IENTIFI( MERI£AN [Entered at the Post 01llce ot New York, N. y" as Second Class Matter. Copyright. l!lO4. by Munn &; Co.) Vol. XCI.-No. CEN'J'S A COPY EilTABLlSHED 1845.18'J NEW YORK, OCTOBER 29, 1904. ls$3.00 A YEA K. Bottom View of One of the New All·Steel Cars. One of the Engines, Showing the Barometric Condensers. The Great Subway Power Station with Five of the Eleven Engines and Generators in Place. Ultimate Capacity, 182,000 Horse-Power. OPENING or TD NEW YORK RAPID TRANSIT SUlWAY.-[See J1R&e 297.] Scientific American OCTOBER :29, I9Q4. Battery, and under the East River to Flatbush Avenue, rect-connected generatorf; of 800 k.ilowatts total ca· SCIENTIFIC AMER.ICAN Brooklyn, will be completed; and in anticipation of va city, and with a traveling crane overhead. l<�or the ESTABLISHED 1845 this, work will be begun at an early date upon the ex­ real estate, the construction of the dam, canal, and tension of this road by way of �''latbush Avenue to the !Jower house, and the complete equipment of the latter Ocean Parkway. With these three extensions under to develop SOO kilowatts, the all proximate cost was $190 MUNN 6. CO., Editors and Proprietors way, Greater New York should be in a fair way to keep per kilowatl of generator capacity. On another pace with the increasing traffic of the city for several small river a head of 23 feet waH created in part by a years to come. natural fall in the bed rock of the stream, and in part Published Weekly by a masonry dam. From one end of this dam a steel at ,. ... .. penstock was carried to a brick power house nearby. COST OF ELECTRIC WATER POWER PLANTS. No. 361 Broadway, New York This power house was equipped with direct-connected The cost of water-driven electric plants per kilowatt water wheels and generators, and with transformers capacity varies much with the nature of the fall, the for an output of 1,500 kilowatts. For this complete TERJIIIS '1'U S(JBSUR1BERS type of the hydraulic development, and the amount of hydraulic and electric plant the approximate cost was One copy� one year for the United.. States. Canada. or Monco .... ... .. $3.00 Olle copy, one year. to any foreign country� postage prepaId. £0 168. 5d. 4.00 head. $160 per kilowatt of generator capacity. THE SUIEN1'IFIU llME1'lOAN PUBLICATIONS. For a given head of water the natural, vertical fall For a hydro-electrie plant of 800 kilowatts oopacity, 30 Scientific Amer�can \Estab1ished 1�4b) .. .. " .. \;'" ............ $�.OO a ��ar costs least to develop per unit of power. Next in with a water head of feet. the total cost will be (}�...Jstabhshed: 18;6) ". .. ........ d'UO 8CIentitic AmerlCan Supplement . economy of construction is a plant whose head of $175 SCientific American Building �o.nthJy c�st�b1ished}885) " �. .1U :: about per kilowatt, as it now appears when lliJstabhshed 18.8). ..........•. u.OU SCientIfic American Export J:jJda,lDll . water is derived from a short series of steep rapids. 'l'he combined subscription rates and rates to fOrelgn countries w1U nearly completed. In this case a concrete dam cre· be furnished upon application. r C For either of these cases the only dam necessary is Remit by postal or express m d r a ates the smaller part of the head, and the greater part �u�W 1 'co.?K6r ; O � ;: ·ork. : � �!. ��:' � a low one at the head of the falls or rapids, to gather is due to a natural fall and rapids in the river bed. the water into penstocks that drop to the generating To connect the water behind the dam with the power 29, 1904. NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER station. house below these rapids, a canal more than 1,000 feet If the fall is vertical, the length of penstock need long is employed. The power house is of masonry con­ The Editor is always glad 10 receive for examination illustrated he little more than the height, and the generating struction. the wheels and generators are direct con· articles on snbjects ot timely interest. If the photograph" are station may be close to the foot. Even in the case 8/1arp, the artIcles short, and the facts authentic, the contri lJutions nected, and there are no step-up transformers. In will receive special attention, Accepted artICles will be paid for of steep rapids the length of penstocl, from their head at regular space rates. contrast with the above figures. a certain plant with a to the power house at the foot may be on'1y a few rods. head of about 450 feet'is reported to have cost about - -_--=---=-- - -------____ -_ --cc===== As the rapids or low falls are scattered from several $30 per kilowatt capacity, exclusive of the electrical INAUGURATION OF THE RAPID TRANSIT SUBWAY. thousand