Connersville, IN: Whitewater Hydraulic Canal, Roots Blower and Connersville Furniture

(Satellite, there are no traces of the hydraulic canal. See maps below)

Canal Society of Indiana posted

Even when the Canal Transportation Era for canals came to an end, there were still economic uses for the waterways. Some felt that the dirty old ditch should be drained and filled in. Others sought to use the waterpower via a hydraulic canal. In Wabash, Indiana a Hydraulic Company was created to bring the canal water from the Lagro Dam #3 into the town of Wabash and empty into Charlie Creek. There was a 10 ft head of water at Lock Mills in the city. Of course, there was great concern for the Lagro dam which was the key structure to feed-in the canal waters. This hydraulic only lasted for a brief period. See CSI website indcanal.org - Historical Archives, The Hoosier Packet November 2016 pages 6-7,

Pictured [above] is the Hydraulic Canal in Connersville, IN using the old Whitewater Canal that operated into the 1920s.

This source says Connersville Furniture Company was built in 1832 near the intersection of Illinois and Mount Streets to build black walnut bedroom suites using water power from the Whitewater Canal. But canal fever didn't start in Indiana until 1836, and the canal did not arrive in Connersville until 1845. Furthermore, a topology map doesn't show much of a grade difference there. (The Big Four built through town just east of the canal in 1850 so we can use those tracks to determine where the canal was. The Big Four was just west of Western Ave in the northern part of town. The east/west tracks were the B&O and the other north/south tracks close to Central Avenue were the Lake Erie & Western, which was bought by the Nickel Plate Railroad.)

1956 Connersville Quad @ 1:24,000

Then I learned that the Connersville Furniture Company was actually organized in 1882. [Historic-Structures-furniture] While using street view to check out the grades near the Mount-Illinois Streets intersection, I discovered this building. A photo at the bottom of this page shows that this building predates 1906. And I did not find a grade deep enough for a waterwheel. 

Street View

In 1846, Alanson Roots bought water-rights and set up a woolen mill. Historic-Structures-roots claims the mill was between 6th and 7th Streets along the canal. However, that is in the middle of the downtown. Instead, I think the mill was the building shown by the river at the end of the branch canal on the south side of the town as portrayed by this 1856 map. (Note that the river has been moved! It no longer runs this close to town.)

Historic-Structures-maps
Map of Connersville from 1856

Alanson's sons, Francis Marion and Philander H., experimented with better waterwheels because their over-shot wheel at the woolen factory required attention. I did not understand the text description, but as soon as I saw a cross section, I knew how it worked because I have seen a model of this design. More on the blower later. However, their prototypes were made with wood and the water made the lobes swell so that it did not work as a waterwheel. But during their testing, they noticed that it was good at moving air when run the opposite of a waterwheel. That is, using mechanical force to move a fluid rather than using a fluid to create mechanical force. They got two patents in 1859 as a waterwheel and one in 1860 as a blower. In 1864, they got their first significant order. [Historic-Structures-roots] So the site of their woolen mill morphed into the site of a blower manufacturing plant.

Historic-Structures-roots3
Illustrated Circular of Roots' New Iron Blower, Jan 1880, p.14

On this map, we can see the manufacturing buildings at the end of the hydraulic canal. We can also see that the river was moved by 1888. The old buildings have been torn down to make way for a self-storage facility.

Historic-Structures-maps
Original 1888 Map of Connersville

15:52 video @ 0:36
The Roots Blower: The Secret Behind Detroit Diesel’s Power

As to how the Roots blower works.

tec-science
In this modern cross-section of a Roots blower, we can see that the shape of the impellers has been refined to continuously retain a close contact. An animation shows how the blower works.

tec-science
The impellers are gear driven so that they never touch each other. This reduces wear and loss of power due to friction.

In addition to pumping gas and liquids, they are also used for foodstuffs such as rice or cereals. [tec-science]

tec-science
 Additional lobes and a spiral shape can be added to remove pulses from the output flow.

To construct a two-lobe curve, the rolling circles are one-fourth the size of the base circle.

