October 6, 1921] 



NATURE 



181 



Water Power Development.^ 

 By Prof. A. H. Gibson, D.Sc. 



'"PHE extent to which the water powers of the 

 J- world have been investigated and developed 

 during the past decade forms one of the striking 

 engineering features of the period. Although 

 falling or flowing water formed the earliest of the 

 natural sources of energy to be utilised for indus- 

 trial purposes, it is of interest to note that two- 

 thirds of the water power at present in use has 

 been developed within the last ten years. 



The urgent demand for energy to supply the 

 ■ abnormal requirements of the war period, com- 

 bined with the world shortage of fuel, was 

 responsible for an unprecedented rate of develop- 

 ment in most countries with available water-power 

 resources, and especially in those countries 

 normallv dependent on imported fuel. 



World's Available ]Vater Power. — During the 

 past few years much attention has been paid to 

 statistics of available and developed water powers, 

 and it appears that the available horse-power of 

 the world is of the order of two hundred millions, 

 of which approximately twenty-five millions is at 

 present developed or is in course of development. 



Power Available in Great Britain and in the 

 British Empire. — With the noteworthy exceptions 

 of Canada and New Zealand, practically nothing 

 had been done, prior to 191 5, by any part of the 

 British Empire to develop or even systematically 

 to investigate the possibilities of developing its 

 water powers. It is true that a number of large 

 installations had been constructed in India and 

 Tasmania, but their aggregate output was rela- 

 tively inconsiderable. 



Since then, however, there has been a general 

 tendency to initiate such investigations, and at the 

 present time these are being carried out with vary- 

 ing degrees of thoroughness in India, Ceylon, 

 Australia, South and East .\frica, and British 

 Guiana. While it is known that there is ample 

 water power in Newfoundland, Nigeria, Rhodesia, 

 Papua, and the Gold Coast, no very definite 

 information is available, nor are any steps appa- 

 rently being taken to obtain data in these 

 countries. 



The Water-power Committee of the Conjoint 

 Board of Scientific Societies, which has been 

 studying the state of investigation and develop- 

 ment throughout the Empire since 191 7, has, how- 

 ever, come to the conclusion that its total avail- 

 able water-power resources are at least equivalent 

 to between fifty and seventy million horse-power. 



Of the developed power in the Empire about 

 80 per cent, is in Canada. Throughout the 

 remainder of its territories only about 700.000 

 horse-power is as yet developed, or only a little 

 more than i per cent, of the power available, a 

 figure which compares with about 24 per cent, for 

 the whole of Europe, and 21 per cent, for North 



1 Abridged from the presidential address delivered to Section G 

 (Enginiering) of the British Association at Edinburgh on September 9. 



NO. 2710. VOL. 108] 



America, including Canada and the U.S.A. 

 These figures sufficiently indicate the relatively 

 large scope for future development. 



With a view of ascertaining the resources of our 

 own islands, a Board of Trade Water-power 

 Resources Committee was appointed in 1918. 

 This Committee, which has just presented its final 

 report, has carried out preliminary surveys of as 

 many of the more promising sites as its limited 

 funds allowed, and has obtained data from the 

 Board of Agriculture for Scotland, the Ordnance 

 Survey Department, the Ministry of Munitions, 

 and from civil engineers in private practice, 

 regarding a large number of other sites. 



As might be anticipated, Scotland, with its com- 

 paratively high rainfall, mountainous area, and 

 natural lochs, possesses relatively greater possibili- 

 ties than the remainder of the United Kingdom, 

 and investigation has shown that it offers a 

 number of comparatively large schemes. Nine of 

 the more immediately promising of those examined 

 by the Committee have an average output ranging 

 from 7000 to 40,000 continuous 24-hour horse- 

 power, and an aggregate capacity of 183,000 

 horse-power, while in every case the estimated 

 cost of construction is such that power could be 

 developed at a cost appreciably lower than from a 

 coal-fired station built and operated under present- 

 day conditions. The aggregate output of the 

 Scottish schemes brought before the notice of the 

 Committee, some of which, however, are not com- 

 mercially feasible at the moment, is roughly 

 270,000 continuous horse-power. 



In addition to these there are a very large 

 number of other small schemes which have not 

 yet been investigated,- and it is probably well 

 within the mark to say that there are water-power 

 sites in the country capable of developing the 

 equivalent of 400,000 continuous horse-power, or 

 1,500,000 horse-power over a normal working 

 week, at least as cheaply as from a coal-fired 

 installation. 



A number of attractive schemes are also avail- 

 able in North Wales, though these are in general 

 more expensive than those in Scotland. 



Owing to the general flatness of the gradients, 

 there are, except possibly around Dartmoor, no 

 schemes of any large individual magnitude in 

 England, but there are a large number of powers 

 ranging from 100 to 1000 horse-power which 

 might be developed from river flow uncontrolled 

 by storage. 



Investigations on a few typical watersheds 

 throughout England and Wales appear to show 

 that the possible output averages approximately 

 eight continuous horse-power per square mile of 

 catchment area, which would be equivalent to an 



2 In a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts on January 35, 1918, 

 Mr. A. Newlands gave a list of 1x2 potential Scottish schemes, the capacity 

 of which he estimated, on a very conservative basis, at 375,000 horse-power. 