feet to several miles along a stream, the equipment. With the opening of the Rapid Transit Subway, New necessary penstock, to bring water from their head York city is placed in possession of what is undoubted· and deliver it to a power house at their foot, lengthens TO STIMULATE CHEMICAL DISCOVERY. $25,000 ly,the most complete and up·to·date system of rapid into a pipe line. In such a case a canal may be used The California Grape' Acid Association offers transit to be found in any part of the world. This is instead of a pipe line, and the penstock may still be to any person who will devise a process to utilize due to the fact that it was planned on an ambitious a short pipe, that connects the end of the canal with grapes for grape acid, and in evidence of good faith scale, that the engineers were not hampered by any the power hOUF:e. Whether the canal or the pipe line has deposited this amount in the hands of a San Fran· exacting considerations of economy, and that being the is used, the cost of the development per' unit of power cisco banker, to be paid to the successful discoverer 0) latest of the great subway systems to be opened, it has will increase materially with the length. the process. tht advantage of the experience that has been gained If the bed of the stream has only a moderate de­ On the Pacific coast, especially in California, are un· in London, Budapest, Paris, and Berlin. scent of five or ten feet per mile, it will probably be limited tracts adarted to the profitable CUltivation of To the SCIENTIFIC AMERICA:N the auspicious inaugu­ cheaper to build a comparatively high dam and set gT'apRS, only a small proportion being employed at this ration of this great work is peculiarly gratifying; for the water back a few miles, than to dig a canal or lay time. owing to the limited demand in the United States from the time that the present plans took practical a pipe line to carry the discharge of the stream over for products of the vineyard. It is estimated that shape, this journal has been a most earnest advocate the same distance. Near the foot of such a dam at California alone could easily, were all the land avail­ of the construction of just such a road as has now one end, a power house may be located and supplied able planted to grapes, supply twenty times the present been opened. There is also a sentimental interest at­ with water through short penstocl,s much as in the demand for fruit, wine. brandy, or raisins. Compared taching to the event, in the fact that the very first case of a natural, vertical fall. with Europe, the consumption of wine in the United attempt at the construction of an underground system, For a given head of water, the erection of a dam to States is infinitesimally smalL California, for instance, and the plans therefor, were due to the initiative of one create that head" or the construction of a long pipe produces 30,000,000 gallons of wine yearly, which would of the Editors and proprietors of this journaL Indeed, line or canal for the purpose of maintaining a head, supply only two-thirds of the annual consumption of sE,veral hundred feet of subway was constructed and are the most costly types of development. If, however, the 450,000 inhabitants living in Rome; the capital of still exists below Broadway at City Hall Park. That the pipe line, though several miles in length, supplies Italy. early effort, made in the year 1870, was doomed to fail· water to the wheels at a very high head, 'the cost of the In all vineyard products the normal market condi· ure, mainly because the electric motor had not yet development may be very moderate per horse-power. tions of the country indicate an over-supply; but could made its appearance, and' the public was not educated This fact is illustrated in many of the California the list of products of the vine be increased in num· up to the advantages of subway traveL plants, at one of which a head of more than 1,900 feet bers, the advantage both to the country and to agricul· On an occasion like the present, with the road actu­ on the wheels is maintained by a pipe line several ture would be great. The United States is now, prac· ally completed and in successful operation, we are apt miles long. tically dependent upon European chemists and wine to accept the result with but little consideration of the Perhaps the most important single factor bearing on countries for its supplies of cream of tartar and tar· vast amount of patience, technical skill, far-sighted the cost of water power development is the available taric acid, both derived from argol, which is the lees prescience, and unbounded faith, that were necessary head.