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Show COMPRESSED AIR How It Is Proposed fo Supply Power. Csunty Official Has Project Which Thinks Will Be Feasible. Would Get Power by Water-Wheels to Compress Air With Which to Raise Water. By thc uoe of compressed air It Is proposed to' revolutionize the whole system of Irrigation in the West. This is a matter that has been given much serious thought by an official of Salt Lake county, who Is more or less Interested Inter-ested in the reclamation work in this State. He is surprised that hydraulic engineers have not hit upon his idea and put it into effect long before this. His project Is very pimple and he can sec no reason why It should not prove practicable. The county official, who refuses to permit the use of his name, says that compressed air can be secured directly from the water which It is proposed to raise into the canals. The water is to be raised by pumps run by compressed air generated by the water With Undershot Wheel. He says that an under-shot water-wheel water-wheel can be placed in the center of a stream and that the wheel will generate gener-ate power to run an air compressor. The compressed air thus obtained is to be used as power for running pumps to raise tho water from the stream. The water wheel, he says, could be placed at any point on the stream and the compressed air conveyed in pipes to the pumps. In Ihls way it Is said any amount of power could be produced and water in large quantities could bo raised to any height at a very Inconsiderable Incon-siderable expense after the compressor and pumps were once Installed. Tolls What Might Be Done. For instance, the official says, If a wheel were placed In thc Jordan river, the full width of the stream, It would generate about 1000 horse-power. ThiB power being continuous would compress thousands of feet of air In, say twenty-four twenty-four hours. A system of this kind, it Is argued, would do away with the present wheels, which raise but a given quantity of water, and that to a height of only half the diameter of tho wheel. The official has not made any experiments along these lines, but from a theoretical theoreti-cal standpoint, he says there Is no reason Why the idea could not be carried car-ried out. He believes the plan Is practicable prac-ticable and that irrigation will be revolutionized revo-lutionized in this manner. |
