The Government of India is disposed to employ electricity as
its motive power in the great central factories which it intends to set up at Jubbulpore. Its advisers believe that the falls of the Nerbudda, and by and by of the Godavery, the latter of which are far larger and more magnificent than the falls of Niagara, can be utilised to generate electric power upon the grandest scale. We do not quite like the notion of central factories for military requisites, especially at points so far from the sea, and therefore from protection by a fleet, as they might be lost in another mutiny, but the saving of expense and labour will be very great, more especially if the electric generators succeed. Are we not a little slow in England with our experiments in this direction ? There is force enough lost in the gorge of the Avon and in the tidal wave of the Solway to keep all our factories going, and as competition develops we shall feel a keen need for cheapen- ing motive power. The wage-earners will fight the capitalists if reductions are made in their cost, bat the machinery will not.
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