IN HARNESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20365, 20 September 1929, Page 17

IN HARNESS.

JSIBANTIC POWER SCHEME.

OUTLAY OF FIVE MILLIONS.

END OF GREAT WORK IN SIGHT.

Monday, July 22, was a proud day for " ' p l9 »j«it ; 'OMpa'« and rolWgues in tfjp Irish Free Stale Government. Ha thro performed fbe ceremony of turning ,he waters of the River Shannon into ' tie vast, /intake canal, whence they will to turn the turbines at the power h'tmse nt Ardnacrusha. and thereby generate electricity for consumption over tha entire State for power and lightjig. / Tbis Shannon electrical scheme is admitted to be something really big aud ipectacular, indicating vision and energy in the vbungest Government in Europe, jmd if it/ is successful it will give Ireland a remarkable standing in the world. The "if" is important, bnt, says the Dublin correspondent of a London newspaper. it can be said at, once that no apprehensions of failure are felt, and ft v«rywbere. especially in official quarters, there is a quiet d-?termination that if success may not be commanded it shall at Jeast be 'deserved. President Cosgrave, on this auspicious occasion, •was accompanied by about 500 representatives, men and women drawn from ail plrts of tbfi Free State and from €Terv c la ?B of socWv. They were the guests of the State, and included the juembers.of Kith the Senate and the Pail, •Teprewniawves of the Institutions of Engineers and other technical bodies, the jjjjjverciiies, local authorities, beads of the larger trading establishments and commercial organisations, as well as mn-esentatives of all trade and labour ■Bsttereßts. ■ ;Tb« ceremony itself consisted of the formal opening oi the sluices admitting lift waters of the Shannon into the beadrace at O'Brien's Bridge after the entire tmdertaking had been blessed by Dr. Fogarty,/ the Catholic Bishop of Killaloe. in "whose diocese the works are located. Tie head-race, which is seven and a-ba.ll miles long, is 300 ft. wide and 50ft. deep. It iff w4fc intended to fill this gigantic waterway all at once, and the ceremonv did not mean that the production of current would b* immediately begun. It is. in reality, merely a gesture, indicating that an important phase in the undertaking bad been reached. A heart of Schedule Time. The water, it was proposed, should be admitted slowly, about one foot deep at * time, and thus the process would extend, perhaps, over a month. During the period si filling engineers were to watch the embankments carefully for possible defects in construction- Some months ago serious subsidences in the embankments were noticed. These were at a point where the foundations vrerc naturally soft and, as stated at the time, were sot unexpected. / It is probable that the actual production of current will have commenced before the end of the present year. It is understood that in some sections of the wari tie contractors are all ahead of j their scheduled tune, auvd in no section j is there any considerable Leeway to t>e , snncie up. j Those visitors to the Shannon works j en July 22 who hita not been there since the operations began were st racfi with the vast changes winch have been made. The Berlin contractors have been thorough in all they have dose. Not only have they introduced extensive machinery, and many strange implements, the Eke of ,which "had never previously been seen in Ireland, and planted whole colonies of workers all over the pjace, with schools and canteens, but they materially altered the configuration oi «a extensive area of country. Wbere hills formerly wete there are sow vast Sat areas, and new elevations stand yhere there were once quiet groves. TVatercourses which for centnnes rippled their way to swell the volume of the Shannon have been diverted, or nave disappeared altogether. All these changes involved tn some instances the blasting away of rock hundreds of feet in depth. *nd tbi» ■/removal of millions of tons of •arm. Current for the Eattra State. of tha new buildings, the main powerhouse ts the mo3t wonderful with its rrvastrive stonework and intricate equipment. . Concurrently with the work at Limerick, the erection of the cables arid transformer stations v.hicn will distribute the current over the entire Free State has been •teaddy going forward. The question of obtaining new consumers' of current, both for lighting and power is one of immediate importance, lor obviously it would be bad business to invest over £5-000.000 merely to supply tli« current which was already being produced by the numerous small municipal plants over the country. Many of these amailer 'undertakings were making bandItiffls profits for tbeir townships. In ttits connection there is to be reckoned tho potentialities of Mr. Dnmnm's indention of an electric storage battery, the patent rights in which have been nectnrd for the Government. Nothing, however, is known about U»3 invention, beyond a highly optimistic view expressed Home tjfine ago. Dublin scientists, however, say (hat such optimism is premature and unwarranted on the information available to tbem. If the optimism is rftisrateiy justified the invention will put. the success of the Shannon scheme beyond 1 any question of doubt.