The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-08

NIAGARA FALLS, n. Y, Nov. A.
One part of the gigantic task under
taken by the Cataract Construction
pany and the Niagara Power company
was completed on March 8, 1895, when
the builder OF the giant dynamos in the
power house here threw back the con-
trolling lever and big No. / began to
revolve as easily and steadily as the
water slips over the brow Of the great
precipice itself. Since that day the
"harnessing of Niagara" which Was for
$50 years the dream of scientists and
engineers, has been an accomplished
fact But to subdue the great cataract
and make it turn the wheels of mills
that have sprung up about II, though
an engineering feat of greater dlmeh-
sions than any before attempted, was
only half the enterprise in which the
men who have wrought such wonders
here had embarked. Not only was
Niagara 10 move the electric current
set in motion by Niagard's power to
do the work of the electric city, but
il was 70 reach out its mighty arm TO
the city Of Buffalo and to drive the ma
chinery of that great manufacturing
center; perhaps in time, to turn every
wheel between New York and Chicago
The second half of this scheme was
fully as interesting as the first TO the
engineering world because, while Its
feasibility could be perfectly demon
strated on paper, it offered new and
interesting problems in actual cOnstruc-
ton. Although long distance transmits
sion was not an untried thing and
electric power had been sent for con-
siderable distances in Germany and
France, it had never before been at
/, H.. IL
scale. Now, on November 10, year
and half after the first part of the
plan was demonstrated TO be a success,
the second part is to be put into prac-
teal effect and the city of Buffalo will
Jingle from the impulse or an electric
current set in motion 26 miles away.
The thought in itself is an inspiring
one, but many of those who have been
Inspired by il do not understand the
process by which this result Is obtained.
1t is. accordingly, the purpose of this
article TO follow, in language stripped
of all technicalitieS, the transmission
rom the rushing waters of d great
river to the whirring wheel in the fac
tory or on the street car.
The first step in the process takes
place some three-quarters of a mile
above the falls, where a canal 200 feet
broad and II feet deep leaves the river
for a quarter of a mile to where she
power house stands. This is not pre-
tentious building, but it wears an air
of strength and Sohdity that is alto
gether BETTING. It is built of gray
sandstone and consists OF two parts
the main building, which contains the
dynamo machinery. and the trans
former house on the opposite side of the
canal, connected with the larger build
ing by graceful bridge. a wing of
the main building stands directly above
the wheel-pit, a long slit, 40 feet deep,
cut in-o the rock, containing the tur-
bines. Here it is that the second step
in the transformation is taken.
Beneath the platform in front of the
powerhouse and facing the canal are
several gates, which admit the water
into huge penstocks. These huge tubes,
SO large that when they are lying on
the ground a man can stand upright in
side of them, conduct the water to the
turbines at he bottom of the shafts.
The Denstock stands on end in the
wheel-pit and the top Of it is curved as
the funnel of a smokestack sometimes
is. When the gate is raised the wa W
rushes into the big tube so rapidly
that it creates q considerable current
on the quiet surface of the canal. The
waters hurry on, as they do above the
great fall in the river, seemingly in !
them. 1t comes in this case a Jew feet /
after they leave the canal-a sheer /
drop Of 1876 feet to the bottom of the
wheel-pit. All this, of course, is inside
the penstock, and we cannot watch the /
great column of water as it falls /!
through space with the accommodating
power that is presently to spin the +
wheels in factories miles away, but let (
us descend to the bottom of the shaft (
and see what takes place there.
Inside the powerhouse a winding
stairway, that seems to bore like a
corkScrew into the depths of the earth. /
Is pointed out as the way to the wheel /
pit. A few turns down, however, the /
stairway ends in a landing and a guard .
in uniform OF india-rubber inquiries:
What's wanted?" He looks over the /
bit of paper on which the superinten-
cent has written Please admit Mr.
- TO the wheel-pit," and says This
way to the elevator" An elevator run
nlng up and down a wheel shaft is
something unusual, but one quickly
learns not to wonder at innovations
here and before he reaches the bottom
OF TINS rocky cavern he is thankful for
the elevator.
AS he slips down through the echo
ing chasm the guard becomes more
affable.
IT'S wet weather down here" said
he, you should have brought your UNI
DIEIld.
1t didn't take long to prove that he
was right. We sink past platforms
built. like the floors of d house. one
above another, and on each platform
are rubber-coated guards, who spend
their days down in this dim cavern
where the electric lights struggle half
hopeiessly with the underground dark
ness, watching for the slightest evil
denee that there is anything wrong
with the huge revolving shafts or the
giant penstocks. The walls of the shaft
Tor most OF its depth are merely the
natural rock, standing just as it was
drilled out, and from these cavern walls
small streams of water are running
ct every little distance 1t is. indeed
wet weather The flor of our cage is
puddle OF water and we can hear the
drops pattering upon the floor Out
side fine mist seems to fill the air
we never complain of drouth down
here" said the guard, who seemed TO
look upon it all as a good joke.
All the time we are sinking further
and further down, until the roar of fha
water escaping at the, bottom. which
had at first come up to our ears in an
lndistinct murmur, now sounded like
the rushing of a hundred angry tor
rents The elevator comes to a stop
and the guard throws open the door
with shouted direction-or at least it
is probably shout, but his voice is
drowned by the roaring all about us
and makes no more impression than