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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1917)
tfOW Nf AGA . mHlMlM ' f, Si- Till Us if ' ' cMP J NCLK,oAiW Ti"e-te4 y tits ft 1 1 J: .tCopyright, 1917, by Prank G. Carpenter.) NIAGARA FALLS. N. T., Oct. 20. I have come here to tell you how Niagara Falls is fighting 'or us in our great war in Europe. It is one of the most important of the industrial assets of the Nation, and its products affect every soldier that goes to the field and every sailor that mans our vessels of war. It has to do with every gun that is fired and every projectile that scatters its deadly missiles over the trenches. It aids in making the armor plate for our battleships and in creating the fine machinery of the destroyers which chase the submarine sneaking along under the sea. It has to do with the fighting airplanes that fly the skies and with the gas which fills the dirigible balloons that patrol the waters along our coasts. It enters into every workshop which is pro ducing material to be sent across the ocean and, I might say, into almost everything that has to do with making us equal to our part in this, the great est struggle of history. Before I describe the war industries of Niagara I want to tell you some thing of the mighty force that moves them. Niagara Falls is the greatest water power on the face of the globe. I have seen the Falls of the Zambesi in Africa and have traveled up the Parana below the Falls of Iguazu in South America. Neither compares with Niagara in the force which it exerts from one year's end to the other. The Falls of the Zambesi are twice as high as those of Niagara. They are twice as broad, and when at their flood they drop with a thunder equal to that of one of the great battles in France into a pit 400 feet deep, sending up pillars of mist which are visible for 40 miles around. It has been estimated that those falls at their flood exert a horse power of tens of millions, but the most of this disappears when the Zambesi is low. On the other hand, the Niagara River has an almost even flow the year round. Only 34 miles long and less than a mile wide for the greater part of its course, it is the downspout of all the Great Lakes, excepting Ontario. It begins at Lake Brie and flows from there for a distance of about 22 miles to the foot of the falls, dropping the water from a height about two-fifths of that of the Washington Monument. A part of this drop is in the rapids above the falls, but more than 160 feet of it is in the falls themselves. The force is so great that some engineers have estimated it as equal to that of .7,000.000 horses all pulling at once. I despair of making you see what this mighty force is. "Where the watjrs pour in from Lake Erie they rush on at the rate of 280.000 cubic feet a sec ond and at the falls it is estimated that a block of water a mile square and a mile high drops down every week. The amount is millions of tons every hour. and so much every minute that if it were put upon wagons 1.000,000 horses could not haul the load. The force has been variously estimated at from 3,000, 000 to 7.000.000 horsepower. Take the lowest estimate and see what it means in the coal we use to produce it. Every horsepower which comes from water is said to annually save at least ten tons of coal. If this is so. the force of Niagara is equal to 30.000.000 tons of coal every year, or about one-fifteenth of all the coal we are now using for fuel and power. Of that vast force we are now con suming not more than one-sixth. The amount is 500.000 horsepower, of which more than three-fifths are developed on the Canadian side of the falls. Ac cording to our treaty, we have the right to use only 20.000 cubic feet of the water that goes over the falls every second and Canada has the right to 36.000 cubic feet. By the Burton law our Congress has restricted the American use to less than 16.000 feet Just now all the factories are short of power and their work for the war is being cut down by the lack of cheap water power. Some of our industrial establishments have been getting their power from Canada, but this has been cut off since the war began, in order to make war supplies for the Canadian troops, and there is now a strong de mand on the part of the manufacturers at Niagara Falls for more water. During my stay here I have gone through some of the great power plants which have been constructed a short distance above the falls. The water is taken from the Niagara River in canals walled with stone, and is dropped down tnrough penstocks or mighty steel tubes so large that if they were laid upon the ground a horse would just graze the top. Stood upright they are as tall as a 16-story house, and the s P3. s3s V, . Jis- water drops down this great height in such a way that it pushes the turbines around, turning the mighty steel shafts which connect them with the dynamos. There are 10 or more of these penstocks in each plant, with an equal number of turbines