Falls Of Foyers
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The Fall of Foyers (
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
: Eas na Smùide, meaning the smoking falls) is a
waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...
on the
River Foyers Foyers ( gd, Foithir, meaning "shelving slope") is a village in the Highland council area of Scotland, lying on the east shore of Loch Ness. The village is situated on the B852, part of the Military Road built by General George Wade, northeast ...
, which feeds
Loch Ness Loch Ness (; gd, Loch Nis ) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately southwest of Inverness. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for clai ...
, in
Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. It is located on the lower portion of the River Foyers, and drops .


History

The flow over the falls has been much reduced since 1895 when North British Aluminium Company built an
aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ch ...
plant on the shore of Loch Ness which was powered by electricity generated by the river. Artist Mary Rose Hill Burton, who was active in the unsuccessful resistance against the smelting plant, made many drawings and paintings of the falls before the plant was built, to capture the landscape in nature before it was lost. Aluminium was first recognised in the early 1800s, and processes for extracting it from
Bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...
ore were developed during the nineteenth century. The most promising was the Heroult-Hall process, separately developed by P T L Heroult in France and C M Hall in America in 1886-1887, but it required large amounts of electricity. The rights to using the process in Britain were obtained by the British Aluminium Company, which was formed in 1894. To produce a ton of aluminium required around 24 MWh of power, and the idea of obtaining cheap hydro-electrity to produce it was suggested. The company identified the Falls of Foyers as a possible site, and bought the Lower Foyers estate, covering some , together with water rights from neighbouring areas. This allowed them to create a hydro-electric scheme without needing to obtain Parliamentary approval, and to ignore public opposition to the effects it would have on local amenities. The River Foyers ran through a gorge to the almost vertical Lower Falls, which was a beauty spot, and was a stopping point for tourists using the MacBrayne pleasure steamers running along the
Caledonian Canal The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William in Scotland. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. Route The canal r ...
from Fort William to
Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...
. Construction began in 1895. Loch Garth was modified by a concrete and masonry dam at its south-western end, together with an earth embankment. This raised the water level by , resulting in it joining Loch Farraline, and the combined storage reservoir, which was long, was renamed
Loch Mhòr Loch Mhòr is a loch in the traditional county of Inverness-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Its name literally translates to "Big Loch". It occupies much of the wide floor of Stratherrick which runs roughly parallel to Loch Ness, around to its ...
. Water from the reservoir was conveyed along the original course of the River Foyers to the top of the Upper Falls of Foyers. From there a tunnel was cut trough solid rock for and the water continued through cast iron pipes to the generating station. The pipes were in diameter, and were laid in a trench, to be covered with sand. This provided a head of to the turbines, and although there was some debate as to whether cast iron pipes could withstand such pressure, no issues were experienced. The water drove five Girard turbines connected to Oerlikon direct current generators, which could produce a total of 3.75 MW. This was sufficient for the production of aluminium, and some 200 tons per year were produced from June 1896. It was a new product, and with production exceeding demand, the power was also used to produce calcium carbide, and experiments were carried out to manufacture ferro-silicon, carborundum, cerium, magnesium, and precious stones. The plant at Foyers steadily improved in efficiency, as the Heroult-Hall process was refined, and by 1904, world demand for aluminium had increased suffiently that production of calcium carbide ceased, and the plant only produced aluminium. The plant shut in 1967. In 1975 the site became part of the Foyers
Pumped Storage Pumping may refer to: * The operation of a pump, for moving a liquid from one location to another **The use of a breast pump for extraction of milk * Pumping (audio), a creative misuse of dynamic range compression * Pumping (computer systems), th ...
Power Station on the banks of Loch Ness. It uses Loch Mhòr as the upper reservoir and Loch Ness as the lower reservoir. The scheme has a capacity of 305 MegaWatts and comprises two 150 MW generating sets located at the bottom of elliptical shafts which are deep. The turbines are controlled remotely from a control centre in Perth, and when there is a sudden increase in demand for electricity, the plant can start generating 300 MW within 30 seconds, using 200 tonnes of water per second. At periods of low demand, the turbines are run in reverse, taking power from the grid to pump water from Loch Ness back into Loch Mhòr, ready for the next period of high demand. In order to allow back pumping, water for the power station no longer uses the course of the river, but is fed through of pipes and tunnels which run to the station from Loch Mhòr. The falls influenced
Robert Addams The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, a travelling lecturer in natural philosophy, to write a paper in 1834 about the
motion aftereffect The motion aftereffect (MAE) is a visual illusion experienced after viewing a moving visual stimulation, stimulus for a time (tens of milliseconds to minutes) with stationary eyes, and then fixating a stationary stimulus. The stationary stimulus ...
. He observed that after watching the waterfall for a while, nearby rocks appeared to move upwards.


References

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MAE Waterfalls


Bibliography

* * {{Refend Geography of Inverness Waterfalls of Highland (council area) Pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations in the United Kingdom Loch Ness