WATER POWER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10110, 4 October 1910, Page 4

WATER POWER.

At a time when we, in New Zealand, are talking of the possibilities of harnessing our rivers, it is significant that in America they are looking for something better than water power. A writer in the "Engineering News," published in New York, is of the opinion that the value of undevelop- . ed water power is to-day much less than it was fifteen or twenty years ago, the cause of this decrease in value being the reduction in the cost for which power can be developed by other prime-covers. While the electricians have been busy with long distance transmission, and the hydraulic engineers with water-wheels, development hag been going on in other prime-movers. The steam turbine on ~ie one hand and the internal combustion on" the other are, says the writer, the two machines which have well-nigh revolutionised the field of power development in the short score years since long-distance transmission brought water-power again into active development. A new rival has arisen to compete with the waterfall and the turbine, he asserts. This new rival is the internal combustion engine, and can : boast a larger number of users than any other prime-mover whatever. " For small power the gasoline-engine has practically rendered .the steamengine obsolete. For larger power the oil engine and the. gas engine using producer-gas are rapidly gaming in popular favour. "The IjOi

economy of such engines is so ex%.eJlent that the total cost of fuel i-or horse-power per annum is cut du.vv.. to a figure nearly as low as ;hat quoted for the highest-class stwimpower plants.. The smaller siziis of sueli engines are run almost w:Uir.s little attendance as an electric motor or a water-wheel. Thus the ow.aor of a small water-power privilege must meet the competition of those c ).v. paratively new forms of prima-.no; - ers, in considering what price his water-power is fairly worth.