Ledger-Dispatch

- The Amador Canal and the Impulse Turbine = OR How=20 Samuel Knight Created Hydro-Electric Power=20

The Samuel Knight Shipyard on the = Presumpscot=20 River. A hydro-electric plant later built on the shipyard site is = shown=20 here.

From a map by Ford S. Reiche of Falmouth = Maine

Gravity creates water = pressure.

Drawing=20 Andy Fahrenwald

Knight Wheel

Collection of = Robert=20 Johnson

Pelton Wheel

Mechanical = Engineering, June=20 1939

Doble Wheel

Transactions of the = American=20 Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. XXIX, 1899

Donnelly wheel displayed by Donnelly = Foundry=20 workers.

Courtesy Amador County Archive

Knight Wheel in foreground, Knight = Foundry on the=20 far right, Consolidated Eureka Mine's mill across Sutter Creek, = shortly=20 after 1872. Note pipe running from left to wheel, and flume = returning=20 exhaust water across creek to mine flume, probably supplying a = traditional=20 overshot water wheel to power the mill.

Courtesy Amador = County=20 Archive

Water-powered newspaper =

Courtesy Amador=20 County Archive

Water-powered mine hoist = plan

Collection=20 of Robert Johnson

Knight's first Dynamo Motor for Amador = Electric=20 Railway & Light Co.

Collection of Robert = Johnson

=

Pioneer Power Plant in Odgen=20 Utah

Collection of Robert Johnson

=

Penstock descending to Electra Power=20 House

PG&E of California

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Power transmission via belts and = pulleys, Knight=20 Foundry machineshop

Jet Lowe, Historic American Engineering = Record

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A Young = Millwright Appears=20 in California

In 1863, Samuel Newman Knight (1838 - 1913), a = son of=20 Maine and fresh from the Army Corps of Engineers in Civil War era = Florida,=20 arrived in the Mother Lode and, at the tender age of 25, set himself up = in=20 business as a'millwright'. The millwright was the renaissance man of the = industrial revolution: he designed the mill building, set up the prime = mover=20 (waterwheel or stearn engine) and power transmission system, arranged = the=20 machinery for mill production and in, Samuel Knight's case, later built = the=20 machinery itself as proprietor of Knight & Co. in Sutter Creek.=20

Launching his new career, Knight built a ten-stamp quartz mill = on=20 Calaveras Creek. In nearby canyons, he could observe the remarkable=20 high-pressure water blasting technique that California's gold miners = were using=20 for placer mining. This 'hydraulic mining' set the stage for the = invention of=20 the Knight Water Wheel, or impulse turbine - the most efficient prime = mover ever=20 devised, then and now: Knight's ultimate destiny was to help lay major=20 foundation stones of today's modern hydro-electric industry. =

Samuel=20 Knight grew up near the mouth of the Presumpscot River where it flows = into Casco=20 Bay at Falmouth, Maine. When he turned 14, he left the family farm and=20 apprenticed as a ship-joiner, possibly at the tantalizingly named Samuel = Knight=20 Shipyard (we have yet to find the family connection) on the estuary of = that=20 river. The Presumpscot - quite suggestively for a story about a young = millwright=20 -was the river most heavily utilized for mill power, per mile, in the = United=20 States.

The river's last dam then powered a triple sawmill, a = combing=20 mill and a fulling mill. The darn is gone now. In its place an awesome = cataract=20 descends into the old Knight Shipyard pool, roaring out to those who can = understand its message, "Water is power!"

The ship-joiner was = the=20 shipyard artisan who did all the fine woodwork - the railings, the = cabins, the=20 ship's wheel and so forth. From the early 1800s, Maine's shipyards = launched a=20 vast fleet of seagoing vessels, establishing the United States as a = pre-eminent=20 maritime nation. Exploiting virgin pine forests that provided timber = ideal for=20 taIlship masting, the myriad ship builders of "The Pine Tree State" = joined the=20 first phase of America's industrialized manufacturing.

