WONDERS OF "WHITE COAL."

Cromwell Argus, Volume L, Issue 2648, 17 November 1919, Page 7

WONDERS OF "WHITE COAL."

THE WORLD'S WORK DONE BY WATER. Britain owes her industrial position to her supply of good black coal ; she may lose it by failing to take advantage of her "white coal." A typical instance of this wonderful driving force is supplied by the harnessing of the Puyallup River at the Paget Sound power-station. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains from a glacier 1-I,oooft. above the Pacific. A flume ten miles long and Bft. square carries the water over the power-station, and eight steel pipes, called penstocks, 6ft. wide at the top and 3ft. at the bottom, suddenly drop this water 1,730 ft. on to the mighty dynamos. POWER FROM NIAGARA.

And what does all this do ? It lights and heats the cities of Settle and Tacoma and practically runs every wheel in every workshop and mine.

Besides Pugct Sound there arc in the Rockies dozens of other powerstations now established, and the wires that stretch from them, carrying giant strength from the roaring penstocks to hundreds of factories and mines, pass from post to post, sometimes making spans of 2,000 ft. across prodigious gorges. One of the first waterfalls to be thus utilized as a source of driving power was Niagara itself. Although but a'hundredth part or less of the stupendous power of the falls is harnessed, yet it does the work of 4,000,000 horses, providing light, heat, and power to cities like Buffalo and Longport, and a hundred other, townships in a radius of 150 miles. Minneapolis and St. Paul, the greatest flourmilling centres in the world, have raised the old mill-wheel of the countryside to its highest power by harnessing the upper waters of the Mississipi. The falls of St. Anthony account for these twin towns and are the source of all their power. WATER INSTEAD OF COAL. Even where plenty of coal of the black and smoky variety is to be had, as in the New England States, America has preferred to use clean water, and tens of thousands of looms and spinning frames in Fall River, Manchester, Lowell, Lewiston, and other New England towns are run' by water-power generating electricity. The Victoria Falls on the Zambezi <7ere discovered by Livingstone, and already they are turning machinery and lighting cities. It is estimated that there is enough waste cnergy running there every day to run half the machinery oF the world, for the falls arc 2,000 yards -wide and 450 ft. deep.

It would be a queer turn of for6une's . wheel if countries like Norway and Switzerland were to become the manufacturing centres of Europe. Yet stranger things have happened ; Sussex was . once the centre of the British iron trade. Electric lighting is almost universal in Norway by reason of its countless waterfalls ; the smallest villages in Switzerland are similarly blessed, whilst the large towns of Geneva has harnessed the Rhone to provide power for tramways, factories, and lighting. BRITAIN'S OPPORTUNITIES. There is enough water-power in the famous dales of Yorkshire to run all the woollen mills in the West Riding whilst the waterfalls and mountain torrents of Furness could spin all Lancashire's cotton. Then think of the source of power which lies in the countless streams of mountainous Wales, of the lovely

Lake District of Cumberland, and in the Highlands of Scotland. Famous beauty spots do not need to be touched, for most of the rivers rise high and their early courses are precipitous, and these are the conditions necessary for the development of water-power. Certainly a country which has engineered the mighty dam at Assouan, and the wonderful waterworks which supply Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, need not be left behind in this race to utilize the "white coal" of the world, and thus be independent of the day when the black diamonds will all be burned. —"TitBits."