be put at 43,500, of which about 42,000 were on non-navigable and 1,500 on navigable rivers and canals. The average output per water- fall was 18 horse-power. Of the total, 3,770 falls were used wholly or partly for the production of electricity. In regard to electrical energy, more recent official statistics show that the total amount of electric power produced by public-service enterprises in 1918 was 1,000,631 kilowatts, and the length of high-tension mains in use was 35,420 kilometres. There were 1,568 private installations pro- ducing 261,802 kilowatts.
The departments producing the largest quantities of electrical energy (in kilowatts) were: Seine 286,340, Isere 55,197, Nord 42,141, Seine-Inferieure 39,853, Rh&ne 27,668, Loire-Inferieure 25,223, Ariege 25,114, Bouches-du-Rhdne 24,487, Alpes-Maritimes 22,284, Dordogne 20,951, Meurthe-et-Moselle 20,684.
According to a report presented to the Ministry of Public Works in July 1920 by a special commission appointed in 1919, the total water-power produced in France at the end of 1919 was 1,165,000 horse-power. Machinery in course of erection was expected to give an additional 550,000 horse-power. Plans for the construction of other plant estimated to give an additional 3,000,000 H.P. were already under examination.
M. Hegelbacher, a leading French authority, estimates the total water-power of France, constantly available and available six months of the year, at 4,500,000 and 9,000,000 H.P. respectively, distributed as follows:
TABLE 15. Machinery (in francs).
Imports
Exports
French Output
Motors of all kinds . Machine Tools and Small Machines. Agricultural Machinery . Motor-cars ....
Railway Material Textile Machinery Printing and Sewing Ma- chines, Typewriters, etc.
30,000,000
52,000,000 45,275,000 19,250,000
23,335,000 22,882,000
44,765,000
11,500,000
16,000,000 14,775,000 229,000,000
6,715,000 2,539,ooo
5,363,000
100,000,000
65,000,000 120,000,000 45,000
chassis
20,000,000 23,000,000
Constant
Partial
Centre, Vosges, Jura Northern Alps Southern Alps Pyrenees and rest of France
900,000 1,000,000 1,300,000 1 ,400,000
1,800,000 2,000,000 2,600,000 2,800,000
Before the war only 13% of the 4,500,000 H.P. was utilized. France takes the third place among European countries in respect of available water-power, the figures (in H.P. per sq. km.) being: Norway, 36-6; Sweden, 20-0; France, 15-9.
One of the most comprehensive attempts ever made in France to utilize water-power was in 1921 being carried out on the Upper Rhdne. For many years it was supposed that this river, owing to the speed of its current, could not be used for navigation unless elaborate engineering improvements, the cost of which was prohibitive, were carried out. The development of engineering and hydro-electric science, however, raised the question whether the cost of these works could not be recouped in great measure by the generation of electric power which they would make practicable, and whether the river could not be simultaneously made navigable and become an im- portant source of industrial energy. The answer to these questions will be ascertained when the works on the Upper Rhdne are com- pleted. About 100 m. of the river, from Genissiat down to Lyons, is divided into 17 reaches, in most of which it was intended (in 1921) to install plants for generating electricity from the force of the current. The total amount obtainable in this way is estimated at 200,000 horse-power. The heights of the falls vary between 14 ft. 7 in. and 43 ft. IO in.
An attempt to utilize the tides as a source of power was being planned under Government supervision and with state assistance, in Aber Benoit Bay, on the Brittany coast. This bay possesses natural rocky basins which are regularly filled by the flow and empty themselves with the ebb, and the theory is that the outfall of these basins can be directed to turbines placed permanently under the outfalls, intermediary reservoirs being made so as to regulate as far as possible the outfall from the basins.
Engineering Industries. The French engineering industry has long been inadequate to supply the national requirements in ma- chinery. In 1890 imports and exports nearly balanced, but since then the former have grown much more rapidly than the latter. In 1913 the imports came to 204,800 tons, valued at 297,000,000 jr., and the exports to 82,261 tons, valued at 106,000,000 francs. Marine engines were built by about a dozen firms, and there were between 50 and 60 makers of fixed internal-combustion engines. The fabrica- tion of motors of the Diesel type is on the increase.
France is largely dependent on foreign countries for machine tools. These articles were made in 1913 by about 20 French firms, employing between 3,000 and 3,500 workers. Their output was about 10,000,000 fr., one-fifth of the value of machine tools imported.
