when necessary, in assisting vessels through the lock when they have no power of their own. The ma- chinery of the capstans is set down in the wall in a circular opening. The operating machinery was built by the Variety Iron Works Co., of Cleveland, the contract price being about $60,000. It was designed in the U. S. Engineers’ office at Detroit by Mr. F. M. Dun- lap, who also supervised its con- struction in the shops at Cleveland, where it was all erected, being afterwards taken down and put in place in the lock under the superintendence of Mr. Ll. A, Pettit, foreman at the Variety Iron Works. The work of providing means for lifting and lower- ing boats between the level of Lake Superior and that of St. Mary’s River, below the rapids, was begun over forty years ago. In 1853 a company was organized in New York which completed a lock in 1855 at a cost of $1,000,000. The property was acquired and completed by the State of Michigan, the original company having failed to carry out the work. The great value of the canal, which, small as it was, by comparison with the present, was yet almost large enough for the then require- ments, encouraged Congress to give federal aid, and in 1870 an appropriation of $150,000 was made towards se- curing a more capacious lock. Some 750,000 acres of land had been donated by Congress to be used in pay- ment for the original canal, but when money appropria- tions began to be made, the situation became such that by 1881 it was deemed advisable that the state of Michi- gan cede the canal to the United States government. Work on whatis now called the old lock, the use of which is just now discontinued, was then begun, and completed at a cost of $2,150,000, being on the site of, and really an enlargement of, the original lock. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 10.) a