ELECTRICITY AND WATER POWER. 



ELECTRICITY AND WATER POWER. 



IT^AR-SEEING minds make highly attractive 

 \* the project of using the water of mountain 

 streams, and of falls in irrigation ditches, for the 

 generation of electricity for power and light, before it 

 is spread upon the fields, without a drop of loss or 

 infringement upon its use for irrigation. In this 

 prospect there is not only the question of power for 

 large and small manufacturing establishments, but 

 also, and perhaps of equal or greater importance, the 

 revival of the system of home industries that made 

 old New England self-supporting, and which the 

 small diversified farm, conducted on the family sus- 

 tenance plan, independent of markets, is looking 

 toward as the logical outcome of that system. Thus 

 did the early Utah settlers live and thrive, bu with- 

 out the powerful aid of the electric motor. With the 

 irrigation ditch, or its reservoir or river source, also 

 supplying the power for electric motors for the run- 

 ing of the churn, the saw, the thresher, the grinding 

 mill, the sheller, the house elevator, the hay press, the 

 stack builder, the fodder cutter, and also the sewing 

 machine, the knitting machine and perhaps the com- 

 ing home loom and spinning wheel, etc. Political 

 economists tell us that the salvation of the home idea, 

 and perhaps of the nation, may rest in the keeping of 

 the boys and girls at home by means of the regenera- 

 tion of the old system of home manufactures. Here- 

 tofore the cost of power, in competition with the great 

 factories, has been an unsurmounted obstacle. But 

 in the low cost, small electric motor, lies a possible 

 solution of the interesting and important problem. 



Six years ago the total electric railway mileage in 

 this country was but forty-eight miles, distributed 

 among eight different States. But so remarkable has 

 been the development of the means of successfully 

 applying electricity as a cheap and efficient motive 

 power, that by the close of 1893 over sixty per cent 

 of all the street railways in the United States were 

 operated by means of electricity. The horse as a 

 motive power on street railways is surely on the road 

 to extinction, for almost everywhere the lightning 

 has overtaken him and driven him from his former 

 field of usefulness. But this is in no wise to be 

 regretted. The new appliances serve the public much 

 more efficiently and the fate of the car-horse has 

 always been a cruel one. 



In San Antonio canyon, in San Bernardino county, 

 California, is quite an extensive electric plant, con- 

 veying power to Pomona and San Bernardino. The 

 power station has four double-nozzle Pelton water 

 wheels, thirty-four inches in diameter, coupled to the 

 armature shafts of four Westinghouse alternating 

 current generators of 200 horse-power each. The 

 current is carried on two wires to a point seven miles 

 down the canyon, where the wires diverge. One 

 runs to Pomona, a distance of fifteen mi'es, and the 

 other to San Bernardino, twenty-eight miles, cover- 

 ing in the latter case, with the return circuit, a dis- 

 tance of fifty-six miles. 



By means of transformers the potential is raised at 

 the generating station to 10,000 volts, and the current 

 carried at this pressure to sub- stations located just 

 outside each of the cities named, where, by means of 

 "step-down" transformers, it is reduced to about 1,000 

 volts, and then distributed for light and power pur- 

 poses. 



The Clear lake project involves laying a wire 

 seventy-two miles in length from a point on Cache 



creek, Lake county, to San Francisco, with branches 

 to intermediate towns. Except for irrigating pur- 

 poses the water of Clear lake is useless. The lake 

 has an immense watershed, with a heavy annual 

 rainfall. It is estimated from careful measurements 

 taken at various seasons of the year that the outflow 

 from the lake is sufficient to generate, through 

 motors, twenty-five thousand horse-power which 

 could easily be doubled by the erection of dams. 

 This would supply about three-fourths of the power 

 now used daily in manufacturing establishments in 

 San Francisco. 



NEW PROCESS IN IRON PRODUCTION. 



The French Consul at Hamburg reports the new 

 German process for employing electricity in the 

 production of pig metal and of the metallurgical 

 work generally. The fusion and casting is effected 

 in an apparatus comprising the smelting furnace and 

 models with the object of obtaining a casting force 

 from pores and blisters, the gas and air being expelled 

 by an air pump during the operation. The electric 

 current which causes the fusion does not affect it from 

 the outside through the walls of the crucible or fur- 

 nace, but by the metal itself conducting the current 

 through the mass. In the production of crucible 

 steel the new process, it is said, showed a saving of 

 one-half the fuel. The iron obtained in this way is 

 very pure containing, according to the Berlin Academy 

 of mines, only 2.99 per cent, of carbon owing to the 

 fusion being accomplished without the use of coal or 

 coke. 



ELECTRIC DELIVERY WAGONS. 



Trial has recently been made in London of an 

 electrical parcel van, which, as described by the New 

 York Recorder, does not differ greatly in outward 

 appearance from other vehicles of the same order. 

 The interior of the van is left free for goods, for the 

 two motors, which are geared to the wheels, are 

 placed beneath the driver's seat. The electricity is 

 derived from 36 cells, which are carried under the 

 body in a special box, and so arranged that they 

 may be charged in- two minutes when the accumu- 

 lators are exhausted. With his left hand the driver, 

 by means of a single switch, regulates the speed of 

 the yan, which, if necessary, may be as high as fifteen 

 miles an hour. The right hand is free to turn a 

 steering wheel, which is provided with a pointer, indi- 

 cating the direction in which the vehicle is going. 

 As the steering gear has ball bearings, the convey- 

 ance is under perfect control with a minimum of 

 effort. 



Utilizing Waste from Street Railway. 



A Brooklyn merchant says he keeps his office cool 

 with an electric fan which is operated by the waste 

 electricity from the trolley railway in the street. 

 One of the wires is attached to the gas, the other to 

 the water pipe connecting with the street mains, and 

 these are charged with the " grounded " electricity 

 from the rails of the trolley road. 



It is possible to plant out a peach orchard for a 

 quarter the money an orange orchard costs and to 

 make it yield as big a revenue in half the time. 



