Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-02
Changes That Will Be Wrought
Through Electricity.
INDUSTRY UNDER new CONDITIONS
Cheap Water Power May Alter the
Face Of Europe.
NATU RES GEN EROSITY
+. II. Muliin In Casters.

unlike steam it can be stored up for an in
definite length of time, ready for instant
use: unlike steam. 1t can be economically
subdvided into units small enough to run
a sewing machine. THUS electricity, as
motive power, permits dispersion of the in
dustrial population where the defects of
steam made concentration an absolute
economic necessity. Moreover SO far as
the waterfalls of the world are to be utiI-
ized for the production of electricity, they
Svill invite the establishment of industrial
AJrks under new conditions and with new
surroundings.
Lord Kelvin, on the occasion of his re-
cent visit TO the United States, spoke of
the economical industrial radius CT the
eie ctricity produced by the Falls of Mag
ara as forty miles. While the limit of the
concession of the Cataract Construction
company was 100000 hcrse power, Lord
KELVIN said he hoped that our chidren's
Children would see no falls all, all the
Water-equai 10 100000 horse power ac-
cCrdIng 20 Prof. Unwin-being applied to
Industrial uses But radius of forty miles
Is equal to an area 23j times the size OF
Manhattan Island, for example, on which
the cIIy CT Neg York Row stands SO that the
Niagara Fails industrial district is capa-
Die OF supporting population of 5SOOO,upD
BEFORE reaching Ealf the density of the
population on Manhattan Island And IL
the whole I,Du0.UOO horse power of the falls
o. tahel, 4 previous calculation, made By
Lord Kelvin, shows that the electricity
Ihus pfcduced could be distributed over a
rtcius OF LOO miles at a pressure of $1,000
Volts. with TRANSMIT. sion loss of only 10
per cent. But the area CT 15p miles radius
is to the area of forty miles radius in about
,he proFcruon or IA to 1; therefore tie
larger circle would support, at the rate of
hai1 the density of Manhattan Island the
almost Incredible Population OF S12ND.Us,.
or about two-thirdS of the population of
the entire globe.
When Coal is Scarce.
Were Niagara the only great waterfall
in the world. it is quite possible that these
nsures. or something like them, might b.
realized because long before the worlds
coal supply is exhausted its price for
Steam raising will be prohibitive, while as
long as the sun shines the waters which
1aii INTO the ocean will be lifted I'D and "a r.
REC back 10 the great American lakes Rut
tet"een Niagara Falls and tide water there
ore now uHder construction works to take
I"oco morse power from the St. Lawrence
river AT the Long Sault Rapids without per-
ceptible dininution of the rivers flow
through the main channel. The CITY of
montreal is now getting light and power
IRON the Lachine Rapids. also on the St.
Lawrence river, and ii may be that the
Same particle of water will help first to
turn the turbine at Niagara, then the tur-
ONE at Massena, near the Long Sault. then
tHe tuI"ihe at I1acnlne, while pound of
coai burned at Niagara Is gone forever
1t has already been remarked that tho
modern Industrial city has been dependent
ior It's rapid expansion upon its superior
advantages with respect TO coal-Ihat is, il
must have either a uavigabie water front
Or b. d natural railway receiving and dis
trlDut1ng center, or be the natural focus of
a coal ard iron region. All this will be
enanseI IN the great electrical waterfall
cities of the future. The power as a rul,,
VIII De produced in the mountains while
the cities will be scattered far and wide
over the foothills There will BE- better air
more room, better drainage more civilized
Conditions of living than is the case with
the present overcrowded Industrial bee
hives, built. for the most part, on the
sWampy deitas or in the valleys of great
rivers.
Changes That May Come.
Under the pressure Of dear coal and with
the attraction of cheap water power, the
face of Europe will be changed. Thu High
lands Of Scotland will become industriaIIy
more important to Great Britain than the
comparatively fiat Midlands. Switzerland,
Norway and Sweden. the Austrian Tyrol
and Pennsylvania may become the indus
trial centers of Europe owing to their su-
periority in water power. For the rest. the
course OF manufactures will seek the
sources of the great rivers. or of rivers rot
great which have very rapid fall.
Thus. in the United States, Montana, con-
eoAhiHS, eio IL uOcS, tNc stormy beginnings
of the Missouri, is already developing as
the greatest ore-refining region in the
world. Utah and California, in both of
which coal Is s. ton and upward, have
purposes from the waterfall electric plants
which they already have in operation.
Portland, the capital of Oregon, now gets
its light and power from turbines on the
Columbia river. Colorado, a year ago, had
seventeen different electric plants, driven
by water power, used exclusively for min
ing purposes. The state of Washington
and the whole Dominion of Canada have
waterfalls without end which have as yet
hardly had their possibilities of CREATING
electrical energy estimated.
saving Energy.
In more distant lands we find English en-
gineers already making plans for saving
the energy of the falls of the Nile fifteen
miles below Cairo, and it is well within the
bounds of probability that the Nile cata-
racts will some day supply the power acces
sary for running trains Of cars from Alex
magnificent falls on the Zambesi itself, in
South Central Africa, but many of it's
branches in the Shire Highlands have rapid
descents in level admirably suited for the
development of electricity by turbine
wheels.
We too often think Of Hindustan as a
great plain, forgetting that the Himalaya
mountains. the highest on the globe, give
birth to the Ganges. the Indus the Brah-
maputra ana the Oxus, all of which. with
their mountain tributaries. reach the plains
after taking innumerabie giant leaps down
the mountain sides. 1t Is nonsense to say
that the development of this water power
Is visionary; the falls of the Zambesi are
much more within the range Of civilization
today than any part of Montana, for ex-
ample. in the United States, was thirty
years ago.
There are bankers In Bombay, Parsees at
that, who have as much capital and as
much nerve in investing Ii as the greatest
men in The financial centers Of Europe and
America The cheapness of ocean freights
las equalized the price of wheat and beef
at every seaport in the world. the inven-
tion Of automatic, labor-saving machinery
has male the Hindoo CT Japanese, stand
ing at d loom, very nearly the equal of the
American or Englishman doing the same
work. And an invention along the older
lilies OF human effort makes progress in
machinery from less automatic to more
automatic. SO will the natives of Hindustan
and Africa be able, under Caucasian direc-
ton. % utilize all the natural and local
sources of pOwsr which Providence, through
the sur's cooperative agency. has provided
for them
MORSE AND DAGlERRE.