The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-05-20
GREAT WASTE OF
WATER POWER
(By Franklin K. Lane, Secretary Of the
IL \

(By Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the
Interior)
We are living today in the dawn Of
an age in which power is the basis OF
our material progress. The poductive
abilities of our 100,000,000 people are
increased by the use of probably 1885,
100000 horsepower of mechanical ener-
gy, not including the animal power fur
nished by 30,000,000 horses and mules.
Most of the mechanical energy Is
used in the form of electrical current.
When applied to industrial uses one
electrical horsepower does the work Of
ten men without firing. That is, one
electrical horsepower, continuously op-
Grated, does as much work as thirty
men working in eight-hour shifts.
Conservation of human labor goes
hand in hand with utilization of me-
chanical energy, and utilization of that
form of energy most cheaply and least
wastefully developed accomplishes the
maximum in freeing man from muscular
toll and increasing his productivity.
In the last decade we have harnessed
for our utilities and industrial needs
something like 100000 horsepower of
water.
This means, in terms of human ener-
gy, that streams that before that time
were flowed to waste are now doing
work equivalent to the labor of $780,
100000 men working eight hours day.
This development alone represents
three times the productive capacity Of
the unaided hard labor of our adult
population.
This accomplishment stands for real
progress, but, as compared with our
possibilities, it is not such progress as
we should have obtained. Although we
are utilizing today 100000 horse
power of water, we are daily negleeting
and wasting ten times that amount,
largely because of our implacable laws,
since most of the water powers not in
use are under government control, and
the present laws do not adequately
make provision for their fullest devel-
opment and use.
There is in non-use in the United
States enough water power to equal, Il
harnessed to the wheels of industry the
daily labor of 1,s00,000,000 men, or
thirty times our adult population.
Development will open to the West
an industrial era of such possibilities
as have been almost undreamed.
The frels available include natural
gas, oil, Ignite and coal The coal, re-
duced to coke, offers raw material for
the production, by electric smelling
processes, of the carbide extensively
used for Illuminating purposes.
Here at hand are great deposits of
limestone that will furnish the lime re-
quired to form calcium carbide, used in
the fxation of nitrogen and the produc-
tion of ammonia. At hand, also, are
mountains of phosphate rock awaiting
the installation of appliances to free
its contents of phosphoric acid and CON-
bine it with ammonia as fertilizing
agency at less cost than any now
known.
Sodium sulphate, sodium carbonate
and sodium chloride are here.
Iron deposits are in abundance,
which, with fiuxing and reducing mate
rials at hand and cheap hydro electric
power as the agency for reduction, may
make the Pacific coast competitor
with the Ohio valley in the production
of special grades of pig iron and the
manufacture in electrical furnaces OF
high grade steels.
Also at hand are the materials for
the manufacture of such steel alloys as
ferromanganese, ferroehrome, ferro-
tungsten, ferromolybdenom and others.
| Here are rare metals-barium in the
form of sulphide and carbonate, zinc
and copper, gold and silver-all await
ing the magical touch of the cheap po-
tentiality in our wasted stream flow.