below, and of dynamos high above them. The dynamos are enormous. They look like giant mushrooms of black steel, which are turning so fast that you cannot see them move. They fly around at a speed of a mile and three quarters a minute, and each generates electricity equal to more than 6000 horsepower. Each dynamo is about 30 feet in circumference. As I looked, they made me think of thousands of horses galloping at a faster speed than has ever been made upsn the race track. It is in this way that the 500.000 horsepower now in use is developed. Thero are two great power-houses on the American and several on the Cana dian side of the river. All are connect ed with huge factories of one kind or another, and they supply the cheap power necessary for the industries con tributing to our Army and Navy sup plies. The cost of the plants belong to the electro-chemical and electro-metallurgical industries. They are more or less scientific in their nature, and the men at the head of them are inventors along chemical and electrical lines. They use the cheap electricity furnished The poultry show has come to stay. It is vital to the biggest business in the culture of pure bred fowls. Twenty years ago a great state would have two or three shows each year. The same state would have 20 or 30 now. There are excellent reasons for this modern and Nation-wide emphasis. Every breeder should study the advantages of public exhibitions. Thousands are losing heavily every year by slacking along this line. Tenderfoots are too slow to begin. Professionals are .resting after reaping liberal re wards. There are patriotic as well as personal reasons for the biggest boom possible for this year's poultry shows. BT G. R. SMITH. Author and Practical Poultryman. PUBLICITY in business Is every thing today. Tou must have it In some form or you are crippled. The show is one of the cheapest and most efticient methods. The very name, "show," proves what I am saying. If you have good fowls you must let the public see them and pass judgment on them. This is the basis of all your publicity. The test is made. The high value of your goods is proved. The story of your high- class work has gone out far and wide. The rest is easy. One horse is rated at $50. another at $50,000. The latter has won his spurs in life-and-death races under the eyes of the best judges of horse.flesh in the world. Hundreds of thousands have seen him urged to the farthest possible limit of speed and endurance year after year. The markings have been without mercy. The findings have been authori tative. There is no other pathway to the fabulous price and to National or state-wide publicity. The poultryman must take the same road. His stock must line up neck-to- neck with his neighbor's under the eye of the publicly-licensed judge in the public exhibition. Thousands will view his birds and watch the contest. His winnings will give him standing. With out the ribbons he may carry forward a right profitable business along strictly commercial lines, but he can hope for no high rating as a breeder of pure bred stock. Qnaljtr of Stock la Teat. Tes. The "test" is in the contest Thousands of poultrymen do not know the fine points of thoroughbred stock. Most of them care little for such "points." They therefore mongrellze their fowls. There is no incentive to work toward a standard type. They therefore drift. Their ideals are left to drag along on low gear. There is no competition, and therefore there is no life in their business. The roan who has decided to exhibit at the next show is different. He has sighted game. He has a race to win. He is to face an antagonist. There is ...... .t i THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, mrmms You mM here in making products that could be created in no other way. Take first the artificial abrasive or grinding materials which are used in all industries for making fine fittings, sharpening tools and cutting the hard est and softest of steel. There is a fac tory here which makes carborundum, turning out a million pounds or so every month. Carborundum was In vented 28 years ago, and at first it sold for $432 a pound. It is now pro duced so cheaply through Niagara Falls that it can be used in every factory and by the most common workman. This material takes the place of grindstones, emery and diamond dust. In fact, it might be called artificial diamonds, for it is composed of the hardest of crys tals, with edges so sharp that they can be used for grinding any material with out wearing. It is employed in every motor car plant, and it has to do with making ball-bearings. transmission gears, crank shafts and everything con- nected with the cheap and the high priced cars. It Is used in grinding the tools for the steel plants which are making projectiles, and it smoothes the shells which tit the guns to the thou sandth of an inch. It is used in making all sorts of agricultural implements to be a competition for high stakes and he has entered. Put It as you