Tag Archives: Loch Raven

Photogravure – Copper Plates

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by in Archives, Dams, Photography, water history

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Doing some more packing of my office and here is another pile that needs documenting. I thought these were pretty neat looking when I found them about 10 years ago. I placed them in ziplocks to keep them from getting scratched and then put them away for another day. That day has come.

The three piles on the left are each about 5″ x 7″ x 7/8″ thick. The smaller ones to the right vary.

Here is one removed from its sleeve and placed on shelf to be photographed. 

Same copper plate scanned with color settings at 300dpi. Trying to be careful not to scratch the glass surface of the scanner.

Kind of shabby looking, so I scanned it in Black and White.

Better, but not as good as the original below. This one is an electronic copy from a glass plate negative I scanned back in 2007. In 1913 (I know, it looks like 1915 but it is not) the contractors performed a pressure test on the 10′ conduit from the new dam at Loch Raven to the old dam. 

Tried another one. Color scan first, but at 720 dpi. Pretty bad looking. 

Now in b&W.

Still no good. I had trouble finding a good copy of this. It was not in the glass plate negative groups and not to mention the difficulty of looking for a reverse image. Looked in the lantern slides and there it was.

There is a nice video at this link which shows the Photogravure Process. Glad we have progressed into the digital art stage!

https://photogravure.com/process/

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Loch Raven and the Rain

27 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in Dams, Floods, Reservoir, water history

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The never-ending rains are here so I decided to check out the water works and see what is going on. Montebello Lake has risen quite a bit. If the grounds crew does not cut all the way to the water line, the phragmites will once again encroach the banks.

A look in the gate house on the lake. This flow is normally about 11-13 mgd. Today it is at 21 mgd. And for those of you who do not know – no, this is not drinking water going to waste. The Montebello Lake is where the impurities from the treatment plant settle out along with the dissipation of the chlorine before it goes into Herring Run. 

On my way over to Kathy’s for some steamed crabs, she calls me and says I should check out Loch Raven before coming to her house, so I did. I parked behind Sander’s and walked over to where Mine Bank Run and the Gunpowder Falls meet. Wow!

It hasn’t been this high for a while. On Loch Raven Drive, the bridge over Mine Bank Run. This is the stream we were walking in the other day, towards Cromwell Park.

Heading up the Drive a little farther and looking back towards Cromwell Bridge Road.

Back to my car and headed to the 1881 dam. One of these days someone will fulfill their promise to me and let me in to photograph looking down into these chambers. Not holding my breath! The new, unused maintenance facility up in the background.

From the top of the dam, looking across – that is a lot of water.

I am amazed that this log is still here after all these years. I just want to jump up and down on it to get it the hell off the top of the dam! Damn log! Log jam at the dam.

Climbed down to the bottom of the dam, along the retaining wall. The water is lapping along the top of the wall.

Here we can see that the integrity of the wall is starting to give a little bit. The water is gurgling up through the wall on the left, which means there are holes in the wall. Overall, not bad for a wall that was built in the 1880s.

Looking across the Gunpowder to the opposite shore.

Then towards the dam itself. Remembering when Kathy and I were able to gingerly stroll across here, to get to the other side!

On Loch Raven Drive, looking towards the new dam.

If there is this much mud and silt from the small streams that feed the Gunpowder, can you imagine all the crap in the waters of the Susquehanna River! 444 miles of dirty water emptying into that river and then our Bay!

The water above the new dam is our drinking water. And even though this water looks pretty muddy and full of debris, once filtered at Montebello, it is still some of the best drinking water in the country. (Think I will get a raise for that promo! Ha!!)

Box of Blues

20 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in Archives, Baltimore, water history

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This box has been sitting in my office for years now and as I slowly pack my office up, the box has been making its presence known more and more. This is one of those task that I didn’t want to undertake, but knew eventually I would have to. I’ve referred to it before as the Jigsaw Puzzle Box. It contains a lot of broken glass plate negatives.

They were originally laying one on top another. No boxes or protective sleeves. I sat them on their side to try to stop some of the damage. These plates are heavy and the weight of being stacked is enough to crush themselves.

