The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-06-03
MR.. FORD DISCOVERS
THE MISSISSIPPI

A branch Ford automobile plant at
Hamilton, Ohio, is run by hydroelec-
trio installation. Mr.. Ford is now pre-
pairing at large cost to develop water
power from the Hudson for a branch
plant on Green Island in that stream
Adjacent to the place where Mr.. Ford
was born is the course through flat
country Of little tributary Of the De-
troit river. Its bed seems to have the
very minimum Of fall, so sluggish is
the stream in ordinary seasons. The
automobile makers interest in its pos
sibilities caused him to have surveys
made, with results so satisfactory that
he built series of dams and installed
turbines. 1t is said that these dams
and wheels in stream only a little
more than twenty miles long cost ST.
O00, 900, and that they make possible
industrial operations on a small scale
in nine villages of his native county,
giving employment to farmer boys and
obviating the evils of a congested in
dustrial population in large centers.
Because Mr.. Ford has very great
interest in cheap power from water to
replace costly power from steam, be-
cause this is not merely unacadem-
&c interest, but an interest which has
led to highly interesting changes, be-
'use he has already put to work
number of installations for obtaining
power from tie flow of water and has
others under construction his REPORT
ed plan for Harvesting the Mississip-
pts unutilized swirls and eddies has
an absorbing significance for the val
ley. The project has taken such hold
on his mind that at an early date he
will descend the river from Minneap-
oils to Memphis. devoting two weeks
to frst-hand study of its features.
He will find plenty Of power in the
thousand miles of torrent he will ira
verse. The contrast between his ma
tai stream, the Rouge, whose volume
would have scarcely perceptible eff
fects on the Meramec, if turned into
its flow, and the great continental riv-
er more than ITO times as long and
with other dimensions proportional ac-
cordingly, is contrast in possibilities
which nine installations on the lat
ter night each develop a power meas
,ured by the hundred thousand horse
power, instead of by tens and hundreds
of horse power on the former.
Col. Hugh Cooper, the builder of
the Keokuk Dam. told party of st.
yLouisans at the great work when it
was approaching completion that the
solution of all the problems of the
Mississippi would be found in multi
plying improvements such as the one
he had planned and whose engineering
difficulties he had solved upstream
from St. Louis. They would conserve
the waters in time of overflow, giving
food control through the most effec-
tive and practical means. They would
provide generous depths for naviga-
ton. They would furnish cheap pow
er making the valley the workshop of
the continent. Allowing for the diff
ference in the way IN wrich a project
of such tremendous scope would take
shape in the mind OF an industrial
leader and in the mind If great en-
gineer expert the plan whose main
features Mr.. Ford is just now visual
izing is exactly the plan Coy Cooper
visualized for erasing some of the val
ley's liabilities and making its great
est asset magnifcently productive.
With every foot Of depth added to nav
lgable channels, the capacity Of singla
craft increases, within certain limits,
almost in geometric proportion, giving
important increases in cheapness of
carriage. To defer the use of the riv-
lers until greater depths are available