Water Turbines

On April 5 1919 an appraisal of the Bolton Flour Mills was conducted by the Canadian Appraisal Company of Montreal. The very detailed appraisal covered all the buildings, the machinery and assets on the property including the dam.
A pamphlet published in 1902 by James Leffel & Co. gave full details of the line of Samson line of turbines. This illustration shows the turbine as it would have looked when displayed in front of the Bolton library.

The Samson Turbines pamphlet gives complete specifications of the line of turbines. The turbines ranged from 17 to 68 inches (this being the diameter of the outer casing.  The mill  turbines were both 26 inches.  The Samson turbines were used by James Leffel & Co. in the power plant at Niagara  Falls.  The entire pamphlet is available here

In 1898 Arthur McFall’s diary notes that he made a trip to Toronto and engaged J.G. Greey for a “complete new outfit for $3462.50 to be put in by October 1”.  This cost included two Samson  vertical cased water turbines.

A poster created by Process Consultants Canada gave a high level explanation of how water was directed through the turbines in the Bolton mill and how power was transferred to run machinery.
A second poster explains the workings of the turbines installed in the Bolton mill. These two posters were placed near the entrance of the library to help explain the physical turbine outside the library.
An illustration from “PAMPHLET K or The Latest and Best Types, Samson Turbines” shows the type of casing that would have enclosed the Bolton mill water turbine.