Excerpt from Mineral Production in Illinois in 1954 Use of water in power production. Water in large quantities is needed as a cooling agent in the production of electrical power by steam-driven tur bines and electric generators. As about 400 to 700 tons of water is needed for each ton of coal used as fuel, steam power plants are often built near large bodies of cool water such as tidewater points, on the shores of the Great Lakes, or on large rivers. In the use of water for the production of power, a water head and a flow of water are required. The amount of power that can be obtained from an elevated body of water depends upon the height of the water above the water wheel and the volume of water flowing per measured period of time. The use fulness of water' flowing from a higher to a lower level in the production of power depends upon the regularity of flow. The amount of power that can be depended upon from day to day is related directly to the amount of water that can be expected to flow continuously. Modification or correction of seasonal variation in flow so as to increase the over-all year-round dependable power is one of the problems of water resource conservation in power supply. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.