TIIF, OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: AUOl'RT 2X 1009.
Power Derived From Victoria Falls Will Work the Rand Gold Mines
Ccpyrlght 19r- r Frank O. Carpenter.
ICTORIA FALLS.-fSperlal Cor-
VI rmnondrncc or The Bee.) Tne
I financial arrangements for hr-
n.o9t2ll If sr Aim,,
Zambesi have been completed.
Within the past few months a
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London syndicate ha been formed, with a
paid-up capital of $15,000,ono, and sufveya are
now making for the Installation of one of
the greatest electrical plants of the world.
The various power companlei of the Rand
have been purchased, and the new syndi
cate practically controls the power possibili
ties of Bouth Africa. The works which It
has In operation about Johannesburg; and la
the gold mines will psy soemthlng like WOO,
000 a year above their operating expenses,
and It Is planned to transmit the enormous
force of Victoria Falls by wire, not only
to tho Transvaal, but everywhere within a
radius of (00 miles from this point.
Five Times as CJreat as Mascara.
I have already written of the beauty and
grandeur of Victoria Kails. They surpass
Niagara In their scenic effects, and the
engineers claim that they surpass It also
.in the mighty force with which these
millions tons of water drop down upon the
rocks. They fall with a thunder like that
of artillery. The noise can he heard ten
miles away, and the spray on a bright
day goes up to a height of 1,200 feet in
clouds or pillars of mint which are visible
for fifty miles around.
As to the exact force of the falls, this
is a matter of scientific calculation The
engineers claim that they have, a possi
bility of j&OuO.OOO horsepower. The possi
bilities at Niagara are put at 7,000,000; and
If these figure are correct tho Victoria
Falls as a warklnj force are five times
as great as our own. Not only the falls
themselves, but the descent of the river
through forty miles of gorges mny possibly
be utilized. At any rate theru Is no doubt
that they have here a force greater than
all the dennnds that can b created for
many yeurs to come, and that it may be
used for the building up of an industrial
empire which will affect tho whole of this
ait of the continent.
Thirty-five .Million IlorscpoTrcr.
Have vou any conception as to what
E6,OJ0.00O horsepower means? If the total
fall of Niagara could be used It would
equal the latent power of ilOAO tons of coal
every Jay. This power here, at the same
rate, would dally equal the force of l,uuo,000
tons of coal, so that, fl.juratlve.lv speaking,
l.OfiO.WO tons of black diamonds are dropplre
down In this gorge every twenty-four hours.
In other words, the Victoria falls every two
weeks supply an energy cuual to that of
the yearly coal output of the slate of Ala
bama; and In one year, If their volumne
were the same from season to season, they
would almost equal the forco contained in
all the coil mined in the United Stutes in
that year. Our total product of coal Is now
J75,O0O.COOO tons per annum.
Whether these enormous figures are cor
rect or not Is of little matter. The possi
bilities are bevond any demand. The horse
power now irj use in the Transvaal is less
than 3C0,0i)0, and all that we have developed
at Niagara Is not quite two-thirds as large.
This present syndicate plans to start out
with 50.000 horsepower, and it will have a
260,000 horsepower within not many years.
How the FnTIsWIU De I'sed.
During my stay here I have gone with
the officials of the British South Africa
company to the propoatd power station,
and to the northern bank of the river
above the falls, where the canal will be
dug which will take the water and drop
It Into the turbines. At some dkiauce
above the falls the Zambesi Is two miles
wide. It narrows to a mile before It
reaches the great gorge Into which It
goes In one mighty drop of 400 feet. The
falls are as wide as from the treasury
to the capltol In Washington, and the
water Jumps straight down for a dis
tance of 400 feet. By means of the canal
now projected the drop will be only 3:0
feet; and the water will pour Into ten
great turbines, each of which will gen
erate 1,0(0 horsepower, making 6m horse
power at the first installation. The
machinery used is to be Just this same
as is now employed at Niagara,, and ono
of the chief engineers conneelod with t lie
Construction is a man who has put up
works nt Niagara. This Is Mr. Ralph 1)
Wershon of New York, n well known au
thority on the transrn'sjlon of electricity
at high tension. Mr. M-rshon has said
that there is no doubt that this power can
be carried for a distance of 6H miles, and
he rpeaks of the scheme ua practical and
profitable.
