Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1916-08-19
CHEAP POWER VITAL
To new INDUSTRIES
How Modern Business Depends
on Electrical Products.

power problem in and out of Congress-
public attention has been directed to-
ward the use and value of electricity
for motive power and for lighting. and
latterly, for the manufacture of fer
tilizers and nitric acid for explosives
But these are only a few of the grow
ing demands for cheap power
Today the great steel mills of the
United States are absolutely dependent
upon the products of the electric fur
mace for alloys The automobile manu-
electric furnace aluminium
for car bodies. The manufacturers of
steel products need these materials for
making tools, and countless factories
require abrasives which can not now
be imported, and which are produced
in the United States only by electric
processes Without acetylene gas and
graphites. also electric products. many
Industries would be crippled
Turning to the products of electro
chemistry, it is found that the surgeon
and the dpstor look to electric plants
for chloroform and disinfectants: the
cotton and the paper manufacturer
need the beaches produced by this
magic element; every user of soap pa
tronizes an electro-chemical esta biish-
ment, as does every user of matches
Gold and silver mining of the West re-
quires electric products to assure q
profit. and of late it is learned that
the United States, cut off from its sup
ply of German dyes. finds itself de-
pendent upon other electric products
to supply. in part, the deficiency
These aSe but a few of the industries
depending upon cheap power for sue
cess. The power is here. Its develop
ment, when encouraged by the passage
OF such bills as are now before con-
gress, will make the United States in
dependent of foreign sources of supply,
and will reduce the cost to the consum-
er of countless articles of everyday
use which, to his mind. are probably in
no way associated with hydro-electric
The manufacture of steel is the great
est of all American Industries, and
better steel is made in electric fur
naces than by any other known proc
ess. Today electrically produced ferro-
silicon is used as an alloy by most
steel manufacturers with the result
~ICooCAAACA
coming obsolete. The essential ele-z
ment in the manufacture of armor
plate and armor-piercing projectiles is
into steel by ferro-chromf-
UNI, an alloy which is strictly an cleo
trio furnace product. The Navy De-
partment calls for this type of steel,
and VIII have no other as armor plate.
Without this alloy our battleships of
recent date would be at the mercy of
a hostile fleet, and the shells fred by
our warships and coast-defense guns
would be ineffective against the armor
or a modern enemy fleet
Ferro-chrome. another product of the
electric furnace, has made possible the
of high-speed tools, which
have tripled the capacity of every ma
chine shop in the world. and enhanced
the efficiency of every mechanic 1t
has cut to one-third the capital invest
ed in tools to accomplish given vol
ume of work
In the absence of chromium trnp-
stem, vanadium and molybdenum, all
Alloys made by electrical processes, the
United States could not build modern
battle ships and other weapons of ma
ional defense. and a large proportion
Il our steel and metal working indus
rieS and other industries would revert |
o the conditions of twenty years ago. |
The electrical industry itself is largely |
dependent upon silicon steel. which |
loes not age and does not wear out.
There is no manufacturer of automo- !
lilies but who is today heavily depend |
mt upon aluminium The making of |
automobile bodies utilizes more of this |
Electrically produced metal than does !
ny other line of industry. The devel- |
pment of aeroplanes also calls for |
iuminum, and only with the abundant
of cheap water power can
he price of alumni I'm kitchen utensils |
e brought within the reach of every
ousewife.
At the outbreak of the European war
he United States was cut or from the
upply of Greek and Turkish emery. |
'oday the metal working industries of
his country are dependent absolutely
pom electric furnace abrasives, carbo-
undum and alundum- The manufac-
1rer of agricultural machinery. loco
,otives. firearms, milling machinery,
and countless other metal
roducts must have these abrasives,
nd they can now be made only where !
'ater power is developed cheaply Cut
q the artificial abrasives and force
he automobile manufacturer to go
ack TO the grindstone, at the same
me eliminating the other products of
heap power = aluminium. high-speed
EEL. and special steels-and works