Omaha daily bee., 1911-04-29

at last. You are 1,6OO feet below the sur
face of Necaxa lake.
where the Iron Pipes Go.
Where are those iron pipes? said they
disappeared under a hill. They did and
now they reappear down here as thirty
inch pipes. They have come down through
the mountain. You are told this, but you
don't precisely grasp IL until you are taken
back up through the mountain yourself
in the coffin" a really refined instru-
ment of torture. But no one has told you
about the coffin just yet and you are
taken into the great power house. The
water In the thirty-inch pipes is now sub
divided and put into pipes little less than
three inches in diameter. The nozzles on
these pipes are square and the fluid comes
out OF these nozzles against little cups In
turbine wheel. The pressure is 800 pounds
to the square inch. II a man should take
an AK and strike this jet of water, he
would break the handle or his arm. The
edge of the AK would not penetrate the
little stream OF water. There are eight
OF these great turbine wheels and they
are running like mad. Just outside the
plant the water, having performed its
work, is running back into a mountain
gorge, and the marvel of 1t all is that the
water which sets these massive machines
into perfect volcano OF noise and an
earthquake of energy-that the water be-
comes twenty feet away from the noun
tain plant a little mountain brook again
II isn't the volume OF water that is doing
the work here 1t is the weight of water.
On another floor, just above the turbines,
are the converters; great. round steel ma
chimes which are whirling positive and
negative poles in the midst of other posi-
tive and negative poles, and so making
that mysterious thing-electricity Once
made the electricity is scooped off by wire
brushes and carried into transformers
These transformers reduce the volume OF
electricity and increase the pressure. Re-
member Mexico City is 10 miles away and
copper wire is expensive. Here is now
a supply Of electricity representing $1,000
horse power. 1t is necessary TO diminish
its volume and keep its power 1t is
former Then 1t is put on the wires and
sent to town.
The Magician of the Buttons.
At the great switchboard sat a man from
switzerland. He wore Van Dyke beard
and looked a young Faust. In front OF
him were twenty or thirty buttons. Some
glowed green, some red. The green but
tons indicated open circuits: the red ones
closed circuits. BY Tipping up one little
switch this magician OF the red and green
buttons counld instantly stop every street
car in Mexico City and put out every cleo
trie light and stop the publication OF every
newspaper there and suspend virtually ev-
cry plant using power in a federal dis
triot an area akin to our District Of Co
lumbia.
! The power is taken back TO Mexico City
in few copper wires, strung upon steel
towers, much resembling the modern Kan
sas windmill The only odd thing in this
arrangement was the insulator used. 1t Is OF
pottery, not glass, is large and by reason
Of its flare is called. the petticoat."
Young Men Have Done This.
The men who have brought this about
are young men. Some OF them are from
/ England. some from the United States
some from Germany Il is wonderful how
- .-~lv alike these young men are il