ENGINEERING IN 1892. 



Texas, and the work has 

 been undertaken on a scale 

 that will probably enable it 

 to furnish water works and 

 eleetric light, with abun- 

 dant power for manufactur- 

 ing. The dam was under- 

 taken by authority of a 

 public election, when the 

 ciii/.ens voted bonds to the 

 amount of $1,400,000. It 

 is not by any means the 

 largest masonry dam in the 

 world. At Vrynwy, in 

 Wales, at Buzey and Gros- 

 bois, in France, and at sev- 

 eral places in Spain, Bel- 

 gium, California, and In- 

 dia, are dams that exceed 

 it iu size. None of these, 

 however, are built upon 

 risers nearly as large as 

 the Colorado, and few of 

 them are designed for a 

 continuous flow of water 

 over the crest. They are 

 ini ended to retain all or 

 nearly all the water of their 

 respect ive rivers. The Aus- 

 tin dam, on the contrary, 

 crosses the channel of the 

 Colorado where it has 40,- 

 000 square miles of water- 

 shed, and where its annual 

 floods reach a volume of 

 200,000 feet a second. With 

 such a mass of water pass- 

 ing over its crest, it is easy 

 to understand that the 

 highest engineering skill 

 must have been called into 

 service, if the work is well 

 done. It would be difficult, 

 however, for any engineer 

 to devise a dam that would 

 not afford some weak points 



METHOD OF t-TIMZINQ THE WATER-POWER OF NIAGARA FALLS. 

 THE INTAKE. 



