The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-12-20

unique and interesting, a dispatch
from Pressurctown, Niagara was head.
lined Niagara Drying Up" and was
as follows;
The diminution Of water-power at Nj
agara Falls an evil which has been
foreshadowed for some time in the Her.
aM dispatches from this points at
| last becoming q very serious matter. III
threatens the interruption of manufac'
| ture throughout the United States. Fol
the past two days dispatches have been
| pouring in from the most remote indus
trial centers, such as New Orleans, San
Francisco and Portland, Oregon, COM
planning that the force supplied by ttEe
Universal Electro-Dynamic Waterfowl
or Company at Niagara is inadequate to
the movement of the heavier machinery
in those cities. In New Orleans the
manufacture of sorghum molasses has
been almost suspended and in California
nearly 100000 Cinnamon have been
laid off from work in the Pacific Slope
Shoe and Last Company's factory
The Herald correspondent called this
morning upon Mr.. Orrin Potter Edison,
the superintendent-genera of the water
power company, and from him ascer-
tanned that the difficulty is due to the
extraordinary consumption of water at
| Chicago. Lake Michigan it seems, since
| Chcago's enormous development, has
| been so reduced that the source of the
nations industrial energy bids fair to be
cut off at its very fountain head, In 9th.
or words, Niagara Falls are running dry
and unless something is speedily done
to avert the calamity the national Eec.
tro-Dynamic Water-Power works at the
falls will have to stop and the wheels OF
| American manufacture will stand still
for very lack Of motive power to turn
| them.
balloon inspection of the falls yes
terday revealed that some 1000, 000,-
| 600 gallons of water had been diverted
since the last official examination, and
at the point where the rotary-disc comes
in contact with the magnets under the
falls the friction had become so slight
that it was scarcely appreciablo, the
main cause Of the continuance of motion
in the entire system being the impetus
impaired by the revolutions of the large
drive-wheel, whose axis projects from
the upper edge of the precipce. This
wheel has a sweep equal to twice the
height of tho falls, and its force is there
fore very considerable. Furthermore ii
has been swinging now without inter
ruptior for over half century, by n
nice application of the principle of per
petual motion, does not easily stop. --
Since the solution of the perpetual mo.
ton problem the efficiency of the water
power service has been very greatly en-
HANGED, but the question now is whether
the perpetual motion principle will be
sufficient for the projection of mechan'
zeal ener4j on q scale SO elaborate as
that involved in running the machinery
Of the entire country.
The company is now considering the
feasibility of drawing in water from
Hudson Bay through the subterranean
channel discovered in 1886 by Professor
Colbert Elius, but it isprobable that the
work would require at least three days,
and, in the meantime, should the ma
chinery stop the manufacturers Of the
United States would suffer loss which,
it is estimated would not fall far short
of S79, 007 $4,000, This, though but q
baga1elle Of the national productivity, i.
loss not to be courted, to say the leas,
aud the waterpower management will
put forth the most strcuouS efforts t.
avert it.
Another rather discomting phase o,
the difficulty is that not only would
manufacturing throughout the country
be Interrupted, but the electric light,
which--though it is not generally know
derive all their power from the falls,
would be extinguished both in this coun
try and in Europe and in Australia a
well so that the world would be il
darkness as in that imaginary era
when
The bright sun was extinguished and the star,
Did wander darlting in tho eternal space,
This, however, would not be an insup
+ cradle difficulty, for since the perfection
OF Professor Stellar's back acting sofa
reflectivator it has been found possbl.
, to bring sufficient of the suns ray;
around from the other side of the eartl
: at night to mitigate all but the most in
tense darkness. The chief inconveni
ence in event of the extinction Of tn,
electric lights, therefore, would be il
! the theatres and large buildings, sucl
y as hotels, into which as yet the Profes
y sor has not succeeded in diffusing hi
borrowed illumination. However, tn,
=, superintendent of the Niagara Falls sys
tenn mentions the progress of this brancl
e of science as likely to result finally in
|, solution of the water-power problem
|. for should the electric light be suppressed
). ed by nocturnal sunlight one channel o
y demand upon the force of the falls wi
g be removed and the increased powe
g thus secured might be applied to tn
>. movement of machinery.
r However, it does seem little har
' on the moon to get left so eifectually