LOWELL -- A Brown University historian who wrote a book about Lowell's 19th-century boom in hydropower was the keynote speaker at the Moses Greeley Parker Lecture yesterday at the Lowell National Historic Park Visitor Center.
Patrick M. Malone's talk centered around his book, Waterpower in Lowell, and was illustrated by images of Lowell's canals, mills and the Merrimack River. Combined with brilliant engineering, labor and capital investment, Lowell went on to become the first successfully planned industrial city in America, Malone said.
"The canal system was right in the middle of the community, affecting the daily lives of residents, creating detours and barriers for neighborhood life," he said.
Growth in Lowell exploded from the first power canal and mills in 1823 to the last major canal and waterpower expansion by 1850, Malone said. He also traced the later expansion into steampower until water and steam became nearly equal power sources by the late 19th century.
Lowell's chief engineer, James B. Francis, planned and oversaw a 50 percent waterpower expansion by 1850, Malone recounted. His expanded system reached north to include the purchase of Lake Winnipesaukee and other lakes that feed the Merrimack, so that Lowell's mills could get water more efficiently.
Other interesting gems shared by Malone include:
* The Pawtucket Dam was built across the river in 1826 and had a fishway for migrating fish, such as salmon and shad, in
place as early as 1830.
* The flooding of farm fields by the high water created by the dam was legally allowed, but the industry was required by law to pay farmers for their damages. Malone said letters to these farmers about these payments were a valuable research source for him in the Locks & Canals museum collection at Lowell National Historical Park.
* Francis and the textile companies planned and created greenways along the canals for promenading by residents including Lowell's "mill girls." Malone said this included the planting of rows of trees in the corridor along Dutton Street and the Merrimack Canal, as well as the walkway along the new Northern Canal in the 1840s, allowing residents of crowded Lowell to reconnect with nature.
* Malone said that during the 1970s, he rediscovered the original James Francis turbine from 1849 submerged under the gatehouse controlling the water flow through the gates into the Northern Canal by scuba diving into the flooded chambers below the gatehouse.
* He dedicated his book to -- and shared credit with -- Charles Parrott, historical architect for the National Park who has worked with Malone as a research partner since the 1970s to uncover the history of Lowell's waterpower system. The men spent hundreds of hours exploring the system and the drawings, images and documents in the voluminous Locks & Canals collection.
Assistant Superintendent Peter Aucella said Malone has shared his vast knowledge of waterpower and industrial history with the park staff for more than three decades, greatly influencing the story given to park visitors. In fact, Malone was among the historians who testified in Congress in support of the legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul Tsongas for the creation of this new kind of national park in 1978.
Yesterday's talk was also the first program in the park's Waterpower in Lowell 2010 series. The next program will be on 158th anniversary of the Great Flood of 1852. It takes place on April 24 and will include walking tours of the Francis Gate/Guard Locks complex.
