858 REPORT— 1892. 



In 1890 Mr. Adams, the President of the Niagara Construction Company, 

 visited Europe to examine systems of power distribution. It was in consequence 

 of tbis visit that the important modification of the plans of the company involved 

 in the substitution, to a large extent, of a system of power distribution for a sys- 

 tem of water distribution came to be adopted. The American engineers were 

 anxious to obtain the best European advice as to the methods best suited to the 

 local conditions. A commission was formed, consisting of Lord Kelvin, Dr. Cole- 

 man Sellers, Professor Mascart, and Colonel Turrettini, and an invitation was given 

 to engineers and engineering firms in Europe and America to send in competitive 

 projects for the utilisation of the power at Niagara and its distribution to different 

 consumers at Niagara and in Buffalo by electrical or other means. Many of the 

 plans sent in were worked out with great care and completeness. As to the 

 hydraulic part of the projects there was some approach to general consent as to 

 the arrangements to be adopted, but as to the methods of distributing the -power 

 there was an extraordinary diversitj'. 



Generally the commission reported in favour of electrical distribution, with 

 perhaps a partial use of compressed air as an auxiliary method. 



Generally also they reported in favour of methods of distribution by con- 

 tinuous currents in preference to alternating currents. Since the date at which 

 the commission reported, the Frankfort-Lautfen experiment has been made, and in 

 the opinion of some electrical engineers a distinct advance has been achieved in 

 the use of alternating currents at high potential. 



The company has not yet decided to adopt any plan for the central stations 

 except in a tentative way. One or more turbines of 5,000 horse-power are to be 

 erected, and probably at first this power will be distributed to Buff'alo by an 

 alternating current system. 



The cost of a steam horse-power at Buffalo is reckoned at $35 per annum. I 

 believe the company will be able to deliver power at from SIO for large amounts 

 and a greater price for small amounts, this price being reckoned for twenty-four 

 hour days. 



The new industry of electric lighting has made necessary the provision of large 

 amounts of motive power. Electric traction siinilarly depends on the supply of 

 motive power. New chemical and metallurgical processes are being introduced 

 which entirely depend for their commercial success on the supply of motive power 

 at a low price. 



Niagara is likely to become, not only a seat of large manufacturing operations 

 of familiar types, but also the home of important new industries. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The World's Columhian Expositiov for 189o. By James Drkdge, Mem- 

 ber of the Boyal British Commission, and Robert S. McCormick, 

 American Representative in London of tlie Columhian Exposition. 



The great size of Jackson Park, which was assigned by the municipality of 

 Chicago as a' site for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, enabled Messrs. 

 D. H. Burnham and J. W. Root, the engineers and architects of the Chicago Com- 

 mission, to prepare a general plan of the exhibition buildings, upon the basis of at 

 least 50 per cent, more covered space than was available at the Paris Exhibition 

 of 1889, while at the same time an ample area was left, which the skill of the 

 landscape gardeners, Messrs. Olmstead & Co., has converted into a noble park that 

 forms a suitable setting for the great range of buildings composing the exhibition. 



Except for the fact that Jackson Park is six or seven miles from the centre of 

 Chicago, it is an ideal site for a great exhibition ; for as it skirts the southern shore 

 of Lake Michigan the waters of that inland sea can be turned to full account, not 

 only to supply the lagoons, canals, and basins, on which so much of the beauty of 

 the park may depend, but it will afford a means of permitting a naval exhibition 

 to be held, which in completeness, variety, and interest will be without a parallel. 



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