The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-01
WATERFALLS IN HARNESS
THE PACIFIC COAST GETTING
 WORK

Out of Its streams-wOnderfuI Pro-
 gress Made i'm the Development Of
 Electric Power and Its Transmits
 sion Over Very Long, Distances-
 The Change Means Revelation to
 Industries.
 California has made three worlds records in long distance electrical transmission, and several other wonder ful things are now being done in de- veloping electricity from streams of water and in the use of electrical ener- gy in mechanical and commercial en- terprises.
 New York and Boston capital is largely interested in these schemes. Several millions Of dollars have been invested in electric development com panies on the Pacific Coast in the last year. Before 1902 is past as much more will be invested in similar new com panies operating between Tacoma, Wash, and San Diego. Cal. At present several thousand men are employed in dozen projects for har- messing streams which dash down the western slope of the Sierras and the Coast Range, and for transmitting the power therefrom to cities and towns for factory use. propelling street cars, ] lighting buildings and thoroughfares, and for moving a score of different me- chanical devices. Senator Perkins said the other day that the long distance transmission of electrical energy from the mountain cascades to the com munities in the valley has marked the the Pacific Coast.
 The great cry in California, Oregon and Washington-indeed in all the far | Western States-has been for factories and industries that will bring the Pa- l cif1c Coast consumer close to the pro- ducer. A great drawback to general and established prosperity among the people on the coast is the enormous sum they pay in the aggregate for | freights from the producer to them | selves.
 The average home in these Pacific Coast States is furnished with every thing-except, possibly a few woollen blankets and more wooden ware--from the Eastern States. Practically all the furniture, glassware, crockery, metal ware, .brics and articles produced in number of other branches in manu- | facture, are transported 5000 miles from the East. There are out here many stocks of general merchandise that will inventory S20,00O and $30,0GO, in which less than $500 represents Pa cific Coast products.
 l Every year for longer than a gener- ation enterprising men have started all kinds of factories on the coast to sup ply the Pacific markets, but not one in | fifteen has ever lasted more than few
 years. The problem of fuel has been 1 insurmountable
 The long distance transmission of electrical power in a practical quantity has at last made it possible to utilize | in distant communities the tens of 1 thousands of horse power that have been going to waste among the Sierras and the Coast Range. This is an i'm
 portant step in the industrial progress | of the Pacific Coast States.
 It has been estimated that the wa l terfalls in California alone have more | than 240, 900 horse power, and that about | 45. 900 of this power has already been | converted into electrical energy and 1 sent to Los Angeles. Sacramento, Fres-
 no. Pomona, Redlands, Folsom and San 1 Diego for lighting and motive pur-
 poses. Five more electric companies
 will have their long distance transmits
 sion systems in working order by next September About 50,000 more horse power will be developed by them fot use in California and Oregon, while stil
 other electric companies are beginning
 work on electric-power plants that will cost from s100. 900 to $500,000 each. and
 will harness more mountain streams tc do mans work in distant cities and will 1ages. In a few years more the Pacific
 Coast will have the finest. cleanest and
 cheapest power for factory uses of any
 part of the United States,
 The original long distance electric power company in the United States
 was the San Antonio in Pomona, Los Angeles county. Maine capital backed
 the enterprise. It was in running or
 der by the summer of 1892, and electri
 cal experts from a dozen cities in tn:
 East. and few even from Europe
 came to Pomona to observe the work
 ing of the attempt to transmit 1,00'
 horse power over a distance of eight!
 miles. The enterprise was great sue
 cess and for year the Pomona-Sai
 Bernardino electric circuit was famous
 among the Frankfort circuit in Switzerland and Germany, was tn foremost for long distance transmits
 sion of high voltage.
 The Folsom Sacramento circuit mark
 ed another and a big step in the scienc
 of transmitting electrical power for {
 long distance, and during the summe
 of 1894 the electrical journals ha pages of pictures and print descriptiv
 of the way in which the American riv l CT had been harnessed, and about tn
 success of the Folsom Sacrament long distance electric power company Electrical engineers had been watching ) the operation of the Folsom -Sacramen
 to plant. The magnitude of the under taking, the high pressure under whic , the current was to be forced throug the wires, and the distance the powe ; was to be conveyed, led many en gineers to doubt it's feasibility. Years have been spent in the worI at Folsom. An immense masonry dar