POWER EMPLOYED IN MANUFACTURES 227 



Lake Superior or interference with the vast steamship traffic 

 which passes through the locks at the rapids. Lest the in- 

 creased outlet afforded by canals should lessen the flow of 

 water through the steamship locks and their approaches, 

 compensating works are being constructed at the head of 

 the rapids for the purpose of reducing, by means of movable 

 gates, the outflow over the falls in proportion to the increased 

 outlet created by the power canals. It is designed, by this 

 means, to maintain the flow of water from Lake Superior 

 as a fixed quantity, regardless of the new outlets afforded 

 by the power canals. 



In cotton goods manufacture electric power is being 

 rapidly adopted, not only in New England, but in the south ; 

 perhaps the most conspicuous examples can be found in the 

 latter region, where water power has been largely utilized. 



One of the earher and larger plants at which water 

 power was utilized for the generation of electric power is 

 the Ponemah mills, at Taftville, Conn., where the energy 

 from the water power at Baltic, 4^ miles away, has been 

 used for years to run the weaving mill of 1,700 looms, and 

 to operate 1,200 incandescent lights. The generating plant 

 consists of two alternating current generators of 350 horse- 

 power each, and these drive two 350 horsepower motors at 

 Taftville. A street railway system is operated in connection 

 with the mill, and an electric locomotive is employed to haul 

 freight cars a distance of one mile. 



The typical Southern mills utilizing water povrer are 

 those at Columbia, and at Pelzer, S. C, the former requiring 

 about 1,400 horsepower and the latter, 3,000 horsepower. 



Electric motors doing miscellaneous work in manu- 

 facturing establishments are scattered so widely throughout 

 the field of industry that it is impossible to consider them 

 all in detail. It will suffice, perhaps, to note the figures 

 given by Mr. W. H. Tapley, electrician of the government 

 printing office, at Washington, D. C, where the advantages 

 have been so marked that the new office, the largest of its 

 kind in the world, is being equipped throughout with electric 

 power. At the time Mr. Tapley made his report — the period 

 of the census year — the office had, connected with the power 



