Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1879-11-20
NJ ISC E LILA N { us.
UTILIZING NIAGARA's POWER BY ELFC
TRICKY.

UTILIZING POWER BY ELEC-
TRICKY.
Several correspondents have asked us to
give more complete details of DIR. Liemens'
plan for utilizing the vast power of Maya
"a, and although we regard the project as
chlmerical, we give the following part Of
his address delivered some time G c. 1t
certainly contains some valuable hydraulic
information, whatever may be thought of
the scheme itself. "The amount of water
passing over the Falls of Niagara has been
estimated at 10, 000, 900 tons per hour, ana
Its perpendicular descent may be aiken at
$50 feet, without counting the rapids. which
represent a further fall of $50 feet, making
a total fall of 300 feet between lake and
lake. But the force represented by the
principal fall alone amounts to $4,000, 900
horsepower, AN amount which, if it had to
be produced by steam, would necessitate an
expenditure of not less than 266, 000, 600
tons of coal per annum, taking the con-
sumption of coal at four pounds per horse
power per hour. In other words, all the
coal raised throughout the world would
barely suffice to produce the amount of
power that continually runs to waste at
this one great fall. 1t would not be difficult
Indeed to realize a large proportion of the
power so wasted, by means of turbines and
water-wheels erected on the shores of the
deep river below the falls, supplying them
from canals cut along the edges. But it
would be impossible to utilize the power on
the spot, the district being devoid of miner
al wealth, Or other natural inducements for
the establishment of factories. In order
practically to render available the force of
falling water at this and the thousands of
of other places under analogous conditions,
we must devise a practicable means of car
rying the water to a distance. Sir William
Armstrong has taught us how to carry and
utilize water power at a distance, if con-
veyed through higll-pressure mains. and at
Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, rs we'll as at
some other places on the continent, it is
conveyed by means of q~uick-worklng steel
ropes passing over large pulleys. By these
means power may be carried to a distance
of one or two miles without difficulty.
Time will probably reveal to us effectual
means of carrying power to great distances;
but [ cannot refrain rom abiding to one
which is. in my opinion, worthy of eonsid-
Grafton, namely, the electrical conductor.
Suppose water to be employed to give mo-
ton to a dynamo-electrical machine, u very
powerful electric current is the result. This
may be carried to q great distance, through
a metallic conductor, and there be made to
impart motion to electromagnetic engines
to ignite the carbon points to electric lamps
Or to effect the separation of metals from
their combinations. A copper rod of three
inches in diameter would be capable of
transmitting 900 horsepower q distance
of, sag, thirty miles, an amoun to supply
one-quarter of a million candle-power.
which would suffice to illuminated moder-
ately sized town. The use of electric pow
er has sometimes been suggested as a sub
stitute for steam power. but it should be
borne in mind that, so long as the electric
power depends upon a galyanlc battery, it
must be much more costly than steam pow-
er, inasmuch as the combnstible consumed
in the battery is zinc, a substance necessaIi-
ly much more expensive than coal but
this question assumes a totally different as
pect If, in the production of the electric cur
rent, a natural force is used which could
not otherwise be rendered available
american Miller.
a MAN out west has sued a newspaper for
libel because it said he killed a man. The
yaUycnaDpr wants tn annnnrnp1i,n anI OIL