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ELECTRICITY AND WATER POWER. 



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A POWER plant on the upper waters of the San 

 Gabriel river, California, is shortly to be con- 

 structed for the purpose of furnishing electricity for 

 power and other purposes for use in the Azusa val- 

 ley. There will be 30,000 feet of six-foot cement 

 tunnel through a mountain cliff, from which the 

 water will fall 400 feet into the canyon below. The 

 work is estimated to cost $250,000, besides the power 

 and the electrical machinery. It is expected that the 

 machinery will be in operation within a year. 



The above shows what is being done, and such ex- 

 amples as Great Falls, Montana, and Wiliamette 

 Falls, Portland, Oregon, where the current is trans- 

 mitted fifteen miles from the falls to the city, shows 

 what has and can be done. 



Electricity is the coming power, and in its relation 

 to irrigation it has unbounded possibilities. The 

 vast water power throughout the arid region in the 

 majority of cases is absolutely going to waste, when 

 at a comparatively small expense it could be utilized 

 to run machinery for all purposes and pumps, which 

 will pour the water on the thirsty land. And who 

 can calculate the benefits when the touch of living 

 water shall have made the desert blossom as the 

 rose? Harness the water-fall and make it obey 

 man's bidding in this, the great subject of the coming 

 future irrigation. 



Practical tests of an electric plow are being made 

 by Siemens and Halske on a German estate. It is 

 believed that such a plow would prove especially 

 successful in Java, where the cattle plague has de- 

 stroyed the draught animals, and large tracts of 

 fertile land are being permitted to lie uncultivated in 

 consequence. And if successful in Java, why not in 

 Arid America, provided the cost of operating can be 

 reduced to an economical basis. 



Prof. Alexander Graham Bell is working on a con- 

 trivance which he claims will enable us to see by 

 electricity. The vibrations of light being so much 

 more rapid than those of sound, the difficulty hereto- 

 fore has been to discover a diaphragm sufficiently 

 sensitive to receive the vibrations and produce the 

 effect necessary to convey the proper impressions to 

 the human vision. Prof. Bell is confident that this 

 can be done and is hopeful that he will soon be able 

 to do it. 



And what a prospect! With the long distance tel- 

 ephone one can now transmit messages from New 

 York to Chicago, and the future promises still more 

 wonderful things in that direction. With the pro- 

 posed new instaument in connection one could see 

 the party with whom he converses, and if it can be 

 accomplished for that distance, why not for greater 

 distances. 



Prof. Bell insists that the fact has been already 

 demonstrated and that it only remains to construct 

 the necessary apparatus to bring the discovery into 

 actual and practical use. 



An arrangement for heating water by an incandes- 

 cent electric lamp in the lighting circuit has been 

 devised by M. Leon Pitot, of Paris, by which he util- 

 izes 85 per cent, of the heat given out by the lamp. 

 He claims that an eight-candle lamp will maintain 

 the water at a temperature of 40 degrees centigrade, 

 while a 16-candle lamp will maintain it at boiling 

 point. The receptacle, holding about a pint, affords, 

 with the larger lamp, boiling water in 10 minutes. 

 Iron and Industries. 



The San Antonio Electric Light and Power Com- 

 pany of Pomona have a force of men at work in Mill 

 Creek canyon, about ten miles above the Redlands 

 Electric Light Company power-house, develop- 

 ing water for electric purposes. When work is 

 completed they will erect the necessary machinery 

 and compete with our home company in furnishing 

 Redlands electricity, as well as outside towns. Red- 

 lands Leader. 



This is a progressive age. The king of Korea has 

 purchased an electric light plant in this country, 

 which will have 3,000 incandescent lamps, and will 

 illuminate the king's palace and grounds. The 

 people of this far-off country can no longer be spoken 

 of as " sitting in darkness." 



A movement is on foot to build an electric line 

 from Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek, Col., and 

 to also connect Victor and Altman. A party of 

 eastern capitalists is said to be behind the scheme. 



The council of Andrus, South Dakota, has the 

 question of a municipal electric light plant under 

 consideration. 



The new electric light plant at Hooper, Neb., will 

 be in operation in a few days. 



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