giving an available head of twenty-three feet, and three thousand horse-power is secured. On the Stanilaus river, California, is a stream running three hundred cubic feet per second-one-fourth as much as the Albany water-but with a fall of fifteen hundred feet, and the power obtained equals 25,000 horsepower-over eight times as much as the Albany power. These high heads in mountain streams are, however, usually secured only by the construction of ex

pensive flumes. The stream is dammed high up the range and led into a timber or steel flume; thus, instead of wasting its energy by trickling down the mountain side, it is conducted by an easy grade to some cliff at the foot of the range where the entire drop is made available at one time.

Some of these flumes are from twenty to thirty miles in length. They cross valleys and canyons upon great trestle works. They circle the sides of mountain.

spurs and, in many cases, tunnel through them. Usually they are simply square troughs constructed of heavy planks, but, as they approach the power-house where the flow becomes rapid and the pressure great, steel pipes are used.

The water-wheels used in these great hydro-electric plants are fine illustrations. of the readiness with which American engineers and manufacturers adapt them-selves to new conditions. Until electricity furnished means of transmitting power over great distances, water-power was confined to the very narrow limits of individual users, and the wheels were, consequently, of very small power. Today, however, turbines of from five to ten thousand horse-power are by no means uncommon. At Niagara Falls there are four turbines, which develop nearly fifteen thousand horse-power each, and which are, probably, the largest in the world. An article in the Philadelphia Record referring to these turbines, says: "The building of these machines marks another epoch in the country's history, because their design, as well as their manufacture, is wholly

American, and all the engineers and workmen concerned are American and graduates of American schools and shops, though the work is being done-for a company in a foreign nation-Canada-and the contract was awarded against the competition of the largest builders all over the world."

Such a wheel as this is a giant, not only in power but in stature. Its weight is 620,000 pounds for the turbine alone, the electric generator being a separate machine, although directly connected to the turbine shaft. A monster like this, doing the stupendous work of fifteen thousand horses, requires much water. It is supplied by a pipe eleven feet in diameter, through which a solid column of water flows, at the rate of ten feet per second.

These great wheels are known as reaction wheels, and are generally used only when the height of the water is not very great. For high heads, particularly in the western mountains, the impulse wheel is generally used. This is very much smaller than the re-action type, but what it lacks in size it makes up in speed-the necessity for this lying in the

The Snoqualmie Falls, near Seattle and Tacoma, are about sixty feet in height, and machinery has been installed to develop ten thousand horse - power. This power is running the trolley cars at Seattle which carry forty million passengers yearly. It runs the cars at Puget Sound, carrying over one million passengers yearly between Seattle and Tacoma, and it also operates the Seattle and Renton railway with twelve hundred thousand passengers yearly.

It grinds over twelve thousand bushels of wheat daily; treats 750 tons of ore daily at the Tacoma smelter; furnishes power for the largest iron works in the Northwest; for the metropolitan press of Seattle; for the Washington Shoe Company, and for the American Steel and Wire Company. It runs scores of small industries in Tacoma and Seattle; it supplies the entire city lighting of Tacoma, and it furnishes power and light to Renton, Kent, Puyallup, Sumner, Swansea, Issquah and Auburn.

fact that water coming from a height of six, eight, or ten hundred feet comes very rapidly and must be taken care of.

It is but very recently that the world has awakened to the latent possibilities of usefulness in many apparently insignificant streams. A review of what one comparatively small plant is doing in Washington shows a surprising amount and diversity of utility from this power.

And yet, that mysterious and mighty power glides silently into those cities, over small wires from one of the most beautiful falls on the coast-the home of another Menuhkesen.