for Apia

New Light and Power for Apia Hydro-Electric Supply Should Operate by December

By E. E. Bush

THE dream of years is within prospect of fulfilment. Soon we in Apia, Samoa, will be able to put down the switch and have light in our globes—real, bright electric light, and not the glimmer ing glow that sometimes appears, in sufficient to illuminate the page of a book held within a few feet of it. The present plant was satisfactory for its pur poses when it was installed. But this electric age has made great demands on power, and the supply is now insufficient.

But the great project of providing ample electricity is well under way. The dam is constructed, the power house built, and generators installed. For the last few months, workmen have been hauling the great steel pipes from the waterfront up to the dam site, and, there, have been welding them together to conduct the water from the storage dam to the power house.

BUT let us inspect the work from top to bottom. The dam, in the valley of the Fuluasou river, soans the valley for about 150 ft. from side to side. The dam is approximately 25 ft, high, and fif teen feet from the valley floor to the over flow. That is, the depth of water at the dam wall will always be fifteen feet. The base of the wall is 45 ft. below the level of the valley floor, so there is a good solid wall of concrete to stand the stress and strain of thousands of gallons of water. The wall is built in three sections, joined with tarsealing, to allow for earth quake vibrations. Transverse and vertical vibrations are guarded against by joining the sections with a key—a projection of one section fitting into a slot on the next.

The dam is in a beautiful setting, and when filled will provide the residents of Apia with a beauty spot within easy reach, and along a good road. The river flows through a narrow rock-girt valley, bush clad, and with forest trees growing to a great height. The river will be converted into a lake a beauty spot artificially created for man’s enjoyment.

There is a double outlet from the dam —controlled by valves. One outlet con nects with the pipes to the power house; the other allows the dam to be emptied.

Snake-like, the pipes are now creep ing up the valley. They are about half the distance from the power house to the dam. Daily, the length grows greater.

It is a tribute to the workmen and their supervisors that, in the heat of a tropic sun, the work is going along as fast as it is. All operations, except that of weld ing, are manual. The pipes are edged from the roadside to the bed in which they are to lie; joints and angles have to be accounted for, and the pipes cut to fit into the length between a joint and an angle. The next pipe to be fitted is jostled into line, a strap put around it; ropes are anchored to the pipeline, and the next pipe is pulled, so that its end slides inside the last one of the line. The strap is tightened, and the engine started to provide the power for the welding. A shower of sparks, and another link in the chain from water to electricity is forged. Without pause, the workmen com mence to align the next pipe. As the pipe advances, other workmen follow in its train, building up the bed, so that the pipe rests either on a natural earth bed or on buttresses built up to carry the pipe over natural hollows.

The diameter of the pipes varies from

36 inches at the intake to 31 inches at the generator, thus giving, from fall and reduced diameter, a pressure of 100 pounds per square inch.

IT is anticipated that the work will be completed by December. What a Christmas gift the Administration will be able to give to the residents of Apia. The generators are designed to give a load of 600 volts. This will be broken down in Apia to 110 volts—but with the certainty that it will be the full 110 vol tage.

The present supply of hydro electricity is from a small hydro-electric plant, whose capacity is very much overtaxed. Addi tional power is supplied to the Broadcast ing service by means of a Diesel-powered generator. What a joy it will be to turn on a switch and leave it at that—not to have to worry whether the voltage is too low to run the refrigerator; or whether we can get enough power to listen to the radio. The present supply is standing up

remarkably well to the strain put upon it.

There has as yet been no general blackout due to overloading, but the strain cannot go on indefinitely.