The water wheel, including the forebay and chute, was manufactured by Fitz Water Wheel Company.  It was installed sometime around 1906 to replace the wooden water wheel by owner Allen Simmers. 

The water wheel was restored in 2001-2002 by Pottstown Metal Welding Company, under the direction of Jack Brogan and Stephen Kindig.  The spokes and shaft are original while the buckets were replicated. It was assembled in 8 sections. 

It is an overshot type water wheel,  as opposed to breast shot, undershot or pitch back type. 

The water wheel is 16 feet 4 inches in diameter and weighs approximately 3,500 lbs. It contains 48 buckets, each holding approximately 5.8 gallons of water. 

The water wheel turns at 8 rpm. 

The water wheel has almost 6400 foot pounds torque!! 

The water wheel developed 9-14 horsepower at 8 rpm. 

The water flow required at full power at 8 rpm is approximately 2000-3000 gallons per minute. 

The water wheel was designed to be compatible with the existing wooden gear system. 

The end of chute is positioned approximately 9 inches before top dead center. The chute delivers water evenly across the width of the buckets. 

The buckets were carefully designed to minimize spillage, and retain water all the way down to the tail race.  A hole in each bucket reduces the vacuum to empty the water as quickly as possible. 

The forebay (header tank) was also replicated by the Pottstown Metal Welding Company. It holds 286 gallons of water when completely filled.  Practically speaking, we would never have it filled more than one-half to two-thirds of this. The forebay measures roughly 3 feet x 3 feet x 4 ½ feet and weighs 600 lbs empty.  It weighs 1800 lbs half-full of water.

The forebay control gate regulates the flow of the water through the chute onto the wheel.

Very little water is required to turn the wheel without turning the stones

The pipe diameter leading into forebay is 18”.