[75] 
The Water Power of Texas. 
29 
logic fault was encountered. This, as stated by Mr. Groves, engineer in 
charge for part of the time, was seventy-five feet wide and the material 
filling it was clay with an occasional boulder. Joseph P. Frizell, the 
chief engineer in the early stages of the dam, states that at a point 300 
to 400 feet from the east end of the dam, a very friable condition of lime- 
stone existed, and in 1896, in a letter to the mayor, he warned the author- 
ities about this dangerous point, and suggested some supplemental work 
of protection. It is highly probable that the dam would have been stand- 
ing today if this work had been executed. 
The minimum flow of the river was overestimated about five times. 
Measurements taken by the writer in March, 1899, and since, indicate 
that the flow was less than 200 second-feet at low stages against an 
assumed 1000 second-feet. The flow at Marble Falls, seventy miles above 
the dam, was 197 second-feet, and that at the head of the lake a day or 
so later, no rain having fallen in the meantime, was 210 second-feet. 
Eecords of the depth of water on crest of the dam were kept from Sep- 
tember 1, 1895, to January 1, 1900. The maximum and average depths 
of water on the crest of the dam as given by the gauge were as follows: 
Year. 
Maximum Depth. 
Average Gauge 
Depth. 
1896 
2 60 feet, 
.496 feet. 
.422 feet. 
.280 feet. 
.412 feet. 
.408 feet. 
1897 
2.20 feet 
1898 
4.20 feet 
1899 
9.80 feet 
Average 
On account of the inequalities of the crest line of the dam all depths 
must be increased by ,00.9 feet to get an average for the whole spillwav 
of 1091 feet. 
Experiments with an electric current meter were made during Janu- 
ary and March of 1900 to determine the coefficient C in the weir formula : 
Q=CL H f. 
The results indicate that for the Austin dam C was nearly 3.09, the 
theoretical coefficient used by Frizell. Substituting this value of C and 
the length of 1091, we get 
Q— 3, 371 H f. 
The average flow through the penstocks for the four years, was about 
250 second-feet. The following table shows the maximum and average 
daily discharge in second-feet, including the flow through penstocks. 
Year. 
Gauge Heights. 
Discharge in Second-feet. 
Maximum. 
Average. 
Maximum. 
Minimum. 
Average. 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
2.61 feet 
2.21 feet..... 
4.21 feet 
6.81 feet 
.505 feet. 
.731 feet. 
.326 feet. 
.421 feet. 
14,100 
11,000 
29,000 
103,400 
200 
210 
1,460 
1.200 
1.880 
1,170 