Among the other Europ-an authorities
who have investigated It are Prof, irion
del of Tails, Dr. TliS'.t of Ila-l- and Prof.
Kllngenbrrg of Berlin. I em told that
Lord Kelvin made a careful Investigation
of !t and that the chiof Oernun electrical
works are interested, and that they will
supply some of the machinery.
Carri-lns; Klectrirltjr ( Miles.
The scheme involves the car-ying of the
Juice, or electrical current, for a distance
of 6W miles, and it Is prnpotel to corn
struct a line that long from here to the
gold mines of the Transvaal for the first
Installation. This, I much farther tnan
power has yet been carried in our or any
other country. We are wo-klng plants
more than half that fur In California.
There are tramway In O:khind which
get their elect rlety from water powers
14) miles away, and there are certain
stations served ly the California Gas
and Klectrlc company at a distances of
S5J miles. If this plttnt succeeds It rtlll
result In the power of Niagara Falls
being carried to far beyond Chicago, and
to its utilisation In New York. Boston,
Washington, Cincinnati. Indianapolis and
throughout the mighty IndiistriHl beehive
wivth Is inclosed within a 600-mlle radius
it Iiuflalo.
A t.Mirnu Wires and Steel Toners.
v- ' now planned, the power will be
e ' through aluminum cables as big
ii .o.. as a man's wrln. and these will
! supported by great steel towers sixty
t ' Huh. Each tower'will weigh In the
r ' : Lh r'.iood of 1.000 pounds. It will be
lnV'd In a cement foundation and will
l e.rade about six times as strong as the
vic'fci't of the cables and Insulators scorns
to demand. An experimental tower was
nvntly made In Scotland and tested.
Tl'ls tower Is much like some which are
nnv.- used In the t'nited 8tates. It looks
like those used for windmills, and is sixty
feet high. Fach tower wi'.t probably carry
several cables. The Insulators will be of
porcelain and will weigh from fifty to
seventy-five pounds each. The cables will
be made of aluminum wire, with a large
number of strands to each cable. The tow
ers will be erected 1,000 feet spart, and it
will take in the neighborhood of I.Oou of
them to reach from here to the Transvaal.
It Is probable that there will be a much
less loss of power on account of tha wires
being so high In the air, and the scientists
claim that the percentage of waste during
tha transmission will be exceedingly small.
They say tbat they can probMbly send the
electricity at a pnatsure of 1W.000 volts,
which Is much greater, as I understand It,
than bat yet been attained by any working
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QORQE OF THE ZAMBKBI BELOW PICTORIA FALLS.
MAP OF TERRITORY TO BE SERVED WITH POWER FROM THE ZAMBESI. r
plant In the United States. The current Is
sent at a voltage of 60,000, and this Is two
and one-half times that.
In the Znmhesl ;ore.
One of the remarkable features of the
falls here is the mighty gorge Into which
the floods pour. This gorge Is over forty
miles long, and the wster within It falls
so rapidly that on enormous power can be
developed outside tho falls themselves.
Within, fifteen miles there is a fall of 700
feet; and a l.COO-foot fall could be made
within about twenty miles. Indeed, It Is
salj that a canal, which would cost com
paratively little to construct, could be bo
made that It would develop 1,000.000 horse
power. This is almost four times as much
as the total horsepower now used In the
Transvaal.
As to the utilisation of the power to be
developed by Victoria falls, it will com
prise the greater part of south-central
Africa. Victoria falls is Just about 0j
miles from Belra on the Indian ocean. It
is a Uttlo fore than 600 miles from Johan
nesburg and a like distance from the great
copper mountains of the Kongo Free State.
Within that radius would come more than
1,000 miles of the Cape to Cairo railroad, all
of the 2,000 miles of the railroads of Rho
desia and a large portion of the mines of
the Transvaal. It would comprise hun
dreds of small gold mines in Rhodesia and
tho great deposits of Iron which He between
the Zambesi and the Koro Free State.
If the experiments for smelting by elec
tricity which are now under way In this
country and Europe are successful the ore
from thesa mines may be turned into pig
Iron by the power from the falls. They
will also be especially valuable to the great
copper syndicate which has been recently
organized to develop the vast deposits Just
over the boundary of the Kongo Free State.
As It is now, the Transvaal is said to
be paying something like 15,000,000 annually
for power, and a large revenue should come
to the company from the gold mines alor.
