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Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Visit our website This silent, black and white film from the early 1920’s gives an overview of how water is dammed and channeled for use in city water supply, electricity generation, and agriculture irrigation. Along with illustration cards explaining the path the water takes, you’ll see footage of landmarks in both New York (New Croton Dam, Ashokan Reservoir) and California (Big Creek Power House No. 1), dams both primitive and modern, farmers irrigating their fields, and a gold prospector. The film is missing its main title, but it is likely one of the many Eastman Classroom Films produced by Kodak in the 1920s-30s. 00:08 Mountainside, valley orchards, road, river 00:45 Outside ramshackle house an old man carries bucket, lowers it into well using shadoof 01:00 Illustration of well and ground strata: Soil, Gravel, Rock; rain falls and collects underground 01:27 River valley 01:49 New Croton Dam spillway, Cortlandt, New York 02:16 Dam valve building guarded by sentries 02:29 Mounted security forces 02:47 New Croton Dam 02:53 “Steps in City Water Supply” illustration: Water Shed, Reservoir 03:16 Aerating fountains at the Ashokan Reservoir, Olivebridge, NY 04:13 “Steps in City Water Supply” illustration completed: Water Shed, Reservoir, Fountains to Add Oxygen, Chlorine Added, High Pressure Tank/Gravity to City Mains 04:40 Boy drinks from public drinking fountain 4:51 Men open spillway at primitive dam, turbine turns 05:50 Primitive dam and flume power water wheel 06:12 Old man inside mill 06:29 Large overshot water wheel in action 06:46 Large dam and rope bridge, dry valley below, aqueduct along mountainside 07:53 Penstocks lead to turbine power house 08:25 Southern California Edison Big Creek Power House No. 1, Big Creek, California: Electric turbines, generators at work, men turn exposed turbines by hand 09:24 Water blasts through outflow portal below Big Creek Power House No. 1 09:40 Hydro-excavation 10:08 People inspect sluice, workers digging in runoff 10:25 Man digs through sluice 10:55 Two hands hold large gold nuggets 11:01 Man pans for gold 11:28 Small buttress dam with control building; water flowing through irrigation canals, rivers 11:57 Farmer directs irrigation flow with shovels, tarp 13:46 Irrigation channel in orchard, boy plays in water 14:01 Dam with high water level 14:03 THE END We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
