Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-02-01
DEMAND FOR WATER POWER,
Waterfalls Enable World, While In
creasinu Machinery, to Spare Coal.

Waterfalls Enable World, While In
creasing Machinery, to Spare Coal.
Every day sees more and more of
the wasted power Of waterfalls which
lies at mans disposal in every hilly
or mountainous country, turned to use
in furnishing electric energy. The
power of waterfalls is driving the
greatest of all tunnels, the double
simplon bore, through the Alps; 1t Is
sending another tunnel. by devious
ways, behind preclpices and under
glaciers to the summit of the snowy
Jungfrau; and plan Is now being per.
fected for constructing, once more with
the aid of waterfalls, and to be run
by them, when finished, rival to the
Simplon road, which shall cross the
Alps between Turin and Martigny.
Everybody knows what Niagara Is
doing, and how the waterfalls of Cal.
ifornia, and of other mountainous
States, are being harnessed.
A. A. Campbell Swintonfi Mt the re.
cent meeting of the British Associa.
ton for the Advancement Of Science,
presented accurate statistics, which he
had personally collected, showing that
no less than 100000 horsepower de.
rived from waterfalls is now being
utilized in various parts of the world
for the development of electric energy.
OF this great total, which he believed
did not represent the full truth, for
he thought 1t probable that the real ag.
gregate is 100000 horsepower, nearly
one-third must be credited to the Uni
ted States.
There is one feature of this utiliza.
ton of water power in place of steam
power. which Mr. Swinton brought
out and which is seldom thought of,
and that is the saving of coal which
1t effects. On the basis of 100000
horsepower derived from waterfalls.
this saving amounts to nearly 12,OOO,-
600 tons of coal per year.
But the maximum amount of water
power that is available has not vet be.
gun to be approached in actual utillza-
ton, so that the annual saving of coal
must become larger and larger every
year. This, In view of the increasing
difficulty of working many coal mines,
owing to the great depths to which
they have penetrated. and in view of
the approaching exhaustion of some Of
the most famous fields, becomes a
highly important consideration. Ev-
cry little while the world is reminded,
more or less sensationally, of a coming
coal famine. The fact is that coal,
OF the better grades, possesses so many
advantages and conveniences as fuel
that the earth's supplies of 1t should
be conserved for human use as long
as possible. Men of science have more
than once sounded warning against
the waste of coal, for coal is the gift
of a geologic age which can not be
renewed. Thus waterfalls, by enabling
us to spare coal, are performing an in
direct service only less important than
their direct service in supplying cleo
trio power. But for them the grow
ing use of electricity would soon make
a drain upon the coal mines of the
most serious character.
The era of waterfalls seems GER
tainly to have dawned. Every great
cataract will become focus of in
dustry, just us every great river val
ley has always been center Of popu.
lation, and Professor Brlgham's pre-
diction, that Niagara is to be the In
dustrial center of America, may be full
filled within generation.-Success
M0Uo zina