Happy Labor Day!
If you’re thinking about this holiday at all — beyond a day off, cookouts, and the unofficial end of summer — it might be in the context of, well, labor.
For more than 2 centuries after its founding in the 1600s, Westport benefited from the labor of its residents. Dairy farmers, onion farmers, railroad and stone wall builders, coal and oil haulers, twine and ping pong ball and embalming supply factory workers — all helped make this town what it was.
A detail from Robert Lambdin’s magnificent mural, depicting long-ago commerce in town. It is on display in the Town Hall lobby.
Longtime Westporter Lynn Flint is an anthropologist. She is fascinated by the history of water power.
She has researched old water mills. One that caught her attention is the well-maintained Revolutionary War-era building on Ford Road, at the junction of the Saugatuck and Aspetuck Rivers near where Lyons Plains meets Weston Road.
Older residents know it as part of the Dorr-Oliver Laboratories. It’s remembered, Lynn says, for inventing the continuous vacuum filter for separating gold from baser elements in the early 20th century.
Dorr-Oliver mill, circa 1920.
In 1812 this was a gristmill. Later, it became a textile mill. She does not know whether a water wheel and grindstone still remain,
“I’m not suggesting we need to go back to grinding our own grain,” Lynn says.
“But I wonder if it could be the start of an idea of producing electricity using water power.”
Elon Musk produces vehicles that use alternate sources of power, she says.
“It’s electricity in his case. But most electricity is made with fossil fuels. Water power is free and clean.”
Potential source of water power on Ford Road? (Photo/Fred Cantor)
Climate change causes more and heavier rain here, Lynn says. “As we scramble to improve our drains and siphon off standing water near roads, maybe we should consider that a bounty may have been dropped on our doorstep. Maybe we can use this annoying and destructive water to our advantage as a power source.”
The number 1 source worldwide for producing electricity is coal. Natural gas is second.
Both are in finite supply. Both cause emissions, and cost a substantial amount to find and distribute.
(Not for nothing, she notes, her Eversource bill — for a household of one person — doubled last month, with no change in usage.)
Old Mill grist mill, in an undated photo.
Lynn says, “Even if the Ford Road building was reconstructed as a mill, I’m not sure there would be that much energy.
“But at least it would be a demo, something to begin to think about. Maybe some water energy could be used for the residential area near there.
“Maybe one of our brilliant Staples students could make us a working model.”
(Click here for some statistics on hydropower.)
(“06880” covers the environment regularly — along with every other area of Westport life. If you appreciate our work, please click here for a tax-deductible donation. Thank you!)
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