FOREST PRESERVATION AND ELECTRIC 

 DEVELOPMENT OF WATER POWER 



By ALLEN HOLLIS 



AX EMINENT North Country au- 

 thority has declared that water 

 was fit for but two uses float- 

 ing logs and turning mill wheels. 

 Without assenting to this implied ex- 

 clusion of the aesthetic notions of 

 drinking and washing, we will now in- 



<j <j ' 



terest ourselves in the turning of mill' 

 wheels. 



Our industrial development and eco- 

 nomic welfare depend on heat, power, 

 and light. Without these tangible ex- 

 pressions of energy, modern civiliza- 

 tion were impossible. For centuries 

 before the age of steam, power for 

 mechanical uses was obtained from 

 water : but heat and light have re- 

 quired fuel until the present era. The 

 steam engine, operated from cheap coal, 

 for a time lessened interest in water 

 power ; but increased cost of steam 

 power, due to high cost of fuel and 

 advanced wages, compels attention 

 again to water power ; and this finds 

 a new field through electrical distribu- 

 tion. 



Assuming that fuel will ultimately 

 become exhausted (an hypothesis 

 which bids fair to become an early 

 reality), the only recognied substitute 

 is water power. Sun power is still in 

 the clouds in more senses than one. 

 Mechanical power from water is most 

 conveniently applied through electricity ; 

 while heat and light can be obtained 

 from water power solely through this 

 agency. Our ultimate economic salva- 

 tion seems inevitably to depend on 

 water-generated electric energy. 



Mr. Pinchot, the modern Moses who 

 leads us back to the wilderness, 

 sketches this picture of conditions now 

 imminent : 



"Let us suppose a man in a Western 

 town, in a region without coal, rising 

 on a cold morning, a few years hence, 

 214 



when invention and enterprise have 

 brought to pass the things which we 

 can already foresee as coming in the 

 application of electricity. He turns on 

 the electric light made from water 

 power ; his breakfast is cooked on an 

 electric stove heated by the power of 

 the streams ; his morning newspaper 

 is printed on a press moved by elec- 

 tricity from the streams ; he goes to his 

 office in a trolley car moved by elec- 

 tricity from the same source. The 

 desk upon which he writes his letters, 

 the merchandise which he sells, the 

 crops which he raises, will have been 

 brought to him or will be taken from 

 him in a freight car moved by elec- 

 tricity. His wife will run her sewing 

 machine or her churn, and factories 

 will turn their shafts and wheels by 

 the same power." 



Water power is the product of two 

 factors, available head and supply of 

 water. Roughly speaking, one cubic 

 foot of water per second, falling ten 

 feet, will produce one horse power ; 

 and in a year, ten hours a day, will do 

 the work of five tons of coal or more, 

 worth in this latitude twenty-five dol- 

 lars. Operating twenty-four hours a 

 day the same water power will equal 

 twelve tons of coal, worth sixty dol- 

 lars. Including labor and other costs, 

 steam power, used ten hours a day, 

 now costs over forty dollars per horse 

 power under best conditions, and far 

 more under usual conditions. As the 

 price of fuel advances, the value of our 

 unit of water power will correspond- 

 ingly increase. 



Electric energy can best be fur- 

 nished from some general supply. The 

 business is complicated and special- 

 ized, while the product can be used by 

 the most inexperienced and careless. 

 Apparatus for using electricity is well 

 nigh fool proof. 



