POWER EMPLOYED IN MANUFACTURES 223 



the shaft horsepower in the form of current generated at a 

 potential of 12,000 volts, thus dispensing with transformers, 

 which otherwise would be required to raise it to that voltage 

 for transmission. 



A large amount of Niagara current is employed in electro 

 chemical and electro metallurgical operations. This work, 

 however, is far from exhausting the possibilities of Niagara 

 development by electricity. In the immediate vicinity of 

 the falls, the current is now used for electric lighting, and 

 about 1,000 horsepower is also delivered to the street railway 

 trolley system. Factories on the spot working up raw ma- 

 terial into food, textile fabrics, etc., utilize several hundreds 

 of horsepower, and the current is also used for the manu- 

 facture of '^ merry-go-rounds," as well as for operating venti- 

 lating blowers in the public schools. 



It is the transmission to Buffalo, however, which more 

 particularly justifies the utilization of the energy of the great 

 cataract, and illustrates the remarkable manner in which 

 electric power is modifying the methods of American manu- 

 facturing and mechanical industries. The current from 

 Niagara to Buffalo is carried over aerial circuits and deliv- 

 ered to transformer stations which lower the pressure for 

 local distribution. The Buffalo street railway system has 

 five of these substations, so that at all hours of the day and 

 night, Niagara is transporting the public of a great city more 

 than 20 miles distant. 



There are a number of miscellaneous industries and manu- 

 factures in which blocks of Niagara current are used at prices 

 which compete so favorably with those of steam, oil, and 

 natural and artificial gas, that the demand is rapidly increas- 

 ing. Among these may be mentioned large flouring mills 

 and a plaster making plant. 



Not only is grain ground to flour by electrical power, 

 but it is handled by electricity in some of the largest grain 

 elevators for which Buffalo is famous, one of them, the '^ Great 

 Northern," having 20 induction motors of an aggregate 

 capacity of 1,200 horsepower. Another large utilization is 

 at the plant of the Buffalo Dry Dock company, where 40 

 motors of upward of 500 horsepower capacity are employed 



