118 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



under the exigencies of this dependence, as illustrated in the distribu- 

 tive use of coal. But now a command of the electrical principle 

 makes it possible to deal with energy freed from substance. This not 

 only concerns coal by providing the means for extracting the energy 

 at the point of production, instead of at the many points of use, to 

 the gain of efficiency and the saving of transportation ; but it applies 

 also to water power, a resource hitherto fallen into disuse because of 

 its inability to cope with coal, but reintroduced by electricity upon 

 more advantageous terms, to the practical gain of a new energy re- 

 source. In spite of the fact that electricity has been in common and 

 growing use in this country for many years, it has effected practically 

 no change in the basic conventions of coal usage and has led to the 

 development of a small fraction merely of the available water power. 



Since electricity has rehabilitated water power, thus making avail- 

 able two energy resources where there was only one before, it is desir- 

 able to determine the resource status of water power as compared 

 point for point with coal power, for the two are coming, of necessity, 

 into competition, and unless Avater power in its new habiliment can 

 stand on a reasonably equal footing the outcome of the competition 

 is bound to fall in favor of coal, as occurred before when steam power 

 drove hydraulic power to the wall. In which event water power, in 

 spite of its ethical advantages^ would have no special signficance for 

 the present. 



In respect to the size of the resource reinstated by electricity, there 

 can be no fault to find. Efforts to determine its magnitude have led 

 to estimates placing the possibilities of hydroelectric development 

 in the neighborhood of 200 million horsepower, of which some 50 

 million is capable of use without special provisions for storage.^ 

 Expressed in another manner, the water power of the United States, 

 converted to electrical energy, is more than capable of turning every 

 industrial wheel and illuminating every street and building in the 

 entire country. Also the resource is country-wide in distribution. 

 (See fig. 14.) The apportionment amongst the various sections is by 

 no means even, but the supply is more widely and equably spread 

 than is the case with the coal fields ; and the regions distant from the 

 sources of coal are all bountifully favored with water power. Thus 

 New England, the South Atlantic States, the Southwest, and the 

 Pacific slope, together embracing over half of the potential water 

 power of the country, are all practically without coal and bear testi- 

 mony to this complementary distribution of power resources. (See 

 Table, p. 119.) This balanced occurrence has considerable bearing 



• The discrepancies in the various attempts to inventory the water-power resources of 

 this country are due to several qualifying factors, notably that of storage. Since the 

 demand for power is commonly uniform the year round, the capacity Of a given site for 

 sustained eflTort Is determined by the period of minimum flow. Accordingly, storage pro- 

 visions doubling the flow merely during such periods will double the year-round capacity. 



