Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-05
The FIELD OF ELECTRICITY
Utilizing 0hioago's Drainage Canal for Other
Than Sewer Purposes,
LIGHT FOR THE CITY BY WATER POWER
Trolley Expansion i'm the United
states and the Pace II Sets for the
WorId-Prophetic Forecast
Electrical Novelties.

Electrical Novelties
Chlcago's drainage canal, projected as
huge sewer for the city, will in all proba-
bility be made to serve the double purpose
OF cleansing and lighting the city. Engi-
neers claim that with turbine wheels at
Jockport the waters OF Lake Michigan
rushing through will furnish power to sup
ply the city with electric light. 1t is pro-
posed to have the city Of Chicago and the
sanitary district OF Chicago. which are
nearly Identical, so far as the taxpayers are
concerned, go into partnership for the pur-
pose OF Transforming the wasted energy OF
the water which will escape through the
controlling works at Lockport into electric
lights. City Electrician Ellicott estimates
that fifteen thousand arc lights will be SUM-
cient to illuminate the populous parts OF the
city Hydraulic engineers estimate that 1t
is possible to develop 32,50O horse power at
a point 7,4OO feet beyond the controlling
works of the sanitary canal at Ilockport, or
enough to supply current to nearly $4,000
arc lights in Chicago.
Plans and estimates have been made for
the most expensive and largest develop
ment of water power possible in the vicin-
ity of Lockport. According to the figures
in this estimate 1t will cost s4,09499 to
extend the main channel $4,000 feet so as to
secure fall of twenty nine feet of water,
developing 81, ,955 horse power, including the
cost of installation of water power and cleo
trcal machinery and line to Chicago. This
plant will include sixtysix water wheels,
each of a 500 horse power capacity, 7,400
feet extension of the channel from the con-
trolling works at Lockport and a tailrace
600 feet wide and eight feet deep. or this
81 district would hp
charged with 1852, ,d9l, and the balance
would have to be met by the city Of Chi
cago, which would receive electrical current
equivalent to about %, 900 horse power or
enough to light $4,000 arc lights
Less expensive water power, which would
give an initial development of II 800 horse
power, secured by the flow OF COO, coo cubic
feet of water a minute, with tcn-foot head
can be secured at cost to the sanitary dis
trict of $663163 With fourteen-foot head
of water $1,000 horse power can be devel
oped at Lockport at cost to the district
OF S1,0923S5
Trolley Expansion.
What the people of this country have
saved in fares through the introduction or
street railways can be surmised from the
fact that in 1890, according to the census
they carried more than four times many
passengers annually as the steam railway
system, and yet our steam railway system
is equivalent to that of all the rest of the
word put together, The street railways OF
the United States at the time of taking the
eleventh census carried upward of 2,000,-
100000 passengers and since then the mile
age has more than doubled. AS for capitai
invested the increase has been over 300 per
cent since the census year and by the time
the new century opens it may be fairly put
at 81 600, 900 000
Since we are the most stirring people or
the planet, says the Boston Globe, we are
naturally ahead Of all other peoples in the
number of miles Of street railway operated
this being at present some $4,000. 1t is
not above 10000 in Europe. For every 4506
inhabitants in the United States there Is e
mile of street railway, while in Europe {
mile of track has TO serve 10000 people
We have right to De proud of the fact
that our track mileage exceeds that of
Europe by 5000 miles and also of the other
fact that 1000, 100000 of our people are an,
nualy carried to and from their homes
We seem to have the courage in this coun-
try to go ahead and not wait for population
to come to We anticipate it by builG-
ing in advance, instead of waiting to be in,
vited by new centers Moreover this Is
the only country that has solved the ques-
tion of uniform fares. In Europe they are
still in an apparent hopeless struggle
with 1t.
Our chiefest material reward for leading
the world in street cars Is seen in the fact
that we have thereby become the leading
nation in the manufacture Of steel rails.
Whether 1t be the steam railway the motor
car, the tramcar the cable car or any other
contrivance, its basis Is necessarily steel
rail. The English at first called it IA
yankee innovation" but it has come to
pass that the so-caled American rail-
ways" are being adopted all over Europe
and have made the problem of government
control against private enterprise a very
interesting one throughout the world
Rainbow Fountains.
Among the novel electrical productions
which have been put on the market recently
are the electric rainbow fountain for interior
exterior decoration an electric fan outfit
built to run by power furnished by primary
battery cells and an electric lighter which
Is declared to be cheaper and very much
neater than matches for household or store
use. The rainbow fountain Is a miniature OF
the ellknown electric fountains which