Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/523

 Popular Science Monthly

��507

���i Int. Film Serv

��The Spaulding Dam in California. The water that it will store will generate one hundred and seventy -five thousand electrical horsepower and will irrigate twenty thousand acres of farm lands

��The Spaulding Dam— The Largest II Power Dam in the Country

WHAT is to be the largest power dam in the country is now under con- struction in Nev^ada County, California. Stretching across a narrow gorge called Emigrant Gap, this dam will block up sufficient water to create an artificial lake nearly thirty square miles in area. What was once a miniature, lazy stream will thus be converted into a mighty lake.

When completed, the dam will rise three liundred feet above the flooring of the rocky gorge. At the top, it will stretch I across the gorge for even twice this distance. The water the dam will control will be fed to a half dozen hydro-electric power plants strung along the downstream side of the ' river.

The water stored by this dam will add

ione hundred and seventy-five thousand horsepower to the electrical power the United States is already obtaining from her natural water resources. This power will i be carried over transmission lines a distance ' of over one hundred and fifty miles to ^<in Francisco. Other cities near the coast will be supplied also. After the water of 1^ the lake has turned the turbines in all the power houses, it will then be used to irrigate the lands of the Sacramento Valley.

��Making Buttons, Bric-a-brac and Silk from Milk

ALTHOUGH anyone will concede that man cannot live by bread alone, it has been thought possible to get along rather nicely if milk were added to the diet. But it remained for two French chemists, Francois Lebreil and Raoul Desgeorge, to conceive an idea whereby milk may also be made to yield a fabric which may be con- verted into clothing and ornaments. The curds of the milk are subjected to a chem- ical treatment by means of which the mass is converted into a plastic substance which may be rolled into sheets resembling celluloid, from which buttons and other articles such as combs, umbrella handles, bric-a-brac and e\en imitation leather may be'rhade, all of which areofattractiveappear- ance and of excellent wearing qualities. The milk is first robbed of its fat, after which it is warmed with rennet so as to form curds. It is then parboiled and exposed to the air, and then it is treated with acetone to gi\'e it the required hard- ness, plasticity and transparency. The product may be made so soft that it can be used as a substitute for silk in the manu- facture of fine underwear, or it may be made solid enough to serve as a good imitation of ivory.

�� �