Judging from present reports, the internal heat of the earth may soon be utilized as a source of industrial power. Along these lines the British Association for the Advancement of Science is making a series of measurements of underground temperatures, and Prof. William Halleck, of Columbia College, New York, says the plan is feasible.

Recently, Prof. Halleck measured the temperature of some of the deep holes in the earth and found that there is a regular rise in temperature for every foot of depth, and in many regions intense heat is encountered at no great distance from the earth's surface. Learned men claim that the moment we obtain such power, the industrial map will be changed.

Some holes are 1,000 feet and others one mile in depth. Others are deep wells, which have been sunk in search of gas, oil, water, and even salt, which is found a mile below the surface in Silesia. In Cornwall a zinc mine, 3,000 feet deep, extends out under the bed of the ocean nearly a mile from shore. In fact, men are crawling toward the center of the earth at the rate of several hundred feet a year.

The greatest progress thus far has been made at Paruschowitz, in Silesia, where the deepest artificial hole is already 7,000 feet deep, or 400 feet more than a mile and a quarter.

In this country a comparison has been made of the temperature in the various wells or holes at Pittsburg, Wheeling, Calumet and Houghton, and the average temperature, at a depth of one thousand feet was found to be 128 degrees. In France the temperature in the coal mines at a depth of 3,600 feet is 117 degrees. In short, it is proved beyond doubt that although it varies in different localities, the heat of the earth grows gradually greater from the surface inward.

Upon this Prof. Halleck bases his argument for a new and universal source of power. Preparations are being made at Pittsburg and Wheeling for continued experiments along the line of belief that the earth's heat may be utilized for power, and the near future may contain some unlooked for surprises.

SAVING THE FORESTS
THE HABIT OF BEING LATE
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© 1998, 2002 by Lynn Waterman

A problem of vital importance presents itself to the American people in the preservation of its forests. For centuries, with the onward march of civilization, has been heard the sound of the ax, hewing away indiscriminately at the mighty trees of the country. While the damage from this onslaught has not been irremediable, nevertheless, some sections of formerly beautiful and valuable country present a sorry sight. The lesson has been learned in many places that the forest lands must be protected.

Several advantages of forest saving are apparent at once. If lumbermen chop away at our noble trees without plan or scientific knowledge, but a few years will pass until serious results will follow. In the first place a constant supply of lumber cannot be insured unless means are taken to prevent the felling of small trees, which are the beginnings of new forests. Without this young growth, future generations will be without lumber.

Inhabitants of sections which were formerly well-wooded and now stand stripped of their timber, have discovered to their sorrow that the irrigation of the soil, even in a fertile country, depends greatly upon the forests. However much the forests may affect the rainfall itself, they have a powerful influence in the distribution of its moisture. The regulation of the flow of streams is mainly insured by forests. The heavy masses of tangled roots and matted leaves of the forest lands collect the moisture, and hold it pent up for a long time.

This prevents great floods during spring thaws, and, conversely, prevents seasons of drouth by allowing this stored up water gradually to find its way to the brooks and rivers. Thus, streams valuable for water power are preserved in their natural volume, and economic purposes are subserved. Compare the wildly-rushing, muddy-stream, rolling in the spring through timber-stripped country, and the same stream dry, in the season when moisture is most needed in its valley for crop maturing, with that stream whose current is still regulated by kindly forests. This comparison has gradually become so effective that much good is resulting from it.

As the tide of improvements moves further westward, the problem of developing arid and waste lands is being studied more closely. In the great deserts, scientific irrigation is already turning desolation into a paradise. Agriculture in the West depends more and more upon the forests. In many sections moisture depends upon storage reservoirs. These often give way through the breaking of dams. This can be obviated, but many others are stopped up with silt. This latter evil has only one remedy, the forest. Even the irrigation ditches receive their water from streams whose sources are in great forest reserves. When it is considered that there are in this country nearly one hundred million acres of land, not yet under cultivation, which may be reclaimed by irrigation, and that this land will support twenty million souls, the possible benefit fit from the preservation of forests may be imagined.

The United States Government has taken a hand in this great work, congress having passed an act March 3, 1891, establishing national forest reserves. From President Harrison down, each successive executive has designated many acres of forest land to be set aside. In some instances in the West, these reserves constitute the greater part of the whole territory of the State. In the whole United States there still remain nearly 1,000,000 square miles of timber land. Under the careful direction of the General Land Office, the United States Geological Survey and the Division of Forestry of the United States Department of Agriculture, much may be done with this timber.

There has been something of a hue and cry, due largely to selfish interests, against the establishing of the reservations. On some of the great public lands, sheep-grazing is an important and valuable industry. These sheep often stray through the forests in huge droves, trampling down the young tree growth and hardening the soil. Ruin to the woodland often follows, and that in itself would prevent further grazing. But the sheep herders overlooked this feature and fought against the reserves, fearing the exclusion of their sheep. When the true value of preserving the timber land was understood, and it became known that sheep could be grazed in small herds, the movement progressed rapidly.

Fire alone, it is estimated, causes a loss of $50,000,000 a year to forests. In thickly timbered country this is little thought of, for what is plentiful is regarded cheaply. But the tremendous economical importance of this great national resource is being brought home to the many. In such States as are made up of treeless plains, timber must be had for building, else the onward march of civilization will cease.