The Initial plant, which Is to produce 60,000
horscpower, will be all used by the Rand,
and other plants will Bpeedlly follow. The
success of the whole undertaking will de
pend on whether the power can bo success
fully and profitably carried to a distance
of 000 miles, or about as far as from New
York to Cleveland.
Reserve Motions.
One very serious matter In connection
with the project Is the possible breakage
of the wires, but this will be avoided by
a reserve turbine steam station of 30.000
horsepower capacity. This will furnish
power to supply a temporary breaking
down of the main plurjt, and there are
other projects under way which will fur
nish additional power In such cases.
As to the aggregate possibilities of the
fall?, I quote the figures that are given
here. There la no doubt but that the force
Is greater than South Africa can use for a
century to oome. As for myself, I doubt
the statement that it so far surpasses
Niagara, for the reason that there are
times of the year when the Zambesi Is low,
and a waterfall of this kind can only be
gauged by Its minimum flow. The Zam
besi cm certanly furnish several million
horsepower year in and year out.
Will It InTarTThe Falls f
One of the great questions In connection
with Niagara is whether the taking away
of the water for electricity will eventually
destroy the falls. It Is claimed that the
volume of water plowing over the Ameri
can falls Is already much less and that the
total diversion, when all the works now
operating or under construction are carried
out, will be equal to about 40 per cent of
the minimum discharge of the Niagara
river. At present the plants are. said to
have a capacity of about 60,000 cubic feet
of water per second, whereas tlve normal
discharge of Lake Erie over the falls ts
only a little more than IMO.OOO cutic feet per
second. At this rate Is will not be many
years before the beauty of our falls as a
great natural wonder will pass away.
' The same fear has been expressed as to
the Zambesi falls, but the British South
Africa company has been careful in grant-
ONE OF THE TOWERS CARRYING THE WIRE3.
Gossip and Stories About Noted People
fir
An Essential Point.
RANlv HITCHCOCK, the repub
lican campaign manager, Is
fond of taking long walks In
the country. On the occasion
of a recent visit to the south
he started ono day for a tramp
out of Nushville to a town called Parker.
When he hud gone some miles he en
countered a man who was weeding a patch
of ground near the roud.
"Am I on the road to Pnrker?" asked
Hitchcock.
"You are," answered the man, survey
ing Hitchcock with mild curiosity.
"Well, am I half way there?" Inquired
the traveler.
"Why, as to that," responded the man
In the patch, "It would seem us If 'twould
make a difference where you started
from." Harper's Weekly.
A Tlldeu Anecdote.
Nearly oil of the older Wayland people
remember the hermit of the woods called
"Old Tllden," who for sime years occu
pied a hut on the road now known as Buf
falo street. This eccentric character made
frequent visits to the village, whence he
would depart late In the evening for his
lonely cottage. He usually appeared with
sooty deposits of lampblack covering him
from head to foot he gained a livelihood
by manufacturing this substance and It
Is said that his appearance and1 actions
while under the influence of a certain bev
erage purchased at a local tavern were
an especial terror to the children of that
day, who still recollect his wild looks and
the discordant singing emanating from his
hut in the woods north of here. One day,
however, there alighted from an Etio
train a stylishly dressed young man, who
said that he was "Old Tllden's" nephew,
and announced his intention of taking the
old man away with him. After remaining
here for a few days both the old hermit
and his city nephew departed. This same
young man was no less a personage than
Samuel J. Tllden, who later became gov
ernor of tho state, and afterward ran for
tho presidency of the United States.
Steuben (N. Y.) Courier.
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Beech er's I'nltnrlan I'mbrella.
Among the financial friends of Henry
Ward Beecher was one old broker In New
York, an Hggressive Unitarian, which sect
he often said bore "the trademark of hon
esty." One day he met Mr. Beecher hur
rying toward Wall street ferry to avoid
the downpour of a sudden rainstorm.
"Ttke my umbrella," said the broker. "I
don't need It; the coming bus takes me to
my door."
At the ferry Mr. Beecher met a lady, a
prominent church work r of a s'sier church,
y who, having no umbrella, was lamenting
her Inability to reach her car safely. The
urbane preacher forced the umbrella upon
her, as he said: "I will be out your way
tomorrow and will call and get it."
