Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-04-08
WASTE NATURAL FORCES.
Power Running Away in
Our Rivers.


Ii is a curious fact that in agreat man
ufacturing country like the United
States the vast resources of water
power are, comparatively speaking, ig-
nored and neglected. 1t is no eNaggera-
tion to say that for every mill turned by
water a hundred might be in opcration-
The million and quarter horse power
which is derived from water is over
shadowed by twice or thrice that
amount of steam power. The former
may be compared to its own mill pond,
standing still in the march of industry,
while the latter is pushing forward
with the speed and power of the locomo-
tive. For example, the increase of
steam power in this country in the dec
ade closed in. 1850 was so per cent. while
water power increased in the same pc
riod but s.4 per cent. That the latter
could be almost immeasurably in
creased, If warranted by economic con-
ditions, Is proven by the report of Prof.
Swain, the census expert. who says:
"a calculation based upon the best
data obtainable furnishes the astonish-
ing result that the total +hAaretieol
power of our streams, taken at an av-
erage throughout the year, reaches the
enormous figure of over 200,000,0 ,000
horse power. Such is the energy de-
veloped by our rivers, streams and
brooks, of which we are using little
over one-half of one per cent. Could it
be utilized, the power afforded would
probably be more than sufficient tc
turn all the machinery of the globe"
Steam has triumphed over all its
rivals. The water mill has become a
relic Of past age and the windmill is
prehistoric. At the close of the last dec
ade the triple-expansion engine was set
up almost in the spray of the waterfall,
and the locomotive found level road
bed upon the abandoned tow path OF
the canal. But another power came
upon the scene; or, to speak more accu-
rately, another method of utilizing
power, with the ability to take power
from any original source-from steam,
from water, or from Withstand tc
transmit it to distant point for utiliZa-
ton. At once the science of mechanism
was revolutionized. AS soon as the
came instead of theory practical re-
ality, every waterfall, every coal de-
posit, no matter how remote from man.
ufacturing centers, took an added value
in the eyes of the commercial users of
power. The mind of man cannot meas
IRE the possibilities embraced in the
dynamo and the copper cable. Niagara
Falls, with its 125,000 horse power di-
rectly available 100000 horse power
in the future) has been harnessed, but
rot until the principle of the electrical
transmission of power from turbine to
motor had been demonstrated, with
various degrees of success at Schaff
hausen, on the Rhine; at Fribourg, on
the Sarine; at Geneva on the Rhone; at
Guadalaxara, Mexico, and at n hundred
other places in the mountain regions oil
Europe and America; all on n much
larger scale, but illustrating the feast
bility of the practical utilization of wa
ter power through electricity.
Who can doubt that in the space of
very few years, in place of the present
Liliputian water mills there will be
Brobdipgnagian turbines, utilizing the
vast reservoirs of energy placed by the
wisdom of the Creator in every part OF
this broad continent? The mountain
resior1s,so long fUuked upon as thewaste
places of the earth, hold treasures for
posterity that will "far outshine the
wealth of Ormus or of Ind" The bases
of the Alleghanies, the Rockies, and the
Sierras, with the vast plains at their
feet will throb with the energy gener-
ated by the streams fed by their living
springs. The glaciers of the giant peaks
of Oregon and Washington hold suffi-
cient power in their icy grasp to turn
every factory wheel and light and warm
every building in those states for q cen
fury to eams, while the thousand noun
tain streams along the rocky barriers
from Montana to New Mexico will per-
form the double duty of supplying pow
er to the millions who will people those
states (mills, mines, railroads, etc.,
and irrigating the soil to provide for
their sustenance.-JohnT T. Brunhall, in
Leslie's Weekly.