Power show reflects tremendous advances

Contemplation of the rapidly increasing demand for mechanical power by the industries and homes of the United States reveals the secret for its success and leadership as an industrial and commercial nation. Greater and more economical production at a smaller expenditure of human energy is the reason for its supremacy. Mechanical power as utilized in the automobile and tractor, in the locomotive and steamboat, and as derived from the electric motor in the factory and home, lies at the root of the growth of the country and of the increase in the physical and spiritual well-being of its people. The tremendous advances in the art of generating power to meet the demand are emphasized by the recent announcement by an eastern public utility of the award of a contract for a steam turbine to generate 160,000 kilowatts or more than 210,000 horse power. This gigantic machine is 60 per cent larger than the largest turbine previously constructed. Compared with the turbines of ten years ago, it is considered a miracle of the engineering world. A more interesting contrast is called to mind by the opening of the Exposition in Philadelphia fifty years ago when, after some speech-making, President Grant and the Emperor of Brazil started the giant Coruss Engine, generating 1400 horse power, weighing 700 tons, and requiring sixty-five freight cars to deliver in Philadelphia.