Thus, by = 1852,=20 when Samuel Knight was apprenticed, ship-joinery was becoming much more = than a=20 traditional handcraft. A surviving ship-joiner's shop in Bath, Maine, in = all its=20 complexity of machine tools and line-shaft belt-power systems, feels = just like=20 the Knight Foundry machine shop. Even the iron-rod tensioned roof = trusses in the=20 shop building at Bath are identical to those Knight employed at Knight = Foundry.=20 This evolving work environment of Samuel Knight's early years has an = obvious=20 bearing for anyone following his career as an inventor (your fate, = gentle=20 reader).

In 1863, Knight found the Mother Lode alive with = innovation.=20 Some of the gold seekers from Mexico, China, Cornwall, Europe and back = east in=20 the United States brought gold mining experience with them, but were = confronted=20 :with unique and massive new challenges in both placer and hard rock = mining.=20 They responded by creating improved mining technologies, especially the=20 California stamp mill, and by making extensive use of hydraulic mining. = It was a=20 great time to be an engineer; it'was a great time to be an inventor!=20

Much of California's gold was mined from loosely cemented fossil = gravels=20 deposited by ancient rivers, and laid bare in more recently formed = valley walls.=20 Dams, ditches and flumes were constructed high above these exposed = deposits. The=20 water flowed from the ditches into 'penstocks' or closed pipes that = dropped=20 down, sometimes hundreds of feet, to the 'monitors' or 'giants'. These = water=20 cannons blasted away the valley walls, carrying the gravel down to = sluice boxes=20 where the gold was recovered. The force of gravity alone provided this = energy,=20 creating 43.3 pounds per square inch of water pressure for every 100 = feet of=20 vertical 'head'.

The early hydraulic miners were quite = resourceful, at=20 first fashioning high pressure piping out of redwood staves bound with = wire. By=20 the time of Samuel Knight's arrival, extensive ditch systems had been = built for=20 hydraulicking all up and down the Sierra gold fields. Now outlawed,=20 hydraulicking had disastrous ecological impacts: eroded badlands that = haven't=20 recovered to this day, gravel choked streams and rivers which in turn = generated=20 devastating spring flash floods, and valley farmlands buried by waves of = debris.=20

The Millwright Turns Inventor

In 1866, having = assembled an=20 impressive skill set - first as a ship-joiner in Maine, then as a = machinist in=20 Florida, and, finally as a Mother Lode millwright - Samuel Knight set = out to=20 adapt the hydraulic miner's high pressure water to power a prime mover = for the=20 hard rock miner's machinery.

The Gold Rush miners of the central = Sierra=20 had been quick to locate the source of the surface placer gold - the = gold=20 bearing quartz vein~ of the famed Mother Lode - and began drilling and = blasting=20 their way down deep to follow them. Gold quartz mining and milling = required=20 heavy, energy-hungry, machinery: mine hoists, compressors and pumps, = rock=20 crushers and stamp mills.

Knight began by experimenting with = wooden=20 'hurdy-gurdy' wheels, as were other local millwrights. Directing a jet = of water=20 against the flat uprights of a wheel shaped like a circular saw blade, = perhaps=20 40% of the water's kinetic energy was captured - not enough to power a = large=20 stamp mill.

In 1868, Knight made the first of a series of = innovations=20 that, a quarter century later, culminated in his pioneering = hydro-electric=20 "Dynamo Motor". He attached curved buckets to the edge of the wheel, and = the=20 efficiency doubled! He had invented the Knight Wheel.

The = fundamental=20 principle he exploited is that if the water jets into the bucket at a = velocity=20 of 100 miles per hour, and the buckets are traveling by at 50 miles per = hour,=20 the water does a Uturn in the bucket and drops out at zero miles per = hour. In=20 other words, the buckets must travel at about half the speed of the = water when=20 the wheel is doing work. In theory and in fact, most of the water's = kinetic=20 energy is thus passed on to the wheel.

