The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-04

mead of such an enterprise It will mean
mat the immense forests of Africa can
De cut down with the most improved
machinery, which, under the old sys-
! TEN, could not have been removed from
the heart of the manufacturing center
VIII mean that machinery can be
( taken into the wilderness and made TO
prepare its products for civilization. ir-
respective of the fact whether coal be
| 81 or 800 ton. 1t may be that in the
! course OF comparatively few years
AFRICA VIII not be such a general point
OF destination for the products of the
! civilized world. She may not only be
able 10 manufacture and prepare for
! the market her own products. but may
| De aDle 10 manufacture for her own use
those which she must now import from
other quarters of the globe Had the
United States possessed in its infancy
such a civiiizing factor, it's growth as a
nation would have been even more
rapid than ii has been.
A REMARKABLE FEATURE.
The most remarkable feature of the
whole project is. that when Professor
George Forbes received a letter from a
man in johannesburg, asking whether
II would be worth while considering the
question of utilizing the Victoria falls
for working the mines in Mashonaland
and Matabeleland, he simply laughed at
the idea and sat down to write an an
swer which would effectLally point out
the absurdity of the scheme of his
rather progressive correspondent He
Jotted down some rough figures to show
the writer of the letter the absurdity
Oh the idea, and in SO doing some new
economics occurred to him, and a CHEAP
means OF transit presented itself. and
ne came to the conclusion that the
project was really quite businesslike
rms was made all the more certain af-
ter he had been to South Africa and re-
viewed the situation at close quarters.
from that time ne had no fear of the |
long distance transmission for certain |
purposes, such as gold mining, where |
in MANY cases other power is costly |
and especially as gold mines require |
power for "A hours.
LONG DISTANCE TRANSMISSION. I
AS a matter of fact, however. the |
projectors of the scheme have numer- !
Gus examples TO point to in the big |
transmission systems Of the United !
States and Europe. For instance, Nj (
agara is generating $4,000 horse power
and transmitting it q miles. Sacra-
mento, Cal, is receiving 1000 horse
power from waterfall "a miles away
The big plant al Ogden produces IL 900
horse power, and the distance of
transmission is Sc miles, The Big Cot
tonwood plant has a capacity OF 1000
horse power and the distance of trans
mission is IA miles. The Fresno (Cal)
plant produces 300 horse power and
the distance of transmission is 80 miles,
These are some of the newer American
plants. but all over the Rocky noun
tains may be found plants, silver mines
which are operated by electric power. |
generated by waterfalls, situated miles
away. Abroad the movement has been
undertaken quite as seriously Switz-
erland teens with successful installa-
lions, and Germany and France have
almost as many. 1t is proposed to
light St. Petersburg with power de-
veloped by the waterfalls of Finland
Deptford. England, has a 10,000-volt
plant which transmits current II miles
to London. The ancient aqueducts Of
the Romans at Tivoli. Italy, have been
refitted and the water drives powerful
from which an electric plant
gets its force to transmit the current TO
Rome. IS miles away. The river Sue,
Switzerland, transmits electric current
over 19 miles of mountainous country.
In Mexico the is an 1S-mile trans
mission plant at Guadalajara Kioto,
Japan, has a four-mile transmission
plant, and Lima Peru. has a five-mile
plant. Even Ceylon has a plant which
utilizes the waters of the Kotmalae-
sauga, and transmits current overland
for some distance 1t is the largest
plant in India.
WHAT WE MUST EXPECT.
To be sure, long distance transmits
sion plants are already in existence in
South Africa for the working of gold !
mines, but the generators get their in
tial force from steam engines. and not !
rom waterfalls. In the Rand there is
l plant in operation which generates a
capacity of 10000 volts. transmitting it
. miles overland. Each of the dyna- ]
nos in this plant weighs so tons, and {
he armatures are nearly is feet in di- :
lmeter.. This, however, is not the ideal
method of transmission In the first
)lace il is not economical. The natural
method of utilizing the waterfall and
Employing nature to give US the power /
which lights our cities. operates our /
actories and runs our railroads. is the e
me which will he used in the future.
Is now projected, the planeNhich will
Utilize the waters of Victoria falls will v