The daily Alaskan., 1912-09-13
GIANT CATARACTs
Victoria Falls the Greatest of the
 Mighty Torrents
NIAGARA RANKS ONLY THIRD,
The Falls Of the lsussso River Mold Second Place, and These Three Are Ia clsss by Themsslves--Thetr Electric Power Possibilities.

At one time waterfalls In large riv- CTS were interesting only because of their scenic beauty. and their very ex' istence was depiored because they ob- structed navigation But man has found way 10 harness these mighty power producers and today they are Of the greatest value to the commercial world because the millions of water horse power can be changed into cleo tricity and transmitted for hundreds of miles to be used as reliable sub sttute for our vanishing coal supply.
 When it Is remembered that two cubic feet of water. weighing l25 pounds. by falling a distance of only six feet will produce one horse power of energy, 1t Is easy to comprehend that millions and millions of horse power are wasted every minute by the torrents of water tumtling over Mag ara, the Victoria fails and the lguasSu river and many lesser falls throughout the world. This failing water Is guided hy steel and concrete penstockS to powerful water turbines which whirl great electric generators. The current produced in this way Is easily trans mitted for hundreds of miles over small copper wires to the cities and towns where it Is used to haul the railroad trains 10 drive the great manufactur- ing plants and to give us light and heat
 Loyal as we all are 10 our country. we must admit that even the mighty torrent of Niagara ranks only third in size wnen compared to the waterfalls of the world The largest of the earth's waterfalls. the Victoria falls of the ZsmhcSi river in Rhodesla. are SS6 feet high and more than a mile wide. and were discovered by Livingstone In lS5a The water power Of these falls Is estimated to be fully 35.oOooo0 horse power. two and one-haf times that of Iguassu and i've times that of Niagara.
 South America possesses q waterfall which exceeds Niagara both in width and in height and Is actually the sec. ond largest waterfall In the world. This little known waterfall is that Of the Icuassu river. tributary Of the Pa rana. and. like Niagara, is situated at the boundary of two states, each Of which owns half of it Tbe total water power of the IguasSu fall which Is 2l3 seet high and nearly two miles wide. Is estimated ss about 100000 horse power. This is approximately equal to the aggregate water power Of all Scan dinavia. which is rich fin waterfalls, or about ten times the total water power of Germany.
 There is DO other waterfall in the world which is al all comparable in greatness with the ZambeSL lguassu or the Niagara. Asia, notwithstand inc it's colossal mountain ranges, Is comparatively poor in large waterfalls which are found most abundanty In Africa and North America The lar rest African streams especially are in terrupted by many falls of considerable height The Eougo has several high falls which owing to the great volume Of the river, about sixteen times that Of the Nile. may be counted among the most important sources of water power on earth. The Stanley falls, fn the middle reach of the river, consist Of seven successive falls. of total height of lGi feet and a width of near ly 4.OOO feet and offer an exceedingly rich source of power which probably will soon be exploited.
 still more important Is the total wa tsr power which the Kcngo develops in the uon-uavigable section extending from its mouth to Stanley pool Here the river, confined in a channel only few hundred yards wide and with a depth of water of nearly 300 feet, flows with a velocity of forty eight feet a second. so that al every point of the stream 25.co0 to 5000 cubic meters or about 100000 cubic feet of water are hurled along with irresistible force. while thirty-two rapids and waterfalls lower the level of the stream by so feet in a stretch of lT0 miles
 The lower Nile. In Egypt possesses q series of rapids. the celebrated cata' racts of the Nile, but no waterfall in the strict sense of the word. True. waterfalls occur ou the upper Nile, the most beautiful of them at the point where the stream issues from Lake Victoria Nyanza- This Ripon fan is only a few yards In height, but the volume of water Is so great that 1t presents a magnificent spectacle.
 Comparatively few persons know which is the highest waterfall in Eu- rope. The most voluminous of Euro pean waterfalls, strictly so called. are The Rhine falls, at SchafThausen, but the highest are the Rjaken falls of the Mann-Elf river, in the Norwegian nrovince of Telemarken. The princi- paI fall Is 500 feet high. and the total height of the two chief falls with the intervening rapids amounts to 1887 feet. while the average flow of water is fifty cubic meters, or 1.760 cubic feet a second. The Rjaken falls, with their total energy of 2J0.0oo horse power. have been converted to Indus