WORLD ACHIEVEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 163, 12 June 1939, Page 2

WORLD ACHIEVEMENT

TAMING THE SHANNON. One of the finest examples of the harnessing of water for the production of electricity is now to ho lound in Ireland. , . In 1925 a German firm put iorward a proposal to the Irish Government loi ; a hydro-electrification scheme winch would supply tlio whole of the Irish Free State with electricity, and would eventually become a profit-making concern. Now an accomplished fact, the Slum non hydro-electric power plant is the most productive oi its kind m Europe. . . , Its secret is the utilisation of the energy represented by the drop oi the Shannon of over 100 feet in as litclo as the 12 or 13 miles between .Urn outlet of Lough Derg and the ri\ei at Limerick. The site of the power house is at Ardnncrusha, and at O’Briensbridgc a weir has been constructed across the river, raising toe level of the river to that of the lough, and diverting the water into the headrace that commences at this point. Its termination is on high ground neatly 90 feet above the natural course oi the Shannon, and like the earliei drop, it has been exaggerated to provide greater force. In connection with this work two very interesting machines were used. The first was the bucket excavator. "I'liis ran on rails which from tune to time had to be moved lorward. a special rail-shifting machine which raised rails and sleepers together being used to lav them in their new position. The excavator had a theoretical output of over 13.000 cubic feet per hour, and could excavate to a depth ot oo feet at an angle of 45 deg. Tlu* cither machine, a* transporter, was an innovation in canal engineering. "rlu 1 debris excavated was tipped on a platform, and then on to a conveyor which travelled along a boom. The conveyer tipped the material to a second conveyor which, could pass it on to any required space over a wide area, thus evenly distributing the excavated material instead of piling it up. —(L.)