The foregoing are simply a part of the more striking illustrations of that development by which falling water is generating hundreds of thousands of horse-power for electrical supply to millions of population. This application of great water powers to the industrial wants of distant cities is hardly more than a decade old. Ten years ago Shawinigan Falls was an almost unheard-of point in the wilds of Canada. Spier Falls was merely a place of scenic interest; the Missouri at Cañon Ferry was not lighting a lamp or displacing a pound of coal; that falling water in the Sierra Nevada Mountains should light the streets and operate electric cars in San Francisco seemed impossible, and that diversion of Niagara, which seems destined to develop more than a million horse-power and leave dry the precipices over which the waters now plunge, had not yet begun. In some few instances where water-power was located in towns or cities, it has been applied to electrical supply since the early days of the industry. In the main, however, the supply of electrical energy from water-power has been made possible only by long-distance transmission. The extending radius of electrical transmission for water-powers has formed the greatest incentive to their development. This development in turn has reacted on the conditions that limit electrical supply and has materially extended the field of its application. Transmitted water-power has reduced the rates for electric service. It may not be easy to prove this reduction by quoting figures for net rates, because these are not generally published, but there are other means of reaching the conclusion.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Snoqualmie Falls Transmission Lines.]
In the field of illumination electricity competes directly with gas, and in the field of motive power with coal. During the past decade it is well known that the price of gas has materially declined and the price of coal, barring the recent strike period, has certainly not increased. In spite of these reductions electrical supply from water-power has displaced both gas and coal in many instances.
Moreover, the expansion of electric water-power systems has been decidedly greater, as a rule, than that of electrical supply from steam-driven stations. An example of the fact last stated may be seen in Portland, Me. In the spring of 1899, a company was formed to transmit and distribute electrical energy in that city from a water-power about thirteen miles distant. For some years, prior to and since the date just named, an extensive electric system with steam-power equipment has existed in Portland. In spite of this, the system using water-power, on January 1st, 1903, had a connected load of 352 enclosed arcs and 20,000 incandescent lamps, besides 835 horse-power in motors.