WASTED FORCES. 301 



to rim heedlessly to waste down that great fall of 157 feet, in a sheet 

 twenty feet thick and 4,750 feet broad ? 



The gas-wells of the oil regions have been permitted to spout away 

 wealth enough to have repaid a hundred-fold all the money ever lost 

 in oil speculations ; but it is gratifying to be able to say that the great 

 value of these natural supplies of heat and light is now very generally 

 recognized, and that in many localities the gas is turned to useful ac- 

 count in supplying light and heat to towns and cities and factories and 

 mills. 



In some of the cases that I have called to your attention, the power 

 is steady and unremitting, in others it is too violent or too uncertain 

 for direct application. In the first instance, uses for the power may 

 be found at once ; in the last, means for storing it up must be pro- 

 vided, and would, beyond question, abundantly repay the undertaking. 

 For this purpose, the raising of weights or of water into elevated 

 reservoirs, and the compressing of air, afford two simple and ready 

 means of storing up power to be let loose as required ; while other 

 means of a mechanical nature to accomplish the same purpose will 

 readily occur to my mechanical hearers. 



While upon this point, I must not omit to state one fact of the 

 greatest interest that is now attracting the attention of some of the 

 highest living authorities. I refer to the question of the practicabil- 

 ity of transmitting mechanical power to great distances by converting 

 it into electricity, through the agency of what are called dynamo-elec- 

 tric machines, and utilizing this either for the production of powerful 

 lights for illuminating cities and towns, or by converting it back again 

 into mechanical power with the aid of magneto-electric engines, by 

 which mills, factories, and workshops may be furnished with the 

 power they now obtain from steam or water. It will be very d jyropos, 

 in this connection, to notice that the feasibility of transmitting to great 

 distances the almost incredible power of Niagara Falls, by some such 

 means as that above named, has been affirmed by many scientific in- 

 vestigators of eminence. 



Dr. C. W. Siemens, in his presidential address before the last meet- 

 ing of the Iron and Steel Institute, in touching upon the highly inter- 

 esting subject of the employment of electricity as a substitute for 

 steam, made the following instructive statements : He declared that 

 so long as the source of electrical power depended upon the galvanic 

 battery, it must, in the present state of things, remain far more expen- 

 sive than steam-power, for the obvious reason that zinc, which is the 

 fuel of the galvanic battery, is vastly more expensive than coal, the 

 fuel of the steam-boiler. If, however, continues Dr. Siemens, a natural 

 force, such as water-power, mark you, could be utilized to generate 

 electricity economically, the case would be very different. A dynamo- 

 electric machine actuated by water-power could be made to generate 

 powerful electrical currents, which could be transmitted through insu- 



