California offers numerous examples of electric power development with the water that has been carried several miles through artificial channels. An illustration of this class of work exists at the electric power house on the bank of the Mokelumne river in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Water is supplied to the wheels in this station under a head of 1,450 feet through pipes 3,600 feet long leading to the top of a near-by hill. To reach this hill the water after its diversion from the Mokelumne river at the dam, flows twenty miles through a canal or ditch and then through 3,000 feet of wooden stave pipe. Although California ranks second in water-power development it is easily the first in the number of its stations, and also be it said, California was the first to realize the possibilities of long distance electrical energy. The line from the 15,000 horsepower plant at Colgate in this State to San Francisco by way of Mission San Jose, where it is supplied with additional power, has a length of 232 miles and is the longest transmission of electrical energy in the world. The power house at Colgate has a capacity of 11,250 kilowatts in generators, but it is uncertain what part of the output is transmitted to San Francisco, as there are more than 100 substations on the 1,375 miles of circuit in this system.
Another system, even greater than the foregoing which has just been completed is that of the Stanislaus plant in Tuolumme County, California, from which a transmission line on steel towers has been run in Tuolumme, Calaveras, San Joaquin, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties for the delivery of power to mines and to the towns lying about San Francisco Bay. The rushing riotous waters of the Stanislaus wasted for so many centuries have been saved by the steel paddles of gigantic turbine water wheels and converted into electricity which carries with the swiftness of thought thousands of horse power energy to the far away cities and towns to be transformed into light and heat and power to run street cars and trains and set in motion the mechanism of mills and factories and make the looms of industry hum with the bustle and activity of life.
It is said that the greatest long distance transmission yet attempted will shortly be undertaken in South Africa where it is proposed to draw power from the famous Victoria Falls. The line from the Falls will run to Johannesburg and through the Rand, a length of 700 miles. It is claimed the Falls are capable of developing 300,000 electric horse power at all times.
Should this undertaking be accomplished it will be a crowning achievement in electrical science.
CHAPTER XII
WONDERFUL WARSHIPS
Dimensions, Displacements, Cost and Description of Battleships—
Capacity and Speed—Preparing for the Future.
All modern battleships are of steel construction. The basis of all protection on these vessels is the protective deck, which is also common to the armored cruiser and many varieties of gunboats. This deck is of heavy steel covering the whole of the vessel a little above the water-line in the centre; it slopes down from the centre until it meets the sides of the vessel about three feet below the water; it extends the entire length of the ship and is firmly secured at the ends to the heavy stem and stern posts. Underneath this deck are the essentials of the vessel, the boilers and machinery, the magazines and shell rooms, the ammunition cells and all the explosive paraphernalia which must be vigilantly safe-guarded against the attacks of the enemy. Every precaution is taken to insure safety. All openings in the protective deck above are covered with heavy steel gratings to prevent fragments of shell or other combustible substances from getting through to the magazine or powder cells.
The heaviest armor is usually placed at the water line because it is this part of the ship which is the most vulnerable and open to attack and where a shell or projectile would do the most harm. If a hole were torn in the side at this place the vessel would quickly take in water and sink. On this account the armor is made thick and is known as the water-line belt. At the point where the protective deck and the ship's side meet, there is a projection or ledge on which this armor belt rests. Thus it goes down about three feet below the water and it extends to the same distance above.
The barbettes, that is, the parapets supporting the gun turrets, are one forward and one aft. They rest upon the protective deck at the bottom and extend up about four feet above the upper deck. At the top of the barbettes, revolving on rollers, are the turrets, sometimes called the hoods, containing the guns and the leading mechanism and all of the machinery in connection with the same. The turret ammunition hoists lead up from the magazine below, delivering the charges and projectiles for the guns at the very breach so that they can be loaded immediately.