Niagara Falls 



1877 



1877 SIEMENS, Sir Carl WiLHELM. Inaugural address; delivered at the 



Siemens annual general meeting of the iron and steel institute held in London, 



March, 1877. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.: Lambert. 1877. Pp. 12-13. 



Wasted Water Powers. 



Take the Falls of Niagara as a familiar example. The 

 amount of water passing over this fall has been estimated at one 

 hundred millions of tons per hour, and its perpendicular descent 

 may be taken at 150 feet, without counting the rapids, which 

 represent a further fall of 1 50 feet, making a total of 300 feet 

 between lake and lake. But the force represented by the prin- 

 cipal fall alone amounts to 16,800,000 horse-power, an amount 

 which if it had to be produced by steam, would necessitate an 

 expenditure of not less than 266,000,000 tons of coal per annum, 

 taking the consumption of coal at 4 lbs. per horse-power per 

 hour. In other words, all the coal raised throughout the world 

 would barely suffice to produce the amount of power that con- 

 tinually runs to waste at this one great fall. It would not be 

 difficult, indeed to realize a large proportion of the power so 

 wasted, by means of turbines and water wheels erected on the 

 shores of the deep river below the Falls, supplying them from 

 races cut along the edges. But it would be impossible to utilize 

 the power on the spot, the district being devoid of mineral wealth, 

 or other natural inducements for the establishment of factories. 

 In order to render available the force of falling water at this and 

 hundreds of other places similarly situated, we must devise a 

 * practicable means of transporting the power. . . . Time will 

 probably reveal to us effectual means of carrying power to great 

 distances, but I cannot refrain from alluding to one which is in 

 my opinion, worthy of consideration, namely, the electrical con- 

 ductor. Suppose water power to be employed to give motion to 

 a dynamo electrical machine, a very powerful electrical current 

 will be the result, which may be carried to a great distance, 

 through a large metallic conductor and then be made to impart 



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