OCR Text |
Show ELECTRICAL PROGRESS Significant evidence of progress is seen in the new ideas ud improved e(iiipment which have been applied to power stations, whereby the cost of generating- electrictiy by steam plants has been brought below four mills per kilowatt hour in some instances, with even greater economies promised for tlfoe near future. This increased efficiency of steam plants will have a most important bearing upon the future value of waterpower projects, pro-jects, because only those power dams which are most advantageously advan-tageously located will be able to produce electricity at a cost Ipsa than that of generation by steam. A survey by the national industrial conference board some months ago showed that the use of electrical power in manufacturing has trebled during- the last ten years and now totals more than 2(i million horsepower, or 73 per cent of all th(s power used. What the total electrical output will be in another ten yrs must be left largely to the imagination. Electrification Electrifica-tion of farms and railroads is in its infancy, but is going forward for-ward rapidly. New electrical appliances for every conceivable means of utility, comfort and entertainment are being developed de-veloped with amazing rapidity. In fact, we are just beginning to get some slight idea of what electricity will mean to civilization of the future. |