So let’s get started on cleaning and scanning. I pulled out the more intact ones first, but already there was a problem – not only were most of these suffering from severe silvering, from being improperly stored, this one was yellow (Under or over exposed when taken maybe?)

I scanned it anyway because there is something about this photo – The second Loch Raven Dam being built, showing an arched walkway through the base of the dam. A couple years ago I was told that I would be able to go on an inspection tour of the inside of the dam – I guess they forgot me…

A couple more intact plates, not found in previous collections of building the 1915 dam. I like this one, below, looking downstream of the Gunpowder River. A locomotive riding the spur track in the distance and a person on the trestle.

A view looking upstream from the cofferdam. 

Although there was a lot of silvering, after some work in Photoshop Elements, I was fortunate enough to make them worth saving. Another view downstream. The old 1880s gatehouse in background. Notice the wood pedestal for the valve operator. 

I wish I would have found this one years ago. This photo is signed by the engineer, Walter Lee and the plate itself is signed by the photographer – Waldeck.

With this next one, the puzzle pieces start falling apart. The photographer would take photographs and drawings, mount them on a board and then photograph the photographs. Thank God for the digital age!

Inside the photographers studio – more like an onsite shed at the construction site – 1920s.

Some of the shed photo plates were not only broken, but were over exposed.

Using my software I was able to enhance the above photo enough, using the ‘Equalize’ button, to bring out the drawing. In this case it is the Balancing Reservoir at Cromwell Park.

Next up more photos being photographed. Two of my favorites on this plate – The original photo of the town of Warren before flooding (A lot of historical societies use this photo and don’t give credit to the City for using it. I guess because it has been used so many times in various newsletters and publications, they consider it public domain) And I like the Paper Mill Bridge with the covered bridge underneath. 

This next one threw me for a loop! A Cathedral to Water? Not sure what this is of?

I finally hit the bottom of the box, nothing but pieces. Some large ones and then many small pieces.

I scanned them just in case some day, some one can use modern technology to put the pieces together, where they belong! (I know, the tech exists, maybe something for someone to do later!)

So I am wrapping up the history and placing in it storage. Hopefully it will be around in 100 more years. Who knows. I have done about as much as I could with what I have been given.

 

Looking For A House

02 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in Baltimore, Eastern Shore, water history

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With retirement not too far away, Kathy and I have been looking at houses the past couple of months. Some have been fairly nice, others would take too much work and still others have since been knocked down!

Of course, working for the Water Department for 37 years, why not live on watershed property or any other house owned by the City of Baltimore?

This first house was right here at the Montebello water plant. The only thing left to this house is the BBQ chimney.

Info on the house and its occupants.

Another house on the Montebello Grounds. I had actually met people who lived here. This too was knocked down.

Info on house. Nice house for a labor foreman.

And the final Montebello house.

Info on house. This is a duplicate of the Armstrong house, that the preservation people are holding up construction on a new chlorine building, but where were they when this house was razed? I guess a youth baseball field makes it ok to knock it down, but not a water process building??

Time to ride up to Loch Raven, to look at some houses:

Info on house.

This next one looks nice – also looks familiar.

Info on house.

Another nice one.

Another laborer’s house.

Moving up the Gunpowder River to check out some houses up near Prettyboy Reservoir.

A fixer upper with chickens.

This one looks like a scary place to raise kids.

Doesn’t appear to be a City employee, but still City property.

I doubt if Jimi lived here, but nice. I guess the owner was tired of people asking where the dam was so he put up a sign.

Info on house.

We leave the Gunpowder area and head back to the City, Roland Park. I like this one. A little skinny but nice. Wish the realtor would have posted some interior pics!

Property info. This guy resigned but is still living in the house.

We left there and headed back over near Montebello. Got a text from my agent saying that a house just came on the market over at Clifton!

Darn! Too late – turned over to the Park Board!

We now head west out of the city towards the Patapsco river. Avalon.

Not sure about that porch and what’s with those small upper windows??

This one looks like the Davidson house above, but it comes with children.

Info on house.

More searching took us to a couple more.

These were double occupancy, I really don’t want to live next to someone that works at the water department! This one below is a semi-detached.

The next house was unbelievably dirty. I felt sorry for this little kid, whose father worked for the City Comptroller.

