Newspapers / The Badin Bulletin (Albemarle, … / July 1, 1920, edition 1 / Page 6
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Page Six BADIN bulletin /V-'- Vv t ■ • • ;’ii' /■ } V V . V'iT / r - 4|' . V \ OUR BAND—B. L. GOMO. LEADER craft. All at once it seemed to start rolling, and in his struggles to right the craft Rhinehardt rolled off the roof and into the water. This was the sud den end of the dream or nightmare, as he was actually struggling in the water by the side of his own bed, and as soon as he could get his head working he realized that the river had come up rapidly since he had gone to bed, and that his bed was about ready to start floating around in the room. ' It was pi’obably the noise of the rushing water that had started this horrible dream. ^It was very dark and raining outside, and something had to be done at once, so Rhinehardt started to move to high groundij As the shack was on a slight raise of ground, it was necessary to wade through rather deep water before the higher ground of the river bank could be reached. Rhinehardt worked rather hard at this, and before morning "had his family and furniture moved to the higher ground. There were no other buildings near the powerhouse except the place where Coggins lived. Coggins had a number of children, and so did Rhine hardt, but in some way they managed to get all into the two ten by twelve rooms. iThe cat and chickens had to take to the tall trees. During the day, the water had made its way into the powerhouse, soaked up the large leather belt so that the glued joints all became loose, and brought logs and sand down the canal at such a rate that the forebay and the canal soon became filled. The water wheel had been shut down long befoi’e this. The air compressor, the carbon plant fans, and town lights were with out power. This was the end of the Whitney powerhouse, a development which I have heard was started before the war, was remodeled by the Whitney Company, again by the Southern Aluminium Com pany, and still again by Farmer Scott. It was a picturesque little powerhouse, built of granite, with a red tile roof, and the whole largely covered with ivy. 'The machinery was removed, also the tile roof; the rest is buried many feet under the yellow waters of the Yadkin. While all this was going on around the Whitney powerhouse, things were happening at a lively rate in and around Badin. In February and March, Mr. Tallassee, desiring to increase his elec trical force to take care of his large con struction program for the coming year, brought H. S. Beers from Mr. Alumi num in Niagara Falls, Mr. McNeely DuBose from Morganton, N. C., and Mr. Frank Elmore from Charleston, S. C., and later Mr. R. F. Giersch from Raleigh. With the addition of these men, and the aid of Farmer Scott’s organization, a force of about three hundred electrical workei's, mechanics, and laborers wa^ built up. Mr. Tallassee wanted to start making aluminum as soon as possiole, ;0 a temporary rotary converter station iu\d to be constructed, machinery iH' stalled, and power purchased from South- fTH Power Company. It seemed that thv,re was an unusual amount of water that summer, as there were water pud dles almost anywhere around this tem porary rotary station. Mr. Tallassee’s engineers in Pittsburgh had decreed that this temporary station was to stand only a year, so that no extra work was to be put on it. A detailed description ot the difficulties encountered in construct ing and starting this temporai'y station is given elsewhere in this issue. Mr. Tallassee had decided to build ^ model town, and had a large school, busi ness block, theater, and three or four hun dred houses planned for the summer 1916, This required that a complex® power distribution and street lighting' system be planned and erected. Several carloads of poles and other material were ordered, and Farmer Scott set to work, and in a few weeks we had lights everywhere. Several pot rooms were be ing built, and tons of copper bar had be drilled and set in place. ’ Thousands of thin sheets of copper had to be sol dered together to make flexible connec tions to the pots. Temporary power light lines had to be run everywhere, supply power for motor-driven concrete mixers and lights for excavating wovl» which was carried on night and day* Eight large rotaries had to be install®*^ in the permanent rotary stations, which required several more tons of copper and aluminum bar. Many cranes, motoi'S; A SECTION OF THE AUTOMOBILE LINE
The Badin Bulletin (Albemarle, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 1, 1920, edition 1
6
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