An Outline of the Development and Application of the Energy of Flowing Water

Abstract

WATER-POWER, as developed in waterfalls, has been brought prominently into notice in recent years as an important source of power, owing to the facilities afforded by electricity of transmitting it to a distance; so that a small portion of the Niagara Falls and numer- ous minor falls have been utilised for supplying power economically for electric lighting, traction, and other purposes, to places many miles distant from the falls. The author, however, of this volume desires to direct attention to the more widespread sources of water-power contained in streams and rivers, which can be utilised either by taking advantage of the natural fall by means of suitable works, or by storing up the flow in flood-time in reservoirs formed by constructing dams across the higher parts of river valleys; and the water thus collected can be converted directly into power by using the available fall below the dam, which, however, is reduced in proportion as the water-level of the reservoir is lowered, or it can be employed in supplementing the discharge of the river below the dam during its low stage, so that the flow when used for driving hydraulic motors may never fall a definite volume. The author points out that whereas in recent times water-power has been to a great extent superseded by steam-power, owing to the cheap-ness of fuel and improvements in steam engines, timber has already become much less plentiful in the United States, and even coal will in time be exhausted; whilst sources of water-power will always remain, and have already become more available by the adoption of elec-trical transmission, which in its turn has led to many notable developments and improvements in the utilisation of power. Undoubtedly vast sources of power produced by the sun's heat are continually running to waste in rivers and streams, as evidenced by the estimate quoted by the that the power derivable from the St. Lawrence and its tributaries is nearly equal to that obtainable from all the coal raised yearly in the United States. The difficulty consists in rendering this power economically available, for a high fall and a regular flow furnish the efficient source of water-power; whereas the fall of rivers is, for the most part, moderate and spread over long distances, and their flow very variable, more especially in the upper part of their course, where the fall is the greatest. It is, therefore, quite natural that waterfalls have been resorted to as a source of water-power, and for transmission to a distance, especially where they occur at some distance from the source of a river, and consequently possess a more regular flow; whereas the utilisation of the more ordinary flow of rivers, except for local purposes, seems destined to have to wait till a considerable increase in the price of fuel and the absorption of the most advantageous sources of water-power render it necessary to tur to less economical supplies. Where a river has a rapid fall for a considerable distance it may be quite practicable to develop largely its available water-power, by regulating its flow by the construction of a reservoir by means of a dam of moderate height across the upper part of its valley, so as to render its discharge always adequate to actuate turbines placed at suitable points along its course.

An Outline of the Development and Application of the Energy of Flowing Water.

By Joseph P. Frizell. Pp. vii + 563. (New York: John Wiley and Sons. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1901.)