WATER POWER AND ELECTRICAL DEVELOPMENTS 



as Henschol. It proved to be far superior to the outward dis- 

 charge type in that it almost entirely eliminated the latter. 



The inward-flow wheel, in which the action of the Fourneyron 

 turbine is reversed, was patented by S. B. Howd, of Geneva, N. Y., 

 in 1836, and seems to have been the origin of the American type of 

 turbine. Very great improvements were, however, made in the 

 construction by James B. Francis about 1847, and many regard 

 him as the originator. The Francis turbine of to-day has dis- 

 placed all other types of reaction turbines, and with its rapid 

 development, radical departures have been made from the strictly 

 radial inward-flow, so that the Francis turbine of to-day is of a 

 combined radial or diagonal inward discharge type. 



The impulse wheels were among the earliest forms used. Thus 

 the rouet volant or flutter wheels were used for centuries in 

 India, Egypt, Syria and Southern France. They consisted of flat, 

 vertical vanes projecting radially from a vertical wooden shaft, 

 the water jet from the feeding spout striking the vanes tan- 

 gentially near their ends. It was not, however, until 1853 that 

 this type of wheel was given a scientific consideration in this 

 country by Jearum Atkins, while its practical development must be 

 credited to Lester A. Pelton, who, in 1882, and following years, 

 made radical improvements in its design. This type of wheel is 

 now extensively used in the West, where the high heads made such 

 a wheel necessary. 



The first great water power developments were made in the 

 New England States. The textile industry was destined to 

 expand rapidly and the water power of the streams was its sup- 

 porting ally. Under this influence the first great water power 

 was developed on the Merrimac River, in 1822, where subse- 

 quently the City of Lowell became a great cotton manufacturing 

 center. Near Lowell there were soon developed the equally 

 prominent water powers on the Merrimac River at Manchester, 

 in New Hampshire, and Lawrence, Mass. These developments 

 had each capacities of 10,000 to 12,000 horse-power, * and each 

 was chiefly devoted to the manufacture of cotton goods, as were 

 the water powers of Cohoes (1828) in New York, and Lewiston 

 (1849) in Maine. The Connecticut River water power at Hoi- 

 yoke (1848) was largely devoted to the manufacture of paper, as, 

 later, were the Fox River powers in Wisconsin. The water pow- 

 ers on the Genesee River at Rochester, N. Y. (1856), and on the 