The distribution of forests in general corresponds with that of rainfalls. The Pacific coast has perhaps the finest and heaviest timber in the world. It is not the oldest States that have the smallest forests. Those that border on the Atlantic coast, with the exception of one, have a wooded area of more than 36 per cent of their entire territory. Louisiana has 62 per cent; Alabama, 74 per cent, and Texas, 24 per cent; about two-thirds of the surface of the Gulf States (except Texas) is covered with timber. Iowa has only about 13 per cent, while North and South Dakota fall to 1 and 3 per cent, respectively. Nebraska has 3 per cent, and Kansas 7 per cent. These smaller yields are on the treeless plains. Toward the Rocky Mountains the timber grows heavier, and no States west of them have less than 10 per cent of woodland.

THE WORLD'S WATER POWER
UTILIZATION OF THE EARTH'S INTERIOR HEAT
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© 1998, 2002 by Lynn Waterman

Of recent years there has been great progress in the development of power from waterfalls. If the wasted waterfalls of the world were put to use driving electrical dynamos, sufficient power would be generated to supply the mechanical needs of the whole world. This fact has been recognized and a movement is now on foot in every direction to harness the wasted power.

Probably the greatest example of waterfall power is that at Niagara Falls. The chaining of the power of this great cataract is one of the most marvelous feats of mechanical engineering ever accomplished. A little more than ten years ago ground was broken for a tunnel which was to convey the waste water of the falls. To-day this same waste power generates more electricity than is produced under any other single roof in the world.

This great power house is over 450 feet long, the main portion of it covering a wheel-pit 179 feet deep and 19 feet wide. Near the bottom of this pit are 10 turbines, each of 5,000 horse power, and each connected by a steel tube 166 feet long to a generator in the power house above. Each generator is capable of developing 5,000 horse power; thus the plant has 50,000 horse power. The water which furnishes this power is carried by means of a canal that taps the Niagara River one mile above the falls. The normal depth of the water in this canal is 12 feet. From it the water is led by penstocks directly to the wheel pit, and as it rushes upward it turns the turbines. After having performed its work, the water passes through a tunnel or tailrace built 200 feet below Niagara Falls and empties into the lower river. This tunnel is lined with brick from end to end.

Another power house with a capacity of developing 55,000 horse power is also fed by this tunnel. A second wheel pit with eleven turbines has been constructed, thus generating 105,000 horse power at this station from the formerly wasted water power of Niagara Falls.

By courtesy of the Detroit Photographic Co. Some of the great mills that use Niagara's power.

The electricity thus developed is put to many uses. Formerly it was intended only to serve the city of Buffalo with power. This, however, proved a very small portion of the work that devolved upon the plant. The Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo was furnished with electricity for its marvelous electrical exhibits. Thus, no matter how beautiful or potent the effect of the presence of the electrical power at the exposition, trace it as one might, the source of the energy was found miles and miles away down at Niagara Falls, where, day and night, through all the season, the mighty turbines andmammoth generators were swirling at the rate of 250 revolutions per minute. To impress more fully the magic power of the falls it may be said it could not be duplicated if 600,000 men performed the hardest kind of physical labor. Yet the great current there flows on forever.

Moreover, the supplying of light to Buffalo and nearby towns and to the Exposition was merely a phase of the early work of this great power plant. Around the falls has grown up a veritable city, with industries which derive their power from this current. Many of these industries depend upon processes in which chemical action is the chief factor. It would be nothing uncommon to run a cotton mill by this power, for it would be simply a substitute for steam. But this tremendous power of electricity enables the development of a heat of marvelous intensity, and by the means of electrical furnaces in the neighborhood, a new substance called carborundum is manufactured. This substance is as hard as a diamond, and is used for abrasive purposes, displacing emery wheels, etc. Great quantities of this cheap electric current are also used to reduce copper by the process of electrolysis, and a similar principle follows in the production of bleaching powders, aluminum, and many other things which are making Niagara Falls famous.

Great power is also being developed from waste water at other places. Some of the most remarkable examples of sending power over long distances are found in the Western States. Late improvements have resulted in transmitting a current 150 miles across the Rocky Mountains. Many cases are on record where pipe lines and flumes wind in and out through the mountains for many miles, gathering up waste water which finally plunges over turbines to develop electricity. By this method fuel, which formerly had to be packed zig-zag across the mountains on the backs of burros, at a heavy expense, is dispensed with.

Work in the mountain mines thus can go on night and day in winter as well as summer.

Near Salt Lake City power is generated by canon water, which passes from one power house to another, and after operating goes on down to a third house.

Sacramento has power for its light and its trolley cars generated by the American River 20 miles away. Many other cities in the West get heavy currents at long distances, creeks being harnessed for this purpose. Rapids in many streams bring forth great power. Foreign companies have taken up the method, and send thousands of horse power many miles.

San Francisco is served with electricity generated in the Blue Lake region in California, 152 miles away. The waters of the Yuba River supply a current to Oakland, California, 145 miles away.

Victoria Falls, in Central Africa, will sometime be harnessed and experts say that enough power could be transmitted to run all the machinery in the gold mines for the next twenty years.

THE STUDY OF OTHER WORLDS
SAVING THE FORESTS
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© 1998, 2002 by Lynn Waterman