Arizona silver belt., 1900-10-11
ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION
The Remarkable urowth of the In.
 dustry in Seven Years.


 dustry in Seven Years.
 In no other industry has there been such progress and rapid development, says Wm. E. Curtis in the Chicago Record. The General Electric people tell me that in 1893, when they com menced to manufacture machinery for transmitting power, their business amounted to less than Sl20,000 for the year, whereas for the present year up to date their contracts exceeded S6.- GOO, GOO. In 1885 C. A. Coffin, who was engaged in the shoe business at Lynn, Mass, agreed to rent desk room in his office and give his time for a part of two days in the week looking after the interests of Messrs. Thomson and Houston, two school teachers from Philadelphia, who had invented an arc light. Now MT. Coffin IS at the head of a company employing l4,000 men. The first application of electrical power for manufacturing purposes was at the old Baltic mills in Rhode Island They were formerly owned by Gov. Sprague, and were abandoned because they were inaccessible. Some body suggested putting in electrical power and wire was stretched from a dam five miles away. That was the first experimentint in transmitting power along wire, and 1t was so successful that no alterations have ever been made, and the total cost of repairs has been less than $500
 The largest electrical plant in the world runs the surface street cars in New York city. It can develop 60,000 horse power, and is divided into units of 5,OO0 horse power each. The Nj agara falls plants combined now equal nearly 100, 900 horse. power, and when the present improvements are com plete will exceed 125,O horsepower. A company is being organized by Gen. George s. Field of Buffalo, to take up the power on the Canadian side, and if the plans are carried out it will be larger and more compre- hensive development than that on the American side.
 The problem of transmitting power is being gradually solved. It involves simply commercial question. The power of Niagara river can be trans mitted over wire to New York with out difficulty, although in the present stage of development of electrical science it would be more expensive than steam. The power of 1000 horses can be transmitted fifty miles over three copper wires the size of lead pencil and compete with any form of motive power As the dis tance increases the expense increases very rapidly beyond that distance until it becomes greater than is re. quired to produce the same amount of power from coal, The higher the price of coal-as in Arizona and Cal ifornia the farther electricity can be carried with economy At Fresno. Cal, and at the Telluride mines at Provo, Utah, electricity is carried fifty-fiye miles: at Kalamazoo forty six miles; at Tacoma, Wash, forty five miles.
 Electricity was used for mining very early in its development, and one of the first plants was set up at Santa Rosalia. near Chihuahua, Mexico. Electricity is used extensively in the gold fields of South Africa and Aus tralia and in the diamond fields of Brazil. The first coal operations by electricity were at Canneton, Pa, and the Davis Coke and Coal company of West Virginia, in which Senator El- kins is interested, was the second to adopt it for motive power