ON THE INDUSTRIAL USES OF THE UPPER BANN RIVER. 189 
On the Industrial Uses of the Upper Bann River. 
By Joun Smytu, Jun., M.A., C.L., F.C.S. 
[A communication ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso.] 
Tue river Bann rises in the Mourne Mountains and flows a distance of 85 
miles, in a northerly direction, through Lough Neagh into the North-Atlantic 
Ocean at Coleraine. Its drainage-area, including that of its many tribu- 
taries and the surface of Lough Neagh, is 2345 square miles, and is surpassed 
in Ireland only by that of the Shannon, which is 6946 square miles, and the 
Barrow Nore and Suir, which is 3410 square miles. This area or rainfall 
gathering-ground is well surrounded by mountains flanked by high table- 
land, the descent from which is rapid. The banks of the various branches 
of the Bann, therefore, offer peculiarly favourable sites for mills, a fact which 
has been well taken advantage of by the industrious inhabitants of this pros- 
perous district, and, to a large extent, contributed to the establishment of the 
linen trade in the north of Ireland. The principal branches or tributaries of 
the Bann are the 
Blackwater river, which drains part of the counties of Armagh, Monaghan, and Tyrone. 
Ballinderry 3 43 % Tyrone and Londonderry. 
Moyola Pr, Fo county of Londonderry. 
Claudy ” ” ” ” 
Agivey 3 ” ” 3 
Maine #3 if - Antrim. 
Six-Mile Water ra 5 FF, % 
Upper Bann ae i 4 Down. 
Cusher Fe Ff Pe Armagh. 
Although the Upper Bann drains a much smaller area than either the 
Blackwater or Maine, it is the most important and interesting in an econo- 
mic and engineering aspect. For in that valuable work ‘The Industrial 
Resoyrces of Ireland,’ published thirty years ago by Sir Robert Kane, he says 
“ The Upper Bann is the most fully economized river in Ireland,” and refers 
to it as of an example worthy of imitation in the application of engineering 
science to the development of natural resources by the construction of its 
reservoirs. I therefore proceed to describe what has already been done to 
turn its natural advantages to good account and the result. ; 
The Upper Bann, from its source to the point where the water from the last 
mill is returned to the river, is about 31 miles long, and drains an area of 
134 square miles, or one seventeenth of that of the Bann-system. From this 
point to Lough Neagh, a distance of 10 miles, it is navigable, and forms with 
the Cusher river and canal part of the Newry navigation. Theré is no record, 
as far as I have been able to discover, of the time mills were first erected 
-on the Upper Bann. The weir-dams which are found in the old maps 
bear the appearance of ancient construction; and reference is made in ancient 
leases to the repair of weir-dams and the necessity of grinding corn at the 
manor mill. There is no doubt but that the establishment of the linen trade 
on the river Bann is of very ancient date. It is stated that in the year 1772 
there were 26 bleach-mills on the Bann, and the linens from that district were 
well known and highly esteemed in England and Scotland. The machinery 
in these mills was driven by undershot-wheels, which only give out about 25 
per cent. of the theoretical useful effect of the fall of water. About the year 
1833, however, application was made by Mr. Law, of Hazelbank mill, to the 
late Sir William Fairbairn, F.R.S., the celebrated hydraulic engineer, who, 
