The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1908-08-27
VICTORIA FALLS WILL WORK
GOLD MINES or THE RAND
Their Force is Five Times That OF
Niagara and Equal to All
Our Coal Mines. What
Thirty-Five Million
Horse Power
Means.

=
in the past few months a London
syndicate hes been formed with
paid-up capital of $i5,Ooo,oOo, and
surveys are now making for the
installations of one of the greatest
electrical plants of the world. The
various power companies\ of the
Rand has been purchased, and the
new syndicate practically controls
the power possibilities of South
Africa. The works which it has in
operation about Johannesburg and
in the gold mines will pay some
thing like 800, 900 a year above
their operating expenses, and it is
planned to transmit the enormous
force of Victoria Falls by wire, not
only to the Transvaal, but every
where within a radius of 600 miles
from this point.
FIVE TIMES AS GREAT AS NIAGARA.
have already written of the
beauty and grandeur of Victoria
Falls. They surpass Niagara in
their scenic effects, and the engi-
neers claim that they surpass it also
in the mighty force with which
these millions of tons of water drop
upon the rocks. They fall with a
thunder like that of artillery. The
noise can be heard ten miles away,
and the spray on bright day goes
up to a height of 1900 feet in clouds
or pillars of mist which are visible
for fifty miles around.
AS to the exact force of the falls,
this is matter of scientific calcula-
ton. The engineers claim that
they have a possibility of thirty
five million horse power. The pos
sibilities of Niagara are put at seven
millions, and if these figures are
correct the Victoria Falls as work
ing force are fine times as great as
our own. Not only the falls them
selves, but the decent of the river
through forty miles of gorges may
possibly be. utilized. At any rate
there is no doubt that they have
here force greater than all the de-
mands that can be created for many
years to come, and that it may be
used for the building up of an in
dustrial empire which will affect
the whole of this pert of the CONT
nent.
THIRTY-FlVE MILLION HORSE
POWER.
Have you any conception as to
what 5000, 900 horsepower means?
If the total fall of Niagara could be
used it would equal the latent pow
er of 100000 tons of coal every day.
This power here, at the same rate,
would daily equal the force of 600
600 tons of coal, so that figuratively
speaking, a million tons of black
diamonds are dropping down into
this gorge every tWenty-four hours.
In other words, the Victoria Falls
every two weeks supply an energy
equal to that of the yearly coal out
put of the State of Alabama; and in
one year, if their volume were the
same from season to season, they
would almost equal the force con-
tanned in all the coal mined in the
United States in that year. Our
total product of coal is now 375. 900. :
600 tons per annum.
Whether these enormous figures
are correct or not is OF little matter.
The possibilities are beyond any
demand. the horsepower now in
use.in the Transvaal is less than
soc, o0O, and all that we have devel-
oped at Niagara is not quite two
thirds as large. This present syn
fdicate plans to start out with SO 900
horsepower, and it will have a
quarter of million horsepower
within not many years.
During my stay here have gone
with the officials of the British
South Africa Company to the pro-
posed power station and to the
northern bank of the river above
| the falls, where the canal will be
dug which will take the water and
drop it into the turbines. At some
distance above the falls the Fam
best is two miles wide. 1t narrows
to mile before it reaches the great
gorge into which it goes in one
mighty drop of 400 feet. The falls
are as wide as from the treasury to
the capitol at Washington, and the
water jumps straight down for a
distance of four hundred feet.
BY means of the canal now pro-
jected the drop will be only $50 feet
and the water will pour intoten
great turbines, each of which will
generate 5000 horse power, making