The Vancouver Sun, 30 June 1936
An Invitation to all to attend the Electrical Fountain dedication ceremony Dominion Day 8:30pm
A fitting tribute to half a century of progress bursts into life
Mayor Fred J Hume
New Westminster
President of Hume and Rumble Ltd, electrical contractors, Mayor Fred J Hume is one of the best-known and most popular residents of New Westminster. He has given freely of his time, energy and money in his city’s behalf.
Mayor Hume has always fostered athletics in the Royal City, and is president of the Salmon-bellies Lacrosse Club.
He has been interested in the city’s affairs always, and for 11 years has held civic posts as alderman and mayor.
Three years ago he was first elected mayor, and in the past two years has not been opposed, the people preferring that he remain as their chief magistrate.
He is also the unanimous choice of the city council.
His most recent good work on New Westminster’s behalf was a real achievement. Presenting good reasons for his argument, he requested a grant of $50,000 from the CPR to the Royal City as settlement of a moral obligation incurred fifty years ago.
The money was paid at a banquet in Mayor Hume’s honour last Friday.
The firm of which he is president has been in existence 18 years, rising from a small shop in New Westminster to one that has transacted $5 millions worth of business.
Mayor Hume and Charles P Rumber, secretary-treasurer, first invested $500 each. Within a few years they had expanded and moved to Vancouver, present offices being located in the Standard Bank Building. The annual payroll fluctuates between $64.000 and $200,000.
Charles P Rumble
Sec-Treas, Hume & Rumble Ltd
Mr Charles P Rumble is secretary-treasurer of the well-known firm of Hume & Rumble Ltd electrical contractors, who handled the contract for building of Vancouver’s new electric fountain in Lost Lagoon. This construction job is unique in many ways, but is a small one compared with many that the Hume & Rumble firm has handled in British Columbia.
Here are a few of the wiring jobs done and being done by the electrical contracting company: Construction of power and telephone lines from Bridge River to Bralorne and from Bralorne to the Pacific Great Eastern; CNR Hotel; telephone line from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish; steel tower line and pole line from Lake Buntzen to Ioco.
Transmission line from Nanaimo to Duncan and from Scott Road to Crescent Beach; Second Narrows Bridge, flood lighting; Shell Oil service stations; Pacific Coast Terminals; Empress Hotel, Victoria; University buildings; Vancouver department stores; movietone equipment in 25 BC theatres.
These and numberless other huge tasks have been completed by the Hume & Rumble Company. The firm has laid considerably more than 60,000 miles of wire in British Columbia for power, light and telephone purposes.
The company is working on the new Vancouver Post Office building, new Vancouver City Hall, the TB Wing of Vancouver General Hospital, the Standard Oil plant, Burnaby; transmission lines for British Pacific Properties, West Vancouver, and miles of power lines throughout British Columbia.
Dazzling, scintillating, jewel-like, a poem of smooth-flowing motion and ever-changing colour in setting of natural grandeur – that’s Vancouver’s newest and finest acquisition – the fountain in Lost Lagoon. All Vancouver is expected to turn out to the official opening at 8:30 pm, Dominion Day.
The fountain is worthy of all the traditions of art, worthy of Vancouver’s Golden Jubilee, and will be a permanent, decorative joy in lovely Stanley Park.
It’s a type of fountain never before constructed in Canada, and its cost, $35,000, when compared with the cost of other similar structures in the world, is a credit to the Jubilee Committee and to Hume & Rumble Ltd, electrical contractors, who are handling construction.
When operating, it is like a symphony concert, in motion and colour instead of music, says Harold Williams, engineer, of Hume & Rumble Ltd, under whose personal supervision the work has been done.
Lovers of beauty in Vancouver, and they number many, will be entranced by the glory of the seemingly magic display, which will be seen for the first time Wednesday night.
The fountain is not just a block of cement with a few water jets and lights attached. It’s a power and light plant in itself. The latest electrical control is employed.
At night, it is illuminated by more than 60,000 watts of electrical energy. In addition to the variety of colored floodlights concealed under water in the two bowls, which are operated in a predetermined colour cycle, the colour combination are changed by thermionic tube control.
Blending of the tints will be gradual and subtle there are 60 circuits, each controlling one floodlight.
This control is unique in Canada, this being the first time the new thermionic tube has been used to control such a variety of operations.
A synchronous motor-driven flasher regulates the water and some of the lighting effects. The motor has two drums – the first with a period of 20 seconds for the lights on the main jet and the second for a master control for the water effects with a period of 300 seconds.
Other lighting is controlled by a reactor dimming equipment, which blends and shades the various colours in numberless combinations to bring about the never-ceasing change of program.
This in turn is under control of a manual master regulator or a full automatic mobile lighting unit. The entire lot of electrical equipment is used to provide:
- Motive power for the pumps
- Manual and automatic control of light and water effects
Films with copper strips, each representing a certain group of lights of different colours, revolve on two drums. The amount of light and kind of light is thus controlled. These films are much similar in size to those used in an ordinary camera, but carry a metal conducting braid.
This film type regulator is used to ensure a definite, pre-determined program, which in the case of Vancouver’s fountain consists of three sets of eight films, capable of giving two and a half billion effects. The potential picked up by the braid on the film depends on the lateral position of the braid. A straight run of braid on one side of the film produces full intensity in the lighting circuit, and if the braid slopes gradually toward the opposite side, the lighting is dimmed.
Rate of change in light intensity may be made rapid or gradual.
Electrically operated valves regulate the flow of water from the jets in similar manner. The pumps are driven by two electric motors – one 25 hp capacity, the other 10 hp. The two are capable of throwing 950 gallons of water per minute, but will not operate to full capacity.
Water is pumped from the lagoon, and special filters attached to the suction nozzles keep out dirt and other impurities.
The main jet, in the centre of the smaller top bowl, will throw a stream of water 90 feet in the air, according to Mr Williams.
Indicating the scope of the effects possible with this fountain, Mr Williams points to the fact that there are 810 small jets to throw water. All of this is operated by remote control. Four switches are mounted in a special box on a light pole ashore and the current is carried out to the fountain by submarine cable. By these switches, the water jets and lights are turned on and off.
Each light is submerged and current is fed to it by waterproof wiring connections. All the water piping is in copper and brass, evidence as to the permanence of the structure.
Electrical equipment is mounted in a control room under the main lower bowl. This room is water tight, but an automatic sump pump has been installed to guard against possibility of seepage, for water would put the delicate apparatus out of running in double-quick time.
There are also special red light alarms ashore which will flash if anything goes wrong with the pump.
The fountain is situated near the centre of Lost Lagoon at the entrance to Stanley Park. It is octagonal in shape, maximum width 38 feet. The central basin or bowl is 14 feet wide, and rises three feet above the level of the lower, larger one. The whole is supported on fifty-two 45 foot by 16 inch wooden piles and the weight of water in the basins is approximately 82 tons.
Jets and streams of water are projected upwards and inwards to provide individual vertical dome-shaped sprays.
Vancouver’s Jubilee Committee and private citizens who contributed are to be commended on their work in pushing for this beautiful fountain, which is sure to be one of the major attractions during Golden Jubilee celebration.
Less than two and a half months ago the job was started by Hume & Rumble Ltd, assisted by Canadian Westinghouse Co Ltd, represented by TH Crosby, engineer.
“We’ve had to hurry,” says Mr Williams, “in that time 285 tons of cement have been utilized and all the special equipment was built.” All equipment was built in Canada and the pumps were constructed in Vancouver. All union labour was employed.
The Amazing Paulin(e) Family 