Type of radial arm floodgate
Side view cut-away diagram of the radial arm of the Tainter gate, Ice Harbor Dam , Snake River, Pasco, Washington (USACE)
Tainter gate from the back, or spillway, on the John H. Kerr Dam , Boydton, Virginia (USACE)
Tainter gate being constructed, in 1936, on the upper Mississippi River, Lock and Dam No. 7 (Onalaska Dam), La Crescent, Minnesota (USACE)
Stevenson Dam Tainter Gate on the Housatonic River in Connecticut.
The Tainter gate is a type of radial arm floodgate used in dams and canal locks to control water flow. It is named for its inventor, the Wisconsin structural engineer Jeremiah Burnham Tainter .[ 1]
Tainter, an employee of the lumber firm Knapp, Stout and Co. , invented the gate in 1886 for use on the company's dam that forms Lake Menomin in the United States.[ 1]