The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-03-09
ACE Of WATER
POWER DAWN|NG.
|
Much Will be Done in
Few Years
RACE NEEDS ITS HELP

Upon, and Water Power Will Fill
All Needs.
The development of water power.
Will be the signal achievements in North
Carolina during the year 1909. The
litigation growing out Of water powers
shows how valuable such power is re-
sarded. The cheapeninS of power
by utilizing water power will multiply
small industries and make Old North
Carolina go forward by leaps and
bounds.
Those who look into the future with
prophetic eyes predict that an age of
water-power is dawning. They point
wisely towards the great water-power
developments already completed or in
course OF construction all over the
world from the rivers of Maine to the
anyoh of California. from Alaska to
Argentine and from the kashmir
VALLEY in India to the outlet of Vic
toria Nyanza. in Africa. And they
back up their arguments With the
statement that coal will be
early in the next century and that
mineral oil and natural gas Will VANISH
with the coal.
Amid all this prognOsticating and
arguing arises a host OF questlons
about this Water-poNer which IS TO
keep US from freezing in the next CEN
tury. to turn the wheels Of our m
dustries, to prepare the 1ood ana 10
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 power. A hundred years ago,
-{o>' Is was still in its in
fancy, water-poWer was quite extern
siyely .deVelOped in his but
the steam engine, with cheap Wood
and coal fuel. quickly reached the
practical STAGE and the old "over-shot>
and "under-shot'' water-wheels We're
~bandoned Up to a few years ago
it was not practical to develop most
water-poN,er because this power had
TO be utilized on the spot ana very
naturally the Very best water Ialls
were located m 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. and made
it possible to transmit this energy foT
hundreds of miles without serious loss
The power OF water is greater thar
any one without experience can
imagine. For many OF us have, when
in swimming, struck the water a sharp
blow with the fiat Of the hand, or,
when learning to dive, struck the water
fat instead of head first only to learn
that the LIQUID offered considerable re-
sistance.
A stream from a freman's hose viii
knock a man down. The Jet from q
nozzle in placer mining in the west
eats away q. large piece OF ana In q
day and toys with great bonlders as
if they We're pebbles.
There is q story Of an eastern black
r-ack nd J3ndn q hp1
that he could knock a hole through
the let Of one Of these nOzzleS with q
sledge hammer. He lifted his arms
swung the sledge and came down or
the ten inch stream with q force that
Uo,ld have dented an anvil. Blu
the jet, never penetrated, Whisked the
massive hammer out Of the black
smiths hands and tossed it severa,
hundred feet away into the debris OF
gold bearing gravel beneath a crumb-
ling cliff.
There is q power plant near Duran
90, Colo, where a United States
cavafryman one day thought he had
an easy job in cutting a tWo-inch
stream with mis- sword. He made 9
valiant attack. The result was that
his. sword was shivered i'll two n his
wrist broken. -
Attic thinner Jet Of water descend.
ing 1000 feet. to a nlanufactory 81
Grenoble, Spain. and travelling at the
moderate speed of 100 yards a second
fractures the best blades of Toledo.
II. it were possible to surround 9
battleship with an inch sheet Of water
Of sufficient velocity it. would ward Of
the largest bornbshells better than the
best steel plate.
Water-pOWer represents q
energy. The water is drawn up into
the clouds by the heat OF the sur, and
deposited on the distant mountains in
the form Of rain: This water spends