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Satellite)
TVA posted on Jan 20, 2020 three photos with the comment:
Did you know that we acquired some hydropower facilities as early as 1933? Check out the Harms Mill Hydro Plant, one of the earliest power-producing plants in the region! Harms Mill was located on the Elk River in middle Tennessee and was built by the Harms Brothers in 1870 and was retired in 1940. Want to learn more about our history of green and clean hydropower?
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[The different shape of the water flow adjacent to the powerhouse is probably the fish ladder.] |
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I'm guessing it was a water powered mill in 1870. That date is too early for electric power generation.
Indeed, what the Harms Brothers built in 1870 was a textile mill. "In 1905 a 75 HP electrical generator was installed to power the operation of textile
production. In 1920 the factory was purchased by the Fayetteville Light and Power Company, and a new
concrete dam (with a fish ladder) and powerhouse (extant today) were completed by 1922. TEPCO
purchased the facilities in 1929. The plant was equipped with four turbines, three of which were 50-inch
Leffel vertical shaft, single runner, Francis-types, with a 50 horsepower rating. The fourth was similar with a
45-inch runner that had a 45 horsepower rating. All four turbines drove a single electrical generator through
a system of wooden bevel gears and a "lay" shaft. Perhaps no better example of the heterogeneity
characteristic of the second and third eras of early electrical development Hughes speaks of can be found in
Tennessee. Moreover, its horizontal design is contrary to other more vertically emphasized examples of 'hydrostyle' distinctness, adding along with its peculiar turbine/generator alignment." [
tntech, p5]
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Staff photo by Anna Fain, ElkValleyTimes, paywall 3
This flow was generated by a storm that dropped two to three inches of rain. |
I saved this satellite image because the flow is strong enough to show how the water flows differently over the fish ladder.
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