INGENIOUS OUTFIT

Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1932, Page 6

INGENIOUS OUTFIT

GUIDE 0. COBERGER’S EFFORT. INSTALLATION OF 500 FOOT PIPE . ~ ARTHURS PASS, August 9. -• Engineering has been a useful hobby to Guide Oscar Coberger, of Arthurs Pass. He has installed a water-power plant- which saws his. wood; 1 charges storage baiteries and, indirectly, supplies him with lighting. 'The installation was not done Without difficulty: A pipeline, 500 feet long leads from his store, across the road, and straight up the steep hillside, which is cliff in several places, to the, intake, a beautiful rocky pool at the foot of a waterfall far above the township. Guide Coberger did most of this work without any assitanee, swinging down the cliff faces with a rope and fitting his sections of pipe together. The pipes were all second-hand and had to be fitted and threaded with care. The greatest difficulty was leading pipes through the bush as, accord ing to the Arthurs Pass National Park Board of Control, none of it can be cut down. The engineer had to find a route for, ltis pipes that • would not lie obstructed by shrubs—a difficult thing, indeed. The water operates a neat Poitou wheel and the big fall gives a fored of one horse-power. The Pelton wheel drives a small circular- saw - and a battery-charger. W ith such cheap charging and a constant supply- of storage batteries, V Guide Coberger find it simple matter to light his ski shop. His domestic water supply .chmes- from this installation and there are two points on the pipe line ror fire;hoses. v \

By an ingenious arrangement, in which several hundred feet of wire rope- and a few yards of rubber- are used, it is possible to lift the pipe frepn the pool at the intake, while standing on the ground far below. This is highly necessary, is it is only by lifting the pipe out of the water each night and allowing it to drain before heavy fosts. of . twenty and thirty degrees, that freezing can be Avoided.- . •- •' -•

Guide Coberger’s' pipe-line keeps him fairly busy. Frequently there are replacements to be made l , as, -through insufficient drainage, a pipe may freeze ; and when it bursts rents five oi’ six inches long are usual. Then the pipe has to be cut . and a new section put in. He does not mind. Guide Coberger has a happy philosophy and this work is one of his chief hobbies.