Industrial Niagara 



uses to which the power has already been applied and the 1901 

 engineering methods by which it has been accomplished. 



In electrical engineering to-day a polyphase alternating-current 

 system is considered the only rational system to install for general 

 power distribution. Ten years ago, however, at the beginnings 

 of the Niagara power enterprise, the application of energy to 

 industrial uses was on a basis quite different from that of to-day, 

 and the only factories which could be considered available as 

 customers for such a power development were those who required 

 on their premises mechanical, and not electrical, power. Conse- 

 quently, schemes suggested then, which now seem somewhat fan- 

 tastic, for transmitting power from the Falls by compressed air 

 and various other means, deserved, at that time, more serious con- 

 sideration. The arts of electric lighting, electric traction, and, 

 above all, electro-chemistry, were only just beginning, and had 

 not assumed the vast proportions of the present time, so that trans- 

 mission of Niagara power by electrical methods did not have the 

 arguments in its favor that it has now. To-day the large majority 

 of the users of Niagara power are those who require on their 

 premises not mechanical power, but electrical current for lighting, 

 smelting, electrolysis, or traction. 



Considering this, it is remarkable that, at that time, in spite of 

 the undeveloped state of electrical engineering and the prejudice 

 existing against the alternating current, the engineers connected 

 with the Niagara enterprise should have had foresight enough to 

 select for the power plant the polyphase system, which stands 

 to-day as modern and meets every requirement of the latest 

 developments in the application of energy to industry. Every 

 user of Niagara power requires his current delivered in some 

 special form, and it is here that the flexibility of the low fre- 

 quency, polyphase, alternating-current system demonstrates its 

 value. 



DUNLAP, ORRIN E. The wonderful story of the chaining of Niagara. 1901 

 (Wld's work, Aug., 1901. 2:1052-1054.) Dunlap 



991 



