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User:AntiCompositeNumber/Lowell Canal System/notes

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  • ASCE; ASME (1985-07-01). "Lowell Water Power System" (PDF).
    • Proprietors of Locks and Canals on the Merrimack River incorporated in 1792 [1]
    • PL&C began work on Pawtucket Canal in 1792[1]
    • Pawtucket Canal completed in 1796[1]
    • Pawtucket Canal used for transportation to bypass Pawtucket Falls[1]
    • ~1803 Pawtucket Canal traffic decreased with decrease in Newburyport timber demand[1]
    • Competed with Middlesex Canal, which connected Merrimack R. to Boston[1]
    • 1821 Boston Associates purchase controlling stock in PL&C [1]
    • 1822 Merrimack Manufacturing Company opens [1]
    • 1822 Pawtucket Canal begins to feed power canal system [2]
    • 1826 Two new canals built with plans for 4 more [2]
    • 1836 Planned system complete [2]
    • Two levels of power [2]
    • 1837 James B. Francis becomes chief engineer [2]
    • First Pawtucket Dam was "crude wooden structure" [2]
    • c. 1830 "Masonry dam seated on heavy wooden cribbing" [2]
    • 1833 "Two more courses of granite headers" and wooden flashboards added to dam [2]
    • 1840s water shortages, excess flows common (not at same time) [2]
    • Excess flow decreases efficiency of mills [2]
    • Increased current in canals decreases head [2]
    • JBF proposes Northern Canal [2]
    • Would require more control over river flow [2]
    • Would require lower flow through canals at night to store water [2]
    • Essex Company of Lawrence and PL&C partner to gain control over NH lakes [2]
    • 1847 Northern canal finished [3]
    • Northern canal "reversed the current in the Western Canal from the junction to the Swamp Locks Basin".[3]
    • 1848 Francis completes Moody Street Feeder [3]
    • Underground Boott Penstock transfers flow from Merriack Canal to end of Eastern Canal [3]
    • Northern canal cost $551,585 [3]
    • Moody Street Feeder cost $86,132 [3]
    • Boott Penstock and Western Canal work cost $15,000 [3]
    • Previous system had capacity of 91 "mill power"[3]
    • Northern canal increased system to 139 mill power in all seasons [3]
    • Additional power was available when conditions permitted [3]
    • Accounted for almost 12,000 HP [3]
    • Francis would close gates during lunch break in summer to save water [3]
    • 1846 turbine experiments showed turbines more efficient than breast wheels in common use at time [3]
    • Turbine conversion happened during and after Northern Canal construction [4]
    • Pawtucket Gatehouse used by Francis to study turbine operation and weir flow [4]
    • Gatehouse contained testing chambers, other scientific equipment [4]
    • Gatehouse one of first industrial research labs in US [4]
    • Francis published research in 1855 Lowell Hydraulic Experiments[4]
    • 1847 Pawtucket Gatehouse contained first practical Francis Turbine [4]
    • 9ft diameter, positioned vertically in cylindrical granite wheel pit [4]
    • Francis turbine is inward-flow turbine [4]
    • Francis turbine improvement on 1838 design by Samuel Howd [4]
    • 1849 Improved turbine installed in Boott Mills[4]
    • Francis was in charge of landscaping along Northern Canal (Note: Records apparently exist in PL&C papers of plantings. Inquire with UMLL CLS?) [4]
    • Canals became part of Lowell NHP in 1978 [5]
    • Northern canal is 4,373 ft long, 100 ft wide (avg), 15 to 21 ft deep [6]
    • Single bend designed to reduce friction head loss [6]
    • First 130 feet of wall downstream from dam is concrete and rubble [6]
    • Next ~1000 ft built on island of rubble in cement, backfilled with cleay and earth and rubble retaining wall[6]
    • Last section is Great River Wall, with walkway [6]
    • (continue at Pawtucket Gatehouse)
  • Boot Hydropower Inc (March 1988). Small-scale hydroelectric power demonstration project: Eldred L. Field Hydroelectric Project: final technical and construction cost report. US Department of Energy.
  • Coburn, Frederick William (1920). History of Lowell and Its People. Vol. 1. New York City: Lewis Historical Publishing Company.
  • Cohen, Paul; Cohen, Brenda (March 1999). "Lowell National Historic Park and Lowell Heritage State Park, Massachusetts". Journal of College Science Teaching. 28 (5): 354–356.
  • Francis, James B. (1883). Lowell hydraulic experiments. New York: Van Nostrand. Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  • Joy, Thomas; Joy, Gretchen Sanders (1991). Early Canal Transportation: The Boats of the Middlesex Canal. University of Lowell Center for Lowell History.
  • Malone, Patrick M. (2009-11-01). Waterpower in Lowell: Engineering and Industry in Nineteenth-Century America. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9735-1.
  • Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott Architects (1980). Lowell National Historical Park and Preservation District Cultural Resources Inventory (PDF). National Parks Service.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Zimmermann, Karl (1991-08-04). "Cruising the Canals of a Revitalized Lowell". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h ASCE & ASME 1985, p. 1.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ASCE & ASME 1985, p. 2.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m ASCE & ASME 1985, p. 3.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k ASCE & ASME 1985, p. 4.
  5. ^ ASCE & ASME 1985, p. 5.
  6. ^ a b c d e ASCE & ASME 1985, p. 6.
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