The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-16

be making the cotton cloth for the sav- ages of that part of the world.
 Asia also has great water powers, but the chief development so far has been in Japan and India, the former coun- try using it's waters for it's silk mills and factories and to light some of its largest cities. Europe has altogether about 41,000,000 of available horsepower, the chief developments being in the coun- tries at war and in Switzerland and Nor way and Sweden. Norway has more than one-sixth of all the water power avail able in Europe, and more than one-fifth of the horsepower so far developed is to be found in that country.
 But let me give you some idea of what power means in the saving of coal. 1t is estimated that 1t takes 10 tons of coal to produce enough steam to equal one hydroelectric horsepower running throughout the year. If this is correct, every horsepower going to waste in our flowing waters is equal to the wasting of 10 tons of coal. The total amount lost is so great that It equals several times the amount Of coal that we are now using. It is so great that it would light and heat every house in the United States, run all our rail- roads, move all our factories and leave a vast surplus for the demands of the future The waste horsepower that is continually dropping over Niagara Fails is estimated to be 6,000000. 1t is equal to moro than 60,00000O tons of coal, or to the burning up of almost two tons of coal every second, year in and year out. Take cut your watch and look at the second hand as it flies around the dial. Every movement of that hand has a meaning of it's own. It means of cf pd and fOr- ever Every 10 seconds means enough coal lost to warm the average house. hold throughout the winter, and every minute is equal to 120 tons of coal lighted at the mine to go up in smoke. That is what we are paying for our honeymoon trips to Niagara.
 As it is now, something like 230,OoO cubic feet of water drops down over Niagara every second. The amount was 56,o00 cubic feet more before Canada and the United States began to harness the falls, and this amount has served to produce more than 500000 horsepower, The greater part of this goes to Canda. That country has the right to 36,0OO cubic feet ger second. whereas We have the right to only 20.Dd0 cubic feet. The difference comes from the water we are taking from the great lakes through the ura1nage caH&l ol N4llcdSp, WHiNt has to he compensated to Canada, as we are equal partners in these great waterways.
 I have already written of what Ma gara is doing for. Us in this time or war She IS making nitrates for ex- plosives. She is furnishing the electric heat which produces the grinding ma terials for our fine machines used to make munitions and Liberty motors. She is making aluminium for airplanes, and silicon for dirigible balloons, 2s well as chemicals for explosives and for hospital supplies. The factories there run night and day, but they are short now of something like l,WOVoO horsepower, and the full force of the falls could be profitably used in lac tories devoted to the needs of war. So far Congress has not given us the right to use water even to the full amount fixed py the treaties and the factories are held back while the power goes to waste About three-fourths of all the Niagara power now consumed is used near the falls. A great deal of it goes to Buffalo, and some is carried to Lock- port, on the Erie canal
 Next to Niagara, the greatest po- tential power plant of the United States is that at Muscle Shoals. Ala : bama. It is there that we are put ting up the enormous hydroelectric plants to extract nitrates from the air for the use of munitions. The gov ernment is erecting dam there which will cost many millions and the possi- bilities of the falling water will be upward of half million horse power.