Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-02-13
The Age of ELECTRICITY.

1t is interesting to note the causes
which in the past have built up large
cities and prosperous communities.
Before steam power was applied in
transportation, it was seldom that a
city of any size could be found else
where than upon a good sea harbor,
Commercial facilities built cities in
those days. Then came the steamboat,
and that made it possible to build and
support large cities at the head of steam
navigation upon rivers. Then came
the railroads bringing cities into life,
far away from waterways. Still it was
commercial facilities that mainly built
cities. Facilities for commerce attract
ed manufactures, but commerce gave
the impetus
What shall build the city of the
future? Is there to be any cause ?
1t goes without saying that so far as
transportation is concerned, the rail
roads will come to any place that has
resources, the development of which
insure profitable traffic. Hence the
problem of transportation, in so far as
it depended on location, has changed.
The railroad has eliminated that.
Mines, lumber, dairy and agricultural
products, and the raw material for
manufacturing of all sorts, these are
old causes for the existence of cities
Are we to have anything new
We believe that the conversion of
water power into electricity is to be the
new cause for the building of cities in
the twentieth century. Water power
has in the past had something to do, in
small way, in creating new cities.
But the limitations on this cause, aris-
ing from the fact that all manufacture
ing plants run by water power must be
built upon the steam furnishing the
power, no longer exist. The fact that
the water power can be converted into
electric power and conveyed over
wire to a factory situated at distance,
will in the future enable the would be
manufacturer to obtain all the room he
needs for any business, select his own
site, and obtain title TO il for very
moderate price, compared with what it
would cost if no site could be used
except one on the banks of stream
and at a point in the stream where a
dam could be built and waterhead OBJ
tanned. Here is new cause for large
manufacturing cities wherever there is
large amount of water power The
problem of transmitting electric power
by wire, without material loss along
the wire, is not yet quite solved. But
there can be no doubt whatever that it
soon will be. Then there is the storage
battery. When the storage battery is
perfected. Let us imagine, if we can,
the desirability, then, as residence,
and a location for small shops, of a
locality where electricity can be cheap
" made. And when it comes to cheap
ness, water power win make electricity
without the use of fuel, or anything in
the way of material. Nothing else win
do that except wind, and that is too
tickle an agent to be relied upon.
Any one who reflects upon these
things must come to the conclusion
that during the next century, and per-
haps for all time to come, the localities
where large water powers exist are TO
be great centers of population and IN
dustry, for there are not many of them,
and they hold, in their ability, to pro-
dnce cheaper electricity a handicap,
over all other places which in this age
of close margins must make their future
growth and prosperity fact nosr as
sured beyond any possibility of doubt
This new cause for the growth of
cities viii not receive its impetus nor
its main support from the advantage
which localities may possess as distrib-
uting centers, by reason of railroads or
waterways. The old causes win con-