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"The Government of the United States has promoted the construction of several great reservoirs. Among other incidentals is the generation of electric power, and this may prove to be the force that breaks that vicious circle. . . . If these are not sufficient, the influence of additional meritorious projects awaiting development can always be added. . . .
"At Boulder Dam on the mighty Colorado the gates were closed months ago; a great lake has come into being behind the dam, a lake generating power,* and at this moment the powerful turbines are awaiting the relatively tiny impulse of an electric current which will flow from the touch of my hand on the button which you see beside me on the desk, to stir machinery into life, to stir it into creative activity to generate power." This was pardonable hyperbole, for the first of Boulder Dam's 15 generators of 115,000 h. p. each will not be ready for operation until next month. Only one little 3,500 h. p. generator to supply electricity at the damsite was ready last week. The President paused, raised his index finger and pressed the gold telegraph key that has launched countless ballyhooed enterprises.
"Boulder Dam!" he cried, "In the name of the people of the United States, to whom you, Boulder Dam, are a symbol of greater things in the future; in the honored presence of guests from many nations, I call you to life!"
A radio behind the President was ready to broadcast the sound of Colorado River water rushing from twelve 7-ft. valves, spilling 180 ft. down into the canyon below the dam. But at first the only response to his noble invocation was silence. Someone had blundered. Secretary Marvin Mclntyre made a hasty exit. Then after a short delay the radio gulped, began a mighty Brrrrrrrrr! A moment later Mr. Mclntyre reported: "Doc Smithers [White House telegrapher] flashed the dam, 'Did you get it?' And they came back 'Yes. There's water all over the place.' "
Smiling, the President made a dramatic exit to a double roar of water and applause.
*Four days previously the members of the Power Conference were invited behind a board fence next to a garage on the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution, there to see a solar engine which Secretary Charles G. Abbott, of the Institution, perfected to a point where it could produce power as cheaply as coal at $3 a ton. Unfortunately the engine "burnt out a bearing" an hour or two before the visitors arrived. President Gano Dunn of J. G. White Engineering Corp. pointed out to them that if the surface of the lake behind Boulder Dam were covered with such engines they would produce as much sun-power as the dam will yield waterpower. Viscount Falmouth looked at the solar engine, said to Mr. Dunn: "I don't think any solar engine will ever work in England. Do you think, sir, you could induce Dr. Abbot to perfect a fog motor?"