This fascinating new 90 minute guided walking tour demonstrates the evolution of waterpower and the introduction of state of the art waterpower generation facilities in the DuPont Company’s black powder manufactory in the nineteenth century. In a unique opportunity, guests discover the sophisticated technology of the waterpower system which required advanced design, engineering, and construction skills, why waterpower was the most desirable source of energy through most of the Industrial Revolution, and that the DuPont powder manufactory was one of many water power-driven industrial sites in the Brandywine Valley, this industrial hub of the 1800s. Sometimes walking on uneven ground, the group visits the rarely seen sites of the earliest mills on the property, a newly restored functioning water turbine, and working models showing the development of water power at Hagley.
The $17 fee includes admission to the museum before or after the tour, including dramatic roll mill demonstrations, gunpowder explosions, and the whirring, belt-driven nineteenth-century Machine Shop.
Fifteen to forty people
Offered April 1 through November 30