THE IEKIGATION AGE. 



339 



CURRENT WHEELS; THEIR USE IN LIFTING 

 WATER FOR IRRIGATION.* 



(Continued.) 



IRRIGATION FOR TWELVE ACRES OF ORCHARD. 



A very simple wheel is shown in Fig. 20. It is 

 fourteen feet in diameter with paddles nine feet long 

 and two feet eight inches wide. It raises water ten 

 feet. The shaft consists of a 14-foot length of 1%- 

 inch gas pipe with four 2 by 8-inch pieces bolted 

 around it for stiffness and to give a bearing for the 

 arms. This gives the shaft alone a weight of over 

 300 pounds, or more than twice the weight of a 2-inch 

 solid steel shaft the same length. The construction 

 calls for 328 feet of lumber, but it could be built very 

 much lighter without reducing its capacity. Its cost 

 is given as $35. The lumber could be purchased for 



and an old wagon wheel. The arms are of 1 by 8-inch 

 boards, and are braced by boards of the same dimen- 

 sions about two feet from the outer ends. Baling wire 

 connecting the outer ends of the arms helps to stiffen 

 the wheel. The paddles are four feet long and eighteen 

 inches wide; the arms are not nailed in the centers of 

 the paddles but a little toward one end, the longer 

 parts of the boards serving to balance the buckets. The 

 entire wheel contains about eighty-five feet of lumber 

 and weighs scarcely 350 pounds. 



Its most interesting feature is the method of hang- 

 ing it and adjusting it to different heights of water. 

 The wagon hub fits on its original bearing, half of 

 the old axle being bolted to a 10-inch beam about twenty 

 feet long. This beam is suspended between two posts 

 set near the wheel, by a chain wound on a drum. The 

 other end is free to move vertically between two smaller 



3/DE VIEW or FfTMH SHOWING FLUMC JWD ftCCIVIN6 FLUMf 

 ' 



CND V/EW 



Fig. 15. Framing for Flume for Wheel Shown in Fig. 14. 



$8.50 and the galvanized iron for $3.50, making the 

 cost of materials about $15, allowing for the gas pipe 

 and bolts. The wheel raises 0.11 cubic foot of water 

 per second, irrigating twelve acres of orchard and 



BUCKETS MADE OF OIL CANS. 



A somewhat larger wheel in a ditch in the Lower 

 Natchez Valley, Washington, is shown in Fig. 8. It 

 is eleven feet in diameter, having paddles nine feet 

 long and fourteen inches wide. It raises water seven 

 feet. Part of the buckets are made of galvanized iron 

 and part are made by cutting six inches from the bottom 

 of 5-gallon oil cans. The wheel alone contains 328 

 feet of lumber. The method of bracing the arm is 

 very effective. There are no data at hand for deter- 

 mining the efficiency. 



EFFECTIVE USE OF WAGON WHEEL AND AXLE. 



An example of extreme lightness of construction 

 in a 15-foot wheel is shown in Fig. 9, illustrating a 

 wheel on the South Platte River near the mouth of 

 Bear Creek, Colo. It is built entirely of 1-inch lumber 



Courtesy U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



posts set as guides. The weight of the 10-inch log bal- 

 ances the wheel, and it can be raised or lowered easily 

 by one man. 



The velocity of the water was not measured, so 

 it is not possible to get at the efficiency of this wheel. 

 It raised 0.25 cubic foot per second ten feet, which 

 is five or six times the amount of work done by the 

 small wheels of about the same weight. 



A CONTRAST IN COST OF TWO WASHINGTON WHEELS. 



A much larger wheel than any of the foregoing is 

 shown in Plate II, Fig. 1, and in Fig. 10. It is in 

 operation on the Yakima River in Washington. It is 

 twenty-six feet in diameter, and the sixteen paddles 

 are eleven feet long and twenty-four inches wide. It 

 raises water twenty-two feet. In a wheel of this size 

 and weight great strain comes on the center fastenings 

 of the spokes. The heavy shaft and large cast iron 

 "rosettes" used in this wheel, with the wedges driven 

 in between the arms, make it a model for rigidity and 

 strength. The buckets of galvanized iron are placed 

 on the outside of the rims and parallel to them, being 



