ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION OF WATER POWER. 735 



haul freight, one being of five hundred horse power and weighing 

 thirty tons. 



The current generated at the power station is of the alternating 

 type, and undergoes one or two transformations before being used 

 at its destination, but the operation of the apparatus is so perfect that 

 this power, generated four and a half miles distant, can be used in 

 connection with the steam engines at the mills, and each one will do 

 its proper share of the work. 



A plant of twelve thousand horse power is now being built at 

 the Lachine Rapids, about five miles from Montreal, Canada, and, 

 although it is not larger than some of those in operation, or in process 

 of construction in the western part of the country, it may in time 

 become such, as the source of power is very great, and increases can 

 be made as fast as the demand calls for them. At Trenton, Canada, 

 there is a plant of about nine hundred horse power which is trans- 

 mitted a distance of twelve miles. 



Within the past few months it has been found by the investiga- 

 tions of engineers that a very large power can be obtained near the 

 town of Massena, in the State of New York. At this point the St. 

 Lawrence River descends about one hundred feet in a few miles, go- 

 ing over the Long Sault Rapids; but the Grass River, which runs 

 nearly parallel with it and only about three miles distant, drops but 

 fifty feet. As a result of this difference in the fall of the two rivers, 

 the St. Lawrence is fifty feet higher at the head of the rapids than 

 the Grass. By cutting a canal of sufficient size at this point the water 

 of the St. Lawrence can be diverted to the Grass and over the fifty- 

 foot fall, thus developing an amount of power limited only by the 

 size of the canal. The estimates of the engineers who have sur- 

 veyed the site is that as much as two hundred thousand horse power 

 can be obtained. The work of development is under way, and if it 

 is carried through on the scale proposed will only be surpassed in 

 magnitude by the Niagara plant. 



The largest water-power transmission in the South is probably 

 one located at Pelzer, North Carolina. At this place nearly four 

 thousand horse power is utilized, and transmitted a distance of about 

 three miles, where it is used for the operation of extensive cotton 

 mills. 



There are many transmission plants in different parts of the 

 West, the largest of which is, perhaps, at Minneapolis, where the 

 amount of power utilized is over ten thousand horse power ; but none 

 of these is of as much interest as those to be found on the Pacific 

 slope, owing to the fact that with few exceptions the distance of 

 transmission is short. In the latter section, however, the possibility 

 of using electric transmission for great distances is better demon- 



