Aswan Dam allies in the Middle East, including Turkey and Iraq, were irritated and jealous that Egypt, a persistently neutral country, was being offered so much aid. In June 1956, the Soviets offered Nasser $1.12 billion at 2% interest for the construction of the dam. On 19 July the U.S. State Department announced that American financial assistance for the High Dam was "not feasible in present circumstances." On 26 July 1956, with wide Egyptian acclaim, Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal as well as fair compensation for the former owners. Nasser planned on the revenues generated by the canal helping
Hydropower policy in the United States of 90% efficiency. More importantly, Francis's mathematical and graphical calculation methods advanced turbine design and engineering and allowed confident design of high efficiency turbines to exactly match a site's flow conditions. In the 1870s and deriving from uses in the mining industry, the high efficiency Pelton wheel impulse turbine was developed to use hydropower under very different flow and pressure conditions. Advances in dam design also progressed, with the completion of Old Aswan Dam being considered a milestone of engineering over nature. At the time of its construction, nothing of such scale had ever been attempted: it also became one