This wheel with curved = buckets=20 powered by a high pressure water jet is called an "impulse turbine", or = all too=20 commonly, alas, the Pelton Wheel.

Lester Pelton's 1878 = observation of a=20 misaligned Knight Wheel inspired him to introduce his split bucket = design that=20 exhausts the water more efficiently, which he patented in 1880. Pelton = was a=20 true entrepreneur; Knight an artisan, an engineer who expected his = reputation to=20 do his marketing for him. Because Pelton succeeded so notably in = promoting his=20 style of wheel, Knight Foundry got left behind in its original condition = - a=20 silver lining for us today, if not for Mr. Knight.

The final form = of the=20 modern impulse turbine, with a radical redesign of both the double = bucket and=20 the nozzle, was developed and patented by William A. Doble in 1899. When = Doble=20 took over the Pelton firm to manufacture his own design he did not = change the=20 name to Doble Wheel, probably because of the brand name recognition of = the=20 Pelton Wheel. Thus Samuel Knight's invention is commonly known today as = the=20 Pelton Wheel. Today's modern impulse turbines, descendants of the = original=20 Knight Wheel, are 90% to 92% efficient.

The Invention Inspires = a Wave=20 of Power Canal Building

Until 1868, the prime movers for hard = rock=20 mining and milling had been traditional creekside water wheels or = wood-fueled=20 steam engines - the old style water wheels useful only during the rainy = season=20 and the steam boiler fireboxes at a large mine like the Kennedy = devouring as=20 much as one hundred cords a day of increasingly scarce and expensive = firewood.=20 News of Knight's revolutionary new prime mover spread like wildfire; the = Knight=20 Wheel spawned many imitators. Donnelly Foundry in Sutter Creek = manufactured its=20 own version of the impulse turbine in competition with Knight &=20 Co.

In Amador County, the mines running from Jackson to Plymouth = produced=20 one-half of the gold mined from the Motherlode; for most of that short = 15-mile=20 stretch there was a mine every few hundred yards. Today, there is still=20 impressive evidence of this intensive industrial activity hidden above = Highway=20 49. Driving on back roads from one mining ruin to the next, you move = through a=20 continuous industrial "made landscape" of foundations, headframes, = holding ponds=20 and tailing piles. (Roadside signs marking the major mines and a driving = tour=20 map, both developed by historian Robert Richards, provide an excellent = guide to=20 these landmarks.)

All over the western mining districts, !:,he = Knight=20 Water Wheel triggered widespread investment in canals built specifically = to=20 deliver water to power the new impulse turbine. The Amador Canal and = Mining=20 Company was one of the first, completing the 60 mile long spine of the = Amador=20 Canal in 1874.

The company's canal system was supplied by a darn = high on=20 the Mokelumne River,followed the ridges for 45 miles to just above = Sutter Creek,=20 then branched south to Jackson and north another 15 miles along the = ridge east=20 of Dry Town, where it entered a two mile long penstock and was carried = under=20 pressure to Plymouth. The western lone Canal branch sent water to lone, = another=20 drop of 800 feet to power mines down below. Minor branches radiated out=20 providing water to every major hardrock mine in Amador County. Once the = canal=20 was finished, water for power cost one-fifth the cost of the fire wood = needed to=20 generate the equivalent amount of stearn power and, having a major river = for its=20 source, ran yearround, unlike the traditional stream-side water wheels.=20

The Invention Spreads Everywhere

Campbell & = Hall -=20 soon to be reorganized as Knight & Co., Manufacturers of Water = Wheels,=20 Hydraulic Engines, Quartz Mills, Hoisting & Pump Works - was formed = in 1872,=20 Horace Aurelius Campbell supplying the necessary capital; David K. Hall, = an=20 experienced Pennsylvania foundryman and millwright Samuel Knight almost=20 certainly designing the facility. The Amador Canal wasn't watered until = 1874.=20 How did Knight powered the shop for those first two years - steam power? = We find=20 no trace of a stationary stearn power plant on site.

