Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-06-13

was set going at that speed IL would |
cover mile in a minute.
That, however, is scarcely 80 per
cent. Of the power that is contempla ed. !
Gradually, carefully, patiently, this
speed will be increased. and probably
within the next three or four weeks,
until at last when the full force OF
Niagara 50 far as the PenStock can
carry it, is delivered TO the turbine,
and by that agency redelivered 10 +hel
dynamo that instrument will receive
a force capable Of making it revolye at
the rate OF nearly 800 revolutions a
minute-nOt quite that, about 2S0-tOI
be approximately accurate. That will
represent a speed upon a railway OF
two miles a minute. and it is only by
such comparison that the mind can
grasp the enormity of these figures.
At the rate of two miles minute the
continent would be crossed in twenty
four hours. The trip from New York
to Chicago is made in six hours, or
from Philadelphia TO Queenstown in
single day But that is not all. When
at last this wheel is set going at this
in and week out. at a rate equivalent
to nearly 5000 miles every twenty
four hours, or equivalent to a journey
around the world in eight days.
OF course when the other wheels are
set UP occasionally this one will be
stopped, but by and by, if the CONNER
! cial development OF the electricity
there obtained proves to be as great as
is now expected, there may be as
many as three or four transformers
| whirling at this speed, which can be
| Hkened only to some of the movements
of the celeS tial bodies.
! The capitalists and most of the sci
! entistS who witnessed the experiments
/ the other day have now no doubt about
the commercial as we'll as the scientific
success of This mighty work. Yet they
/ admit that the problem will not be
I solved until the transformer converts
the mighty force of Niagara into an
electric current and delivers that cur
rent to the shop, the trolley, the cleo
Urlc-lighting plants in Buffalo and else
where.
I When returning from Buffalo some
of the scientists talked about this prob
lem. The experiments they had wit
messed were purely mechanical, for the
transformer has not yet been per-
mitted to convert the force into an
electric current. Yet there was not one
of the scientists who did not express
the opinion that when the electrical
machinery is attached and the current
developed it will be found to have as
perfectly solved the problems as all
of the work hitherto has done.
For instance, Professor Croker, of
Columbia college, a very high Scien-
titic authority, was firm in his belief OF
the commercial availability of the cur
rent which this great transformer Will
develop. He went on to say that the
tendency Of all those who are using
electricity for commercial purposes is
now to employ currents of higher and
higher pOtentiality. 1t seems that the
public has not been taken into this Sc
cret, and that in many places the troll
ley people and others who use electric
power are using currents of such high
pOtentiality that the public might pos
sibly be alarmed. By and by confess
sion Will be made, and we Will then
know that now for a considerable time
very much more current has been used
than the public is aware of. When 1t
is learned that this has been done with
out accident or serious impeachment,
then Of course the fears of the public
will be allayed.
AS one of the scientists said: zone
Thousand volts will, in the majority of
cases, prove fatal, and if that be 80 it
it just as we'll to use a much higher
voltage after the limit of fatality is
past. For instance, the effect upon the
human sysem Of receiving current
of 1,S0O volts would in most cases be
no more disastrous than the effect
caused by a current Of 1000 volts.
The commercial advantages are very
much greater when the higher poten-
tialities are used and therefore, little
by little, the companies employing
electricity have been increasing the
power of their currents. The danger
is comparatively slight. The trolley
cars in Brooklyn have injured or killed
: by knocking down or running over
more persons in year than the cleo
trio current itself has killed in the en-
tire United States in five years. The
conditions which would make it pos
sible for a person to receive fatal
shock are very rare indeed
1t may be said that the Niagara Falls
company now rather expects to have
the formal opening of the works early
, in the summer, and it viii be most
impressive ceremonial, matched only
by those ceremonies which attended
the opening of the Atlantic cable.
, When the opening is made and its sue
cess is demonstrated then we shall
surely see similar undertakings In
other parts of the United States.
was told that capital in enormous
quantities is simply waiting the per
feet demonstration at Niagara to IN
vest in similar works elsewhere.
NGNSENSICAT. JINGII Els.