Harnessing Sierra Streams 



f^N the vast developments of electrical energy from the fall of Sierra 

 streams the Pacific Coast is solving the problem for cheaper fuel 

 and power. Already this force is the greatest factor in the indus- 

 trial progress of the Pacific Slope. A tremendous amount of power 

 is generated upon the Coast from comparatively small streams of 

 water flowing from great heights. And it is used for a marvelous 

 variety of purposes. 



The strength of mountain cataracts is employed to run street cars, to 

 operate ship yards, flour mills, grain warehouses and elevators, furniture 

 factories, machine shops, pipe and iron foundries, mines, canning facto- 

 ries and floating gold dredges. It illuminates cities, furnishes power for the 

 manufacture of ice and electric cookery and ironing in laundries. The 

 uses to which this energy may be put are innumerable. In the fact that 

 electrical energy is divisible it encourages the small manufacturer, who 

 can purchase as much or as little power as he requires. 



In making Nature do this work there has been nothing lost which 

 could commercially be used in other ways. Such use of water for power 

 production does not consume one drop, but only the energy furnished by 

 its fall. The irrigation value of the streams whence this power comes is 

 undiminished. In Kern County, California, even after the water has irri- 

 gated the soil, it is pumped up from wells by the very electric power fur- 

 nished by the water further up in its course. The fact that irrigation and 

 the development of electrical energy go hand in hand is recognized by the 

 United States Government, which contemplates the erection of power 

 plants in connection with the work done under the Reclamation Act. 



The development of electrical energy upon the Pacific Coast differs 

 from the hydro-electric development at Niagara, for instance, where a great 

 volume of water is used at a comparatively low pressure. The Sierra 

 streams attain a tremendous pressure because of the great heights from 

 which they fall. The turbines used at Niagara would be torn to pieces under 

 so terrific a pressure. In plants upon the Coast, water issuing from the 

 nozzle may be likened to a bar of steel. It impinges upon the buckets of 

 an impulse wheel instead of a turbine. Instantly its force is imparted to the 

 wheel, the shaft of which connects directly with and operates the dynamo. 

 Thus the electric current is generated. 



Such small streams as Mill Creek, ten miles from RedlandsrCalifornia, 

 would be useless but for the fact of great elevation, which gives a high 

 head in the fall. Here the place where the water enters the pipe is 1 960 feet 

 above the nozzle where the water strikes the wheel. This little stream gives 

 a capacity of 5200 horse-power, enough to run a good-sized ocean-going 

 vessel. Striking the buckets of the wheel, the water has a pressure of 850 

 pounds to the square inch. What this pressure implies is evidenced by the 

 fact that the average locomotive carries steam at a pressure of 190 to 200 

 pounds to the square inch. 



It takes a powerful water wheel to withstand such tremendous pres- 

 sure. At Butte Creek, California, a jet of water six inches in diameter, is- 

 suing from the nozzle at a velocity of 20,000 feet a minute, impinges on 

 the buckets of what is said to be the most powerful single water wheel 

 ever built, causing the latter to travel at the rate of 94 miles a minute. This 

 six-inch stream has a capacity of 12,000 horse-power. 



But given your energy already developed, there arises the problem of 

 transmitting it. The first plant in the United States to generate electricity 

 for high tension transmission purposes was erected at Pomona in 1892. 

 This was followed a year later by the opening of a 1500 horse-power plant 

 at Redlands. Then in 1895 the electrical world was surprised by the great 



