xvii

PART I

WATER-POWER

CHAPTER I

A WORKING PLANT

The "agriculturist"--An old chair factory--A neighbor's
home-coming--The idle wheel in commission again--Light,
heat and power for nothing--Advantages
of electricity 3

CHAPTER II

A LITTLE PROSPECTING

Small amount of water required for an electric
plant--Exploring, on a dull day--A rough and ready
weir--What a little water will do--The water wheel
and the dynamo--Electricity consumed the instant
it is produced--The price of the average small
plant, not counting labor 22

CHAPTER III

HOW TO MEASURE WATER-POWER

What is a horsepower?--How the Carthaginians
manufactured horsepower--All that goes up must come
down--How the sun lifts water up for us to
use--Water the ideal power for generating
electricity--The weir--Table for estimating
flow of streams with a weir--Another method of
measuring--Figuring water horsepower--The size
of the wheel--What head is required--Quantity of
water necessary 32

CHAPTER IV

THE WATER WHEEL AND HOW TO INSTALL IT

Different types of water wheels--The impulse and the
reaction wheels--The impulse wheel adapted to
high heads and small amount of water--Pipe lines--Table
of resistance in pipes--Advantages and disadvantages
of the impulse wheel--Other forms
of impulse wheels--The reaction turbine, suited to
low heads and large quantity of water--Its advantages
and limitations--Developing a water-power
project: the dam; the race; the flume; the penstock;
and the tailrace--Water rights for the farmer 56

PART II

ELECTRICITY

CHAPTER V

THE DYNAMO; WHAT IT DOES, AND HOW

Electricity compared to the heat and light of the
Sun--The simple dynamo--The amount of electric energy
a dynamo will generate--The modern dynamo--Measuring
power in terms of electricity--The volt--The
ampere--The ohm--The watt and the kilowatt--Ohm's
Law of the electric circuit, and some
examples of its application--Direct current, and
alternating current--Three types of direct-current
dynamos: series, shunt, and compound 89

CHAPTER VI

WHAT SIZE PLANT TO INSTALL

The farmer's wife his partner--Little and big
plants--Limit