The Cost of Steam Power

Abstract
It is believed that civil engineers require at times general information as to the cost of steam power, which is not readily accessible to those who have not made the subject a special study. This consideration has led the writer to present to the Society, with explanations, the accompanying tabular statement, marked “Schedule A,” the greater portion of which was prepared within two years for use in a suit in which two of the referees were Messrs. James B. Francis and E. D. Leavitt, Members of the Society, respecting the loss of power to a series of mills due to the use of a portion of the water for city purposes. Certain features of the table will be better understood by the explanation that it was claimed by the owners of the water privilege that damages should be based on the cost of purchasing, operating and maintaining, at each mill, a small engine, and a complete independent steam plant, which would at all times just make up the deficiency; while we who represented the city urged that the engines already in the mills should be worked a trifle harder, and that the damages would be represented by a capitalization of the cost of the extra fuel and of a portion of the cost of operation, repairs and renewals, though provision was made for including a portion of the original cost of machinery.

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