Recently, = Knight=20 Foundry historian Ed Arata discovered an 1873 Sutter Creek Independent = article=20 reporting that Knight had set up a low head Knight Wheel just above the = foundry=20 and ran the power to Campbell & Hall by a traveling cable system. = Just what=20 we would expect of this man! Ed also located a photograph showing this = wheel,=20 which we reprint here.

Knight & Co. became the 'master = millwright's=20 ideal workshop. In one integrated , manufacturing complex, Samuel Knight = brought=20 together all the production resources needed to outfit a hard rock = mining=20 operation, with the Knight Water Wheel as his signature product. In = 1875, during=20 his first years directing affairs at Knight & Co., he brought his = water=20 wheel design to a final state of development.

His perfected = Knight Wheel=20 can be identified by its curved bucket which exhausts the water toward = the=20 center of the wheel, a slit shaped nozzle to narrowly focus the jet at = the=20 center of the bucket and to extend the period the water enters the = bucket (in=20 some cases during half the rotation of the wheel), and the wheel = uniquely made=20 as a single complex iron casting"made in one piece, not a complicated = lot of=20 pieces bolted together, to get loose and out of order" as one satisfied = customer=20 wrote to Mr. Knight.

When the Amador Canal was completed in = 1874, 13=20 mines were operating 335 stamps in their milling facilities. In 1878, = just four=20 years later, 22 mines were operating 510 stamps, now making extensive = use of=20 high-head penstocks supplied by the new canal. It appears that the = majority of=20 Amador County's mines converted from stearn engines or water wheels to = impulse=20 turbines in a short period of time, for at least some of their power = needs.=20

Small businesses quickly found uses for the impulse turbine. By = 1878,=20 two to six inch piping was laid in both Sutter Creek and Amador City to = create a=20 power grid prefiguring electricity. The newspaper equipment of the = Amador=20 Record, ancestral to the Amador Ledger Dispatch you are holding in your = hands=20 (or reading on the World Wide Web as may be), was powered by a Knight = Wheel.=20 Fred Werner's sausage machine ran on water power. The Amador County = Steam=20 Laundry used a Knight Wheel to power blowers and other machinery. A = water=20 powered car lift is still in place in the floor of the Amador Motors = auto=20 service shop on Main Street. We were 'wired for water'!

Knight = sold=20 small "Knight's Water Motors" to individual homes in Sutter Creek to run = washing=20 machines, sewing machines, grindstones, dumbwaiters, home machine shops = and rock=20 crushers for the "high-grading" miner - another story. A six inch Knight = Water=20 Motor is quite the wee beastie, humming along at .4000 rpm. With the = appearance=20 of early Edison electric dynamos, Knight even sold water-powered = generators for=20 home use. Who will be the first reader to find a Knight Wheel hidden in = their=20 basement? When you do, this author wants to see it!

From the = 1870s, and=20 prior to the wide spread use of electricity at the turn of the century, = there=20 was a "Lost Empire" of hydraulic power distribution wherever the terrain = permitted the supplying of penstocks with power canals. Knight & Co. = itself=20 was among the very first of hundreds of industries in the American West = and=20 across the country using high-pressure direct-drive impulse turbines to = power=20 their heavy machinery. Today, it is the sole surviving = remnant.

The=20 Leap to Hydro-Electricity

Samuel Knight was a prolific = industrial=20 design engineer and inventor. He created a host of novel machines, some = patented=20 and some still in use today. As he developed seemingly unrelated = applications=20 for the Knight Wheel, he was unwittingly following a thread of = innovation=20 leading him directly to hydro-electric power generation.

