The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1909-03-11
WHAT WATER CAN Do.
N WAY OF POWER
DEDUCTIONS OF INTEREST IN
GREAT PROBLEM or WAT
ER CONSERVATION

Those who look into the futur,
! with prophetic eyes predict that Al
age 81 water-nower Is dawning
They point wisely towards the grea
lwater-power developments alread!
completed or In course Of construe
tion all over the world, from tht
rivers Of Maine to the canyons D
/ California from, Alaska 10 Argentin,
and from the Kashmir Valley in Indis
to the outlet Of Victoria NyanEa il
1 Africa, And they back up their
arguments with the statement that
lcoal win be exhausted carly in the
next century and that mineral oil and
natural gas will vanish with the coal
! Amid an this prognosticating and
arguing arises host OF questions
about this water-power which Is to
keep us from freezing in the next
century, 10 turn the wheels OF our in
dustries, TO prepare the food and 70
run our vehicles.
Every stream Of water, from the
trout brook sporting through the
farm meadows to the largest rivers,
is capable Of producing more or less
power. A hundred years ago. when
steam-power was still in its infancy,
water-power, was quite extensively
developed in this country but the
steam engine with cheap wood and
coal fuel, quickly reached the practi-
cal stage and the old "over-shot' and
1under-shot" water wheels were
abandoned Up to few years ago it
was not practical to develop most
water-p power because this power had
TO be utilized on the spot and very
naturally the very best waterfalls
we're located in the wilderness, scores
of miles away from the seaports, the
railroads and the cities which needed
it. But the invention Of the electric
transformer changed all this aud
made il possible to transmit this
energy for hundreds OF miles without
serious loss.
The power Of water is greater than
any one without experience can inn
agine. For many of us have. when
in swimming, struck the water sharp
blow with the fiat of the hand, or,
when learning to dive, struck the
water fiat unstead Of head first only
to learn that the liquid offered consid-
cradle resistance. -a
A stream from a hremans hose will
knock a man down, The jet from a
nozzle in placer mining in the west
eats away large piece OF land in a
day and toys with great bouIders as
If they were pebbles.
There is story OF an eastern black
smith who went west and made bet
that he could knock a hole. through
the jet of one of these nozzles with a
sledge hammer, He lifted his arms,
swung the sledge and came down on
the ten inch stream with force that
would have dented an anvil But the
jet, never penetrated, whisked the
massive hammer out of the black.
smiths hands and tossed it several
hundred feet away into the debris Of
gold bearing gravel beneath a crumb-
ling cliff.
There is power plant near Du-
range, Colo, where United States
cavalryman one day though he had an
easy job in cutting two-inch stream
with his sword. He made valiant
attack. The result was that his sword
was shiyered in two and his wrist
broken.
A little thinner jet of water de-
scending 1000 feet to a mandatory
at Grenoble, Spain, and travelling at
the moderate speed of 100 yards a
second fractures the best blades of
Toledo.
If it were possible to surround |
1attleship with an inch sheet Of water
of sufficient velocity it would ward off .
he largest bombshells better than the
oest steel plate.
Water'power represents heat en-
.rgy. The water is drawn up into the
.louds by the heat of the sun and de-
posted on the distant mountains in
he form Of rain. This water spends
his acquired energy in racing down.
ill, back to the sea. Water wheels
IRE but devices to catch and utilize
his energy which ordinarily is wasted
m the unmoving rocks and stones.
Water acts as moving power, either
w its WEIGHT which 20 C,,,ar- .;4., -