Evening star., 1922-02-05

baries, or even near to the large
cities.
"Thus in these thirty years cleo
tric power has superseded all other
in most instances. and is rapidly be-
coming paramount in those activities
in which other power to some extent
still is used. Throughout the coun-
try small lighting stations have
grown into huge control stations,
which supply power for almost all
purposes. This power today drives
a large proportion Of the nations
factories and, reduced to smaller
units. even does domestic work.
1--WE have available for instant In
stallation, for whatever purpose may
arise, little motors fit to drive a sew
ing machine and large ones powerful
enough to operate great plants. re-
quiring 1o.ooo-hors lpowaF, capable,
for instance, of turning the great
rolls in a steel mill. The same CEN
trail stations which run our street
railways and cross-country trolley
lines may offer power to trunk line
roads, to chemical works producing
raw materials, which without elec-
tricity could not be produced such
as aluminium, carbite as converted
into fertilizer. carborundum, graphite
and a hundred other things
$50 there has grown up a new In
dustry-that of electric-power pro-
duction. Instead Of a special power
house for an electric lighting station
or a trolley line, there are great
central stations which produce power
in large quantities, at wholesale, and
retail it to all sorts of industries.
.rhe average American does not re-
alize how great part electricity now
nlavs in the ordinary human aha1rs
of the United States. In the driving
of mills the steam engine may be said
to have entirely disappeared; prac-
tically all are operated by electricity
usually bought from a power COM
pany. Even when a really modern
business uses a steam engine 1t does
not hook the steam power which 1t
nroduces direct to its machinery, but
first transforms 1t into electricity.
It is the electricity, not the STEAM
power, which is distributed through
out the plant and which directly
drives its machinery.
<frHE reason for this is that elec-
trio power can be used much
more economically than steam power
and very much more safely. An elec-
trica1ly driven factory has at every
machine a motor which operates and
uses current only when the machine
is busy at its productive work.
by this system, also. shafts and
countershafts are Utterly eliminated
and the factory which, under the old
system, was a dusty, dirty. crowded,
noisy place, practically impossible to
light properly because Of the tangle
Of oily shafts, pulleys and whirring
belts, becomes q place in which ma
ohinery absorbs only such space as it
literally occupies, in which light and
air are not obstructed, and, above all,
in which most OF. the power is not
wasted in overcoming the inertia of
the shafts. pulleys and beltings, but
goes direct into the machine. The old.
unsafe, dark and dirty methods have
disappeared. That majority Of the
power which used to go to waste
before it got to the machine is saved
and does work for the factory.
"And last, but not least among the
advantages OF the electrical, age,
which is not coming, but is here,
really sanitary conditions for work.
people now are possible. In the old
days they positively were not.
I'm street ,railroading the horse.
the mule and the cable actually, have
disappeared, and Of tho larger rail-
reading electricity is the general
motive power except on trunk lines
The steam locomotive still survives
upon trunk lines, but every engineer
knows well that the steam locomotive
may not exist even upon trunk lines
because it is limited in power.
"As soon as complete electriflcation
is brought about the coal consump.
tion Of our railways can be decreased
from half to two-thirds and our .ex-.
listing railways will be able to carry
materially mote traffic because of
lot%nr ,>r,uar Iavtor oopfrol onI <ho