Surplus Water, Hybrid Power Systems, and Industrial Expansion in Lowell

• Published in: IA, the journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 23 - 40
• Main Author: Malone, Patrick M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Society for Industrial Archeology 01-01-2005
• Subjects: Business structures; Canals; Corporations; Engines; Leases; Steam; Steam engines; Steam power; Surplus; Turbines
• ISSN: 0160-1040; 2327-7858

Lowell is famous as the first great industnal city built at an American waterpower site. The figures usually given for the amount of waterpower provided by the Pawtucket Dam and the Lowell Canal System are based on the documented leases of "permanent" millpowers. This was waterpower available all year, even during dry seasons when flow in the Merrimack River was reduced. In reality, Lowell's corporations regularly made use of much more flow than that minimum contractual obligation. "Surplus water" helps to explain the continuing increase in production in Lowell after the Civil War. Its existence was a significant stimulus for the installation of boilers and steam engines in the mill complexes on the canal system. Both material and documentary evidence show that steam power and waterpower worked together to drive the growing number of spindles in the city. Without surplus waterpower, Lowell's industnal expansion might have stalled in the 1870s.