The New Dominion

THE RHINE FALLS.

Utilizing the Water That Flows from Constance to Schaffhausen.

Visitors to the Rhine are well acquainted with the Rhine Falls, situated at Schaffhausen, these forming the largest cataract in Europe. Some twenty miles below the point where it issues from the Lake of Constance, the Rhine, with a width of 350 feet and an average depth of about 21 feet, plunges over a barrier of rocks varying in height from 45 feet on the right bank to about 60 feet on the left. Including the rapids, the total fall within a distance of a little over a third of a mile is estimated at 150 feet. The volume of water passing over the falls per second varies from a minimum of 118 cubic meters in February to a maximum of 502 cubic meters in July, when, in consequence of the melting of the snow in the mountains and the rise in all the tributary streams and brooks, the Rhine reaches its highest point.

In this practical age of inventions and progress very few will be surprised to hear that an application has been made for a concession to utilize these magnificent falls for the manufacture of aluminum, the story of which, with numerous illustrations and maps, has been recently told by one of the American Consuls. The applicants are Messrs. J. G. Nethert, Sons & Company, iron workers at Schaffhausen, who ask for the privilege of constructing a dam from Laufen Mill to the railroad bridges, a length sufficient to furnish them with a volume of seventy-five cubic meters per second. If this is granted they propose to establish works for the manufacture of aluminum, furnishing employment at first to 500 workmen and latter to double that number. They estimate the water power requisite to carry on their works at an equivalent of 1,500 horse power and submit with their application the necessary maps, plans and drawings. They further announce that a company with a capital of 12,000,000 francs (about £480,000) is prepared to conduct the enterprise, and they offer all reasonable guarantees against any marring or defacement of the natural beauties of the falls. The proposition is being met with a strong opposition, this being led by the hotel keepers, men of influence in Switzerland and many others who are dependent on the tourist business. Their business, they say, would suffer disastrously and all over the Rhine district energetic endeavors are being made to get the application refused.—London Times.