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Bond, A. Russell

"The Scientific American Boy The Camp at Willow Clump Island"

The pole had been
marked off into feet with white chalk marks, and on sighting through the
sight holes we found that the hairs came in line with the eleventh chalk
mark. The top of the filter was, therefore, 11 feet above the level of the
river. Bill figured that it would be necessary to construct a wheel about
15 feet in diameter in order to raise the water to the proper height.

Towers for the Water Wheel.
[Illustration: Fig. 251. Frame for Large Tower.]

First we built the towers to support the wheel. One tower was 16 feet high
and the other only 10 feet. The large tower was made something like a very
tall and narrow saw-horse. Two stout poles 17 feet long were flattened at
their upper ends and nailed together, with the ends projecting about a
foot, as shown in Fig. 251. At the bottom these poles were spaced 8 feet
apart by a cross bar, and about 9-1/2 feet from the bottom a pair of
boards were nailed to opposite sides of the pole to serve as supports for
the axle of the water wheel. Another pair of 17-foot poles was now
similarly fastened together and then the two pairs were spaced about 12
feet apart and connected at the top and bottom with boards. At the top two
smooth boards were used and these were nailed to the inner sides of the
projecting ends, which were tapered off.


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