iQO Musings by Camp-Fire and Wayside 



the idea of power is wholly excluded by that of 

 beauty. We cannot put the two qualities together 

 very readily in our minds. There is always an ele- 

 ment of delicacy and fragility in our observations 

 and conceptions of beauty. What a tremendous 

 contrast, therefore, to descend the deep, black 

 shaft down through the flinty basaltic rock, two 

 hundred and seventy feet to the chamber below. 

 This chamber is the power-room, thirty feet high 

 and fifty feet wide, excavated out of the rock, with 

 a gallery running hundreds of feet till it reaches the 

 air at the bottom of the chasm. In this shaft is set 

 a steel tube eight feet in diameter which is to carry 

 the water down to the motors. At the foot of this 

 tube the water pressure is one hundred and twenty- 

 five pounds to the square inch. The motors are 

 upon an entirely new principle which has never 

 before been applied. The principle is of two inter- 

 locked turnstiles set in a circular steel box. The 

 water cannot pass at the sides, nor above nor below; 

 it must turn the turnstiles to get through. Each of 

 these wheels, which I compare to turnstiles, weighs 

 twenty-four thousand pounds, and they are to 

 revolve at the speed of three hundred and sixty 

 revolutions per minute. 



Now here is the contrast. That graceful and 

 most beautiful drapery of jeweled lace is here to 

 put forth the strength of a hundred thousand horses 

 and drive those wheels, weighing twelve tons each, 

 at the incredible velocity of three hundred and 



