NIAGARA PALLS, ELECTRICAL POWER AT. 



545 



.are rectangular copper bars, 82 by 8 millimetres. 

 Each of the 187 holes of the armature contains 

 2 of these bars, surrounded with mica. The 

 upper and under sides of the armature are con- 

 nected by means of V-shaped copper bars, rivet- 

 ed to the ends of the bars that project behind 

 the ends of the armature. The connections are 

 made so as to give 2 independent circuits. 

 A pair of cables connects each circuit with the 

 switchboard. 



The magnet winding also is composed of 

 bent copper bars, air insulated, inclosed in brass 

 boxes, 2 of which are fastened to each pole 

 piece. A continuous current for exciting the 

 field magnets is obtained from a rotary trans- 

 former. The current is conducted to the field 

 coils by means of a pair of brushes and 2 cop- 

 per rings fixed to the top of the shaft of the 

 generator. At a speed of 250 revolutions a min- 

 ute the machine produces 2 alternating cur- 

 rents, differing in phase of 90 degrees from each 

 other, each of 775 amperes and 2,250 volts pres- 

 sure. The alternations are 50 a second. The 

 height from the base of the bedplate to the top 

 of the machine is nearly 12^ feet. 



So far has the work progressed that there now 

 remain but the installation of the electric ma- 

 chinery, the electric cables, the roofing and in- 

 terior work of the transformer building, and the 

 placing of the transformers, which receive the 

 high-voltage current from the dynamos and re- 

 duce it to the proper voltage for its various uses 

 by manufacturers, and the first wheels and the 

 first dynamo can begin to revolve. In the carry- 

 ing out of this great plan of electric-power devel- 

 opment the expert engineers who have made it 

 their study for years have been frequently 

 obliged to change their plans completely as 

 new discoveries were made. The power, as ap- 

 plied directly to machinery, is already in use in 

 the adjacent mills of the* Niagara Falls Paper 

 Company, which are said to be the largest in the 

 world. The tremendous head demanded a wheel 

 of unusual strength, and Geyelin's improved in- 

 verted Jonval bronze wheel was chosen as the 

 one most likely to meet the requirements. Three 

 of these wheels are now in operation, of 1,100 

 horse power each. The water is admitted to 

 them through 66-inch gates from the huge pen- 

 stock, 13^ feet in diameter, and passes through 

 them from beneath instead of from above, as is 

 usual with all other turbines, and relieves them 

 of the enormous weight of water contained in 

 the penstock, which is 134 feet in length. 

 Thus was overcome one of the most important 

 points namely, to relieve the " step " of pres- 

 sure and prevent it from burning out. The 

 power is transmitted to the surface by 10-inch 

 forged-iron shafts, 144 feet long and securely 

 supported by 7 sets of iron girders, which 

 are imbedded in the solid masonry that forms 

 the wheel pit. The shafting connections at the 

 top are made by steel beveled pinions and core 

 gears. Each set of these gears weighs 16.000 

 pounds, and it has a speed of 4.000 feet a min- 

 ute. The revolutions of the water wheels are 

 260 to the minute, but this speed is geared down 

 to 200 on the main shafting in the mill. The 

 gears are transmitting the most power and run- 

 ning at the highest speed of any ever designed 

 or put into operation, and, until the operation 

 VOL. xxxiv. 35 A 



of the 5,000-horse-power turbines in the power 

 house of the Niagara Falls Power Company be- 

 gins, the turbines of the paper company are fur- 

 nishing, under a head of 144 feet, the most 

 power of any water wheels in the world. The 

 turbines are connected to perpendicular shafts 

 arid are incased in great iron coverings. The 

 .penstock is of ^-inch iron, and is proportioned 

 to attain the highest efficiency of the power of 

 the water. The wheel pit is 28 by 43 feet and 

 172 feet deep, and the water has a head of 145 

 feet on the turbines. As to the transmission of 

 electrical power, an eminent English authority 

 has recently made this statement : 



The limiting commercial distance depends upon 

 two associated interdependent factors viz., cost and 

 electric pressure. 1. Cost, including the purchase 

 and maintenance of the necessary machinery and 

 wires, together with the annual interest chargeable 

 upon such expenditure. 2. Electric pressure, the 

 pressure or voltage at which the line transmitting 

 the power can be operated with continued security to 

 life, and assurance of permanence of supply, and per- 

 manent protection to the lines of conductor from light- 

 ning, weather, and all disturbances. Up to the present 

 time the commercial distance at which water power has 

 been distributed is only about 25 miles, and the dis- 

 tance to which it might be distributed commercially 

 under the ordinary conditions has been generally re- 

 garded as a radius of 50 miles. We shall first assume 

 that a steady transmission of power is to be provided 

 for from Niagara Falls to various cities along the 

 banks of the Erie Canal. It can be shown that 

 where the voltage on the line is so high that a cer- 

 tain value say 50,000 volts at the receiving end has 

 to be assigned as a safe limit to the maximum pres- 

 sure between any two conductors, the triphase system 

 is the most economical of the three. "We shall there- 

 fore assume this pressure limit and triphase at a fre- 

 quency of 40 periods. This maximum pressure of 

 50,000* volts represents for sinusoidal waves an elec- 

 tro-motive force of 33,350 volts between wires, or an 

 equivalent pressure of 20,410 volts effective from each 

 wire to the neutral point. This is a pressure but 

 slightly in excess of that successfully used in part of 

 the Lauffen-Frankfort experiments (30,000 volts be- 

 tween conductors), and mav therefore be reasonably 

 assumed as practicable. We shall now assume that 

 the engineering difficulties can be overcome by bare, 

 overhead, triphase wires, at 35,350 volts receiving 

 pressure with step-up and step- down transformers at 

 each end of the lines. As to the question of cost, the 

 conclusions arrived at are as follow : By Emery's ta- 

 bles, the cost of generating steam power per annum 

 with coal at $3 a ton is for three hundred and eight 

 days often hours $25.27 per horse power, and for three 

 hundred and sixty-five days of twenty hours, $44.43 per 

 horse power. Tliis is with large triple-expansion, com- 

 pound engines. The calculations of electrical results 

 indicate that, on the basis of prices and voltage as- 

 sumed and detailed, the power of Niagara Falls can 

 be transmitted to a radius of 200 miles cheaper than 

 it can be produced at any point within that range by 

 steam engines of the most economical type, with coal 

 at $3 a ton ; that Niagara power can maintain at Al- 

 bany a large day-and-night output cheaper than 

 steam engines at Albany can develop it ; but that for 

 power taken at Albany for ten hours a day the best 

 steam engines have somewhat the advantage over 

 Niagara, unless exceptionally favorable conditions of 

 load could be secured for Niagara power. These con- 

 clusions are, of course, entirely dependent upon the 

 reliability of the prices, voltages, and estimates. 



William B. Rankine, secretary of the com- 

 pany, says : 



Niagara Falls Power Company is selling undevel- 

 oped water power at Niagara Falls for $8 a year for 



