Persberg Canal

Why the Persberg Canal Was Built

Transcript of the report to ”The Delegates of the Ironmasters’ Association regarding the buildings and the water conduit at the Persberg Iron Ore Field in Värmland, Year 1820.”

The purpose of the water conduit was, in a few words, the following:

The natural watercourse Yngshytte River, between the lakes Horrsjön and Yngen, does form seven separate falls, used since ancient times for mills, sawmills, and mine machinery, but these falls are no more than approximately 10 feet high each, since the remainder of the total fall height of 114 feet between the lakes is taken up by rapids between the falls. Furthermore, this watercourse and the machinery wheels constructed along it are situated at a considerable distance from the mines they have served. The considerable length of the rod systems that resulted from this made it not only very costly, but also impossible to keep the machinery in proper condition, since one could scarcely finish a repair on the machinery in one place before it broke down in another.

As the low falls, which in themselves were barely sufficient, became even more insufficient — partly because such a large portion of the power was consumed by friction, etc., in the long rod systems, and partly and especially because the machinery (due to the frequently occurring repairs) could not operate continuously but only during the intervals when no repairs rendered it inactive — the consequence was already that the most significant mines could not be worked at the bottom, but partly on the walls, and partly, as in the Great Mine, in the ceiling of the working chambers. The annually increasing consumption of, and diminishing supply of, poles or connecting rods would soon have made it impossible to maintain the old machinery any longer, when in 1818, during the Commission proceedings in Värmland — which were certainly not occasioned by this matter — the question incidentally arose whether it might be possible to lead the water of Lake Horrsjön along a new route through the mining field, in order to construct machinery and hoisting wheels at the most advantageous locations that the terrain permitted.

In consequence thereof, the late Master Mechanic Bransell undertook an investigation that same autumn, which the following year, 1819, was reviewed by me, at which time a plan for the entire enterprise was drawn up. In 1820, the work itself was undertaken and by November 19, 1821, was completed to the extent that the new machinery for the Högberg Field, the Great Mine, and the Hage Mine were in full operation, and the engine houses and wheel structures for the Kran Mine were approximately three-quarters completed. The building site for the mill had been prepared and the machinery procured. From the foregoing, it follows that savings in the maintenance costs of the machinery was certainly not the only principal objective intended by the water conduit; for if the new machinery had been as insufficient for its purposes as the old, its reduced maintenance costs would have been of little importance.

The principal objectives were thus: 1st: To be able to construct machinery wheels possessing sufficient or surplus power, at such points within the mining field from which machinery arms could most conveniently be directed to whichever mines were situated around the wheels. 2nd: To provide falls and building sites for hoisting gear (for the raising of ore), a mill, and a sawmill.

Gust. af Uhr, Director and Mining Mechanist. Transcript: TN