Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-03-25
THE POWER or WATER

wisely towards the great water-power
Developments already completed or in
course OF construction nil over the
world, from the rivers Of Maine 10 the
canyons Of California, from Alaska to
Argentine and from the Kashmir Valley
In india to the outlet Of Victoria Nyan-
"a In Africa. And they bnck UP their ar
guments with the statement that coal
Will be exhausted carly In tho next CEN
fury and that mineral oil and natural
gas will vanish with the coal.
Amid oil this demonstrating and argu-
Ing arises n host OF questions about this
watcr-power which u to keep us from
freezing IN tho next century, to turn the
wheels OF our industries TO prepare food
and "a run our vehicles.
Every stream Of running water. from
the trout brook sporting through the
farm meadows to the largest rivers, is
capable OF producing more or less pow
or. a hundred years ago. when steam
power wns still In It's infancy, water
power WINS quite extensively developed
In thia country but the steam engine,
with cheap wood md coal fuel, quickly
rcnchcd the practical stage and the old
"over-nhot" md "undcr-shot" water
wheels were abandoned. Up TO a few
years ngo It was not practical to de-
velop most water-pover because this
power had to be utilized on the spot
and very naturally the very best water
falls were located In the wilderness.
scores Of miles away from the seaports.
tho railroads ami the cities which need
Ell 1t. But the invention Of the electric
transformer changed all this and made
~ npaui11o IN frapa,pit .lto a,arc,,. Gov
hundreds of miles without serious loss.
The power Of water ia greater than
any ono without experience can imagine.
For many OF us have. when In swim
ming. struck the water a sharp blow
with the fiat Of the hand. or when learn
to dive. struck the water fiat instead OF
head first only to learn that the liquid
offered considerable resistance.
A stream from a freman's hose viii
knock a man down. The Jet from q noz-
zle In placer mining In the west eats
away n large piece Of land in q day and
toys with great boulders ~ II they
were pebbles.
There Is a story Of an eastern black
smith who went west and made a bet
that he could knock g hole through the
Jet Of one OF these nozzles with Il sledce
isfl.lLlleE. f1e l'[itC IS ARMS, swung the
sledee and care down on the ten inch
stream with n force that would have
dented an anvil Put the Jet, never PEN
etrated. whisltcG the massive hammer
out Of the hiacksilith's hands and toss
ed IT several hundred feet away into
the debris of gold bearing gravel be-
meath a crumblinF cliff.
There Is a power plant near Durango,
Colo, where a United States cavalryman
one day thought he had an easy Job in
cutting a two-inch stream with his
sword. He made a valiant attack. The
result was that his sword was shivered
In two and his wrist broken.
A little thinner jet Of water descending
LEGO feet to n mandatory at Grenoble,
Spain, and travelling at the moderate
speed of 100 yards n second fractures the
best blades of Toledo.
If It were possible to surround a bat
tleship with an inch sheet of water OF
Sufficient velocity 1t would ward off the
largest bombsLclls better than the best
steel plate.
Water-power represents heat energy.
The wafer is drawn up into the clouds
by the heat OF the sun and deposited on
the distant mountains in the form of
rain. This water spends this acquired
energy In racing downhill. back to the
sea. Water wheels are but devices to
catch and utilize this energy which Or
dinarily is wasted on the unmoving
rocks and stones. Water acts as a NOV
ing power, either by its weight. which
IS over sixty two pounds to the cube
Dol. or by It's pressure or impact. The
power OF a fall OF water is equal TO the
weight of its volume and the vertical
height Of It's fall. To compute the pow
err of falling water 1t Is necessary to
multiply the volume of flowing water in
cube feet .,er minute by its weight. 62.5
pounds, and this product by the verti-
cal height Of the fall in feet. Thus a
stream OF water when flowing over a
weir five feet in width by one foot In
depth ard having a fall Of twenty feet
develops 31.9l horsepower.
1t Is easy enough to wei, n small
stream. A ough plank dam is made be-
tween the banks. one end is fixed with
a slide so the rectangular aperture can
re widened until the water fows ,,,s,
a foot deep over the edge If the ton
most plank. knowing the width Of tho
aperture in linear feet one can figure
out the number OF cubic feet of water
flowing In the stream per minute. In
larger streams the flow can only be COM
puted by soundings for the averago
depth and using noats to determine the
flow.
But the W~ater-power OF a stream must
not be computed at a time when the
stream is swollen by heavy rains be-
cause the horsepower will not be there
Il rp Nv tlA