LONG POWER LINES EXPECTED TO WEB WORLD IN FUTURE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6863, 19 March 1929, Page 10

LONG POWER LINES EXPECTED TO WEB WORLD IN FUTURE

GERMAN ENGINEER POINTS OUT THAT NOW IT IS ONLY COST THAT HOLDS IT DOWN. Economic consideration alone now place limits on the long-distance transmission of power, for technical difficulties arc so mastered that energy can be transferred over almost unlimitdistances, says Herr Eeinhold Eudenberg, chief electrical engineer of the Sieinens-Shuckert Works in Berlin. Herr ltudenberg, honorary professor at the Tcchniscko Hochschule, in Gharlottcnburg, who is conducting a lecture series at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes that such comparatively undeveloped, countries as China and Alaska will sec immense use of energy sent by cable across great spaces. Even in the present industrial countriesv Herr Rudenberg said, the future should see many power plants located near the mouth of coal mines or hydroelectric developments and energy sent by cable rather than potential energy by railroad. The principal considerations, he added, arc tho possession of a sufficiently large block of power to transmit, and a market paying reasonable prices at the other end. There is a definite reason for more application not having been made in this line, it was explained. A large body, of coudensing water must be available. A good sized river is necessary to cool the condensers, it was said, with added explanation that the temperature of the East River in New York is actually raised by such activities.

“Becauso of such considerations,” Herr Rudenberg said, '“it is often cheaper to-day to transmit potential energy by train or ship over long distances. But the future may well see

this order reversed, certainly in those countries where a power transmission lino may traverse sections where the building of a railroad would be impossible. Cables may go where railroads cannot, and certainly they can go cheaper. “Intense study is being mado in Germany and at Pittsburg, Schenectady and in the Tennessee mountains of how best to protect transmission lines from interferences such as lightning. A theory is being developed in this regard, and is now coming successfully into use."