The extent to which France was dependent, at the time of the war, on foreign industry for machinery is shown in Table 15, in francs, compiled from the customs returns for 1913.
In a report presented to the Comite consultatif des Arts et Manu- factures, three causes for the comparative inactivity of the French engineering industry were set out: (i) inadequate tariff protection, or rather the irregularity of the tariff, as regards raw materials and finished articles; (2) the cost of raw materials; (3) lack of enterprise. The last of these three causes was, according to the report, the most potent of all. Many of the leading firms in the industry appeared to be afraid to branch out into any new direction or even to make any real attempt to modernize their equipment and methods.
The construction of cranes, derricks, movable bridges and other jarge pieces of machinery required, more especially at seaports and in important factories, for lifting and moving heavy weights has
'650 to 700 engines, 2,000 carriages and 18,000 trucks.
long been one of the weak points in the French engineering industry. Before the war nearly everything of this kind was imported, and 40 % of the imports came from Germany. Even in the case of equipment for French Government undertakings most of the machinery of this kind was made in Germany, though it was sold by French firms acting for the German manufacturers, who were enabled, by the export bonuses paid by their Government, and also by their own enterprise, to defy competition. In reality they sold at cost price, making their profit out of the bonuses. Many large contracts for private firms, railways, chambers of commerce, etc., were carried out by German engineering firms under the cover of French names. The plans were generally drawn up by the Germans and recopied by French draughtsmen, and the tenders were made by French firms, including some of high standing. These firms would, no doubt, have preferred to do the whole of the work themselves, but they were handicapped by lack of credits. Tenders for work of this kind do not, as a rule, leave a large margin of profit, and as the risk was borne by the German manufacturer, and the French intermediary was sure of remuneration for his services, the latter preferred to play the secondary part. The result was that French firms confined them- selves to weighing-machines and small articles. During the war two or three works were started in the Paris district, but their output was small, and it would appear that in this branch of industry, and, in fact, in large metal work generally, France must be dependent on imports for some years to come.
Textile Industries. Before the World War the French textile industry gave employment to more than one-third of the national supply of labour, if we include not only the actual manufacture of materials but the ready-made clothing and lingerie trades. About 40% of all the raw materials imported were utilized by the textile industry, which, unfortunately for France, was very largely con- centrated (on account of proximity to the coal-mining centres) in a part of the country open to invasion. The invaded districts con- tained 81 % of the total number of wool spindles, 93 % of the flax spindles and 29% of the cotton spindles.
France imports about eight times as much raw wool as she pro- duces, her position in this respect being similar to that of most of the leading European countries, which purchase vast quantities of wool from Australia, Argentina, etc., card it, comb it, make it into yarn and finally into materials with which to clothe their millions of inhabitants. Before the war France came fourth in the list of coun- tries producing combed and carded wool and yarns. In 1910 she had 2,700,000 spindles engaged in transforming the wool into yarn, and this branch of her industry was distinctly flourishing. The exports of woollen yarn rose steadily after 1905. In 1913 they amounted to 14 times the value of imports and exceeded 4,000,000. Half of the total export went to Great Britain.
The woollen industry in the Roubaix district, which employed 43,000 hands in 1914, suffered severely during the occupation. The Germans not only removed such machinery as they thought of use to them but also appropriated all the stocks of raw wool, amounting to 989 tons. The total loss to the Roubaix wool industry was es- timated at 652,000,000 fr. (1914 value). As the mill structures and workmen's dwellings were spared, it was found possible to resume work sooner than was expected after the war. Some wool-combing works were able to start again in March 1919. At the end of 1920 83% of the productive capacity had been restored in this branch. A parallel recovery occurred in the weaving section, but was sub- sequently checked by the economic crisis in the autumn of 1920 and the restriction of bank credits and Government advances.
The French cotton industry, the principal centre of which is at Lille, was in a flourishing condition when the war broke out. Its spinning-mills had an annual capacity of 241,000 tons of yarn and its weaving-mills of 162,000 tons of cloth (of which 13,500 tons was available for export). Like the Roubaix woollen mills, the cotton mills in the Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing districts suffered severely from German depredations and exactions. The losses in Lille were estimated at 126,000,000 fr. and in Roubaix and Tourcoing at 538,- 000,000 francs. In each centre a strenuous effort was made towards recovery when peace was restored. Lille had half a million spindles working again at the beginning of 1920, and 570,000 at the end of June, this being about 40% of the number in operation before the war. Roubaix and Tourcoing made a similar recovery, though the mill-owners had to contend against difficulties which were not