For = instance,=20 he invented a water-powered hoist using two Knight Wheels mounted on the = same=20 shaft but set in opposite directions. Exact and responsive control of = water=20 wheel speed is needed to drive a mine hoist safely and efficiently. To = achieve=20 this, Knight perfected and patented an intricate hydraulic cylinder = activated=20 jet valving apparatus, somewhat analogous to modern power-steering. With = Knight's system, the hoist operator could control his reels with one = lever, up=20 and down. The Superintendent of Kennedy Mine wrote, "The water power = machinery=20 with reversible wheels and adjustable nozzles, etc. built by you for the = Kennedy=20 mine, works well and is giving satisfaction, and I can willingly = recommend it."=20

He also developed water wheel governors to keep saw mills at = constant=20 speed under varying loads and compressors at constant pressure, while=20 significantly reducing the expense of power-canal water. Wrote John = Minear of=20 the Argonaut Mine, "It does the work very nicely and saves our company = $120 per=20 month in water."

Decades of ongoing experimentation with jet and = bucket=20 forms enabled Samuel Knight to produce significant increases in the = horsepower=20 that could be generated from the same volume and press.ure of water. = This=20 progress can be tracked in the Knight & Co. catalogues and is = reflected in=20 the wooden patterns and core boxes used to make the cast iron molds for = the=20 Knight Wheels. These surviving patterns at Knight Foundry are no doubt = the=20 handicraft of the old ship-joiner, Samuel Knight himself, as this is = where the=20 actual experimenting took place. With efficient turbines and fully = developed and=20 highly sophisticated control systems 'on the shelf', Knight was poised = to make=20 the leap to hydro-electric power generation.

Knight had already = been an=20 early adopter of electricity. One evening in 1885, he invited everyone = in Sutter=20 Creek to corne down and see the first light bulbs anyone had seen = hereabouts,=20 brightly iIluminating Knight & Co. You can still trace the remains = of this=20 old 'post and tube' direct current (DC) system in the rafters of the = machine=20 shop. Ten years later, in July of 1895, the nation's first = hydro-electric plant=20 to transmit the newly perfected alternating current (AC) began = generating power=20 at Folsom for the distant Sacramento streetcar system. (This pioneering = facility=20 survives completely intact as a California State Parks unit - well worth = visiting!) A second plant went online at Niagara Falls a month later.=20

These power plants both employed the "reaction", or "Francis = turbine",=20 the turbine type that uses low head, low-pressure water. Originally = developed in=20 the early 1800s by Uriah Boyden, it was adapted by James Francis to run = the=20 cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. The reaction turbine would be = typically=20 located at the base of a dam, where the impulse turbine is found at the = base of=20 a penstock. The "Knight Water Wheel" is thus the original form of one of = the two=20 types of turbines generating the world's hydro-electricity today. =

Within=20 seven months of Folsom going online, Knight had harnessed his impulse = turbines,=20 speed governors, and mine hoist hydraulic valving systems for AC = hydroelectric=20 generation. His 'Dynamo Motor' features a complex three stage feed-back = valve=20 and jet control mechanism, using centrifugal flying ball governors and = electric=20 solenoids, and was capable of keeping generator RPMs within one percent = accuracy=20 under varying loads and water pressures, and thus AC cycles = steady.

In=20 February, 1896, he set up his prototype AC "Dynamo Motor" in Sutter = Creek for=20 the Amador Electric Railway and Light Co. (which he helped organize and = which=20 had already gone online in March 1894, doubtless with a DC system.) Was = this the=20 world's first impulse turbine powered AC hydro-electric plant? This = period of=20 power experimentation was like the early personal computer era; local = inventors=20 - and there was a locust plague of them in the late 19th century - were = trying=20 to get in on the action, and every county seemed to have its own little = electric=20 power plant set up. Samuel Knight would certainly have been a leader of = the=20 pack; was he the leader of the pack? More digging to do.

