96 FOREST LANDS FOB THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 



It requires no aid from man in its production. All he has to do is to utilize 

 it. Providentially, electricity has unfolded its power to transmit this energy 

 over great distances, and has thus made practicable a development which would 

 otherwise have been impracticable. In time water power will replace coal and 

 oil and will become" the one great source of power, unless discoveries are made 

 which are not now foreseen. The author thoroughly believes in developing this 

 power through public agencies and preserving it from private ownership and 

 control. His present criticism is directed not at all at the principle involved, 

 but at the extravagant expectations now being fostered as to the possible rev- 

 enue which the Government may derive from such development. 



The quantity of power estimated in the publications of the Geological Survey 

 and the Agricultural Department are based upon an assumption that most 

 engineers will question, viz, that 90 per cent of the fall of our rivers can be 

 utilized in effective head upon water wheels. This is too great a figure. The 

 most thoroughly developed river in the United States, namely, the Merrimac, 

 in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, develops only TO per cent of the total 

 head. Taking all the streams into consideration, it seems hardly possible that 

 more than 50 per cent of the fall can be utilized. When the fall of a river is 

 uniform, even if quite steep, the cost of long canals or high dams necessary 

 to concentrate it at one point often prohibits development altogether. From 

 altitudes of 3,000 feet the Missouri and Yellowstone, for example, descend to 

 the sea with a total energy of possibly 5,000,000 horsepower, yet comparatively 

 little of this can be developed advantageously. It is only in those places where 

 nature has helped out by concentrating the fall at cataracts or rapids that 

 water-power development is commercially profitable. At low dams, such as 

 are ordinarily built at lock sites, the head is often nearly all obliterated during 

 high water. How far storage may affect these drawbacks can not be said, but 

 it should of course help a great deal. The official estimates of flow for non- 

 regulated streams are based on two weeks' average lowest flow. This may 

 probably be extended materially with reservoir aid or supplementary steam 

 power. Possibly the total estimated horsepower may ultimately be realized. 



When it comes to the royalty which the Government may receive for these 

 water powers, if developed by private interests, the price of $20 per horsepower, 

 adopted by the Geological Survey and the Agricultural Department, is wholly 

 out of the question under present conditions. Possibly the author does not 

 understand what the figure is intended to embrace. From Mr. Leighton's articles 

 the inference has been drawn that wherever the work of the Government ren- 

 ders power available which was not available before, either by building dams, 

 as at lock sites, and thus creating a head, or by storing water which might 

 supply powers below with more than they would have without, the value of the 

 power thus rendered available should return to the Government $20 per horse- 

 power per annum an " exceedingly low price," as Mr. Leighton puts it. 6 



It is not understood that the Government is to build the power plants, but 

 that this is to be done by the interests availing themselves of the privilege. 

 Estimates of undeveloped water powers on many streams of the Atlantic slope 

 by the Geological Survey leave one to infer that these powers are considered 

 worth at least $20 per horsepower to the Government even without dams or 

 reservoir aid. While the statements are not clear as to what is actually meant, 

 the various references to resources to be derived by the Government from these 

 powers lead to the above conclusion. It would be of advantage in considering 

 questions involving these published estimates, if the basis for this $20 price or 

 royalty could be made more specific. 



Under present conditions, or such as can be reasonably foreseen, no such 

 royalty is possible except in extraordinarily favorable circumstances. Efforts 



a There has recently been invented a device called a " fall increaser," an adap- 

 tation of the Venturi meter, by Clemens Herschel. M. Am. Soc. C. E., which 

 promises to utilize the extra flow of streams in time of flood water and low 

 heads to increase and maintain the head upon the wheels. If this invention 

 proves a success, as seems probable, it will be an immense gain to all water 

 powers of low head subject to large fluctuation, as would doubtless be the case 

 in very many of those under consideration. 



6 On the Youghiogheny alone, where it is proposed to install a slack-water 

 system comprising three locks and dams, at an expense of $600,000, proper de- 

 velopment of storage will insure the production of a minimum of 4,100 horse- 

 power, the value of which, reckoned on the exceedingly low price of $20 per 

 horsepower year, would produce a total income of $82,000. 



