The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1902-05-09
WATER POWER.
A Foremost Scientist Predicts It will
be the Power Of the Future.
The Wonderful Possibilities of
Niagara, and the Great
Problem Presented.

l.
Lord Kelvin. Great Britain's fore
most man of science and the foremos
OF those scientists who have apple,
their genius of research to industria
development. has the belief that. tn
earliest source from which the powe
of operating machinery was draw
must be resorted to in greater degre,
in the future. In other words, he say
the world supply of power and light
must come from water. In an inter
view in the Rochester Herald of las
Monday he is quoted as saying:
1.-The supply of coal will soon be.
come so exhausted that it cannot BIZ
proftably used for manufacturing pur-
poses America has millions upon mill
ions of horse power in connection with
her rivers that are utterly neglected.
This power is bound to be developed
in the near future. The start that has
been made at Niagara Falls will be
only the beginning of a new era in
the manufacture and transmission of
power. 4"
Lord Kelvin, it should remembered,
was one of the board of engineers that
bad charge Of the power plant con-
structed at Niagara. and which has
since been duplicated in California,
while American engineers are con-
structins third near the gold fields of
MySoro, India. Lord Kelvin is dis
posed to look upon the great falls as
upon other bodies of water from the
STANDPOINT Of power supply and not
ties of nature. In the same interview
he is quoted as follows:
II was one of the advisory board
which had charge of the construction
of the Niagara power plant. hope to
live to see the day wher one of my
dreams will come true-when we shall
transmit electrical power over 300
miles, with voltage of 1000. Fiji
teen years ago when / said that, / was
laughed ut, but with the wonderful
Of power at Niagara Falls
my dream will be realized in the near
future. Power is already sent from
Niagara Falls to Buffalo ana will soon
be sent to Toronto believe the time
will come when it will be sent for hun
nreds of miles in all directions.
~ regard Niagara Falls as the
greatest problem in America for scien-
lists to solve The time is coming
when coal and Oil will be too scarce
and too expensive to be used for the
of power. There is at
Niagara Falls an inexhaustible supply |
# power that in fifty or hundred
years is bound to be utilized to it's
fullest extent. / predict the time will
,ome when the water will no longer
low over the great horseshoe falls, but
hat same water will find its way
Town the river through countless tur-
Zines, spreading light and power for
he use of millions of people in all Sec
ions of the country. This world must
lepend on its water for power in the
uture. =
Sentiment may be shocked by this
proposed appropriation Of the great
ataract to manufacturing purposes, but
ord Kelvin's remark opens up the
asst possibilities OF the United States
nd likewise the limitless provision
,ade for the maintenance of life and
ndustry on the globe. When the sup
lies of wood fuel became reduced, the
reat coal measures were utilized, and
ow when the possibility of the ex-
austion Of these begins to suggest
self to the scientific mind, science &
Oints out more satisfactory and an
lexhaustible substitute. The question y
utilizing our streams in furnishing !
ght, heat and power for the future =
pens up an endless field for the specu- t
tiOn Of the mind. 1t is curiously in t
resting that the water power which a
'ur fathers used and which has now Q
me to be regarded as almost obsolete a
Ould contain vaster possibilities than b
as dreamed OF a few years ago. The 9
question is one which will give. i'm &
ense value not only to waterfalls but Il
20 to all our rivers The power, for c
stance, in the current of the Ohio h
at flows by our own doors is almost Il
nitless when science shall devise the
achinery by which it is utilized. q
any hopeful engineer has underta al
n to solve the problem Of capturing a
0 giant Of the falls, SO far without 1t
ccess, the but puzzle Of one decade :
the easy solution of another. In due =
ne. and when there comes the de-
ind, the millions of morse power now
heedlessly disregarded will be har-
ssed and made the slave of perfect
civilization.
lord Kelvin, like Tyndall and Hux-
I, has shown the fascination in the
ence Of physics but he is not misled
it's romance While he sees the
that lies in the woilo 9
ters, he does not become impractical.
the same interview already quoted
m he gives credit to the theories Of
rconi, but he has no faith in serial
vigation. He says the big machine
structed by Santos Dumont is of no
ctical value. A machine Of Cos
ler fragility and of vast dimensions
ich is able to lift q man and navi-
Q in dead calm, but is at the mer-
Of an ordinary breeze, is not to be
1pared to the telephone, the WIRE
] telegraphy or the successful har-
sing Of the waterfalls
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