will, there is a thrill in his business that he never felt be fore. His birds are to be tested side by side with those of others. Every atom of his genius for business and achieve ment is appealed to. The unusual is bound to result. His rating in business is to be known to the public, and he is determined to make it as favorable as possible. "Standards of perfection" in poultry culture will be exhaustively studied, and every pos sible resource will be forced to yield its bit or its might in the breeding of the best fowls that every stood in his yards. The back-lot amateur and the small farmer are all but wholly dependent on the score card of the poultry judge if they would reach the best there is for them. They may have the finst birds in the state, but not even they them selves will know it till after the show is over. A breeder may have a $1000 worth of Btock in his yards. Without -2 ROl'EN R OUEN ducks originated in France, but English breeders developed their present size and perfection of plumage. They are probably the largest of all ducks, the drakes weigh ing 9 to 11 pounds and the females 8 to 10 pounds. As a table fowl the Rouen duck is highly esteemed. The meat is fine flavored, surpassing that of most other breeds, but because the Rouen does not grow so fast as the Pekin, the lat ter breed is preferred by those who grow ducks for market. Rouen ducks are hardy, thriving under ordinary conditions and doing which have to do with our food supply, and with locomotives and electrical ma chinery of every kind. It will even grind manganese steel, which no steel tool can cut, and It will sharpen the finest of high-speed tools. This wonderful product, like most of the others created here, comes from some of the cheapest and most common materials in nature. It is formed of crushed coke and common sand, melted into crystals by an electric heat of 7000 degrees Fahrenheit, or more than 34 times as hot as boiling water. Dur ing my stay here I have gone through the plant which makes it. It covers 20 acres and it is now making large quan tities of abrasive materials to be used in connection with the war. The plant is guarded by soldiers, and every employe has to have a photo graphic pass before he can get at his job. The official who took me in had to show his photograph upon entering and we were watched as we went from building to building, where are the mighty electric furnaces, which are turning coke and sand into the millions of crystals or artificial diamonds, to be used as grindstones and grinding pow The furnaces are enormous. They are the scoring of the licensed judge in the public exhibition his $1000 flock may have a public rating 90 per cent short of its real value. The head of the 10,000-layer poultry plant does not need to be told that the same principle rules in his case. Duty Is Public and Patriotic. We are patriots first of all. This will remain true of every full-blooded American till this world war Is won for humanity. Every man must have the hero spirit. Every day must be lived and every business must be planned to make sure the largest possible Industrial output. No one will lose and all will be great gainers by keeping our eyes steadily toward this high Ideal. Poultry exhibitions will promote an increased production of the best fowls to a larger degree than any other known agecncy. The highest authorities in the j world exactly agree In this unqualified statement. Without the show the mongrel will forge more and more to the front, and 1 DICKS best where they nave a range of wood land and water. In coloration the Rouen is like the wild Mallard, from which it undoubt edly descended. The male has a glossy green head and neck, with a white ring around the neck, and a claret-colored breast, shading into light steel gray lines. The back and top of the wings are brownish gray, penciled like the breast; the wing bar is glossy blue, edged with white, and this in turn is edged with velvety black. The female Is brown, each feather penciled with broad dark brown markings, excepting the back, where each feather is dark brown, edged with lighter brown. She alio nas the glossy blue wing bar. OCTOBER 21, 1917. cylinders or boxes made of fire brick, so high that the tallest man could walk through them without bending his head. They are about 20 feet long, seven feet wide, -and large enough to hold 70.000 pounds of material. This material con sists of crushed coke and' sand, mixed with a little sawdust and salt to aid in the reduction. It is put into the fur nace in such a way that a cord or rope of graphite runs lengthwise through the center of the mass from one end to the other. This cord, which is merely lumps of graphite laid together in a little trench, is connected with two big carbon rods, one at each end of the furnace, and the carbon rods are joined to thick cables that bring in the elec tricity. The graphite cord carries the current much like the filament in an Incan descent lamp. As it comes in, the black cord