The age-herald., 1902-04-27
BY WILLIAM TAYLOR.

1 In tho conversion of coal into power by
 the steam engine scarcely more than 10 per cent of the th s3retical force is util.
 ized, even by the most improved meth
 eds. Of the mineral oils and other fuels
 the same disparity between the actual
 and theol etical forces prevail With the
 modern water wheel, on the contrary
 70 to 90 ger cent. of inc thcoretic power
 is commonly realized.
 Nor is this all. The supply of coal though deemed practically inexnaustible, | is limited. 1t seems tc have been form ed Tn tht countless ages, preceding the
 existence of man on earth. and although
 slowly tic available supply is constantly diminishing on the other hand the | source of the water supply furnishing
 streanilet and river. is perennial eternal
 and imnutable as the laws whcl. gov
 ern the universe, So long as the winds
 sweep over the sea and oceans and the
 aerial currents drift over islands and
 continents, procipitating tle moisture
 lifted rom the seas in the form of snow
 ano rains So long will the water supply | or the rivers remain in Lndminishcd | force.
 l Heretofore a great bar to the more gen. | eral use of water powers Tn the indus 1 trial world was their inaccessibiity. Of ten the best water powers were found | in mountain gorges inaccessible and re- 1 mote from Industrial sites and the high ways of commerce. And hence the adop- | tion of the steam engine as a motive | power became prevalent. But within the | last decade such progress has been made | In the electric transmission of power as to make available numbers of these val
 table powers in towns and cities many
 miles distant
 In the electric transmission of power, California seems to have been more suc- cessful than in the cis-mountain states. The high price of coal in California,
 doubtless, had much to do in stimulat-
 ing her electrical engineers in solving
 the long-distance transmission problem. And while Niagara. with her enormous power, was pre- ctically limited in trans mission to a radius of fifty miles, the | Los Angeles Electric Power Company,
 with an insignificant volume of water | but high head. was successfully trans mitting light and DOW CT JOS miles. Nor | were the best results of electric transmits l sion there reached For now comes the | Colgate Power Plant with a transmit | ting radius of 220 miles with loss of
 scarcely 25 per cent. This plant is on the | North Tuba river, and is furnishing cur l fornia. It Is at present the largest
 rent for light, heat and power in sixteen
 of the most populous counties in Cali | power transmission in the world In an l instructive article descriptive of this | pls mt in the March number of The American Review of Reviews MT Thom- | as Commerford Martin, says: Tt may | be broadly stated that 1000 horse power | at the Colgate water wheels should net | about 750 usefuly available in San Fran l cisco, 220 miles away. The losses are,
 say, per cent in the generation, per
 cent. ln the step-up transformers, 2 per
 cent. in the step-down transformers and l 10 per cent in regulation ana in the line" | The last figure, he added, "Is not per-
 haps to be regarded as 6 loss of energy, | but com es from the necessity of keeping
 the line full or charged, just as in sub | marine cable york;
 Having briefly pointed out the practi-
 cal efficiency of the electric transmits | sion of power, 1t remains to be shown | to what practical test the water powers
 of the Coosa may be utilized in Birming- | ham, Anniston, and other industrial cen | ters of the State.
 | The efficiency of all streams as sources | of power are measured by the fall or heed, with their magnitude or capacity. Measured by these stendards. few | streams are more promising than the Cocsa. With a drainage area of about 7000 square miles. The flow at the lowest stage. as dete rmined by government
 engineers, at Wetumpka is 5l56 cubic feet
 per second At Lock A. the capacity by
 the same authority is rated in round
 numbers at about 4000 second feet. These
 records snow the flow of the Coosa to be
 as great as the Mlsslssippi at St. Paul, and more than three times as great as
 the fiov of the Ohio at Pittsburg.
 To form a Just estimate of the avail able fall or head, it is only necessary to
 state that from Greer sport to Wetump- | lxa, distance of 142 miles, tkcre are now | four locks aoout ,orcSfeted with twen- | ty-seven otha>5 Toestcd by government ] enc.---Ts. and yet awaiting construction. These locks have lifts from six to twelve | feet and aggregate a fall In round num- | oers of about S3Os feet, and theoretically would represent more than 3O0.0O0 horse power. The Cocsa once improved under | tho plans of the survey, these twenty seven locks would represent so many points for the development of power which should be granted by the govern