The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-08
FRU.LTFUL YEARS.

rms seems to De an age or triumph m discoveries and the utilization of great natural forces It was only about eighteen years ago when the people of the country awoke to find themselves able to converse with individuals in only a little later when the name and fame of Edison began to spread over the electric light. It was night of great interest to New Haveners when, at Dr. Skiffs opera house, the first public demonstration here of the utility and efficacy of the telephone as a sound transmitter was made and when the noted and revered Rev. Dr. Bacon, the "Nestor of Congregationalism," con- versed with General Joseph R. Hawley over the wire, the latter being in Hart ford. A talk with Springfield came a little later and now, as all know, it is just as easy to talk by telephone with Philadelphia or Chicago as to chat with the neighbors at ones fireside.
 Also for instance only about fourteen years ago New Haven awoke to find elec- trio lights Illuminating a portion of the old green. Speedily the electric light grew and multiplied exceedingly. The use of electricity for the propulsion of street surface railway cars has come in very recently and New York's great elevated railway is preparing for a sim- liar equipment of it's lines. Prof. Ront- gen in the last week or two has come to the front with his wonderful dis covery, an outgrowth of other discov- cries by other scientists in recent years.
 Another and very recent discovery not in the scientific line which electri- fled the nation, astonished our best financiers and Europe also was the in- mense response made in the home mar ket to the governments call for loan.
 The harnessing of Niagara Falls as 8 motive power for the use of man is an- other of the modern miracles based on purely scientific principles, and now that this gigantic power has been forced into mans service, waterfalls elsewhere will be similarly called upon to do duty for man. One hundred years ago water power was almost the sole inanimate motive power in use, and, taking a local example again, all along the lit tie stream which flows to and through Bethany valleys were grist mills, all run by water power. Then came the age of steam and railroad transporta- ton and the day of the Woodbridge and Bethany mills was over. Now again with the new found aid of cleo trieity the use of water as a motive power is vastly reasserting itself and becoming very powerful commercial factor Running water is again assum- ing it's ancient importance as a foun- tain of force. Speaking on this sub- ject, Harper's Weekly takes the view that New England is to greatly feel the beneficial effects of this coming develop
 ment of water power and says:
 "The utilization of Niagara, which will furnish many millions of horse
 power, and distribute it for several hun
 dreds of miles; the similar enterprise at Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, which may yet make Seattle one of the great manufacturing centres of the far West;
 the projects mooted to convert the Pas saic Falls and those of the Genesee River at Rochester, New York, into | electrical energy-such examples stand | large and clear in the public eye. But what the public does not recognize, or only vaguely, is the vast aggregate of power which is certain to be derived l from the lesser waterfalls all over the country, and which have already begun | to be utilized for electric-lighting and | mechanical purposes. Tn New England
 We see this vividly illustrated; for New | England is peculiarly rich in natural | endowment of water-power. It is as- I serted by competent engineers that quite two-thirds of the railway mileage of this important section can be made | dependent on water as the ultimate | motor. It is within the knowledge of l the writer that in the State of Vermont i speculation is already keen in purchas- ing important power sites with view | to their great prospective value Plans ' to parallel existing steam roads with l electric roads are "as thick as leaves in Vallonlbrosa," and many of them have | even now taken practical form. Capi- | tai, stagnant in most other directions
 seems to rush eagerly into such cleo
 trical enterprises. It is perfectly demon
 strable that the first cost of road-bed and rolling stock in a road planned to | do the same bulk of business is only a
 little more than over half that of the
 steam road. Still more important than
 this, the cost of operating such g. road
 bears an equally favorable ratio. With