, 
a 
CXVIII. DISCUSSION. 
DISCUSSION ON A PAPER—HYDRO-ELECTRIO 
INSTALLATIONS.—(See p. LI.) 
By E. KILBURN SCOTT, Assoc. M.C.E., MLE.E. 
Mr. NORMAN SELFE said Mr. Kilburn Scott’s paper is so 
comprehensive that it suggests quite a number of points 
for consideration under both the hydraulic and the electrical 
aspects; leaving the latter to specialists, the only point to 
which reference will now be made is the possibility of 
utilising some of the immense amount of energy that is 
now or may in the future be lost in the operations of the 
present water supply of Sydney. The statement of the 
author of the paper that under the suggested Trawool 
scheme ‘10,000 HP. could be generated continuously the 
year round on a 24 hours’ run,”’ presents such extraordinary 
attractions to the engineer that one naturally wonders 
whether or not some sort of improvement is possible, under 
modern conditions, in our own water supply. Under the 
existing conditions the water is nearly all gathered at 
considerable elevation, and then wastes its latent energies 
in descending by open channels through several hundred 
feet of elevation to low level reservoir at Crown Street at 
141 feet, after which, in very large proportion, it is raised 
again by steam pumping to the other service reservoirs. 
The records show us that the original engineer of our 
present supply adopted “* gravitation in open channels ”’ as 
his motto, and that those who opposed him received very 
short shift at his hands (possibly deservedly at the time) 
in the discussion of their projects. Thirty years ago Mr. 
James Manning—who was largely inspired by the reports 
of Colonel Mendell, the engineer of the Water Commission 
of San Francisco—advocated the conservationof the Sydney 
water supply at high levels, and the use of steel tubular 
conduits, while Mr. F. B. Gipps proposed to store it at a 
much higher level than the Government proposal adopted. 
