UTILIZATION OF WATER POWER AT NIAGARA FALLS. II 



house stated as his opinion that power could be transmitted from 

 Niagara Falls to Buffalo by compressed air only. (Fortunately 

 for Mr. Westing-house's business he was mistaken ) In spite of 

 the meagre knowledge of electrical generation and transmission, 

 it was decided in December, 189 1, to ask for competitive plans and 

 estimates for the generation of electrical power and its transmis- 

 sion, both locally and to Buffalo. After a thorough study of these 

 plans the general form of dynamo was decided upon and a con- 

 tract was let for the construction of three 5000 H. P. two phase 

 alternating current 2200 volt machines at 25 cycles per second. 

 You say you do not see anything very remarkable about that, that 

 nearly every little water power plant in the country produces alter- 

 nating current. Yes, it seems very easy after it has been done 

 and proven successful, but it should be remembered that in 1891 

 nearly every great scientist in the world advised against the use 

 of alternating currents and great credit should be given to the far- 

 seeing wisdom of those who decided that the greatest plant in the 

 land should use this form of energy. As a further example of the 

 courage required to make the decision to generate electric power 

 it may be remarked that in 1890 there was in use in the United 

 States only 15,569 E. H. P., nearly all direct current. So the 

 Niagara Falls Power Co. proposed to double by their first installa- 

 tion of three 5000 E. H. P. wheels the amount of electrical power 

 employed in the whole country. The size of the units employed 

 is also worthy of notice for while they have since been exceeded 

 they were a great step in advance at a time when no dynamo of 

 more than 2500 H. P. had been put in successful operation. 



The general form and size of the wheels and the method of gen- 

 eration having been decided upon the next step was to plan the 

 general arrangement of the station. It was decided to build a 

 canal whose outer end should project about 600 feet beyond the 

 then shore line, the lands under water tc the outer end of the canal 

 being filled with the excavated material. After many studies the 

 mouth of the canal was located about 1400 feet above the mouth of 

 the Hydraulic Company's canal. This head race had a width of 

 about 180 feet at the mouth, 100 feet at the upper end, was 1500 

 feet long and 12 feet deep. When 100,000 H. P. is being devel- 

 oped from water supplied from this canal the maximum velocity 

 in it will be about 4 feet per second. It is interesting to note that 

 the canal was so planned that if electrical transmission had not 

 proven a success, it could be extended for a mile and a half up the 

 river so that the tunnel could be extended beneath it and hydraulic 



