HARNESSING SIERRA STREAMS— MODERN POWER PLANT. 



plant at Folsom, California, which at that time transmitted the largest 

 amount of power in the world. The electrically transmitted power was 

 made available for manufacturing purposes by the installation in these 

 and later power plants of a specially designed alternate current motor. At 

 the present time the largest electric power transmission system in the 

 world is that of the California Gas and Electric Corporation, carrying power 

 from Colgate to Oakland and around San Francisco Bay, some 242 miles. 

 The next longest system is that of the Standard Electric Company, trans- 

 mitting power a distance of 146 miles. And there are many others 

 throughout the State. 



No one has ever computed in terms of horse-power the vast amount 

 of electrical power available in Sierra streams, but it must run up into the 

 millions. Altogether probably more than 140,000 horse-power has been 

 harnessed in California.* Almost half as much again is under process 

 of development. About sixty million dollars has been invested in power 

 plants. Rapidly these wild streams are being tamed. Power sites for 

 power houses capable of developing half a million horse-power have been 

 located in California and almost as much in Oregon and Washington. 

 Indeed, the day will soon be at hand when the wheels of industry upon the 

 Pacific Coast will be operated almost wholly by the power of harnessed 

 Sierra streams. 



* Note— The table given in this issue does not include all the power development because, obviously, all 

 individual developments can not be classified or data obtained regarding them. 



A MODERN POWER PUNT IN CALIFORNIA. 



HE frontispiece of this issue of FOR CALIFORNIA shows a mod- 

 ern power plant in California. This plant, the de Sabla plant, 

 is typical of up-to-date plants of to-day. In describing the de 

 Sabla plant, one describes the general features of plants else- 

 where. Some of the most advanced ideas in hydro-electric 

 power plants practice are embodied in the de Sabla plant. 

 Though completed in October, 1903, many changes and additions have 

 since been made to its machinery. 



Water for driving the water wheels here is drawn from Big Butte 

 Creek and conveyed some ten miles in a ditch, whence it is turned into a 

 regulating reservoir. This reservoir is on an elevation some 1 530 feet above 

 the power house. Thus, the water on rushing through the 30-inch steel 

 pressure pipes down to the power house, has a tremendous pressure, which 

 is called a "head" — in this case, a "head" of 1530 feet. 



A feature of the plant is that it contains one of the most powerful sin- 

 gle water wheels ever constructed. The smaller of the photographs re- 

 produced on the frontispiece is an 8000 horse-power hydro-electric gener- 

 ating unit. 



It delivers 3-phase, 60-cycle current at a pressure of 2400 volts and is 

 driven at 400 revolutions per minute by the water wheel. This water wheel 

 is capable of delivering 8000 horse-power from the single jet of water, 6 

 inches in diameter, which issues from the needle regulating deflecting nozzle 

 at a velocity of approximately 20,000 feet per minute, and impinges upon 

 the steel buckets of the water wheel. 



An interesting result of early experiments in the transmission of elec- 

 tric power in California was that the first record of the modern electric rail- 

 way in the Patent Office came from the patent agency of the "Mining and 

 Scientific Press" of San Francisco. 



