HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



THE BIG SPLASH HAM i\ i]1'i:i;aiiiix 



foundation of the several concrete piers, 

 nhieli are 10 feet wide, 32 feet long at the 

 base, sloping to the top, which is 10x20 feet 

 in size. The end piers are nearly 100 feet 

 long. The upper end of the piers have a five- 

 foot A'-shaped nose or extension to ward oflf 

 the logs and lessen the impact of the water. 

 Thus the piers are mounted on a subdam 

 five feet above the mean bed of the river, and 

 anchored to the solid rock of the river bed. 

 The dam has a height of twenty-five feet 

 and backs water up Russell Fork for about 

 one and one-third miles. The total cost of the 

 structure was about $40,000. 



The cement for this dam was manufactured 

 at Ironton. Ohio, and it took forty carloads 

 to build the structure. The cement was 

 shipped by rail to Elkhorn City, Ky.. and 

 then transferred by wagon over two mountain 

 ridges, on roads that are scarcely worthy of 

 the name, to the site f the dam. Forty 

 mules, twenty wagons and drivers have been 

 constantly employed in this transfer for 

 seven months. The cost of the wagoning of 



the cement alone was 40 cents a hundred. 



The formula employed in making the con- 

 crete for the dam was to every barrel of 

 cement (.3.8 cubic feet) 29.50 cubic feet of 

 sand, with 19 cubic feet of crushed sand- 

 stone. One feature that materially lessened 

 the cost of the structure was that the sand- 

 stone was found in the bluffs immediately 

 beside the dam site, and the sand was secured 

 from the river bottom at the point. Fur- 

 thermore, a coal vein was tapped almost im- 

 mediately above the dam which furnished the 

 fuel with which to operate the stone crushers 

 and the machinery necessary to transfer the 

 buckets of concrete to the work. 



Referring particularly to the ingenious ar- 

 rangement of false work of the five flues of 

 the dam, it may be stated that from the top 

 of each cement pier project 18-inch steel I- 

 beams. A big poplar stick some three feet in 

 diameter rests solidly against the I-beam 

 on one pier, while between the I-beam on the 

 opposite pier at the end of the poplar stick 

 is a space of about five feet. Interposed in 



ITRMXC A "HLUE HEAD" THHOUGH THE DAM TO SI'I.ASII (IIT A .lAM DEI.OW 



this space is a chunk of round timber some 

 ten or twelve inches in diameter, which in 

 splash dam parlance is known as the ' ' trig- 

 ger. ' ' Resting against the big poplar stick 

 at their upper ends and against a .5-inch 

 notch in the toe sill of the dam at their lower 

 ends are flattened "spars" of beech twenty- 

 seven feet in length and placed about two 

 feet apart. At their tops these spars are 

 loosely fastened to the big poplar sticks 

 with immense iron hooks, the lower ends of 

 the hooks having chains bolted back to the 

 spars. Across the surface of the lower half 

 of the spars are placed 20-foot oak plank- 

 ing one and one-half inches thick, and on the 

 upper half 1-inch boards are used. These 

 ' ' splash boards, ' ' as they are called, have 

 holes bored in one end and ropes knotted 

 thereon, and fastened to the structure above.r 

 Each of the five flues are thus equipped, and' 

 when a head of water has been secured the 

 dam is released by boring a hole in each of 

 the five triggers, inserting a dynamite stie^ 

 and discharging them simultaneously by 

 means of an electric battery. The dynamite 

 stick breaks up the trigger. The weight of 

 water forces one end of each big poplar Stick 

 back down stream five feet against tfie I- 

 beam. This action, by the aid of the iron 

 hooks and chains at the top of the spars, draws 

 them from their footings on the toe-sill and 

 the logs and water go out under the floating 

 and suspended false work with a rush. 



The great mass of 30,000,000 feet of logs 

 lield above this dam are not all discharged 

 at one time, but are held back in the slack 

 water by means of booms. Only 600 to 

 1,000 sticks of timber are released on each 

 splash. These splashes are made as fast as 

 water accumulates above the dam and are 

 usually three or four days apart. 



The dam affords a depth of water from 

 twelve to sixteen feet through the narrow 

 gorge of the "breaks of the Big Sandy," 

 and while one splash may leave a lodgment 

 of some of the logs, each succeeding splash 

 drives them further and further down the 

 stream. The immense gathering of logs, il- 

 lustrated in last issue of Record, has now 

 been practically splashed out into floating 

 water. Large deliveries of rafts from Elk- 

 horn City and Pikevjlle. Ky.. have already 

 been made at the company "s mills at Coal 

 drove. Ohio. 



The company is now operating its big dou- 

 ble band saw mill at Coal Grove day and 

 night. 



The problem of splash damming has been 

 solved ! 



