AN ALL-ELECTRIC CITY

Otaki Mail, 21 September 1923, Page 3

AN ALL-ELECTRIC CITY

("Daily Mail's" New York Correspondent, j Compared witn England, .'lie Cm ••• S'utes is almost a servantleSs country; but ii is estiinated that every American Las at bis neck and cull tlie equivalent of forty horses in power supplied by steam, petrol, and electricity. In producing this some 800,000,000 tons ol coal are consumed yearly. Th« contribution of oil is probably grearer,But. in undeveloped water-power there are, accirding to tlie comput'ati'oti& of e.ngiueers, more than eighty millions of horse-power going to waste every year. The dream of the scientists is to harness this water to the industry of the country. They see the first extensive realisation of "his dream in the. 'announcement made a few days ago, from the headquarters of the great electrical interests at Schenectady, that work is about to be started on the the exploitation of the waters of the Columbia River in the State of Washington. The scheme aims at the mobilisation' of SOO.OOO h.p. in electricity. With this it is proposed to convert one hundred thousand acres oi harsh ana arid laud into flourishing farms; to run dozens of imrnen.se industrial plants : and to establish a large and branduriew city which shah b L - coalless and smokeless and spotlessly clean.

The site of this city of electricity 1 Priest Rapids. At ibis, the greatest water-powe site in the United States west of Ni? gara. there is to be constructed, fir> of all. at, an estimated expenditure c £6,000,000, the greatest darn in in world, not excepting the Assuan dai across the Nile. The dam will be tw miles long and ninety feet high. Sinmitsneouslv will be constructe the model electric city of the futun with houses for an initial pooulatio of 40.000 workers and factories witi out chimneys. "it is estimated thai the town wi cost £2,500,000. the electrical powf st at Ton £2.500.000. and the factorb another £4.250.000. Two of the industrial works to 1 thus established will be devoted • electro-chemical and electro-metal hi steal processes, the rights of whi( have been acquired from Europe. Tlw will require 150.000 h.p., Tt is proposed also to manufactu steel, abrasives, ferro-alloys, woo nulp' paper, cement, glass and V r tery.' anion? other thirty For Indvj try 400,000 h.p. wi!l be utilised: for 1 ligation and farr»in<r enter prises in new arid soil of incalculable r«-i-tiliT i 30n.000 h.p. oi seeori<"snrv energy.