Knight = &=20 Co. quickly became a leading designer and manufacturer of hydro-electric = power=20 facilities. The Pioneer Electric plant in Ogden, Utah (then the nation's = largest), plants at White River in Oregon and Bakersfield, Alturas and = New Pine=20 Creek in California soon foIlowed the Sutter Creek prototype; completed = units=20 hauled over the hill to the railroad at lone by Knight & Co:s mule = teams.=20

Samuel Knight independently made formative contributions to the=20 development of today's hydro-electric industry: repurposing the = hydraulic mining=20 infrastructure for industrial power, inventing the impulse turbine, = perfecting=20 sensitively valved and hydraulically controlled jets, and employing = feedback=20 speed governors - the basic outline of the system currently generating=20 electricity at some 125 California power plants. In 1948, the California = Division of Mines' "The Mother Lode Country, Centennial Edition" summed = up:=20 "Pacific Gas and Electric Company has acknowledged its debt to the = California=20 miners and the tangential water wheel. It is not too much to say that = the=20 company owed its origin to the hydraulic miners and the Pelton wheel:'=20

It is important that we not ignore the many paraIlel = contributions made=20 by other engineers and more successful entrepreneurs to the development = of=20 hydro-electricity. Yet there is not another place remaining in America = where we=20 can find, under one roof, a site, not only where this continuity of = development=20 took place in one unbroken process, but alsoincredible anachronism! - = where the=20 basic high-pressure water system is still intact, ready to resume its = original=20 work.

The Canal Today

The last functioning = fragment of the=20 old Amador power canal system is still sending highpressure water to = Knight=20 Foun.dry's nine impulse turbines. The water is captured from the = Mokelumne=20 River: at the Electra Diversion Dam, passes through the Electra tunnel = for=20 43,060 feet to Tabaud Reservoir. The two purposes of this diversion = nowadays are=20 to provide a vertical head of 1,268 feet, generating water pressure of = 549=20 pounds per square inch for the modern impulse turbines at Electra Power = House=20 via a 3,260 foot long penstock; and to send ditch water to the Amador = Water=20 Agency for water treatment and for a number of raw water customers, = including=20 Knight Foundry.

The Amador Canal passes across the South, Middle = and=20 Main Forks of Jackson Creek to Tanner Reservoir on Ridge Road above = Sutter Creek=20 for water treatment. Some of the ditch water is diverted from Tanner = Reservoir=20 into the old continuation of the Amador Ditch and its branch lone Canal, = entering an inverted siphon, which functions as the penstock, 470 feet = above=20 Knight Foundry, creating a pressure of 203.5 pounds per square inch. At = the=20 bottom, a pressure reduction valve releases water to the foundry at 140 = pounds=20 per square inch, the pressure for which the turbines still driving the = machinery=20 at Samuel Knight's old millwright's shop are designed.

On the = north side=20 of the valley, the water emerges from the end of the siphon from which = it=20 continued in the (now de-watered) Amador Ditch toward Dry town. At the = bottom of=20 the siphon, water for the old lone Canal is also released at zero = pressure and=20 flows by gravity, passing in front of the foundry in a pipe under Eureka = Street,=20 and then into the open ditch just below the Badger Street bridge. =

The=20 system provides agricultural water both above (on the siphon) and below = Knight=20 Foundry. Knight Foundry consumes no water; when the turbines are running = the=20 exhaust water rejoins the flow in the lone Canal pipe outside, with just = the=20 kinetic energy removed, and goes on to provide pristine, untreated = Mokelumne=20 River water for the organically raised cattle down on the Allen Ranch.=20

The ditch from Tanner, the penstock running down the hill, the = pipe=20 entering the wall at Knight Foundry and the nine Knight Wheels run by = the=20 pressurized water thus represent a complete operational unit of Samuel = Knight's=20 direct-drive-hydro prime-mover system which first challenged tHe = hegemony of=20 steam power in lumber mills, mine hoist shacks and gold ore processing = mills all=20 over the Sierra and the West and then opened the way for the clean = electric=20 power generation which fueled the early 20th century California economy. = It is a=20 largely unappreciated national treasure. Federal National Landmark = recognition=20 is based on two criteria: integrity - the historic fabric must be = largely intact=20 - and unique historic significance. Knight Foundry and its functioning = power=20 canal system emphatically meet both criteria.