lO ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



capacity of the world, including the motor power required tor street 

 railways, has reached 5.000.000 H.P., and is rapidly increasing. In- 

 deed, with the perfecting of the alternating motors, all obstacles to the 

 tran.smis.sion of power seem to have been overcome. 



The economical transmission of electrical energy to a distance of 50 

 or 100 miles is an accomplished fact, and in the electrical exhibition now 

 being held in New York, there is being daily demonstrated the practi- 

 cability of bringing into that city over a distance of 450 miles, power 

 generated by the Falls of Niagara. It is also fi*eely stated that within a 

 very few years from the present time, the greater part of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Eailroad system will be operated by electrical locomotives, so 

 thoroughly convinced is the company that the elective service will prove 

 economical and far superior to steam in efficiei:icy. Thus, just as steam 

 locomotion has reached its present pitch of perfection, it seems as if in a 

 very short time it will be entirely superaeded, and that the present 

 locomotive will be found only in museums amongst the relics of the past. 



As an illustration of electrical energy carried to a distance, I am 

 enabled by the courtesy of Dr. Coleman Sellers, the consulting engineer 

 of the Cataract Construction Company and also president and chief 

 engineer of the Niagara Falls Power Company, to give some interesting 

 details respecting the remarkable work now being carried on at 

 .Niagara, 



So far as the main power station is concerned, the object has been to 

 create a plant for distributing power. (1) to establishments located in 

 the neighbourhood on the lands controlled by the company ; (2) to rail- 

 way and street lighting companies at or near Niagara Falls ; (3) to 

 power distributing companies located at distant points. The plant as 

 now completed has a capacity of nearly 16,000 electrical horse power, 

 but is arranged to be extended to 50,000 or even 75,000 horse power, as 

 the growth of the business may warrant, the whole available capacity of 

 the tuiniel as a discharge or tail race being adapted to 100,000 horse 

 power. 



The present plant which is now in successful operation, consists of 

 three turbines each driving a dynamo capable of delivering 5300 elect- 

 rical horse power, and its extension b}' the erection of other units of like 

 capacitj^ is about to be made. 



In order to insure the most economical condition for power indepen- 

 dent of the question of lighting, the company has adopted the two-phase 

 alternate current system of 25 full alternations per second at a primary 

 voltage of 2200 volts. The bus bars from which the current is dis- 

 trilnited are sized on a current density of about 1000 amperes per square 

 inch. 



The total head of water is about 212 feet. Of this head, 136 feet, 

 measuring from the upper water level to a point midway between the 



