Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

384 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. aqueduct was completed, and the remaining 260 miles in the following year. The first of the pumping stations is located about a furlong below the Helena dam. It lifts the water through 1| miles of pipe, against a head of 415 feet, Pumping -nt0 a concrete receiving tank. Stations ^nd g|oge & station No. 2, Reservoirs. which raises the water an- other 340 feet to a concrete regulating tank at Baker’s Hill, 22| miles eastwards. From this tank the water gravitates to West Northam regulating tank, 12 miles dis- tant ; and from it to Cunderdin reservoir— another 41 miles—three-quarters of a mile beyond which is pumping station No. 3. The water then gets six successive lifts at stations Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, of 215, 333, 52, 106, 56, and 183 feet respectively, to the great main service reservoir at Bulla Bulling, 306j miles distant from the Helena dam. From this reservoir, which has a capacity of 12,000,000 gallons, the water gravitates to the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie service reservoirs, which, hold one million and two million gallons respectively. At all of the eight stations the pumping plants are practically identi- cal, except for th© diameter of the pump - plungers. The engines, built by Messrs. James Simpson and Co., Ltd., of London and Newark, are of the Worthington du- plex six - cylinder, TESTING LOCKING-BAR PIPES WITH HIGH-PRESSURE WATER. (Photo, Messrs. Mephan-Ferguson, Limited.) triple-expansion type, with Corliss valve gear. Great care was needed, when packing the machinery for export, to avoid J . The Pumps. mistakes, and to ensure that every one of the twenty groups of machinery should arrive complete at its proper station. Each group was therefore given a distinctive colour and letter, and every part painted with the colour of the group to which it belonged. As a result of these precautions only a single i-inch hydraulic valve was reported missing out of some five thousand packages transported from England to various points along the pipe line. By the middle of April 1902 pumping began at station No. 1, and on the twenty-second day of that month water reached the Cunderdin reservoir, at mile 77. As each , , j Filling the section was completed the . 1 Main. water resumed its wonderful journey into the heart of the arid region. December 22, 1902, was a red-letter day for Coolgardie, for it witnessed the arrival of the supply which should thenceforward guard the citizens against the dangers and discomforts of shortage and within a month the Kalgoorlie miners also were enjoying the use of water that had travelled a distance equal to that sepa- rating London from Edinburgh. The total cost of the scheme was £2,660,000, of which sum the aqueduct accounted for £ 1,87 0,000, or £5,312 per mile. END OF VOLUME III.