Still Drifting North

I have a bunch of pictures this time.

Augusta has some beautiful natural areas. This is taken at Phinizy Swamp.

We spent some time in Augusta. It’s a nice enough city. When the Augusta economy collapsed before the civil war, they decided to build a canal with the idea of creating hydro power to operate many cotton mills. Their engineer found that they could have a 53 foot water drop; plenty to get the pressure they needed to turn the wheels in a cotton mill. The project was late and had cost overruns. When they were done, they found their engineer had dramatically underestimated how much water flow was required to power the factories. They barely had enough hydro power for one factory. After the civil war, they hired an engineer who knew what he was doing. He dramatically increased the volume of water available and several major mills opened.

Augusta Canal Works

Not long after, Augusta found out how bad the factory jobs were. Augusta has much fewer historic buildings than Savannah has, and it hurts them quite a bit. The river walk area is attractive, clean, modern — and sterile. However, they also did some pretty cool things. In the late 1930s, the mills used the hydro power to run electric generators for the mills. They slowly converted their equipment so that each machine ran off its own electric motor, increasing automation as they went. A few of the old mills are still standing. They are being converted to modern uses. It works out very well, in part because the old electric power plants from the 30s and 40s still work. The canal museum is in an old mill building that generates 500 KW, which is twice the power the building needs. The excess power is sold to the local power company.

A picture can be worth 1,000 words. Here are some examples.