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Show Takes Much to Move America, Eleven Million Horse Power Required to Turn the Wheels of Commerce in This Great Country New York Heads the r List of States in the Use of Water for -That Purpose. The motive power used in the manufacturing establishments of the United States in 1900, according to a census report, aggregated 11,300,081 horse power, as compared with 5,954,-655 5,954,-655 horse power in 1890, 3,410,837 horse power in 1880 and 2,336,142 in 1870. Of the total power used in manufactures during the census year steam engines furnished 8,742,416 horse power, or 77.4 per cent of the aggregate; ag-gregate; water wheels supplied 1,727,-258 1,727,-258 horse power, or 15.33 per cent; electric motors, 311,016 horse power, or 2.7 per cent; gas and gasoline engines, en-gines, 143,854 horse power, or 1.3 per cent. Rented power was used- to the extent of 321,051 horse power, or 28 per cent, of the total. Of this rented power 183,682 horse power was from other sources of energy. The . statistics in the report relate to manufacturing operations only and do not'include any portion of tho vast amount of power used yearly for other purposes. During 1900 over 1,200 electric elec-tric railway lines were in operation in the United States, and the total capacity of their power plants exceeded exceed-ed 1,000,000 horse power. There are over 3,300 central stations for the distribution of electric current for lighting and power purposes, and the total amount of steam power used to generate it is estimated to be more than 1,500,000 horse power. One company alone in New York city operates oper-ates several central stations, aggregating aggre-gating nearly 250,000 horse power, while the isolated electrical plants in that city represented over 100,000 horse power. The modern office building, build-ing, often housing a population equal to that of a small town, is almost wholly a creation of the last ten years and the power required in these great structures forms a large item when the number of these buildings in the United States is taken into consideration, considera-tion, as about 1,000 horse power is required to operate the lighting plant, elevators, ' pumps, compressors and ventilators in a sixteen-story modern building containing 560 offices. New York leads the list of states in the use of water power, having 3G8,-456 3G8,-456 horse power derived from this source in 1900, against 233,795 in 1890, an increase of 134,661 horse power, or 57.6 per cent directly traceable to the great expansion of the wood pulp industry in-dustry in that state. |