Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1916-08-03
CHEAP POWER VITAL
TO new INDUSTRIES
How Modern Business Depends
on Electrical Products.

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 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-
facturer is dependent upon another
electric furnace product 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, 1t is found that the surgeon
and the doctor look to electric plants
for chlorofofm and disinfectants; the
cotton and the paper manufactures
need the bleaches produced by this
magic element; every user of soap pa
tronizes an electro-chemical establish
ment, as does every user Of matches.
Gold and silver mining of the West re-
quires electric products to assure a
profit, and of late 1t 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 are but 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
development.
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
that the Bessemer process is fast be-
coming obsolete. The essential ele-
ment In the manufacture of armor
plate and armor-piercing projectiles is
introduced into steel by ferro-chromi-
um, an alloy which is strictly an cleo
tric furnace product The Navy De
partment calls for this type of steel,
and will have no other as armor plate.
without this alloy our battleships OF
recent date would be at the mercy or
a hostile fleet, and the shells fred by
our warships and coast-defense guns
would be ineffective against the armor
Of a modern enemy feet.
Ferro-chrome, another product of the
electric furnace, has made possible the
manufacture 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 a given vol
ume of work
In the absence of chromium, tung-
sten, vanadium and molybdenum, all
alloys made by electrical processes, the
United States could not build modern
battle ships and other weapons of ma
tional defense, and a large proportion
Of our steel and metal working indus
tries and other Industries would revert
to the conditions Of twenty years ago
The electrical industry itself is largely
dependent upon silicon steel, which
does not age and does not wear out.
There is no manufacturer Of automo-
biles but who is today heavily depend
ent upon aluminium. The making OF
automobile bodies utilizes more of this
electrically produced metal than does
any other line Of industry. The devel-
opment Of aeroplanes also calls for
aluminium. and only with the abundant
production of cheap water power can
the price of aluminium kitchen utensils
be brought within the reach of every
housewife.
At the outbreak OF the European war
the United States was cut of from the
supply Of Greek and Turkish emery.
Today the metal working industries OF
this country are dependent absolutely
upon electric furnace abrasives, carbo-
rundum and alundum. The manufac-
turer OF agricultural machinery, loco
motives. firearms. milling machinery.
automobiles. and countless other metal
PRODUCTS must have these abrasives,
ana they can now be made only where
water power IS developed cheaply Cut
of the artificial abrasives and force
the automobile manufacturer to go
back TO the grindstone. at the same
time eliminating the other products OF
cbaon rou-pr aluminium high-speed