It does have a mill though.

Info on the house.

A big house on the market, over on the west side – Arlington.

Looks like a school next door – don’t need the noise.

Fire Towers

10 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Reservoir, water history

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I have just about completed scanning and documenting the 1500+ negatives I found a few weeks back (Loose Ends Never End). Only needed to scan just over 700. The others have already been documented elsewhere. I wish someone would have taken the time to at least give a descriptive label to these things, other than the date the photos were taken. From my years of research, most I can identify, others I cannot.

Here are two that were in a group, although not labelled, I recognized as construction of the Susquehanna Conduit. Along with Deer Creek Pumping Station. There are quite a few negatives scattered throughout this collection, although in numerical and chronological order, that should be in other groups of photos.

It looks like a fire tower, just not sure. What my book says about fires in the watersheds:

From File Folder 1194: August 1931 letter concerning the building of a fire tower located near Loch Raven. The State Dept. of Forestry request fire towers at all watershed properties. Rost responds that they (the City) have no money to contribute to the building of these towers. 1932 fire reports: Most report that the fires were caused by smokers. Also a list of damage done: Twenty five acres burned, mostly ten inch hardwoods. 1939 letter from Towson Nurseries concerning property adjacent to the Northern Central RR at Kenilworth. They want to plow some furrows in the field to help stop any fires that may happen. Small gives them permission. January 5, 1943 report of a fire at the Gatekeeper’s house at Lake Roland. May 22, 1945 memo of a fire in the barracks immediately behind of the old gatehouse at Lake Montebello, formerly occupied by the Maryland State Guard. November 20, 1945 fire report, barn owned by City on Mittens’ farm about one mile west of Westminster Pike: On investigation of this fire learned from Paul George, age 46, overseer on Dr. Saffell’s farm, that he was husking corn, in a field near the barn, with five German prisoners. He stated that all of them ate their lunch at this barn around noon. At about 2:45pm, one of these prisoners went on top a hill, to relieve himself, when he came running back and told Mr. George that smoke was coming out of this barn. Mr. George stated that at no time was any of the prisoners in the barn or smoking near same. Dale George, son, said he saw two hunters near the barn earlier but didn’t know them. June 9, 1949 memo concerning all the fires occurring on the property between Pierce’s store and the dam. Mostly are caused by picnickers. 1956 memo concerning fire at Hampton in which fifty acres burnt. Three young boys were caught leaving the fire. Contains lengthy report. 1957 letter from Werner to a Philip Franklin who had started a fire at Loch Raven and then left the scene. Werner wants to know a good reason why he shouldn’t be prosecuted. March 1962 report of a fire north of the dam caused by fishermen.

These two photos are dated May 10, 1965. I know the watersheds have fire roads; I have never seen any of these towers – not that this one would still be standing. Looks pretty rickety to me.

Good Intentions, Not Always Good Results

04 Friday May 2018

Posted by in engineering, Hopkins, Reservoir, water history

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A couple weeks ago I was drawn into a discussion concerning the Balancing Reservoir adjacent to Cromwell Valley Park. I say adjacent because it is City property, in Baltimore County, part of the City’s watershed. This past weekend was the first chance that Kathy and I had to take a hike through CVP and this is what greeted us:

A poem about graffiti. What the hell? So I looked down at the balancing reservoir shaft and understood.

Someone drew, what I guess they thought, was a peace symbol and a heart. Going down the slope we saw even more.

Now I understand the reason for the poem. What idiots! I have never understood graffiti. Some that are murals are nice, but this makes no sense to me. And no, I don’t believe in that sort of “Freedom of Expression”

What does this have to do with my Post Title and opening statement? The discussion I had was with City Watershed personnel, the County, the Park and the volunteers at CVP. The area has been nicely cleared around this structure and throughout the reservoir. Unfortunately by clearing it out, it made it more accessible to more people and more people means more risk of vandalism. The discussion, both pros and cons, concerned restoring the site. Pros – historical water history. Cons – disruption to the wildlife and native plants.

Here is a 1921 partial drawing of the Balancing Reservoir.

