POWER. 139 



much larger portion of the country may be served with power on 

 terms of equality than is now the case. Thus can power be turned 

 away, in considerable measure, from its present dangerous facility in 

 accentuating diversity of economic interest and made to contribute to 

 the nationalization of industrial opportunity. 



But just as coal contains valuable commodities as well as stored- 

 up energy, so electricity is not merely a convenient form of power, 

 but is a new and profoundly important chemical agent as well. In 

 this sense electricity represents a fresh industrial factor which is just 

 beginning to come into play and bids fair to make for itself a master 

 range of activity. Electricity, then, is not only capable of distribut- 

 ing industrial opportunity; it is competent at the same time of in- 

 finitely enlarging the scope of industrialism. The opportunity in 

 this direction is so significant and has so recently become apparent 

 that the field merits a close view in connection with the whole matter 

 of power supply. 



This field of special electrical service, in contradistinction to the 

 application of electric energy as a motive force, is covered by the term 

 " electrochemistry," which is the art of applying electrical energy to 

 the furtherance of chemical operations. The aptness of electricity 

 for this purpose has proved so great that in scarcely more than a 

 decade there has developed a large number of electrochemical indus- 

 tries, in addition to a growing range of superior adaptions in estab- 

 lished industries and in the realm of metallurgy, with the setting up 

 of a new branch of the latter known as electrometallurgy. Thus 

 electrochemistry has not only facilitated ordinary industrial activi- 

 ties in many directions; it has opened an unbounded territory never 

 before traversed by industry. 



The facility of electricity in this new realm is due to its capacity 

 for generating heat under conditions open to exact control, over 

 high temperatures not attainable by fuel combustion, and in absence 

 of gases, together with the exertion of a chemical force of decompo- 

 sition independently or in conjunction with the heating efi'ect. Thus 

 electrochemistry operates through its dissociating efi'ect upon solu- 

 tions and melts, a process technically called "electrolysis"; through 

 discharges in gases; and by means of electric furnaces. Upon.these 

 operations depend the manufacture of alkalis, chlorine, atmospheric 

 nitrogen, graphite, artificial abrasives, and calcium carbide; the pro- 

 duction of aluminum and many of the steel-hardening metals; and the 

 refining of gold, silver, and copper — to mention merely the most con- 

 spicuous attainments of the electrochemical art. 



The achievements of electrochemistry to date are to be credited 

 mainly to the region around Niagara Falls and to foreign countries, 

 especially the latter. Elsewhere in the United States there are rela- 

 tivelv few electrochemical activities. Such as have been established are 