turns white hot and the electric heat Increases until it reaches the enor mous temperature which I have men tioned. The heat is so great that it would turn steel, iron, granite or mar ble to a vapor and make the most re fractory materials burn like so much tallow. The fire is so glaring that if a person should look directly into a furnace he would be blinded, and the power consumed would be sufficient to operate a 16-candle-power carbon Incandescent lamp for more than 200 years. It is this terrible heat that turns the coke and sand into crystals. It does that within 36 hours, at which time the steel framework outside the furnace is raised by machinery and the bricks are taken away, showing chunks and masses of jewels in the shape of crys tals of all the colors of the rainbow. These masses are then taken from the furnace and crushed by big iron wheels into the millions of tiny individual crystals used for grinding and the making of abrasives of various kinds. But I cannot describe the many won ders of these Niagara industries. It would take more than the space of this letter to tell you the story of car borundum alone. The most interesting thing concerning it is how electricity Is used to produce it, for it is some what after the same methods that the enormous current furnished here changes other common things into ma terials of the greatest value. This is the case with ferro-silicon, which Is used to absorb the oxygen from molten steel, thus making pos sible sound castings and ingots by eliminating blow holes. We are now making something like 28,000,000 tons of steel a year, and 70 per cent of this present Interest in the production on an immense scale of the best poultry that can be bred will soon cease. It is the public exhibition that enlists the largest talent and the deepest and most widespread Interest. The history of poultry culture proves this. Without the show we are all at sea, with neither compass nor chart. We will sail on. though many will merely drift; but we will never get to any par ticular and much-desired harbor. It is the score card that tells poultrymen where they are. A local poultry exhibition is an amaz ing stimulus. Better fowls, a largely increased output and a deeper and more intelligent interest in poultry culture, in all its phases, will be certain to fol low. The man who knows can do much for the public by promoting such local gatherings. New information is given to hundreds. Ideals never before dreamed of are caught by the people. A new bunch of young and enthusiastic breeders are swept into line. Many a community has doubled its poultry in terests in this way. Every Egg Count.. This is eminently worth considering. Every pound of flesh, every dozen eggs will have something to do with the w!"nlnK or me war . ine lerains ine and with promoting the prosperity and comfort of the great public. The alarming shortage is not so much of money as of meat. Creation and conservation of food is the su preme need of the time. The world has plenty of gold, but not enough "grub." As the mightiest stimulus known to one of the most important food industries of our nation, poultry men should count it a patriotic and public pleasure to promote with great est possible efficiency the poultry show. Such bread "cast upon the waters" of the world's troubled life will be certain to return before many days multiplied manyfold. Don't be suspicious. Cultivate confi dence in your brother man. Poultry shows are as fair in their findings as any organization. Poulty judges are honest men. doing the best they can to give everyone a square deal. Freak. Not Recommended. "Pet stock" and freaks of nature are incidental and ornamental in most mod ern poultry exhibitions. The big fea tures are the great utility and fancy breeds. It is well to remember, too. that all pure-bred "stock of the really useful kind is included under the "fancy breeds." This term is another expres sion for "full-bloods." or "thorough breds." Formerly it had primary ref erence to the fowls that were bred for their beauty, or their picturesque or grotesque appearances, wltn little re gard to real usefulness. We have passed beyond the play pe riod in poultry exhibits. It Is serious business today. Not that the freaks and the pets are neglected. But the sweeping and central purpose of the modern poultry show is to place in October may seem to be an un- J important month in the poultry- I man's calendar, but In reality it I is a period of vital consideration. It is the terminus of a year's j work, and the beginning of an- J other season. Preparations for I the Winter's work Is the subject of next week's article. 