This would be a plan for the wedding of the stream and the mine, the
white coal with the black. "White coal" they call it in imaginative
France, this tumbling water which is converted into so many forms; and a
much cleaner, handier kind of coal it is than its black brother. And
cheaper, for the water goes on to return again and fall once more and
forever into the pockets of the turbine which whirls the dynamo and so
gathers or releases that mystery which we name but never define.
Farsighted, purposeful Germany fought four and a half years upon the
strength of great power plants run by the snows of the Alps. She did not
rely on these alone for power, nor were they her main reliance, but they
gave her a lasting power which otherwise she would not have had. And we
may expect her to improve on that war-time experience for the conduct of
the hard fight she is to make in the industrial field. France saved
enough territory from the invader to permit her to make new adventures
into this field and so to some degree offset the coal loss of Lens.
Italy found that she had still left unused opportunities for
hydroelectric development sufficient with the coal she could secure from
England and America to see her through the war. And with coal conditions
as they are in Europe we may expect a still greater push to make use of
water power to turn the industrial wheels of peace. It must be so
likewise here.
And it is likely that the long-pending power bill which will make
available the dam and reservoir sites on withdrawn public lands and
make feasible the financing of many projects on both navigable and
unnavigable streams will soon have become law. We shall then have an
opportunity that never before has been given us to develop the
hydroelectric possibilities of the country. And this raises the question
as to their extent.
The theoretical maximum quantity of hydroelectric power that can be
produced in the United States has recently been estimated by Dr.
Steinmetz, who calculates that if every stream could be fully utilized
throughout its length at all seasons, the power obtained would be
230,000,000 kilowatts (320,000,000 horsepower). It is clear that only a
fraction of this absolute maximum can ever be made available. The
Geological Survey estimates that the water power in this country that is
available for ultimate development amounts to 54,000,000 continuous
horsepower.
The census of 1912 showed that the country's developed water power was
4,870,000 horsepower, about 9 per cent of the maximum power available
for economic development and less than 2 per cent of the total that may
be supplied by the streams as estimated by Dr. Steinmetz. According to
the census, stationary prime movers representing a capacity of more than
30,000,000 horsepower, furnished by water, steam, and gas, were in
operation in the United States in 1912. (This amount does not, of
course, include power generated by locomotives, marine engines,
automobiles, and similar mobile apparatus.) The average power furnished
by these stationary prime movers was probably not more than 20 per cent
of their installed capacity, so that the power produced in 1912 was
equivalent to probably not more than 6,000,000 continuous horsepower.
As the estimated available water power given above represents continuous
power the country evidently possesses much more water power than it now
requires, so that there would be an ample surplus for many years if the
power were so distributed geographically that it could be economically
supplied to the industries that need it. But as a matter of fact the
water-power resources of the country are by no means evenly distributed.
Over 70 per cent of the available water power is west of the
Mississippi, whereas over 70 per cent of the total horsepower now
installed in prime movers is east of the river. Therefore unless the
East is to lose its industrial supremacy it must press and press hard
for the development of all water-power possibilities!