THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



981 



UNIQUE PUMPING PLANT TO SUPPLY WATER. 



The following interesting description has been taken 

 from the "Payette Independent," Payette, Idaho. 



The pumping plant of the Snake River Irrigation 

 company, limited, which is to furnish water for 14.000 

 acres of fine land just across the Snake river from Pay- 

 ette, is about completed and will be ready to supply water 

 to the land owners during the coming season. 



This means the realization of the dreams of the brave, 

 hardy settlers who had the nerve to take up the barren 

 sagebrush land and patiently await the time when some 

 one would provide water to cause it to blossom and bloom. 

 The land is known as the Duncan and Dead Ox flats and 

 lies about two miles from Payette directly across tne 

 Snake river on the Oregon side. It is protected by a low 

 rim of hills and is as fine a body of land as a land-hungry 

 homeseeker ever laid eyes on 



GENERAL VIEW SHOWING PUMPING STATION. 



For many years the land has been homesteaded and 

 the families who have managed to subsist as they com- 

 plied with the requirements of Uncle Sam in taking up 

 the public domain have displayed great faith in their be- 

 lief that some day they would be" made rich by the com- 

 ing of water for irrigation. 



Their faith has been justified and the spring of 1911 

 will witness the completion of an irrigation system that 

 will supply water for half of the total area of the flat, and 

 within a short time the system will be extended to cover 

 the entire 14,000 acres. The system is being put in by 

 The Snake River Irrigation Company, Ltd., which has its 

 head office in this city. 



There are two unique things in connection with this 

 company and its system. One is that the company has 

 gone .ahead and installed its plant, at an expenditure of 

 about $75,000, and not one settler has been asked for a 

 penny or to sign any agreement to buy water stock. The 

 other is the method of generating power for pumping 

 the water. 



The company's pumping plant is located on the Ore- 

 gon bank of the Snake river directly opposite Payette. 

 The water will be lifted 52 feet through a continuous wood 

 stave pipe, 41 inches in diameter and 1,600 feet in length, 

 and emptied into a canal which follows the base of the low 

 hills. It will be lifted by a huge 14-16 double action trip- 

 lex pump, which weighs 33,000 pound's and will pump 

 3,500,000 gallons a day. 



Power for operating the pump is generated on the 

 principle of a water wheel, but with an equipment very 

 much different from the old-fashioned wheel. The thing 

 is a new patented invention called the "current power 

 transmuter." It is an elongated water wheel; an enoV- 

 less belt of paddles flowing with the current, one-half of 

 which are always immersed in the water, and the other 

 half returning out of the water. 



This elongated wheel or endless belt extends down 

 the river 500 feet and is supported on pontoon idlers. 

 The belt is nine feet wide and carries over 200 paddles 

 of the same width and a foot deep. The belt is retltfned 

 up stream on large spools. By being on pontoon idlfrs the 

 river may rise or fall and the pumping plant will be affected 

 in no way. 



The amount of power obtained is determined bv two 

 factors, viz.: the length of the paddle belt and the cur- 

 rent. By doubling the number of paddles without chang- 



ing the velocity of the current the amount of power ob- 

 tained is doubled, but by increasing the velocity of the 

 current without increasing the number of paddles the 

 power generated increases in a much greater proportion. 



It is figured out that a paddle surface of 24 square feet 

 to the paddle with 57 paddles in the water, in a current 

 flowing six miles per hour, will produce 150 horse power 

 and the same paddle surface flowing 11 miles an hour will 

 produce 1,000 horse power. 



The practicability of the current power transmuter 

 has been demonstrated by a plant in operation on the Co- 

 lumbia river in the state of Washington. This plant, 

 which was the first ever built and is of crude construc- 

 tion, develops in a six mile current 120 horse power, or 

 2% horse power to each paddle immersed. The plant near 

 Payette is in a seven-mile current and there will be about 

 100 paddles in the stream constantly 



The plant will generate 400 horse power and it will 

 require only 75 horse power to operate the pump now in- 

 stalled, but as soon as there is need of supplying more 

 water than the one pump will furnish, two centrifugal 

 pumps will be installed to raise the water to the 52-foot 

 level and the big pump will be employed in raising the 

 water to a much higher level of between 250 and 300 feet 

 where a large teritory will be reached. 



As soon as a large pulley.' which has been delayed 

 in shipment, arrives and is installed the plant will be com- 

 plete and ready for operation. Then a demonstration of 

 its work will be given and the land owners will be given 

 an opportunity to take water stock. It is estimated the 

 cost of water for land under the 52 foot lift will be about 

 $25 an acre and $2.00 a year for maintenance. The water 

 will be ready for use during the coming season. 



Since the assurance of an immediate water supply 

 there has been a great deal of activity in real estate on 

 the flat and many of the homesteads are being divided 

 into 80 and 40-acre tracts. Xew buildings dot the flat 

 on all sides and many owners have cleared their land 

 of sagebrush, and there is promise of a great activity 



%.YIEW SHOWING DETAILS OF CURRENT POWER TRANS- 

 MUTER. 



there when the spring season opens. Scores of families 

 who have been hanging on to their land for several years 

 while they made their living elsewhere will now move 

 on to it and make their homes there. 



THE BIG FOUR "30." 



The Gas Traction Company of Minneapolis, manufac- 

 turer of the Big Four "30" and the first and largest builder 

 of four-cylinder farm tractors in the world, has purchased 

 the Gas Traction Company, Limited, of Winnipeg, and after 

 June 1 the Winnipeg factory and offices will be the Canadian 

 branch of the Minneapolis company. As the only manu- 

 facturer of gasoline farm tractors in Canada, the company 

 has unequaled facilities for giving the same prompt and 

 satisfactory service which has been given the farmers of 

 the United States. Engines and stocks of supplies will be 

 kept at various points throughout western Canada. The 

 Big Four "30" is well known throughout western Canada, 

 having won the gold medal and grand sweepstakes in the 

 Agricultural Motor Competition at Winnipeg last year. 



