POWER EMPLOYED IN MANUFACTURES 221 



over distances which were previously deemed utterly pro- 

 hibitive. 



The great bulk of electric motor work is still done with 

 direct current, there being no alternating current motors in use 

 for railway work; and in stationary work, that is, in mills, 

 factories, mines, etc., the utilization of alternating current 

 motors measured by their number and value, is only about 

 25 per cent as large as that of the direct current. 



The development of electric power transmission at 

 Niagara Falls has been the largest, and the most conspicuous 

 of its kind, and the work done there is in many respects typi- 

 cal of that done in other sections of the country^ where water 

 power is abmidant, although as to the length of transmission 

 and the voltage at which the current is sent over long dis- 

 tances, it is by no means the best example that can be 

 found. 



The utihzation of Niagara has in fact gone on for some 

 time, and there are at the present time two separate and dis- 

 tinct enterprises on the American side, one above and the 

 other below the Horseshoe falls. The plant below the falls 

 has the water of the Niagara river brought to it by a long 

 canal which taps the upper Niagara river, runs through the 

 city of Niagara Falls, and then discharges the waste water 

 at the chff just below the first suspension bridge. Here there 

 is a fall of about 215 feet, considerably more than at the plant 

 above, but there is the disadvantage that the turbines and 

 dj^namos are located in the gorge, which the buildings dis- 

 figure, and that the conditions are not so favorable for the 

 operation of machinery as in a plant at the surface. 



It is the plant above the falls, developed by the Niagara 

 Falls Power company, the current of which, while used locally 

 in large amounts, is also transmitted to Buffalo, 26 miles dis- 

 tant, that has attracted the greatest public attention. This 

 includes a short service canal, 250 feet wide at its mouth, IJ 

 miles above the falls, the intake being inclined obliquely to 

 the Niagara river. The canal extends inwardly 1,700 feet, 

 with an average depth of 12 feet, and holds water adequate 

 to the development of over 100,000 horsepower. On each 

 side is a power house, the ultimate capacity of each being 



