Water: The waterpower harnessed from St. Anthony Falls gave life to the milling industry

Water: The waterpower harnessed from St. Anthony Falls gave life to the milling industry. . , How did water turn the wheels of industry? , Without the direct drive waterpower from St. Anthony Falls, the Minneapolis riverfront we know today might not exist. From the 1850s into the 1900s, the strength of the Mississippi River allowed mill machinery to work around the clock, powering the growth of Minneapolis' milling industry., From Mississippi River to Mill , Water was channeled to and from the riverfront mills through an elaborate series of canals and tunnels. The west-side waterpower canal, built to supply the mills on this side of the river with power, was dug into the ground and covered with wooden planks. The canal started above the falls near Fifth Avenue, moved through a series of headraces, and emptied below the falls near the present day Guthrie Theatre., The canal was filled in during the 1960s, but a re-creation of what the plank road looked like can be seen on West River Parkway immediately downriver from this plaza., Flowing to the Standard , The Standard Mill was supplied with water from the west-side waterpower canal by a headrace, a smaller channel designed to specifically provide the mill with the water it needed to operate its machinery. The headrace for the Standard Mill flowed into the building at the first-floor level through an archway. The headrace emptied into a penstock, or flume, carved out of bedrock. The penstock, which was lined with an iron draft tube, allowed the water to fall more than 30 feet to the Standard Mill's turbine., In the Turbine , Turbines are much like waterwheels, except they are smaller, made of metal, set vertically, and placed in enclosed spaces. The turbine at the Standard Mill was set in the bedrock below the mill and was turned by the power of falling water. The Standard Mill depended on waterpower to make its flour milling operation run., Take a Look at the Ground Around You! , The patterns you see in the plaza floor demarcate the former routes of a headrace and tailrace that once powered mills on this site., Tell Me About Turbines! , Water fell into the top of the turbine and made it spin. The fins of a turbine were curved to best capture the falling water thereby maximizing the amount of energy that could be put to use., The central turbine shaft connected to the milling machinery through a series of shafts, belts, and pulleys. This system was similar to a bicycle, with the energy from spinning pedals transferring to the wheels by a chain., Some turbines could produce upwards of 250 horsepower. That is the equivalent of the power produced by roughly five 1969 Volkswagen Beetles., Headrace to Tailrace, Water Returns to the River , After the water made its 30-foot fall, it was returned to the Mississippi River below the falls through a tunnel carved out of the earth called a tailrace.