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

Massachusetts, and then New Hampshire. Connecticut and Vermont.
 l Today Maine is said to have waterfalls
 that will yield something like 6000,0OO | horsepower, or almost as much as the | falls of Niagara. The amount developed
 is less than 100000 Much of this comes
 from the many high lakes not far from
 tidewater, the streams from them to the sea having numerous falls The state has something like 1600 lakes, and these feed l the AnGroscoggin, Kennebec. Penobscot
 and other rivers which tumble through
 many falls down to the sea, feeding power plants here and there along their { banks.
 As to the other New England states, the Merriniac and ConnecttSrt rivers are perhaps the most important The Mer- rimac is said to turn more spindles than auy other river on the face of the globe. It drains total area of a little less than 5000 square miles and it's average fall is less than two and one-half feet to the mile, but the greater part of the drop occurs at short distances apart, and at these places are some of the biggest factories and mills of the country, ly- ing chiefly in the short distance between Manchester, New Hampshire and Lowell and Lawrence, Mass.
 There is q great deal of undeveloped horsepower along the Mississippi river and it's tributaries. According to Prof.
 Leighton, the minimum available from these sources is more than six and one half million horsepower while the maxi mum is almost double that amount. 1 The minimum is just about equal to the power lost at Niagara. The great developed water power Of the Mississippi river is that of the big dam at Keokuk. la The elecrtic plant there has cost something like ! S25 ,Soo, and it has a potentiality of l 9l0OOO horsepower. It is now delivering
 upward of GOO horsepower to St. Louis, so that the street cars of that city arc !, run by the falling waters of the Ms ! sissippi, 10l miles away. Moreover, the | machinery is so delicately managed, the flowing water being automatically ad- 1 mitted only as is needed, that it IS said when the street cars stop in St Louis the change in the power used can | be felt at Keokuk.
 1 have been in the penstocks of the l great turbine plants at Niagara; and | I have seen also the vast turbine room of this plant at Keokuk. The sights 1 are among the wonders of the world The turbines have the most delicate ma | chinery, which work with the accurac cy of a Swiss watch. At Keokuk l saw machines weighing more than one-half Hliillolt pobiuS N
 bearing, and above them were genera tors. each of which creates enough elec- tricity to light an automobile road around the world. Altogether they could illuminate a milky way from the earth to the moon.
 In Minnesota reservoirs have been l constructed by the government with i reference to the navigation of the Mis- | sissippi These reservoirs have a ca pacity of almost one hundred biiiion | feet. They have increased the power ! of the flour mills at the falls of St. l Anthony and have improved the power 1 plants along the Mississippi to the amount of many hundreds Of thousands l of dollars per annum Reservoirs have | been built for the same purpose at the 1 headwaters of the Wisconsin river. and | an enormous increase of water power
 could be made by carrying out the