We walked down the shaft slope and went over to the quarry, then to the spillway. View from the beginning of spillway looking toward Mine Bank Run.

A close up of the Spillway.

And of Molly not wanting to get too close. It is about a 20′ drop. There use to be a rope across there saying “Danger”

From the spillway we walked over to the dam. This dam actually has a concrete apron that extends partially down the slope towards the surge shaft. It has been pretty much cleared out, to the bird watchers and rangers dismay.

Here is the balancing reservoir in use 1922. This view is from the shaft to the dam.

This other view is looking over the old quarry. Both of these photos come from the Maryland Historical Society.

No trip to CVP would be complete without a hike to the Kilns.

New signage everywhere – kind of reminds me of an old 70s song! Descriptive signs.

My take on all this? Originally I thought it would be great to restore the complete balancing reservoir to its original construction, but I’m not so sure now. It would be nice to clear the concrete apron around the surge shaft and the concrete spillway. Not sure it would be worth clearing the dam face. Too many animals and birds in that area. And as the poem states, “volunteers…in their older years…” Who will maintain it 20 years from now? The City won’t and they haven’t. The place is only historical in the minds of people who appreciate their water source. Most people that turn on their faucets could care less about the history of how it gets there!

And for my history friends, here is a map from 1915 of the area. When the City built the new dam.

 

Montebello and the Panama-Pacific Exposition 1915

22 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Baltimore, Dams, HISTORY, water history

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Finishing up documenting a Water Board Minutes of Meetings Journal, I came across a couple of interesting tidbits concerning the connection between Baltimore and San Francisco. In 2015 we both celebrated a 100 year anniversary. Them celebrating the 1915 World’s Fair and us the building and opening of the Montebello Filtration Plant. The connection being this – February 11, 1915 It was resolved by the Water Board to send the Filtration and Dam models to the Panama-Pacific Exposition. According to the model itself, it was completed in December, 1914.

Here is a lantern slide copy of the model. If you visited Montebello during our 100th anniversary and took a tour, you would have saw the actual model.

The lighting in the hallway is terrible with all the reflections. It was too dark with the lights out and too reflective with a flash.

Here is the nameplate data on the model.

Along with this one. I did a search for information on this company but could not find much. And something else I could not find is – where is the model of Loch Raven?

Howell’s did a pretty good job replicating the filtration plant.

The plant as it looked in the 1920s.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’d like to put little people in here…and maybe Godzilla!!

Showing what the waste lake looked like.

And the detail of the outfall structure.

The waste lake dam and outfall structure being built. Notice the date – October 1914. This means that the model was built conceptually, like an artist’s rendition of something before it is there.

Of course, one research item always leads to more.

In 1884 models of the substructures were built and placed in each gatehouse, Loch Raven and Lake Montebello, to give visitors a better understanding as to how each works. (What happened to them?)
February 6, 1893 the Water Board resolved to send a display to the Columbian Exposition. This was 21 years before the Howell Microcosms were built. so what did they send?
November 18, 1935 letter from M.P. McNulty, he has just completed creating a model of the Loch Raven dams and inquires as to the dates the real dams were built. Small replies that the lower dam was built between 1875 and 1881 by Fenton and Jones, Contractor. The upper dam was constructed by King-Ganey starting in 1912 and finished in 1914 and then raised between 1920 to 1922 by Whiting-Turner. Attached to the letter was a newspaper clipping which shows a picture of the model. (This clipping is at the City Archives)
December 31, 1952 letter from William Eichbaum Scale Models informing Hopkins that they will build a new, Montebello Plant model in the existing case for $1,000.00. This was not done.
And for what appears to be a wonderful book – San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 by Laura Ackley

 

 

Willow Grove at Cromwell Valley

09 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Hiking, nature, Photography

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Nice day for a walk in the park. Let it snow!

The nature center is decorated, so why not the Little House?

Bells, bows and garland, from us to you.

While Kathy is decorating the door, I enjoy the cold view through the window.

The barn in B/W. Thanks God for the snow! It lets us be grateful for the sunny days.

