The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-24
COTTON MILLECONOMIES
IS STEPPING IN AS 4
 SOURCE OF POWER.
Already Introduced in Many Southern Plants and Extending Into New England.
 Where savings Are Effect cd by 1ts Use.

cd by Its Use.
 
 New York Evening Post.
 As one of the leading industries of New England and the South. cotton spinning and manufacturing is rapidly becoming . potent factor in the electrical field through the adoption of this form of power for lighting and operating the mills tr
 Electric power for Southern cotton mills has been introduced in many of the new and old plants. and. where an adequate need or water can be obtained sufficient to develop the power turbines have been installed. It is more difficult to secure proper head or water on the Southern rivers than in New England. but in the Carolinas the new cot ton mill sites are nearly all chosen because of their favorable ritsatios on streams that will furnish electric power at low cost. Al Fayetteville. North Carolina. for instance. expensive operations have recently been
 made to construct a dam 1,bo0 feet long
 to back up the water for twelve miles,
 This will furnish water power for large
 number of cotton mills and manufacturers that have located in or near Fayetteville. According to estimates, the electric power
 can be obtained 20 per cent lower than steam generated from either coal or wood
 The use of electricity in factories of to-
 day effects an economy most where 1t Is
 possible to cut off many of the machines
 that in only part of the time. Wnhe
 1t is true that fewer individual machines
 are thrown out of use in textile fabrics than
 in most other plants, 1t is a mistake to sup
 pose that their operation is continuous. In
 the best and newest electrically operated
 cotton mills n has been found that econ
 omies can be obtained by stopping some Of
 the machines until others can catch up
 with the work. It is almost impossible to
 keep the work of all departments running
 evenly SO that the finished goods will come
 L. ~A-A At.tA matically registering metres sho W that the
 amount of power used in a cotton mill
 varies from 20 to 40 per cent during the course of each day. The result of this is
 that direct economy of power. which was
 barely realized before, Is obtained in a cot
 ton mill electrically installed. Another sav- ing has been an increased production by running the machines at higher speed.
 Moreover. a breakdown in cotton mill is
 a serious matter. and in the past many large mills have been kept idle for days and weeks through the breaking of some line shaft small part of the machinery The electrically operated mill saves any such loss of time. The breakdown is confined to | only a small part of the mill. Each sec tion is run independently, and the work Is never stopped more than for about half a | dozen machines belted on one line shafe. The alternating current motor is most
 widely adopted in the New England and Southern cotton mills. but the direct cur rent motor is adapted for special uses. The automatic regulation of the alternating cur rent motor makes 1t of special value In the cotton factory. In the Blackstone 1 (Mass.) Manufacturing Company's cotton mills an alternating current of 40 volts Is | delivered to the mill some 500 feet from the powerhouse. The current Is then trans l formed from 40 to 11o volts for lighting.
 The installation of this cotton mill with nt.. Ia. on1a of hat io he ing accomplished in revolutionizing cotton manufacturing in New England. It has been the policy of cotton manufacturers for years to have auxiliary steam engines for
 use in their mills. Tn a good many of the | mills that have been modernized to use cleo
 tricity this auxiliary feature has been re- tained But these steam engines are direct crate electricity at any time should the water power fail.
 The transmission of electrical power any
 distance for cotton-mill operation has not yet been put into practical work, but In time 1t may come to this. A large part of the New England streams offer excellent facilities for all-the-year- round electrical generation but in most instances the sites | are far from any industrial centres. Fully eght-tenths of the streams of Maine. Yer
 mont and New Hampshine furnish sufficient head for all-the-year-round hydraulic use MOst or them near tnelr source are IrOrti 800 to 15c0 feet above the level. Tn their course towards the ocean they fur
 nish at many places falls large enough to operate factories. and light towns and cities. Heretofore the cotton n-mill factories have been built upon the streams where they are | broad and rather sluggish in tide. and in the summer season the supply of water is l small. Further up in the mountains the streams are strong enough in summer to turn any number of turbines, especially when the waters penned in to regulate the supply.
 The next phase of cotton n-manufacturing development will probably be along the line of long distance transmission of current for operating large numbers of mills. The l manufacturing industries can not be taken | inland to the mountain streams. but the | energy of the waters can be transmitted to l the mills some distance away. The cen tralization of manufacturing industries should make this easy and economical of | accomplishment. for the transm ission line should carry all its power to a few groups in one section of the country Long dis , tance transmission of electrical energy for lighting purposes has already been carried | to a degree of usefulness in parts of New England. Manchester, N. H.. for instance, gets its power and light from four water falls on two rivers situated some fourteen
 miles away. Other towns and cities of New England are making arrangements for sim liar long distance transmission, and if is
 not improbable that the cotton mills will combine to secure electrical energy for
 streams inland which will not cause them to shut down in dry weather. By combining the small waterpowers in series. 1t is thus possible to secure aggregate units large l enough for almost any kind of manufactur- ing.