A NEW SOURCE OF POWER 



939 



THE PASSING OF^ THE STEAM ENGINE 



Really it seems as though we had 

 come to the passing of the steam engine, 

 the maker of civilization, and that the 

 gas engine, the toy of yesterday, has 

 loomed upon the industrial horizon and 

 grown over-night into the giant of today. 

 Its appearance means not only an event- 

 ual saving in the country's coal bill 

 variously estimated at from $100,000,000 

 to $200,000,000 annually, but certainly a 

 wider distribution of industrial enter- 

 prises. 



_ The great reduction in the cost of 

 power production, made possible by the 

 use of the gas producer, Professor Fer- 

 nald says, means also rapid strides in 

 electrical development within the next 

 few years. Now that it is commercially 

 possible to transmit electrical power for 

 distances of 250 miles or more, the loca- 

 tion of immense power plants using 

 producer gas will speedily follow. A 

 central plant could distribute such elec- 

 tric current for a distance of 500 miles; 

 that is, 250 miles in all directions from 

 the plant, thus covering a territory of 

 probably 200,000 square miles — an area 

 nearly four times the size of Illinois. 

 With ten or a dozen of these great cen- 

 tral plants located at the various coal- 

 mining centers, the great railroads of 

 the United States could send their trains 

 speeding from the Atlantic to the Pacific 

 Coast. 



It would seem ridiculous to predict the 

 immediate doom of the steam locomo- 

 tive, Professor Fernald says ; yet one of 

 the officials of the New York Central 

 Railroad has publicly stated that within 

 10 years, in his opinion, there will be 

 no steam locomotives operating on the 

 New York Central road. Already the 

 New York Central has substituted elec- 

 tric for steam power on its lines from 

 New York city to a point about 40 miles 

 from the Grand Central Station, and it 

 is rumored that before long electric 

 trains will be running regularly on this 

 road from New York to Buffalo. 



These rapid changes are leading to one 

 end — the centralization of power devel- 



An aggregate of 50 feet of Lignite Strata, 

 lying between Dickinson and Medora, North 

 Dakota, a distance of 40 miles. 



opment and distribution. They point to 

 the time, and at no distant day, Pro- 

 fessor Fernald believes, when great 

 central plants will be located, at mine 

 centers, and the electric power will be 

 transmitted and distributed to railroads, 

 industrial plants, cities, and the various 

 institutions where electrical energy is 

 needed. The great railroads will operate 

 their trains by electricity, passengers and 

 the country-side will be freed from the 

 annoyance of smoke and cinders, while 

 disastrous forest fires caused by sparks 

 from locomotives will become a thing of 

 the past. 



