276 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of the design shown in Fig. 4, and in Plate 1, Fig. 1. 

 Each is four feet in diameter and raises water three 

 feet for the irrigation of five acres in vegetables. The 

 shaft is of 1%-inch iron pipe and works in wooden 

 bearings. Two rows of 1 by 2-inch wooden spokes 

 are placed three feet apart on the shaft. Stiff circu- 

 lar rims of % by 6-inch material connect the ends 

 of the spokes, forming a rigid wheel for the sup- 

 port of the paddles. There are eighteen paddles of 

 %-inch boards six inches wide and four feet in length. 

 The paddles extend one foot beyond the row of spokes 

 at one end, where the buckets are swung between 

 them. These projecting ends are braced by a third 

 stiff rim which furnishes a bearing for the buckets. 

 These are half cylindrical in shape, being made of tin 

 tacked onto round pieces of wood which form the ends. 

 They are swung on pins of heavy wire run through 

 the centers of the end pieces. Being free to turn on 

 the pins, the buckets will always hang right side up 



$3.15. This estimate is exclusive of the supporting 

 posts and the flume for carrying away the water. 



These wheels successfully water the gardens for 

 which they were built and so entirely fulfill the purpose 

 of the gardeners who put them in. With a little change 

 in design, however, a wheel of this pattern could be 

 made to raise twice as much water as these raise at 

 present. In the first place, the wheel revolves almost 

 as. fast as the water that turns it, so that the water 

 which strikes the paddles exerts about one-third of its 

 power. The remedy is to increase the size of the buck- 

 ets until the rim of the wheel moves about half as fast 

 as the water. Another improvement which would in- 

 crease the capacity of the wheel would be to slant the 

 paddles about 30 degrees upstream, or, better still, 

 a slanting board could be added to each paddle, so as 

 to form an angle opening upstream. 



Of the total available power in the stream, the 

 wheel observed used 20 per cent in "useful work." By 





Wheel on Yakiiua River, ^Washington. 



unless forcibly turned over. In this case they are 

 turned over when they reach the top of the wheel by 

 a slender stick placed so as to strike each bucket in 

 turn. A piece of rubber hose covers the end of the 

 stick, which springs down enough to let the bucket 

 roll over it without checking the motion of the wheel. 

 Each of the eighteen buckets holds 0.04 cubic feet, 

 so that at each revolution the wheel raises 0.72 cubic 

 feet. Turning once in 3% seconds, the wheel raises 

 about 0.2 cubic feet per second. No attempt is made 

 to confine the water of the ditch to a flume so as 'to 

 bring it all into action on the wheel. 



These wheels are well constructed and are said to 

 harve cost $27 each. Most of the expense appears to 

 have been for labor, since the amount of material re- 

 quired is so small. The plan calls for forty-two board 

 feet of lumber, five feet of pipe for the shaft, eight and 

 a half pounds of tin (D C), and five pounds of No. 1 

 wire. At fair retail prices the cost for material is 



running all the water through a flume four and a half 

 feet wide and changing the design as suggested the 

 amount of water raised would be largely increased. 

 For $10 a permanent flume of 2-inch material with a 

 substantial apron and wings could be built. 



Another wheel in the same ditch is built on the 

 same general plan, except the buckets are fixed rigidly 

 in the rim. It is of less expensive construction, how- 

 ever, being framed from two buggy wheels with their 

 rims removed and placed three feet apart on a: shaft. 

 The paddles of i/2-inch boards, six inches wide, are 

 nailed to the spokes. As before, rows of braces between 

 the paddles form three stiff rims. The buckets are 

 formed by nailing sheets of tin to the inside and out- 

 side edges of the paddles so that the two rims form 

 the ends and the paddles form the bottoms. The sheet 

 of tin on the inside is cut narrower than the one on 

 the outside. But for the fact that when the wheel is 

 in motion the water tends to fly away from the center, 



