NIAGARA FALLS, ELECTRICAL POWER AT. 



543 



President Cleveland signed the New York and 

 New Jersey bridge bill. During June 22-27 

 the seventeenth annual Sangerfest was held 

 in this city, under the honorary presidency of 

 William Steinway. It was the largest sing- 

 ing festival ever held in this country or abroad, 

 and combined the singing societies of over 25 

 cities, each of which sent from 6 to 36 differ- 

 ent organizations, numbering from 50 to 150 

 active members each. The musical exercises 

 were held in the Madison Square Garden, and 

 some of the most famous singers in the world 

 were among the soloists. A torch-light pro- 

 cession, various entertainments at the German 

 clubhouses, and a beautiful temporary trium- 

 phal arch made of staff, at the corner of 26th 

 Street and Madison Avenue, contributed to the 

 pleasure of the occasion. 



On July 10 the corner stone of the armory of 

 Troop A, on Madison Avenue, between 94th and 

 95th Streets, was laid by the Mayor with appro- 

 priate ceremonies. On Dec. 6 the Metropolitan 

 Street Railway Company began the running of 

 its cable cars up Columbus Avenue to 96th 

 Street. On Dec. 28 the formal opening of the 

 new building of the New York College of Phar- 

 macy, at 115 West 68th Street, took place. 



NIAGARA FALLS, ELECTRICAL POW- 

 ER AT. The earlier attempts to utilize the 

 power of Niagara Falls for commercial purposes 

 have been described in former issues of this " Cy- 

 clopaedia" (see NIAGARA FALLS in the volume for 

 1887, page 561, and ENGINEERING in that for 1892, 

 page 252). Since those descriptions were written 

 the plan of using the power has wholly changed. 

 Under the charter given by the Legislature of 

 the State of New York in 1886 to the Niagara 

 Falls Power Company, the plan was to use nu- 

 merous small turbine wheels, each at the bottom 

 of a pit about 150 feet below the surface. Water 

 was to be led to the wheel pits through a general 

 canal, tapping Niagara river above the falls, 

 and thence through a series of lateral canals, 

 each within the territory of its own mill site. 

 But the rapid development of the transmission 

 of electrical power led to such a complete 

 change in the original plan that the whole 

 scientific world is watching the experiment. 

 The charter has been amended in succeeding 

 years, amplifying the rights of the company to 

 meet the requirements of the changes in the 

 plans. The last amendments, evidently with a 

 view to electrical transmission for long distances, 

 give the right to convey the power, heat, or 

 light developed at Niagara Falls through any 

 civil division of the State of New York. 



Soon after the company had been formed Ed- 

 ward D. Adams and Coleman Sellers, E. D., 

 visited Europe to examine the workings of the 

 various systems employed in the transmission of 

 electricity. Considerable time was spent in 

 Paris, where they studied the French methods, 

 and in Geneva, Switzerland, where water under 

 pressure is distributed for power, and where are 

 situated the world's greatest workshops for the 

 manufacture of turbines, pumps, compressors, 

 and electrical machinery. They were assisted 

 by eminent electrical and hydraulic engineers, 

 and the greatness of their undertaking was so 

 apparent that they decided, before returning to 

 the United States, to place their collected mate- 



rial in the hands of an international commission 

 authorizing it to solicit plans and schemes for 

 the harnessing of Niagara, to consider such 

 plans, and to award prizes for those that seemed 

 to be worthy and available in whole or in part. 

 The commission was organized under the presi- 

 dency of the eminent English electrician, Sir 

 William Thompson (now Lord Kelvin), and 

 Prof. W. C. Unwin, F. R. S., an hydraulic engi- 

 neer and writer of engineering text-books, was 

 induced to act as secretary of the commission. 

 The other members of the commission were 

 Theodore Turrettini, Geneva, lieutenant-colonel 

 of artillery, director of the works for utilizing 

 the Rhone at Geneva; E. Mascart, member of 

 the Institute, Paris ; and Coleman Sellers, E. D., 

 member of the Institute of Civil Engineering, 

 Philadelphia. It is a notable fact that that 

 commission was the most important, judged by 

 the individual eminence of the men who com- 

 posed it, that was ever employed in the planning 

 of a private electrical enterprise in the world. 

 To Dr. Sellers were added Clemens Herschel, as 

 consulting hydraulic engineer; Major George 

 B. Burbank, as resident consulting engineer; 

 John Bogart, as consulting engineer ; Albert H. 

 Porter, as resident engineer ; and Prof. George 

 Forbes, as consulting electrical engineer. The 

 commission was called the "International Ni- 

 agara Commission," and the announcement that 

 it was ready to receive plans and professional 

 suggestions for the construction of the Niagara 

 Falls tunnel was followed by the offering of many 

 proposals. Prizes had been offered for the best 

 scheme for the utilization and electrical distri- 

 bution of 125,000 horse power. The first prize, 

 of $2,500, was divided between two firms of 

 Geneva, Switzerland Messrs. Faesch & Piccard 

 and Messrs. Ceunod, Suztter & Co., who acted 

 in association. Prizes of $1,000 each were 

 awarded to Messrs. Hilliaret & Bouvier, Paris; 

 M. Victor Popp, Paris, and Prof. Reidler, of 

 Berlin, Germany; Messrs. Vigreux & Levy, 

 Paris ; the Pelton Waterwheel Company, of San 

 Francisco, Cal. ; and the Norwalk Iron Works 

 Company, of Norwalk, Conn. The two firms re- 

 ceiving the largest prize offered two complete 

 and similar projects, the general features of 

 which were the adoption of Gerrard or impulse 

 turbines, with complete admission or back vanes 

 permitting the use of suction pipes, so that the 

 fall below the turbines is not wasted ; a unit of 

 2,500 horse power for each turbine, and in the 

 electrical distribution the adoption of continu- 

 ous currents at constant potential. A prize was 

 also awarded to Messrs. Escher, Wyss & Co., of 

 Zurich, Switzerland, for their method of hy- 

 draulic development. In a lecture delivered be- 

 fore the Stevens Institute in 1891, Dr. Sellers 

 said, regarding the transmission of power, that 

 by far the greatest number of the competitors 

 submitted plans purely theoretical, of transmis- 

 sion by electricity, or plans varying greatly in 

 all particulars, but grounded on actual prac- 

 tice of transmitting by compressed air, few ad- 

 vocating transmission by wire rope. The com- 

 pany finally decided to adopt the plan of trans- 

 mission by electricity. 



In the' meantime, in 1889, the Cataract Con- 

 struction Company had been formed to do the 

 actual work, and a board of engineers was se- 