Two hours later, as Mr. Beecher was sit
ting In tho old armchair In his study, the
door bell rang and when he responded to
the call a boy hurriedly presented him with
an umbrella, together with an unsealed
note, which read:
"Dear Mr. Beecher: My husband, Mr.
M., demands that I return the umbrella
you so kindly loaned me at once, and Join
him in saying that under the circumstances
the pleasure of an anticipated call Is un
regtetted. Vpon opening the umbrella you
will becomo more fully advised of our
united action."
The great expounder of truth and honesty
was horrified when, upon opening the
umbrella, he discovered a pasted slip upon
which was written In a beld round hand:
"Stolen by some Presbyterian thief!" New
York Sun.
Ing concessions which will prevent any
thing of this kind. The difference In the
fall of the Zambesi ts very great at differ
ent times of the year, and the views when
the river Is high cannot be impaired. The
canals to be constructed are to be so ar
ranged that neither the electrical works
nor their course will be visible from the
falls themselves, and every effort will be
made to preserve this as one of the won
ders of the world. No factories will be
allowed nearby, and the enormous parks
which have been laid out as a perpetuity
will be kept Intact.
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Power tor the Xambesl.
These falls will ' supply power for the
navigation of the Zambesi and Its tribu
taries. The Zambesi itself has about 4,000
miles of navigable waterways. It is one of
the great rivers of the world and It ranks
fourth on this continent. The biggest of
the African rivers is the Kongo, after
which come the Nile and the Niger. The
Zambesi" rises In Portuguese West Africa
In a great plateau which is about a mile
above the sea. Its springs are now far
from those of the Kassal, which flows Into
the Kongo. The upper course of the river
Is over a grassy plain, which it annually
Inundates. As the stream reaches the
boundary of Rhodesia the valley narrows
and the course ts broken here and there by
falls and rapids. The river has dropped
1,000 feet before It arrives at this point,
and It then falls about 1,000 feet within
twenty miles. It Is slow and sluggish Just
above here, and It looks somewhat like a
great pond several miles west of where It
makes its great Jump of 400 feet into this
mighty cavern, walled with precipitous
rocks. It falls rapidly In the gorge, hut
after forty or fifty miles or so the water
again becomes quiet and it runs onward
comparatively smooth, with tho exception
of a few places, for a distance of 8"0 miles
to the Kebrasasa .rapids in Portuguese
East Africa and thence on 4tti miles fur
ther Into tho sea. The last 4H miles are
always open to navigation, but the delta
ts low and sandy and some of the channels
are frequently clogged.
Dnslnes on tho Zambesi.
I stopped at one of the chief mouths of
the Zujnbesl on my way down the coast.
The river divides as it nears the ocean and
until recently tho chief entrance to it was
at Qullimune, a town on the Kwa-kwa
river fourteen miles from the sea. This is
now separated from the Indian ocean by a
bar and the easiest approach Is by the
Chlnde mouth. There is a bar there also,
but small steamers go over It and bring ths
goods from tho ocean vessels which anchor
outside. During our stay the water was so
rough that passengers had to be taken on
and off In a basket.
From Chlnde one can go up the Zambesi
and Its tributaries by boat. There are
three transportation companies, and the
Vessels start inland shortly after the ar
rival of every ocean steamer. Some of
them go into the Shire river and on Into
Nyasaland. Chindo is, in fact, the gate to
that British colony, and all goods and pas
sengers for It are landed there. The trip
inland is slow and affected somewhat by
the condition of the river, and there is now
talk of building a railroad which qhall go
to Blantyre, the capital of Nyasaland.
Blantyre is an enterprising town with two
banks, a chamber of commerce and social
and athletic clubs. It is only one of sev
eral promising stations In the colony.
Zomba, for Instance, which ts much farther
Inland, has electric lights. It gets Its
power from the Zomba mountain, down
which a river flows with a full of 1,800 feet.
Turbines are used and the dynamos are
started at sunset to light the town, the
power being used during the day for saw
ing lumber and other work. The develop
ment of these falls may furnish the power
for the railroads of the coast. Indeed, a
railway 100 miles long connecting Blantyro
with t he Shire was completed last April,
and this is soun to be extended to Zomba,
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Some of the Competitors in the Olympic Games Held at the Omaha Field Club
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THE ENGLISH COMPETITORS.
DANISH MAIDENS AND THEIR, LEADER.
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