The San Francisco call., 1898-03-09

| to supplant with the new power Sub sequently 1t Is proposed to enter the lighting field here in competition with the gas and present local electric com Illuminating power by purchasing and burning coal The fact that the South ern Pacific Railroad Company has do- mated the free right of way along it's lines to the corporation Is evidence that it will take power for its street rail- way lines from the new company. Roughly speaking, the power plants of San Francisco, with a population of 300,O0o, will aggregate 65,000 horse power. and which, with the installa ton of cheap power, will surely in crease. Fuel in San Francisco is more expensive than in any other large city in the United States. This Is due to the fact that no large beds of good coal exist anywhere in the vicinity. conse- quently the cost of steam power pro- duced by the combustion of coal is correspcndingly great. The average price of coal in all large Eastern cities is $2 to 8 50 per ton, while in San Francisco the price of the best anthra- cite Is $7 per ton. Carefully compiled estimates of the actual cost of horse
 power in San Francisco with the past prices of coal show a cost of $125 per horsepower per year; or $10 CA per month. AS the new company will be dDiS lO ledSe US pOWtI dL 4f UT DO per month per horsepower a splendid stin1- ulant will be at once supplied in the way of cheaper power to our local small factories, as well as an incentive given to many new enterprises to en- ter the manufacturing field against Eastern competition. The market for local coal consumption will also be af- fected by the lessened demand. and a substantial reduction in price must be given to the local consumer, under the altered conditions which will prevail.
 The cost of the whole scheme is es- timated to be $1,000000, of which $500, ,000 will go toward the electric ma chinery and transmission line. for which amount the General Electric Company has guaranteed to supply this portion of the plant and to war rant its successful operation for a year. The only difficult feature In the propo- sftiOn will be the suspension lines be- fore mentioned across the bay. The foundation of the high steel towers will rest in concrete which will be placed on piles driven in the mud to a depth of forty feet. MT. Burrell, pres ident of the California Bridge Com pany, has offered for s50,O0O to con- struct the three high steel towers, the tops of which must be at least 200 feet above the bay surface. Between the top of the towers a steel carrying caDle Will De SuSpended, ana 10 tnlS by ingenious devices the copper cur rent wire will be attached. Excepting this difficult point the wire will be car ried on poles 120 feet apart, and 1t will require at least 400 of them. If the pole line were brought on land around by Alviso it would lengthen the line forty miles, and besides increasing the cost the excessive length would make the electrical waste so great as to practically prohibit the inception of this scheme at the present tine.
 Taking the total of s1, 900, 900 for a 10000 horse power plant this would make the cost s10O per horse power. Taking the rental value of same at $5 per month, one-half the present cost of power from coal. and taking the ex- penses of administration to be 25 per cent. or $1 25 per month, this would yield return of B 75 per month, or 45 per cent on tn, total investment. Should even one-fourth of this be the result the promoters of this scheme will be generously rewarded for their enterprise. In comparison with the East. where great extremes of heat and cold, intense frost and snow storms and other natural Instructions to ex- posed wires prevail, from which Cali fornia is free, there is a fine field pre- scented for the building of such pro- jects on this coast, especially where coal is so expensive that 1t retards the natural development of manufact- ure and consequently limits the num- Der of people employed,