1919 .] 
Reviews and Abstracts. 
63 
both the ‘ net output ’ per operative employed and the standard rates of 
wages are higher. The greater speed of machine tools, and their control 
during effective and ineffective parts of any particular operation, enable 
not only a larger return to be obtained upon the capital invested, but 
also enable the operator to produce more in a given time. Electric power 
has a great advantage in its facility of application, range of speed, &c., 
possessed by no other form of power. The provision and utilization of 
cheap power is one of the best methods for enabling increased wages to 
be earned, while its more extended use, assuming it be produced cheaply, 
assists the manufacturer to meet increasing cost of labour.” 
Page 7, clause 23 :— 
“ Our land is not favoured by immense available water-power, as in Canada, 
the United States, Norway, and elsewhere, but, having in view the volume 
and comparative concentration of our industries, which will enable losses 
in transmission of electricity to be minimized, there is every reason to 
believe that with well-situated modern generating-stations, based upon 
coal as fuel, and by the pooling and centralization of electrical generation, 
we shall be able to compete with many places where water-power is used, 
and at least to equal in cheapness of power most of our foreign manu¬ 
facturing competitors.” 
Page 7, clause 24 :— 
<• We have been impressed by the evidence placed before us in regard to the 
North-east Coast system. The costs of the electricity delivered over this 
wide area bear out in practice the contention as to the advantages to be 
gained by centralization of the control of generation and main trans¬ 
mission over large areas. There are instances in the country of low costs 
in small areas where the load is very concentrated, but the object to be 
kept in view is not merely to have exceptionally low costs in one or two 
small and specially favoured spots, but rather to have the same or lower 
costs available over wide industrial areas.” 
Page 16, clause 86 :— 
“■ The economy in fuel which would result from combined generation of 
electricity has been dealt with at length in the report of the Coal Con¬ 
servation Sub-Committee. They say, ‘ If the coal so saved were used 
for the production of further power, it would be possible to generate con¬ 
tinuously not less than 15,000,000 horse-power, which would more than 
compensate for the absence of large water-powers in this country and admit 
of the manufacture here of many products which are at present only made 
in America and on the Continent ’ (p. 5, para. 10).” 
Page 16, clause 86 :— 
“ The Electrical Trades Committee in their report state that the national 
advantages to be gained from a well-planned scheme of reconstruction will 
be inestimable. They say, ‘ The items which are capable of reasonable 
calculation, such as saving in fuel, reduction in factory costs, and increased 
output, will together represent not less than £100,000,000 per annum ’ 
(p. 6) ; and again, ‘ Witnesses of high authority estimate the loss incurred 
by the nation through failure to take full advantage of electrical progress 
at not less than £100,000,000 a year, a loss preventable by concentrating 
generating under improved administration.’” 
It should be noted that notwithstanding the abundance of coal in Great 
Britain the need of economizing coal is stressed by the committee, and the 
startling conclusion is arrived at that the coal which could be saved by 
generating power in a number of large well - selected centralized power- 
stations on a comprehensive national system instead of under the present 
haphazard system would be sufficient to generate continuously as much 
as 15,000,000 horse-power. It should be noted also that the committee 
recommend the acquisition of water-rights by the Electricity Commissioners 
whom it is proposed to appoint. 
The method of control is rather a complicated one, but this is due to 
the necessity of co-ordinating a large number of interests which are already 
in existence and created on a local rather than on a national scale. 
E. P. 
