The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-04-15

long, as | shall show You. 1t would
have fortified the Standard as the
most powerful financial and industrial
autocrat in the world. Possibly it is
well the panic came if that resulted
in keeping the Octopus out Incident
ally | will assure you that the Stand
ard. bad enough probab is not real
ly a child-eating ogre. 1t has some
decidedly good traits. Bui we will let
that pass and get to our story, which
is of development of human pros-
ress that has always interested me.
If you run backward in memory
over the industrial development of
the United States you observe three
sources Of power. These are water,
coal and the dual agent of the oil
we'll. natural gas and Oil
| The New England States are in size
Insignificant as compared with the
! rest Of the Union. In manufacturing e
! they constitute one of the great regions
OF the whole world They exemplify
the value Of water power
When anthracite coal was found
near to Philadelphia and New York
| 1t afforded a source Of energy that
made great manufacturing center
within it's reach. Then came the soft
coal of the Pittsbutg region, and the
unparalleled iron, steel and glass in
dustries developed about Pittsburg,
On the heels of the coal came the
cheap natural gas fuel in western
Pennsylvania. eastern Ohio and West
Virginia. Then followed such a man
: ufacturing boom as the world never
saw before. Pittsburg grew to be the
greatest tonnage center Of the world
More freight originates at Pittsburg
than In any other center on earth
and possibly than in any other two
cities
If coal could be made everlasting
the Pittsburg millionaire vulgarl,
, sloppy with money would be chronic
: disease spreading all over the worlt
in the form Of occasional outbreaks
/, But coal is rapidly going. The ga
a wells of Pennsylvania have been ex
= hauSted in SO many places that aban
doned boom towns and factories tel
. !. of the disappointments that follow
n any dependence on gas as a source Q
energy. The factory that grows up L
a gas town falls into certain deca
:, in the course Of few yeas. Coal
= = more enduring, but just as certain
. exhausted. The only permanent pow
= er 50 far found Is water.
While rainfalis and gravity compel
r. water to. run down hill water pOwe
: is dependable. The New Englan
. States have never given up their sl
4 premacy to coal. oil, gas or any com
= bination of the three. New Englant
l., little, inhoSpitable in climate. rugge
ic in its hills. is an enduring giant anon
l. industrial regions.
le When coal is a memory like Rome
sr greatness and natural gas a traditio
~ like the legends Of Troy. water powC
g. will be live giant and he will Ii,
+ I'm North Carolina.
to Men estimate water power by mea
,s uring the flow Of the stream, calcl
IA lating the rainfall and figuring tf
al number of feet fAil. That is a gOC
es way in trying to determine the pro'
a able amount Of power to be obi taine
g. at any particular spot For our pu
Id poses We will take the governmeI
TO records and see that the rainfall
fl North Carolina averages around tit
ay inches. probably u little more. To
ed is greater, slightly than any 9th
IN considerable area of the country. Til
re rueanS more water than any other s.