Mr. Burden’s Water Wheel

We’ve been talking about the Troy Iron and Nail Factory Company, which was powered by the falls of the Wynantskill, below what is now Burden Pond in Troy. Water power began there in 1809, and its use expanded as the company grew. Arthur James Weise writes:

“The five water-wheels of the works being insufficient to operate the number of spike and horseshoe machines required by the company, Henry Burden constructed in 1838-39, the immense water-wheel, which Louis Gaylord Clark figuratively denominated, ‘the Niagara of water-wheels.’ In 1851, it gave place to the present [1886] large one of 1,200 horse-power. It is an over-shot wheel, 60 feet in diameter, with a width of 22 feet. Around its broad periphery are 36 buckets, 6 feet 3 inches deep … By the enterprise of Henry Burden, the suply of water in the Wynants Kill was largely increased by the construction of storage reservoirs at Sandlake, whereby channels connecting several lakes a great quantity of surplus water was obtained to feed the Wynants Kill in seasons of drought. The reservoir immediately east of the Upper Works, covering an area of 14 acres, was constructed in 1846. The great water-wheel is turned by water flowing from it through a narrow race.”

The wheel was in use until about 1890, and decayed for decades after. An RPI student who made a careful examination of the remains of the wheel in 1915 estimated its actual horsepower at something much more like 482 horsepower at maximum, and 282 horsepower normal output. In the 1930s there was thought given to reconstructing the wheel, but it was scrapped sometime before World War II.

Want to know more about Henry Burden? Just follow these links:

• The Nail Factory
• The Nail Factory Cemetery
• The Immense Iron Mills of Henry Burden
• What Burden’s Works Looked Like
• Mr. Burden’s Water Wheel
• Henry Burden
• Behold Henry Burden’s Horseshoe Machine
• The Wonders of the Puddling Forge