out that solution of the fuel exhaustion difficulty will come through the utilization of our almost limitless water powers. The 230,800,000 horsepower which the Government hydrographers estimate may be developed on the streams and rivers of the United States is something like twenty times as great as the total power generated from steam in this country at this moment, and, even under the present limitations of transmission, every bit of it could be sent to some point where it could be put to practical industrial use. There is no sign of a 'power shortage' cloud as yet upon the world's industrial horizon." There is only one Victoria Falls of the Zambesi in the world, but there are three other great.cataracts which so completely surpass all the rest on the score of power available that they are entitled to be grouped with the stupendous African phenomenon which the natives call "The Smoking Waters." This quartette of great cataracts-Victoria, Niagara, La Guayra, and Iguassu-aggre gating something in excess of 60,000,000 horsepower, represent between them from five to seven per cent of the power of all the rivers of the world, the latter being estimated at from 850,000,000 to 1,200,000,000 horsepower. Niagara is the only one of the "Big Four" waterfalls whose power has been turned to practical use, this being due to the fact that it is situated in the very center of one of the most important of the world's industrial regions, whereas Victoria, La Guayra, and Iguassu are each separated by from 600 to 800 miles of wilderness from any points where extensive use could be made of their titanic energies. Although the height of Niagara Falls proper averages but little over 150 feet, the total available headfrom the intakes above the Falls to "The Devil's Hole" below, a distance of five miles-is 300 feet. The flow of the river is figured at 220,000 cubic feet per second, giving about 5,500,000 horsepower, which is about equal to the total water power development in the United States in 1910. The aggregate value of the products manufactured through the medium of power from Niagara Falls is estimated at $40,000,000 for the year 1913. Because there is use close at hand for all the power that will ever be developed at Niagara, the problem of long distance transmission has not seriously entered into the utilization of it. With the other three members of the great water-power quartette, however, situated, as they are, from 600 to 800 miles from the nearest industrial centers, their economic usefulness hinges upon transmission alone. It is an interesting coincidence that the falls of La Guayra and Iguassu, both of which are believed to be of greater power than Niagara, are situated within scarcely a hundred miles of each other, on or near the Paraguayan-Brazilian boundary. Southerly transmission lines of from 600 to 800 miles in length would carry the power of either to Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rosario, and the whole industrial region of the Rio Plate, while lines the same distance to the east and north would reach Santos, Sao Paulo and many other cities in the Brazilian province of the latter name. As there is already a considerable amount of hydroelectric power available in this latter region, the Rio Plate becomes the logical market for the power from both La Guayra and Iguassu. As the country in the vicinity of both of these great South American falls has been scarcely explored, to say nothing of being surveyed, neither of them has been accurately observed. Iguassu is located on the river of the same name but a few miles above its junction with the Parana. The salto itself is much broken, and is made up of many large and small falls, ranging in height from 100 to 175 feet. The average height of the abrupt portion of the falls is probably less than that of Niagara, but tremendous rapids above and below make it likely that in fifteen miles a much greater head is available than at the latter. As the mean flow of Iguassu cannot be much less than that of Niagara, it is probable that the estimate of an Argentine engineer who placed the available horsepower at 10,000,000 is not excessive. La Gran Salto de La Guayra is second in volume only to Victoria among the great falls of the world, for the Parana, principal tributary of the Plate, is one of the mightiest of rivers. This cataract is really a succession of stupendous cascades, seven miles in length, with the main drop occurring at the rim of an irregular cliff, the height of which varies from fifty to one hundred feet. With a fall of 400 feet in ten miles, and a flow estimated at from 300,000 to 350,000 cubic feet per second, it is not improbable that the energy of La Guayra is conservatively figured at 12,000,000 horsepower. Although almost as far from the nearest extensive power market as La Guayra and Iguassu, the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi are not nearly so isolated as the great South American cataracts. But the power of Victoria cannot find a market that would justify even the beginnings of development nearer than the Transvaal, 600 miles distant as the crow flies. The fact that coal was abnormally high and the demand for power heavy in this greatest of the world's gold fields, led to the formation of the Victoria Falls Power Company eight years ago, a concern whose object was to furnish the. Transvaal with electrical energy generated at the great cataract. European engineers were skeptical of the success of a 600-mile transmission, but an American Ralph D. Mershon of New Yorkelaborated a scheme, upon the success of which he was ready and anxious to stake (Continued on page 120) OUR TWELVE GREAT SCIENTISTS XI. DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN This article is the eleventh in the series, "Our Twelve Great Scientists". As has been previously explained, twelve names, representing men who are considered the greatest American scientists, were selected by a thousand of their colleagues. This vote was taken at the special request of the Editors of TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE. Sketches of Prof. A. A. Michelson, Dr. Alexis Carrel, Colonel G. W. Goethals, Dr. Wm. C. Gorgas, Dr. Simon Flexner, Thomas Alva Edison, Prof. George Ellery Hale, Alexander Graham Bell, Dr. Jacques Loeb, and Dr. Theodore William Richards have been given in previous issues.-The Editors. H AD Dr. David Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford University, been less of a scientist, the breadth and depth of his human sympathies might have made of him a great revolutionary leader of thought and action. From a union of his penetrating biological observations with the strong human sympathies of his heart sprang his smashing attacks upon war and the war-makers. He began his war upon war twenty years ago, at a time when the alternation of peace and bloodshed was considered as natural a phenomenon as the succession of sunshine and rainand as necessary and inevitable. Only a few voices had been lifted against mass slaughter, and these voices cried out loudly against the horrors and the misery attendant upon war. Dr. Jordan's chief interest was directed at the biological after-effects of war; at the size of the fearful bill Mars continues to collect, century after century, from the warlike races. Entirely disregard ing the emotional appeal, he studied the effect of war upon the progress the human race makes through selection and heredity. The conclusions he drew from these studies caused him to make the fight against war the principal work of his later years. He did not base his campaign upon moral, religious, or sentimental grounds; he drew his conclusions from the demonstrated facts concerning the effect of war upon race degeneration. He did not hesitate to compare races of men with herds of cattle and horses whose strongest, best-developed specimens were slaughtered, leaving the runts and scrubs to carry on the reproduction of the breed. Dr. Jordan, flouting the catch phrase of pseudodemocracy, built the keystone of his campaign upon the fact that men are not born equal. Speaking of Millet's "Man with the Hoe", of the Norman peasant, low-browed, heavy-jawed, "brother to the ox", he takes direct issue with Edwin Markham's sentimental description of his origin. Says the scientist, in "The Human Harvest", his anti-war book: |