#psnh

Join the Poetry Society of New Hampshire for an afternoon of verse! Bring a friend and a poem (your own, or someone else’s) to read, or come to listen and enjoy the verse. More details at psnh.org.

Event date: Wednesday, June 19, 4:30PM – 6:00PM

Event address: 45 South Main Street, Concord, NH 03301

UPCOMING HEADLINERS at Gibson's:

Marjorie Burke: July 17

It’s Not a House … It’s a Home

(1937)

This is one of three single-phase transformers being installed at Amoskeag Hydro Station. Getting these 3,000-pound transformers to their new home on the opposite side of the powerhouse building was a formidable task. After removing part of the building’s brick exterior wall, workers rolled each transformer into position on railroad rails. Today, a large crane would be used to simply reach over the building to lift a transformer up and over the powerhouse. If fact, that was done in 2017, when these three were replaced with one modern three-phase transformer. The original units lasted reliably for 80 years, which is a testament to the technology and engineering capabilities of that time.

Special thanks to Bill Smagula for all the detail on this one!

Down In the Flood

1936

“The greatest disaster ever to befall the State of New Hampshire.” That’s how Gov. H. Styles Bridges described the Great Flood of 1936. The New Hampshire Flood Reconstruction Council’s official report called it “the most severe in 300 years.” After a “remarkably steady” winter, the rains began in the second week of March.

“Ice jams coming with the breakup of ice in the rivers on March eleventh to thirteenth 1936 caused flooding of many areas that would not otherwise have been affected. That flooding had barely subsided when heavy rains on the eighteenth to twenty-first coming with warm weather that rapidly melted the snow cover resulted in the worst flood in the 300-year history of New England. The stream flow at Garvin's Falls on the Merrimack which had seemed threatening at 50,000 cubic feet a second during the first stage of the flood was doubled during the second.” —Everett Sackett, Fifty Years of Service

These photos were taken between March 19 and 21 when the flood came through Manchester’s Millyard. During that time, the Merrimack River peaked 17.2 feet over the Amoskeag dam, right in back of the building that is now Eversource’s Energy Park offices. Attempts were made to slow the tide with sand bags, but the flood waters persisted.

According to the New England Historical Society, “Police worked around the clock evacuating families from their homes, snatching some from rooftops, as the Merrimack washed away houses. The National Guard was called up to help police. … The flood badly damaged the giant mills owned by the bankrupt Amoskeag Industries, washing away any hope that the company could revive.” New Hampshire wasn’t alone, of course; all of New England was hit hard: “The flood burst dams, wiped out roads, ruined businesses and washed away homes. As many as 200 people were killed and 14,000 left homeless.”

This wasn’t the first time Manchester’s Millyard was flooded; check out these photos from the Flood of 1896, which took place almost exactly 40 years prior.

For the Wheel’s Still in Spin

(c. 1920s)

Here’s an up-close look at one of the three water wheels that power Amoskeag Hydro Station on the Merrimack River in Manchester. Amoskeag Manufacturing Company completed construction of the hydro station in 1924.

Gonna Change My Way of Thinking

(1977)

Show of hands: Who’d like to learn where energy comes from, how to use it efficiently, and become a card-carrying Junior Energy Conservation Specialist? If you were a fifth grader in PSNH’s Southern Division back in ’77 or ’78, you just might have gotten the opportunity—not to mention a pretty sweet ID card featuring Reddy Kilowatt.

From a press release at the time:

The class consists of energy conservation ideas and projects, the pupils are taught how electricity is generated and how to read an electric meter through a series of talks and slides and how to conserve electricity.

The classes are taught by Al Taylor, Southern Division Staff Assistant and Mrs. Pauline Hawkins, Energy Applications Specialist both of Public Service Company and the audio visual aids feature such characters as “Energy Ant” and “Eddie Energy.”

At the end of the class the students had a fifteen minute written quiz and received Junior Energy Conservation Packets which contain coloring book, pencil and several books and pamphlets to aid them in energy conservation.

The first three photos were taken at Brookline Elementary School in October 1977. Pauline Hawkins is shown with a power plant diagram, and in the next photo, PSNH’s Milford District Manager, Norman E. Woods, Jr. presents Brookline fifth grade students with their Junior Energy Conservation Specialist Cards. In the last photo Pauline is with students at Wilton Elementary School in November 1977.

The Water Smooth Ran Like a Hymn

(c. 1920)

Here is Manchester’s Amoskeag dam under construction with a portion already completed. The wooden boards you see served as the form for pouring the concrete to finish the dam. Inside is a tunnel used to inspect the dam and connect the power house to the station’s gatehouse.

Amoskeag Hydro through the years.

Lookin’ for the Fuse

(1926)

Switchboard and regulators for Souhegan Valley Electric Co. This photo was taken on July 24, 1926—about a month before the company joined Manchester Traction, Light & Power Co.; Keene Gas & Electric Co.; Ashuelot Gas & Electric Co.; and Laconia Gas & Electric Co. to form Public Service Co. of New Hampshire.

I Came to a High Place

c. 1960s

Yesterday, Eversource posted photos of a Haverfield Aviation contract crew working on a transmission line in Hooksett, NH. Wearing Faraday cage suits, they were installing lightning arrestors on a live line. That reminded us of this photo of PSNH linemen perched high atop a transmission structure somewhere in the Granite State (we’re not sure about the location). Even though the power lines in this picture weren’t live, it’s safe to say that protective clothing and gear have come a long way!