Popular Science Monthly 



507 



i Int. Film Serv 



The Spaulding Dam in California. The water that it will store will generate one hundred and 

 seventy -five thousand electrical horsepower and will irrigate twenty thousand acres of farm lands 



The Spaulding Dam— The Largest 

 II Power Dam in the Country 



WHAT is to be the largest power dam 

 in the country is now under con- 

 struction in Nev^ada County, California. 

 Stretching across a narrow gorge called 

 Emigrant Gap, this dam will block up 

 sufficient water to create an artificial lake 

 nearly thirty square miles in area. What 

 was once a miniature, lazy stream will thus 

 be converted into a mighty lake. 



When completed, the dam will rise three 

 liundred feet above the flooring of the 

 rocky gorge. At the top, it will stretch 

 I across the gorge for even twice this distance. 

 The water the dam will control will be fed 

 to a half dozen hydro-electric power plants 

 strung along the downstream side of the 

 ' river. 



The water stored by this dam will add 



ione hundred and seventy-five thousand 

 horsepower to the electrical power the 

 United States is already obtaining from her 

 natural water resources. This power will 

 i be carried over transmission lines a distance 

 ' of over one hundred and fifty miles to 

 ^<in Francisco. Other cities near the coast 

 will be supplied also. After the water of 

 1^ the lake has turned the turbines in all the 

 power houses, it will then be used to 

 irrigate the lands of the Sacramento Valley. 



Making Buttons, Bric-a-brac and Silk 

 from Milk 



ALTHOUGH anyone will concede that 

 man cannot live by bread alone, it has 

 been thought possible to get along rather 

 nicely if milk were added to the diet. But 

 it remained for two French chemists, 

 Francois Lebreil and Raoul Desgeorge, to 

 conceive an idea whereby milk may also be 

 made to yield a fabric which may be con- 

 verted into clothing and ornaments. The 

 curds of the milk are subjected to a chem- 

 ical treatment by means of which the mass 

 is converted into a plastic substance which 

 may be rolled into sheets resembling 

 celluloid, from which buttons and other 

 articles such as combs, umbrella handles, 

 bric-a-brac and e\en imitation leather may 

 be'rhade, all of which areofattractiveappear- 

 ance and of excellent wearing qualities. 

 The milk is first robbed of its fat, after 

 which it is warmed with rennet so as to 

 form curds. It is then parboiled and 

 exposed to the air, and then it is treated 

 with acetone to gi\'e it the required hard- 

 ness, plasticity and transparency. The 

 product may be made so soft that it can 

 be used as a substitute for silk in the manu- 

 facture of fine underwear, or it may be 

 made solid enough to serve as a good 

 imitation of ivory. 



