Evening star., 1925-09-13
PLAN DEAD SEA USE.
/ AS WATERPOWER
Siphon From Higher Ocean
Level Held Capable of EIec-
4 trifying Palestine.

Among the many schemes for the
development of Palestine, one of the
most original and ambitious is that
for utilizing the Dead Sea as a source
of water power.
This seems at first sight a startling
suggestion. We are used to getting
water power from mountain streams
and lakes, but the Dead Sea is about
1900 feet below the ocean level to
start with.
But on second thought we see that
the scheme is not theoretically i'm
possible, for if we can get power from
water running down to the ocean we
can likewise get power from water
running down from the OCEAN
provided that we can find a lower
place TO put it in. Even if we could
find sink at low level in which to
run the waste water, there would
have to be some pumping arrange
ment to life out the water as fast as 1t
runs in, and this would require more
power than could be got out of the
water wheel.
Capacity 100000 Horsepower.
Now the Dead Sea forms just such
a sink s is needed. and an adequate
pump was long ago installed by
Providence and is already in opera
ton, being supplied with power by
the central station of the solar system.
The sun sucks up the River Jordan as
rapidly as it runs in, and the en-
gineerS calculate that if as much
water as this or more were siphoned
In from the Mediterranean, it would
be continuously evaporated from the
expanded surface of the sea and the
soaked sands of its shore. This Is ex.
pected to provide over 600, 900 horse
power for the electrifcation of the
Holy Land.
The French Academy of Sciences,
before which this scheme was pre-
sented. considered also the power
possibilities of the other sub-sea sinks
OF the world. especially the Salton
Sea, the Caspian Sea and certain sec
tions of the Sahara.
The SaltOn Sea was formed, or
rather refilled, about 20 years ago by
flooding from the Imperial Irrigation
Canal and the Alamo and New Rivers
and it has been slowly drying up ever
since. The surface is 206 feet below
the Gulf of California. In 1917 its
area was 800 square miles. It is,
therefore, about as large as the Dead
Sea, but only a sixth as deep below
sea level. The evaporation rate at
Salton Sea is about half that OF the
Dead Sea, so the total theoretical
horsepower Obtatnable by running
into the Salton Sea from the Gulf of
California. 80 miles distant, all the
water that can be evaporated away
would not produce over 35 900 horse
power. But it Is useless to talk about
the project anyhow, for the Califor-
mans would lynch any one who pro-
posed to turn the Salton Sea into a
salt sea permanently, when it could
be better used as farming land. They
are determined that no more water
shall be run into their sink
Sahara Plan a Fizzle.
The idea of making a sea out of the
Sahara was much discussed in the last
century, not for purposes of wer,
but to open up the heart of Africa to
navigation, make a seaport out of
Timbuctoo and ameliorate the cli-
mate. 1t was argued that 1t was
only necessary to cut through a mar
row rim of north Africa and let in the
waters Of the Mediterranean, which
would form there a second Mediter-
ranean, surrounded by fertile shores
and flourtshing cities. The British
protested that flooding the Sahara
would divert the Gulf Stream into the
Straits of Gibraltar and leave England
as cold as Labrador.
But both the hopes and the fears
vanished when some one took the
trouble to look at a topographic man
of Africa and observed that the
average altitude of land proposed to
be submerged was over thousand
feet. Only a very small portion of
the Sahara is below sea level; certain
salt marshes in southern Tunis and
half dozen in Ga Ste