4 1 x .....4 is treated with ferro-silicon. An enor mous amount of it is now used in all the' steel plants that are working for the war. Silicon Is also employed for generat ing gas for our military balloons. All of the armies in Europe are equipped with the apparatus to generate it, and that in connection with their observa tion balloons. Speaking of high-speed steel, this is a product that depends almost entirely upon Niagara power. It is owing to this steel, made with alloys produced here, that we have the perfection of the modern cutting tool. In the old days of carbon steel it was necessary to have a cool cutting edge, and the best a man could get was a cut of 15 feet to the minute. With the high speed tools we can now take off chips of steel an inch and a half wide and half an Inch thick at the rate of 40 or BO feet a minute, and that notwith standing the tool is red hot. Without high-speed steel and artificial abrasives our machine shops would be cut to three-fourths or four-fifths of their present product. An automobile plant which now produces 500 cars per day could not turn out more than 100 cars with the same plant and the same force. Among the alloys made here are ferro-chromium, ferro-vanadium and ferro-tungsten. Ferro-chromium is the hardening agent used in making armor plate. Without it there would be no tough skin to protect our battleships and no armor-piercing projectiles to serve our coast defenses. The battle ship Pennsylvania has 100,000 tons of armor, and to make this was required 300 tons of ferro-chromium. The same material enters into the manufacture of automobile steel and dies. More than half of all the ferro-chromium that Is used in the United States comes from the electric furnaces at Niagara Falls. Everyone knows about aluminum. It goes into automobiles and aeroplanes, and is used for cooking utensils, acid containers and electrical transmission. There are three great plants here that make that product, and it is turned out by the millions of pounds by means of this electric power. And then take acetylene. The cal cium carbide made here by electricity is now saving millions of gallons of crude oil, and. in the shape of acety lene gas, is giving light to thousands of homes and public buildings. More than 500,000 miners now use acetylene comparison and competition hundreds of the finest speciments of thorough bred utility stock. The rest is largely on the side. We have to thank the showroom for those powerful waves of interest in the breeding of better poultry that have swept over the land during tne last decade and more. As a quickener of interest there is nothing that can com pare with the public exhibit. Like the horse show and the cattle snow, tne Doultry show is an annual round-up of the best we have in order that we may have better next year. Do your Dlt to help it on. You'll get your money back "with usury." Boys' Shoes Recommended for Tramps in Woods. Ease and Economy Are Two Main Reason. Advanced for Suggestion. Ns matter how much you have to spend for smart and dainty buttoned bpots to make the new Fall tailor-made look just right, save out enough for one pair of sensible, low heeled tan shoes for knockabout wear. Tramping In the Autumn through the rustling leaves is so delightful, so in vigorating, yet nobody feels like tramp ing in high-heeled, dainty boots. Com fortable, rubber-soled tennis sneakers are not possible afte- Autumn attire has been donned, but there Is something very smart about mannish walking sohes below a swinging sport skirt. Did you ever try wearing boy's shoes? One woman I know always goes to the boys' department for her golf and sport shoes, though she patronizes the woman's department when the choice is to be a pretty pair of dancing slip pers or formal street boots of the buttoned type which fashion prescribes for formal occasions. The boy's Ox ford is not so very different from the feminine sport Oxford of mannish type, but the boyish shoe is built with a wide swing under the ball of the foot, no matter how pointed tb toe. and few feminine shoes have this comfort able swing in the sole. Try a pair of boy's tan Oxfords when you want something comfortable and good looking from the sport stand point for long tramps over hill and dale, or for walks about town with the dog. And. besides the boy's Oxford, for some reason, presumably known to the shoe dealer, will cost about half what you would have to pay for a real ly snappy-looking mannish sport shoe built for the feminine foot. Household Kelps. If brass curtain rods are rubbed with hard soap before being put up the cur tains will slip on them easily. To pick up bits of broken glass wet a woolen cloth, lay it on the floor where the fragments are and pat the cloth to the carpet. The fine glass will stick to the cloth. To whiten ivory rub It well with un salted butter and place it in the sun shine. If it is discolored it may be whitened by rubbing it with a paste composed of burned pumice stone and water and putting it in the sun under glass. To remove stains from a tiled hearth squeeze a little lemon juice over the stain, leave for 20 minutes, then with a cloth dampened with a little warm water wipe off the lemon juice. This will generally remove the stain; if not. lamps, and the same light Is used for guarding the coast line in innumerable beacon