Screenshot

Cambridge City, IN: National Road (US-40) and Whitewater Canal

(Satellite)

US-40 Overview

Because the National Road had been built through here and because it was in the Whitewater River Valley, this town became the target terminus for the building of the Whitewater Canal. The main purpose of these notes is to save this map that shows how the canal went through the town.

Canal Society of Indiana posted
Signage outside Vinton House
Top of map is north. The Haggerstown canal meets National Road in the center at site of Library today. Note canal basin on South Front St. Below National Road is the Whitewater Canal. Portions of canal boats have been retreived from this site. Notice that the angle of the canal and how the Vinton House is also angled. Vinton House is located where the arrow points just south of National Road. Imperial Mill was owned by Conklin.

Photo by - R Schmid

Haggerstown Canal was an extension of the Whitewater Canal up to Haggerstown, IN. It was financed by the businesses of Haggerstown and citizens of the town volunteered to help dig the canal. Looking at a satellite image of the Cambridge City, it is obvious that the southern part of Center Street and the northern part of Green Street were built on the RoW of the canal. Note that the Imperial Mill operated until 1945. In general, the canal was maintained until the 1950s to supply water to the mills that had been built along it. The Police Department is now at the location of the mill.

This town had a good economy in the 1800s based on the technologies of canals and water power. But both of those technologies became obsolete in the 1800s because of railroads and steam power, respectively. So this town probably had a boom and bust in the 1800s. I've noted before that these towns are a good candidate for preserved Italianate architecture. The boom caused the buildings to be built and the bust caused them to remain. That is, businesses could not afford to rebuild or remodel. Then in the late 1900s, these towns rebounded as tourist towns and antique shops and the buildings were repaired. By this time, we had developed enough appreciation for out history that the buildings were restored rather than remodeled or replaced. So I used Google Maps' street view to check out the town's architecture. Sure enough, there are quite a few restored Italianate buildings along Main Street including this half-block of buildings.

Street View

I happened to find the Vinton House mentioned in the caption of the top image. Notice that the "alley" is on a diagonal with respect to main street. This is where the canal ran. So this building was by the canal. These buildings are not Italianate. Are they Federal? Also note that the lamppost shows that the town is serious about preserving its historical heritage.

Street View

Canal Society of Indiana posted
Cambridge City was located at the key junction of the National Road and the Whitewater Canal and the Hagerstown Extension Canal. Travelers from East or West could stop at the Vinton House for overnight rest or just refreshments. The Canal Society of Indiana has placed 2 informative panels relating to the Whitewater Canal at this significant site..

Metamora, IN: 1845 Grist Mill and Whitewater Canal State Historic Site

(Satellite)

According to the sign on the building, this grist & roller mill was built in 1845 and rebuilt in 1900.

Street View

IndianaMuseum
"As settlers moved into the old Northwest Territory after 1800, transportation routes became an important priority. Indiana’s brief experience with canal building began with the passage of the Indiana Mammoth Internal Improvement Act of 1836. Whitewater Canal was one of several projects funded by this act. The Whitewater Canal started in Lawrenceburg and originally ended at Cambridge City, on the Old National Road. Hagerstown merchants financed an extension to their town, making the canal 76 miles in length. Upon Indiana’s bankruptcy in the 1840’s, private enterprises stepped up to complete the canal. After the canal transportation era ended with the arrival of the railroads, the canal was used as a source of water power for many grist mills and other industry. The Metamora Grist Mill is an example, using water power to produce corn meal for over 100 years."

Lock 25 is just north of the mill building.

Lilly Tree, Feb 2019

IndianaMuseum

I remember visiting a "preserved town" along the Whitewater Canal with my kids about three decades ago. I think it was this town. It reminded me of Mackinac Island because there were a lot of fudge shops. There was also a book store that sold used books. It had a book on the Pennsylvania Railroad, but when I tried to call my wife to see if I owned a copy already, I learned that the town did not have cell reception. My Verizon service could not "hear me now." The owner of the book store said that if I went outside and stood on the bench, I might get enough bars. I didn't bother to do that and passed on buying the book. But when I got home, I discovered I did not own it. Bummer. Since most of the people in town were tourists, I would think that Verizon would have installed a repeater to service this town so that its big city customers that were visiting here could get the service that they expected.