64 SELLERS — TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY BY ELECTRICITY. [Feb. 3, 



melt the cryolite to form the bath in the electric furnace, and a 

 direct current of low voltage to exercise electrolytic energy in sepa- 

 rating the metal from bauxite, which is rich in aluminum. An- 

 other enterprise, the Carborundum Company, called for looo horse 

 power, in alternate current of one phase only, for a process in which 

 heat energy alone is needed to produce a new mineral next in hard- 

 ness below the diamond. So with the manufacture of carbide of cal- 

 cium from coke and lime, great heat alone needed was obtainable 

 by alternate current. The Matheson Alkali Company, making 

 caustic soda from common salt, needed no heat energy, but over 

 2000 horse power of direct current for electrolytic or electro-chemi- 

 cal energy in a cold process to separate the chlorine gas from the 

 salt water, the gas being delivered into enormous lead-lined cham- 

 bers, the floor of each chamber being covered with lime, enabled 

 twenty-five tons per day of bleaching powder to be furnished to the 

 market, while the caustic soda liquor, freed from chlorine, is con- 

 centrated by boiling in iron kettles to evaporate the water and thus 

 leave caustic soda in solid form when cold. This caustic soda, 

 delivered to still another factory near at hand, is by a direct cur- 

 rent, furnishing heat and electrolytic energy, made to yield pure 

 metal sodium, just as Sir Humphrey Davy did when, with the cur- 

 rent from a galvanic battery, he produced and gave to the world a 

 few ounces of the new metal. The ingots of sodium, as made by« 

 the Chemical Construction Company, at Niagara Falls, are dipped 

 into coal oil and thrown into tin cans, to be closed air-tight, ready 

 for the market, or at once, by a simple process, converted into per- 

 oxide of sodium, one of the most powerful oxidizing reagents re- 

 quired in the arts. Factory after factory has been added, for va- 

 rious electro-chemical processes, while the establishments first 

 started have grown in size calling for power in a rapidly increasing 

 ratio. 



While these industries were developing, electricity has been fur- 

 nished to tlie lighting station to replace steam as the motive power, 

 and a direct current is being delivered to the trolley lines of Ni- 

 agara Falls and Buffalo. By the time the development was in 

 shape to offer power to Buffalo, and the cost of installation was 

 being worked out there, one great advantage of the tri-phase system 

 over the bi- phase that had been adopted was urged as an important 

 argument against what had been done. This advantage comes from 

 the fact that the bi-phase transmission needs four cables, two 



