Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1912-08-29

he lsuassu River Hold
ss, and These Three Are
IN ass BY ThemseIves-Their
Electric Power Possibilities.


| At one time waterfalls in large riv-
ers We're interesting only because of
their scenic beauty. and their very ex-
/ istence was deplored because they OBJ
strueted navigation But man has
| found way to harness these mighty
1 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
stitute for our vanishing coal supply
| When it is remembered that two
cubic feet of water, weighing 125
| pounds by falling a distance Of only
six feet will produce one horse power
of energy, it is easy to comprehend
| that millions and millions of horse
power are wasted every minute by the
! torrents of water tumbling over Mag
! ara, the Victoria falls and the Iguassu
| river and many lesser falls throughout
| the world. This falling water is guided
/ by 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 to drive the great manufacture
ing plants and to give us light and
! heat
Loyal as we all are to our country,
we must admit that even the mighty
! torrent of Niagara ranks only third in
size when compared to the waterfalls
| of the world The largest of the earth's
waterfalls, the Victoria falls of the
Zambesi river in Rhodesia, are 2S6
/, feet high and more than a mile wide,
and were discovered by Livingstone in
1855. The water power of these falls
is estimated to be fully 35,000,000
horse power. two and one-half times
| that of Iguassu and five times that of
| Niagara.
| South America possesses waterfall
which exceeds Niagara both in width
| and in height and is actually the sec
/ oIld largest waterfall in the world.
This little known waterfall is that of
! the Iguassu river, tributary OF the Pa
rama, and, like Niagara, is situated at
the boundary Of two states, each Of
which owns half Of it. The total water
power of the Iguassu fall which is 213
feet high and nearly two miles wide,
Is estimated as about 100000 horse
power This is approximately equal to
the aggregate water power of all Scan
dinavia, which is rich in waterfalls, or
| about ten times the total water power
of Germany.
There is no other waterfall in the
world which is at all comparable in.
greatness with the zambesi, Iguassu
or the Niagara. Asia, notwithstand-
/ ing its colossal mountain ranges, is
comparatively poor in large waterfalls,
which are found most abundantly in
/ Africa and North America. The lar
| gest African streams especially are in
terrupted by many falls of considerable
height. The Kongo has several high
falls which owing5o 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, in
| the middle reach of the river, consist
4 Of seven successive falls of total
height of 164 feet and width of near
1 ly 1000 feet and offer an exceedingly
rich source of power which probably
| will soon be exploited
Still more important is the total wa
/ ter power which the Kougo develops in
I the non-navigable section extending
from its mouth to Stanley pool Here
| the river, confined in channel only a
few hundred yards wide and with a
depth of wafer of nearly 300 feet,
flows with velocity Of forty eight feet
a second, so that at every point of the
stream $4,000 to 10000 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 $40
I feet in a stretch of ITO miles
| The lower Nile, in Egypt, possesses
a series of rapids. the celebrated cata-
racts Of the Nile. but no waterfall in
1 the strict sense of the word. True,
waterfalls occur on the upper Nile,
the most beautiful Of them at the
! point where the stream issues from
Lake Victoria Nyanza. This Ripon
fan is only few yards in height, but
! the volume of water is SO great that
I 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 Sehaffhausen, but
the highest are the Riaken falls of the
{ Mann-Elf river. in the Norwegian
I province of Telemarken. The princi-
pal 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