The Permanent Gunpowder Water Supply

05 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Archives, Baltimore, water history

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Started planning back in 1854. Elevation of 160’ would supply seven-eighths of population (according to contour lines). Supplying others outside that elevation would be a matter of mechanical detail (pumping stations). The need to keep Lake Roland and the Gunpowder as two distinct and separate supplies, as Lake Roland becomes muddied during rainy season (this was why Druid Lake was constructed). It was first suggested to tap the river as far up as the Warren Factory but concurred by a host of engineers that the proper volume of water could not be obtained by damming at any point above Raven’s Rock and most agreed to a point further downstream about where Mr. Martin has located it. The dam will be erected on the Gunpowder river, at a point admirably adapted for the purpose, a short distance above Mine Bank Run, and the lake thus formed, will extend up the river as far as Meredith’s Ford Bridge at the Dulaney Valley Turnpike, where the pump house connected with the ‘Temporary Supply’ is now located…will flow by natural gravity through a twelve foot pipe to a lake at Montebello, between Hillen and Harford roads, located in a natural basin formed by one of the tributaries of Herring Run (Tiffany Run). The lake will have a water area of about eighty acres and a storage capacity of 700,000,000 gallons. The twelve foot pipe (conduit) will continue to a point on the Harford road opposite Homestead, whence pipes will be laid to connect with the city pipe system at North Boundary Ave. and Washington St. Lake Clifton.

A drawing of the Loch Raven Gate House a couple years after completion, for the engineer’s files.

The Gate House and how it looked in the 1920s.

An interior, cut away view.

The influent drain chamber to the yet to be built Gate House.

Looking over the construction of the dam, towards the east wall.

A recent view of the discharge conduit, below the dam. As shown in third photo above.

Another drawing of the Gate House structure. Where it says Vault Record would be facing the road.

Recent photo from the road, after Gate House was removed, showning vaults and valves.

This photo has me baffled. It is showing two 12′ conduits, whereas all the drawings only show one. On the left you can see where the laborers are building the brick lined conduit. On the right, nothing going on. Wondering if it was built in error or was it for a bypass as the dam was being built?

Drawing of the east wall.

1880s photo of building dam, looking east.

Recent photo looking east. Looking close you can see where the stone work stops and cement starts. In the 1970s they put a parallel pipeline in and cut right thru the wall.

This is an early, beginning of construction photo. Stone excavation looking west. Interesting on zooming in – under the roadway guardrail is a tunnel opening that looks like…

…the top left of these drawings. 

The drawing for Shanghai Run.

A 1920s photograph.

A recent photo of the opening to Shanghai Run. Looking over the wall towards the woods, there is no opening??

City workers lounging and the job is almost completed.

 

200th Blog

20 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in water history, Writing

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My WordPress Dashboard tells me that this is my 200th blog post. So, since my blog is called Water and Me, maybe I should write something about water? Trying to think of something profound or water history worthy! I know – Don’t Drink The Water!!!

In 2006 I started writing about water history, doing research and then eventually writing a small book, mostly on one of the water tunnels that supplies water to the Montebello Filters. Here is the Lantern Slide I saved from the dumpster, that started it all:

This is what I had to say about it in my book: “While working with one of the lantern slides, I noticed something odd, that in a tunnel, where workers were excavating, there were train tracks that came to a dead end under what looked like a giant boulder. This particular slide came from a box from around 1938, so I asked Richard if he had any information on an event of that year that was of interest. Sure enough, he showed me the Annual Report covering the year 1938 where it was reported that an explosion had occurred in the building of the Gunpowder Falls Montebello Tunnel. This notation in the report was only about a half a paragraph long, nothing more than a blurb, so I decided to investigate it further.” And I have been investigating water history ever since. Ten men were killed in this explosion and it was just a blurb in a report!

After years of refining my skills at research, I came across so much more information on this explosion. It is amazing what you can find these days on the internet. I found this photo and purchased it from the Baltimore Sun.

It shows the ten dead African American miners being hauled out. My research has taken me to draw the conclusion that this was no accident. That because of the Union troubles going on back then (Fighting between Unions for membership), this was a case of murder.

Sometimes historical research is not pleasant. Just as much as present day research can be unsettling. Like my comment above to not drink the water. I don’t drink it because of the research I have done concerning the fluoridation of the water system. But, I will save that for another post…