The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-06
WATER POWERS
 COVER BIG AREA
By HOLLAND

New York, September 5.-(Speciat,
 Four years ago it was impossible tc
 arouse anY interest in Congress in the
 proposition that the water powers of thc United States should be so utilized as tt make it possible to create many millions of horse pawer in the form of electric energy. The war and the developmenNs
 by private capital of electric energy at i Niagara Fails, in the south and in the [ far west appear to have created interest. even soi1e enthusiasm, in this proposi- tion, wnic1 it was impossible to secure ! in Congress until within the last year or two.
 1 Now the government has taken hold of the proposition and there remain only tue adoption of wise provisions in the bii' before Congress in order to establish gov
 ernment authorization and sponsorship ] for the use of these water powers, and, therefoee, the early development of them few days ago one of the rpresenta
 lives in Congress in speaking to his co . leagues uton the proposed water power i commission bill stated that there are two great ineXhaustible water power re- sources in the United States. One of these IS at Niagara Falls. There the i water power is created by the fall from ] the Great Lakes to the level of the s,a ] whieh is suddenly precipitated at NJ l agara and is also supplemented by the rapids of the Nigara river between ths eastern end of Lake Ontario and Mon Itreal
 {! The intimation was that elsewhere III 1 the United States except in the far west
 water power resources are, comparativl1 speaking, small That, however, is d statement not justified by the facts. Tae United States fuel administration which l is acting in co ,operations with the gov ernment geological survey is satisfied that throughout the United States thefs exists in the water powers the equivalent 1 of nearly s54,0 0oCO horse power represent ed by electric energy. No part of the country is without considerable resources Of this kind. And one of the most impor. tant features associated with the utilza- ton of our water powers lies in the fact that they are nexhaustible. The coal and wool that are burned can never pe reeoversd. The use of them continual diminishes this natural but exhaustioie resource. Some of the leading authorities have estimated that our coal resources, anthracite and bituminous, will be ex hausted if the present rate of use ns
 maintained in title over 100 years. But electricity which is still in it's fun damental aspects, a mysterious demon
 stration of one Of the laws of nature, and
 water power can never be exhausted.
 o ixrtQf ipst orat1t I..
 the action of water power, which oper' ates through turbine wheels and the dy. namo. By impending in seasons of flood
 the water which otherwise would flow to the sea 0, great lakes, then the daa- ger which m:ght.be oceasioned by drouth; will be avoided
 In New England, where water power was first used by Samuel Slater at a date eoncident with the establishment of our government. for the manufacture of cotton cloth although, of course, with out the use of electricity, it is estimated that there aIe available the equivalent of 100000 horss power obtainable by tho use of water power converted into cleo, tric ensfgy. In the south the estimate is that the equivalent of little over 4,O00 ,- O00 horse rower may be secured by the utilization of water powers. But it is in the far west where the greatest amount of electi ic energy may be obtained ny the utilization of water power. In the mountain region 16,o00 GOO horse power rep resented by electric energy can be SC cured by the utilization of the water powers, and upon the Pacific coast 25, z 000,000 hoise power can be in like man. ner secured,
 Of course. the greater part of this de- velopment must be made after the war Is ended, assuming that the end will come within the next one or two years. But the new industrial and commercial era which will begin when peace is secured is sure to be the most intense so far IS industrial activity is concerned which the world has ever known. The United States ot alt the nations which have been engaged in great commerce, great indus, tries an1 gerat financing possesses the greatest latent possibilities, which, if util
 ized, will deliver to the industries, to the railroads and for domestic purposes, such as lighting, the equivalent of 54OOo. 900 horse power, all of it having been oh tained through the transformation of the energy winch is in water power into elec- trc energy.
 In the far west the mastery of electric energy over steam locomotives upon the railroads has already been demonstrated It was recently stated that "on what Is known as the Elkhorn grade of the Nor folk and Western railroad, which sur mounts in it's course from Norfolk to the west vailay of the Ohio, a part of the Appalachian range, two electric locome' tives which haul at the rate of II miles an hour freight train which formerly three of the most powerful steam loeomo' tives were unable to haul at speed not greater than seven miles an hour"
 Today only about one sixth of the min imum potential water power of the United States is utilized, few yeass hence at least one third will be utilized under control of the government.