852' REPORT— 1892. 



The whole tendency of the conditions created by the use of steam-power has 

 been to concentrate the industrial population iu large communities, and to restrict 

 manufacturing operations to large factories. Economy in the production of power, 

 economy in superintendence, the convenience of the subdivision of labour, and the 

 costliness of the machines employed, all favoured the growth of large factories. 

 The whole social conditions of manufacturing centres have been profoundly 

 influenced by these two conditions — that coal for raising steam can be easily 

 brought to any place where it is wanted, and that steam-power is more cheaply 

 produced on a large scale than on a small scale. It looks rather, just now, as if 

 facilities for distributing power will to some extent reverse this tendency. 



Let me tirst point out that water-power, where it is available, is so much 

 cheaper and more convenient than steam-power that it has never been quite 

 Tanquished by steam-power. 



I find, from a report by Mr. Weissenbach, that, in 1876, 70,000 horse-power 

 derived from waterfalls were used iu manufacturing in Switzerland. According 

 to a census in 1880, it appears that the total steam and water power employed in 

 manufacturing operations in the United States was 3,400,000 horse-power. Of 

 this, 2,185,000 horse-power, or 64 per cent., was derived from steam, and 1,225,000 

 borse-power, or 36 per cent., from water. In the manufacture of cotton and 

 ■woollen goods, of paper and of flour, 700.000 horse-power were obtained from 

 water, and 515,000 horse-power from steam. If statistics could be obtained 

 from other countries, I believe it would be found that a very large amount of 

 water-piwer is actually made available. The firm of Escher S\'y3S & Company, of 

 Zurich, have constructed more than 1,800 turbines of an aggregate power of 

 lll,4i;0 horse-power. 



With a very limited exception all the water-power at present used is employed 

 in the neiglibourhood of the fall where it is generated. If means Avere avaiLabl« 

 for transporting the power from the site of the fall to localities more convenient for 

 maiiufiictures, there can be no doubt that a niucli larger amount of water-power 

 would be used, and the relative importance of water and steam power in soniii 

 countries would probably be reversed. It is because recent developments seem to 

 make such a transport of power possible without excessive cost and without 

 excessive loss that a most remarkable interest has been excited in the question of 

 the utilisation of water-power. Take the case of Switzerland, for instance. At 

 the present time Switzerland is said to pay to other countries 800,000/. annually 

 for cnal. But the total available water-power of Switzerland is estimated at no 

 less than 582,000 horse-power, of which probably only 80,000 are at present 

 utilised. I found a year ago that nearly every large industrial concern in Switzer- 

 land was preparing to make use of water-power, transported a greater or less 

 distance. Besides the great schemes actually carried out at Schaffhausen, Belle- 

 garde, Geneva, and Zurich, where water-power is already utilised on a very large 

 scale, there is a project to develop 10,000 horse-power on the Dranse, near Martigny. 



Hence it is easy to see that problems of distribution of power — that is, the 

 transformation of energy into forms easily transportable and easily utilisable — have 

 now a creat interest for engineers. 



Besides the power required for manufacturing operations, there is a steadily 

 increasing demand for easily available mechanical energy in large towns. For 

 tramways, for lifts, for handling goods, for small industries, for electric lighting, 

 and sometimes for sanitation, power is required. Hitherto steam-engines, or more 

 lately gas-engines, have been used, placed near the work to be done. But this 

 sporadic generation of power is uneconomical and costly, especially when the work 

 is intermittent; the cost of superintendence is large, and the risk of accident 

 considerable. Hence attention is being directed to systems in which the mechanical 

 energy of fuel or falling water is first generated in large central, stations, trans- 

 formed into some form in which it is conveniently transportable and capable of 

 being rendered available by simpler motors than steam-engines. 



Just as in great towns it has become necessary to supersede private means of 

 water supply by a municipal supply ; just as it has proved convenient to distribute 

 coal-gas for lighting and heating, and to provide a common system of sewerage, so 



