The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-06-13
Possibilities of Power Developed by the
Connection of Power Plants of the West


such advances in the transmission of
electric power that the great power
plants of Great Falls and other points
in Montana will interchange with those
of Spokane, Tacoma and Seattle, and
that eventually the coast lines will
reach to San Francisco and Los Ang-
eles, with the possibility that later
years will see a connection with the
power systems connecting the import
ant eastern industrial sections. even
to the Atlantic coast, is the prophesy
or vision of C. w. Dow, superinten-
dent of the Montana Power company's
plant at Rainbow Falls.
Mr.. Dow at a recent meeting of the
Rotary club in Great Fails. presented
a most interesting paper upon electric
power and bearing generally upon the
activities of the Montana Power COM
pany. His paper in full follows;
This is an educational meeting. l 10
not know who is to be educated, but it
gives me an opportunity to suggest to
the committee on education that there
are many of us who have very little
idea of the scope of the business of our
fellow rotarians and that short talks
by members describing their lines of
endeavor and the territory served
would be of value.
This has suggested to be the sub
ject of my talk, "The Transmission of
Electric Power" in when I will dis
cuss briefly few fundamental prin-
ciples and requirements in the trans
mission Of electricity.
What Is Electricity
No one knows what electricity is.
1t Is supposed to be vibrations in the
ether light, as electricity and
light travel at the same rate of speed.
Our eyes detect the ether vibrations
between the red and the violet colors.
which we call light but it is known
that vibrations exist much more rapid
than the violet rays. and this is sup
posed to be electricity. How and why
it travels on a wire no one has ever
satisfactorily explained
There are three units of electrical
measurement most commonly used,
the volt, the ampere and the watt,
named after noted experimenters of
many years ago. The volt is the
measure Of electrical pressure which
pushes the power through the wire
The ampere is the measure of guam
Of Nbo tel
the measure of power and is the
product of the volts and the am
peres. These are the fundamental
units. From the watt we get the
kilowatt, which is merely 1000 watts.
A kilowatt hour Is one kilowatt flow
ing continuously for one hour. From
the watt we also get the horse power
which Is TAG watts. A kilowatt is,
therefore, one and one third horse
power. The work representing
horse power was determined many
years ago by actually measuring the
amount of work a horse could do in
one hour. 1t has since been deter
mined that it was very strong
iEoioC that was uoSb, 90 lC" holoOS
can stand up to the work represented
by one horse power for more than a
short time. This suggests a COMPARE
son. Suppose you hire team and
driver for $3.50 a day of eight hours
You will be lucky to get one for that
price now. Work the team as hard
as you can and send it home ex-
hausted; you have worked two horses
eight hours for $3.50. or about 40
cents per horse per hour. Compare
this with the ~ cents you pay for
horse power hour when you buy cleo
tricity even at 10 cents X. w. Fl.
When you hear anybody kick about
his power bill tell him this.
Two Forms.
Commercially there are two forms
Of electric power, direct current and
alternating current. Direct current
is a special form Of alternating cur
rent which has been rectified so that
1t flows continually in one direction.
The voltage cannot be changed on q
large scale except by the use of ro-
tating machinery, so it is not mucn
used except for electrolytic work and
for variable speed motors on street
railways where it has special advan-
tages. Alternating current flows
first in one direction then the other
1t can be changed in voltage by a
transformer which has no moving
parts and requires no attendance
This is the reason why alternating
current is used almost universally for
power purposes.
In transmitting electric power the
losses in the lines are proportional to
the square of the current; hence it is
desirable to keep the current as small
as possible. This is done by raising
the voltage with transformers, which
reduces the current in proportion, as
electric power Is measured by the pro-
duct of the volts and the amperes.
So in any transmission line If we
double the voltage we divide the cur
rent by two and consequently the
losses by four, yet transmit the same
amount of power. This Is why trans
mission lines are built for high volt