The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-12-03
TRANSM|TTAL OF POWER.
What the Convention of the National
Electric Light Association
Brought Out.
How Water Power Is Being Util-
lied in Connection With
Electricity.
The Progress Recently Made in Handling
Electrical E~nergy-Condu its for
Electrical Wires.

ELECTRICAL wires.
The Water Powe company has aforce o
Helena engineers az Pugh's ferry activel,
engaged in the construction OF a dam whiel
will extend across the river at that point
where il is 800 feet wide and averages sever
feet deep with a solid rock bottom. 1t i
said that a dam can BIO built at shis plnc'
for about one-ffth the cost of one a
Ssubbs' ferry, where the river is muct
wider. The force now ut Pugh's ferry arr
getting out timber to be used for the ootfel
dam which will be built around the dam
proper. Quarters for the workmen and
engineers are also being erected. The tur-
bines which will drive the dynamos have
been order and the electric plant designed.
The fact that the water power at Puah's
ferry, a few miles from Helena. is going to
be utilized for the generation Of electrical
power to be used in this city, makes the
proceedings of the National Electric Light
association, recently held AT Buffalo, of
peculiar interest here. The convention
devoted less time to the subject of lighting
than to the more important uses of the
current, such as operating railroads
and transmission over long dis
tanoes from the place where it
is generated. thus rendering power
available which has heretofore been use
less. The Railroad Gazette. in a synopsis
of she work of the convention, says it was
shown by the delegates that at several
places in the United States the power of
waterfalls has already been used 30 gener-
OF
distances of from one to three miles. Hell
ena people are somewhat familiar with the
most remarkable instance of power trans
mission which has as yet been undertaken,
shat which WAS shown in connection with
the Frankfort exhibition last year. when
the power generated at Lauffen. 10S miles
away, was put into use at Frankfort to do
lighting and pumping. No exact account
of the percentage of the power employed at
Lauffen, which was delivered at Frankfort
when the maximum work was going on, has
vet been given; but when eighty-horse
power was In use about u per cent of the
current was available or, taking the losses
in the generators and motors at III per cent,
something over go per cent of the power of
She water-wheel was delivered to the ma
ehinery at Frankfort.
A comparison of this first considerable
electrical conveyance OF energy with the
matured method of carrying it in the
concrete form of Goals from the mines to
the boilers of manufactures over the coal
railroads, showed rather in favor Of the
electrical transmission for the cost of the
coal at the mines is said to be doubled by
the time it reaches q place OF consumption
100 miles away, showing a loss OF 5O per
cent, or q gain in favor of electrical trans
port of energy of about 10 per cent. AS the
J~-A~szn nr~frau hava nnlv mat han1n
railroad managers may have to give atten-
ton to this remarkable experiment. 1t was
a long time before they could believe that
oil could be pumped through pipes cheaper
than it could be hauled in cars. When it
comes to the conversion OF the electric
energy into heat, however, the difference Is
vastly in favor of the railroad and s base
burner stove.
The current employed upon the Lauffen-
Frankfort line was of q potential of 16, 600
volts, and carried upon naked copper wires.
of course an alternating current. The Ger
likon works, of Zurich, Switzerland. have
made a proposal to transmit power from
Niagara Falls to Buffalo, using units
5000 II. p, with a current Of 25,0O0 volts
potential, with a loss in esti-
mated at about 16 pei cent. BIZ. Dobrowl-
sky, of Berlin, is ready to contract to
transmit 5000 H. P. from Niagara to Chi
cago. using a voltage of from 10000 to 3d.
600 upon the line. 1t is amusing to recall
the horror of tho continuous current advo-
Gates two years ago at the fearful potential
of 5000 volts which some of the alternating
systems proposed to employ.
Ferranti is using a current of III, 600 volts
in London. There is an experimental line
at Pittsield, Mass. carrying $1,000 volts.
1t is now said that currents OF 100, 900 volts
may be safely sem through wires encased
with oil, and such q current is advocated as
the lowest pressure which would be COM
mercially profitable over distances of thirty
miles or more. AS the striking distance
increases very rapidly with the increase of
potential, it is fortunate that the current
may be raised or lowered to any desired
tension by the use of transformers, SO that
we need not the long distance, striking
kind of electricity for domestic use, but
only a mild and orderly variety of the cur
rent.
Great progress has been made in the con-
struction of transformers and also in the
alternate current motors; yet If the alter
mating current motor is not quite satisfac-
tory, the current may be converted from al
ternating to continuous at the place where
you require it for use, and the direct cur
rent form of motor used instead of the al
terngting. Although it is unseen and no
rerson knows what the electric energy is, it
is now treated with about the same conve-
nience in handling as a stream of water i'll
pipes. Any desired portion of the stream
may Do bhheu lTOIi VIC EldIL duI CutTleu W
any pressure less than the total head to any
point.
There is as vet no reasonably satisfactory
conduit for electric wires that are to be
placed underground; that is to say, none
that is convenient for inspection and test
ing, and which does not involve a too great
expense, when the value of the service rem
dereo is considered. The committee of the
Electric Light association, appointed to in
vestigate the subject, made a report of q
very discouraging character. Ii is quite
evident that If one-half, or perhaps one
quarter of the cost of underground con-
duits were to be expended upon the insula-
ton and permanent erection of aerial lines,
the result would be entire security for per-
sons and property, and greater convenience
for the electric companies. No cheap
method will answer for underground work,
and ought not to be tolerated above the
surface.
In Chicago and Buffalo there are under
ground systems as to which the designers
make favorable reports, somewhat attacked,
however, by other experts. In Milwaukee
an electric railroad company has laid plain
lead covered cables underground without
other protection, and they are said to be
working satisfactorily, which they of course
would do at first.
Butcher q Bradley have a full line of holiday
goods and novelties, also all the latest designs in
fancy work ana materials.
Social Dance at Turner Hall.
There will be a social dance at Turner