lights and buoys. Acetylene, In connection with oxygen, produces a flame which is about the hottest known to chemistry. It is so powerful that it will cut the hardest armor plate. It is used in repairing the guns and other machinery on the battlefields and also In doing similar work on our war vessels. Not long ago a 14-inch propeller In a French war ship broke in two and was welded per fectly within 36 hours by acetylene flames. A few years ago it would have been sent to the drydock, and it would have been six weeks before it was fixed. Our military boards have stated that we shall need 180,000 tons of nitrates per year to satisfy the demands of the war. Nitrates are a necessity in the making of all high explosives, and they are also the most valuable of fer tilizers. By means of electricity they are making nitrates from the air at Niagara. The plant has been located in Canada, because It could not get power to operate its electric furnaces on this side of the falls. It is, I think, the only plant this side of Norway. I am not sure as to what the Germans are doing. And then there is artificial graphite, which is made here In electric furnaces by the millions of pounds. This was invented by Dr. Edward G. Acheson. the same man who discovered car borundum. It is electrical, and it uses the most common materials. The prod uct supplies the lubricants which are greasing the wheels of our motorcars in France and of the other great power machines used there. This graphite Is also employed in electric smelting and refining. It aids in producing high grade steels, alloy steels and other al loyed mitals of various kinds. I might also speak of the new chem icals which are turned out at Niagara, These come from the electric processes, and they have made this the center of the electro-chemical industry of the world. Among other things, they make chlorine, which is used for bleaching our newspapers and which keeps our shirts and sheets from turning yellow after washing. This chemical is espe cially important just now from the wonderful success it has had in the treatment of typhoid and In the puri fication of our water supplies. It is said that a small capsule of chlorine emptied into a bucket of the vilest water found in the trenches will kill all the germs and make it so that it can be drunk without danger. repeate the process. Polish afterward with a soft cloth. POINTED PARAGRAPHS. From Chicago News. Lots of people take offense when there is none in sight. The life work of some men seems to by cricicizing others. A rural contributor says that cider is the spirit of the press. The less a woman has to complain about the more she complains. A cynic is a man who must be un happy in order to appear happy. A man Is apt to be suspicious if hia wife isn't jealous of him. It isn't what your grandfather waj but what you are that counts. The man who marries an orphan can't blame his troubles on his wife's mother. Many a man who claims to be truth ful spends a lot of time echoing the lies of other men. If common sense will not teach a young man etiquette, a book on tho subject Is of little use. What mankind needs is a collar but ton that will transform itself into a searchlight when it rolls under tn3 dresser. Practice doesn't always make perfect, but it makes some lawyers and doctors wealthy. Even a spinster may have the matri monial fever, but it doesn't always ter minate to her liking. Some folks make a specialty of ex changing their brass for other people's gold. To Stop a Persistent, Hacking Cough The beat remedy is one yen eaa lly make at bene. Cheap bat very affective. Thousands of people normallv hoaltriv" in every other respect, are annoyed withv at persistent hangmsr-on bronchial cough. yetLt after year, disturbing their sleet and makincr life disagreeable. It's so seedless there's an old home-mado remedy that will end euch. a cougl easily' and quickly. Get from any drugjnso "ZVi ounces of Pinex" (60 cents -worth), pour it into ts 1int bottle and 11 the bottle with plain crranulated suirar svrup. Begin taking at at once. Gradually nut surelv you Trill notice the phleem thin out and then disappear altogether, thus ending s ough that you never thought would end. It also promptly loosens a dry or tight cough, stops the troublesome throat tickle, soothes the irritated membranes hat line the throat and bronchial tubes, and relief comes almost immediately. A day's use will usually break up an or- bronchitis, croup, whooping cough and lroncliial asthma there is nothing tetter. It tastes pleasant and keep perfectly. Pinez is a most valuable concentrated compound of (tenuine JCorway pine ex tract, and is used by millions of peo ple every year for throat and chest coldq with splendid results. To avoid disappointment, ask your" druggist for "ZH ounces of Pinex" with full directions and aon't accept anything; else. A guarantee of absolute satisfac tion or money promptly refunded goes with this preparation, Xhe, iaeJt Co .ft. .wayne, ana, r t