The record-union., 1895-09-10
TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICAL
ENERGY,


TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICAL
ENERGY,
1t was only ten years ago, says Eugi-
neer Abbott, when the belief was that
electrical energy for power purposes
could not be transmitted over few hun
dred feet. Now, i'll less than decade. we
are operating machinery by power trans
mitted by electricity twenty and thirty
miles.
On this continent the two great proofs
of possibility of this order are found at
Sacramento and at Niagara Falls, and
very soon it will be in evidence at Fresno,
IN this State. There is, it is true, New
England city where machinery is moved
through long distance transmission, but
it is over space not omparable with the
other instances for practical purposes.
With the demonstration at Sacramento
the public is now familiar, for we have
heavy machinery running, and cars
moving by reason of power generated
nearly twenty-three miles away. But
how is it at Niagara Falls? That is the
greatest plant yet set up; it promises far
more than the California examples cam
and that promise is needed in the midst
of the denser population.
Mr.. Abbott says the utilization of the
magnificent Niagara water power has
been the dream OF engineers for hun
dred years, as in some respects no other
water fall in the world possesses such ex-
cepional advantages. The water dis
charge there is the drainage of 10000
square miles, en- bracing ihe largest lakes
in the world, sending 300, 900 cubic feet of
water 80 feet downward in each second
of time and expending 10,000.000 horse
power.
But no one dreams of there being an at
tempt to harness all this; there can be no
demand for it within the area of possible
delivery. But enough can be bridled to
meet all the needs there is for it, or can
be. But il is not the falls" descent that
is taken in hand. The water is drawn
out above the falls and carried to the tur-
bine wheels through artificial channels of
abrupt descent, and thus 100000 horse
power is to be seized and turned to the
uses of man profitably. The application
of the water is at point LOO feet from
the river, to which place it is conveyed in
canal twelve feet deep and 25O wide.
The water is thence sent downward to
low level near the fall through an
excavation in rock 178 feet, and from
that point tunnel tail race of 700 feet
carries the water around the falls and de-
Iivers it back to the river.
Ten turbine wheels are to be operated
for 5000 horsepower by the waterfall
through steel tube penstocks seven and a
half feet in diameter. From each wheel
a vertical shaft rises to the upper level,
over $50 feet, and operates a dynamo in
the station-house. The transmission of
this power long distances from Niagara
for it are yet to be satisfactorily stretched.
| The engineers, therefore, at Niagara, are
still unsettled in opinion as to the full
commercial possibilities of the delivery
OF electrical energy at distant points so as
to successfully compete with steam gen.
Grated where fuel is cheap.
We have not the slightest doubt but
that this energy created at Niagara Falls
will be distributed economically over far
longer lines than those between Sacra-
mento and Folsom. But where there is
steam competition the Niagara engineers
confess that they are in doubt as to the
Niagara power being able to hold it's own.
This doubt is much graver when the de-
mand is made for the power in towns and
cities $50 miles to 800 miles distant. But
| that this achievement will be early an
swered we believe at least Niagara
power Will be delivered 100 miles away.
! AlI. aODOtt says poA VI AZ .
very positive that the electrical energy
cannot be pushed over 100 or 175 miles at
the utmost. but electrical engineers are
not prepared as yet to concede this.
! So that economic exceeding long dis
lance transmission of electrically devel-
oped power is still problem. Mr.. ABB
| bot says on this hand:
| With coal varying from So to So so per ton,
! an allowance of 10 per cent. for interest and
! dividends on invested capital, and assuming
! the most careful executive administration, 1t
| seems PROBABLE that a large, continuously
operating steam central station with Il daily
average output Of 10000 TO 10000 horse
/ power could produce electricity at the rate OF
$40 To 500 per horsepower per annum. The
Niagara Company nave offered TO sell cleo
tricity at the Fails station at 81 s per horse
power annum; this figure doubtless including
/ what the company considers profitable
/ margin. In each case IA horsepower is to be
| delivered for tESenty-four hours per day, 365
days per year Obviously the difference be-
! tween 81 . and SIS, or S27, may be expended
| TO cover losses IN transmission and profit on
/ the necessary capital invested in transmits
/ sion lines and still permit the Niagara Com
/ pany to compete on an equal basis with the
| best designed central station. This difference
| is a very wide margin, and would seem 10
afford so large a radius for distribution as TO
| easily absorb all the energy that the Cataract
| Company could dispense. Our more sanguine