U KOY A L SOCI ET Y C»F CA NA DA 



free from sparks aiul freu frcmi dust. ]*'lectric energy is safe, clean, con- 

 venient, cheap, and produces neither refuse nor side products.'' 



The Canadian mining districts are well supplied with water power, 

 and all the wonderful effects of electricity are available for us upon a 

 larger and more economical scale than elsewhere. 



In connection with this abundance of water power, and from the 

 fact tliat an important proportion is now situated remote from existing 

 railways ajid settlements, the question of profitable limit of electrical 

 tran.?mission is most important, — if indeed it be now possible to put a 

 limit on anything connected with electricity, with or without the aid of 

 a wire. If, as reported. Lord Kelvin has placed the profitable limit at 

 oOO miles, this is sufficient to utilize the greater part of the water power 

 upon the two watersheds north of the St. Lawrence River. 



Professor Elihu Thomson says " Up to the present time it was prac- 

 ticable to transmit high pressure currents a distance of 83 miles using 

 a pressure of 50,000 volts. If a voltage higher than that were used the 

 electricity would escape from tlie wires into the air in the form of small 

 luminous blue flames." 



As showing how far we are yet behind nature. Prof. Thomson says 

 the estimated voltage from a lightening discharge ranges from twenty 

 to fifty million volts. 



Wherever the raw material for electro-chemical, electro-metallur- 

 gical, or other industries, affords sufficient inducement, and the water 

 power is at hand, the forest will be penetrated much more rapidly than 

 heretofore, and settlements advanced in new directions. 



"What can be done in tliis direction is best illustrated by the develop- 

 ment of a single industry in the wilds of Minnesota north of Lalce 

 Superior, and adjoining Canadian territory. Over four hundred miles 

 of standard gauge railways have been built, through what was a track- 

 less wilderness in 1885, to reach iron ore beds, the ore from which is 

 shipped to Lake Erie and thence again railroaded 200 miles into Penn- 

 sylvania. This one business has, in mines, railways, docks and fleets of 

 steamers, required an investment of $250,000,000, and has led to as low 

 a rate, by water, as 1 cent per bushel for wheat between Chicago and 

 Buffalo, and 20 cents per ton for coal from Lake Erie to Duluth, nearly 

 ],000 miles. One-half of the charcoal iron, and more than half of the 

 pig iron made in the Ignited States, is smelted from Lake Sn])erior ore. 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. 



The substitution of electricity for steam, as tlic motive power for 

 railways, is regarded as inevitable sooner or later on many roads. It has 

 already taken place as regards suburban railways, notably in tlie case of 



