Transmitting Power With Line Shafts and Gears

Transmitting Power With Line Shafts and Gears. . , The greatest attraction of this location as an industrial site was the power of the falling Brandywine River. In the early decades of the DuPont Company, mills were located close to the Brandywine, where waterpower could be directly harnessed. As the operation grew, mills had to be built further from the river. Line shafts were used to carry the power generated at the river to those buildings., A large glaze mill, called Big Mary, was located on the hillside above here, and was powered by a water turbine that was located directly below this platform. Notice the series of gears and shafts that change the direction of the power as it moves up the hillside. Only fragmentary ruins of the Big Mary Glaze Mill remain., When the turbine could not operated due to low water, freezing, or flooding, the glaze mill line shaft could be driven by steam engine located in the Power Plant midway up the hill on the right., Glazing was one of the final steps in producing better grades of gunpowder.