. Electrical world. d theremains of an old canal can be traced at a number of such pointsalong the river. Just when the canal through which boats passedaround Garvins Falls came into use cannot now be stated, but Hay-wards New England Gazetteer, published by John Hayward atBoston, in 1839, mentions the canal as an important waterway forboats coming south from Concord. The railways having put an end to water traffic on the Merrimac,attention was turned to Garvins Falls as a source of power, and astone dam was completed there near the upper end of the old September 5„ 1859. The final bu
. Electrical world. d theremains of an old canal can be traced at a number of such pointsalong the river. Just when the canal through which boats passedaround Garvins Falls came into use cannot now be stated, but Hay-wards New England Gazetteer, published by John Hayward atBoston, in 1839, mentions the canal as an important waterway forboats coming south from Concord. The railways having put an end to water traffic on the Merrimac,attention was turned to Garvins Falls as a source of power, and astone dam was completed there near the upper end of the old September 5„ 1859. The final builder of this dam, being in ahurry to complete it, dumped a large amount of loose rock in to formthe central portion, after the builder of the end sections had beencalled to Washington to superintend work on a new governmentbuilding there. As might have been expected, the dam failed in thefreshets of the following year, about 200 ft. of the central portiongoing out on March 5, i860. The dam remained in this partly. FIG. I.—OLD D.^M AND C.\N.\L, C^RVIN S FALLS. ruined condition for nearly a score of years, or until 1879, when itsowners filled up the central gap with a timber crib and stone sectionjust in time to prevent the lapse of their flowage rights. At the time when a location was being sought for some of thelarge cotton mills now at Lowell, the site at Garvins Falls was con-sidered, but finally rejected. Thus the small tower of Bow, wherethe falls are located, escaped the fate of being a large city. Fromthe rebuilding of the dam in 1879 down to about 1890 the waterpower at Garvins Falls appears to have been used to some extentand during a portion of the time for local manufacturing time after the latter date an electric lighting station of smallcapacity w-as built there for comparatively nearby service, and thislighting plant remained until after the property passed into the handsof the Manchester Traction. Light & Power Company, near theclose of the cent
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectelectri, bookyear1883
