The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-16
Electric Current of 10000 Horse
Power Turned Into Buffalo
Last Midnight.
DREAM OF SCIENCE REALIZED
BUFFALO TROLLEY CARS THE FIRST
TO UTILIZE THE POWER.
MiIliOn-DOilar Project by English
American Syndicate to Build
Railroad i'm China.

BUFFALO. Nov 15.-At midnight to-
night the turning of a switch in the big
power house at Niagara Falls completed a
circuit which caused Niagara river to flow
up hill, so to speak. In other words. it is
made to return fraction of its resistless
energy, which had already swept past the
gates of Buffalo, back into that city, twen-
ty-seven miles distant. The harness was
buckled that bitches the factory wheels of
Buffalo to the great cataract. Tomorrow
morning the street cars of this city will
move by the Niagara power. Hereafter
the falls will be made to work well
play while the resstless current sweeps
down the river.
The buckling of the harness could have
been done as well twelve hours earlier but
owing to the fact that the father of VIM.
b. Rankin. of New York, secretary of the
Niagara Falls Power Company, is a clergy
man, and in Difference to his wishes, the
Niagara Falls power was not turned into
the transmitting system at noon to-day. as
had been expected. The connections were
made at midnight tonight. The force of
experts having the work in charge were
busy all of last night and until late this
evening testing the various connections
| and going over the machinery to make sure
that everything was in proper order. When
everything was in readiness for the switch
| to be thrown over the electricians were
| confident that there need be no cessation
of the current set flowing over the wires
of the Buffalo street-railway system. The
distance covered by the line between Buff
| falo and the falls is twenty-seven miles,
| and the expert electricians estimate that
the loss of energy will be less than 10 per
| and exceed <
full tests are to be made in this connection,
the tests covering both night and day in
| both clear and rainy weather. The elec-
| tricians are paying particular attention to
this test. as on the perfect insulation of the
| carrying lines depends much OF the future
| success of the undertaking.
| The line that has been built to carry
the current-bearing wires is of the most
| substantial nature. Unlike the ordinary
| telegraph line the poles are placed very
| close together and are braced in such a
manner as to be proof against heavy
| storms. At curves the poles are set dou-
| BILE, and are guyed to numerous smaller
| poles to prevent sagging. The overhead
| line extends from the power house at the
| falls to the city limits of Buffalo, where
| the wires enter cement conduits. On the
overhead line glass insulators are found
unequal TO the strain; ana porcelain a,i, IN, IN
| wires. These inSulatorS were subjected to
a current of $4,000 volts before being put
eight cables, each with carrying capac-
| ity of five-thousand-horse power or forty
thousand-horse power in all. The poles
| are of such substantial character. how
ever. that this number of cables can be
doubled without subjecting them to a
| greater strain than is considered safe.
| The only contract made so far for the
delivery of power in Buffalo by the power
company is that with the Buffalo Street.
railway Company for one-thousandhorse
| power Under the contract with the city
| the completion of the undertaking of de-
livering power in Buffalo was not obli-
gatory before next June 1t was in order
to secure the contract with the street
railway company that the work hur-
ried through so far ahead of time. Con-
tracts with others desiring to use the cleo
trical power will now be made, and 1t is
thought that by the opening of spring the
power will be well distributed throughout
the city.
Since the inception of the undertaking
and during its carrying out the company
has frequently called on Messrs. Edison
and Tesla for advice, and these famous
masters of electricity have been frequent
visitors to the Niagara Falls power house
to solve technical problems. The power
will sell in Buffalo for $S6 a horsepower
the citv the company must increase its
capacity 10000 horse power per year until
the maximum of $4,000 horse power has
been reached.
The switches in the Buffalo-street rail-
way power house We're turned on exactly
engineer Of the general electric company
Mayor Jewett was present and held the
watch. Everything worked smoothly.
salute of Twenty-One Guns.
NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y, Nov. 15-The
fact that at midnight was to begin the
transmission of electrical power from the
falls to Buffalo for the first time drew q
very large crowd OF people to the power
house of the Niagara Falls Power Com.
pany tonight. So many were trying tc
gain admission to the place that at
O'Clock the doors had to be closed Those
present in the power house proper were
Messrs. w. B. Rankin. secretary of the
company; w. A. Breckenridge resident en-.
gineer; Paul NJ. Lincoln, electrical superin.
tendent; /. r.. Edmonds, of the Genera
Electric Company. and the Hon. c. Ely
EdmondS had charge of the TRANSFORMED
| house.
At IL As o'clock Messrs. Rankin Breckin
ridge and Lincoln took positions on the
raised platform in front of the switchboard
on the main floor of the power house anc
arranged the switches. Shortly before 4
o'clock Mr.. Breckenridge notified Mr. Ed
monds in the transformer house that tn,
electricity was ready for the transformer.
and a moment later the switch was thrown
and the power was rushing through tn,
transformers out on the line and away Il
Buffalo. Mr.. Edmonds pronounced the ma
chinery all right and formally delivered 4
. TO Mr.. Breckenridge for the power com
!, | pany. 1t was accepted and then the cur
rent was shut off for brief space. Com
; muncation was had with the Street-rail n
way Company in Buffalo. and word re
ceived from them that everything was 4,
readiness at that end of the line. Mr. Ran
, kin then stepped to the platform, threw tn.
, switch over and Niagara's power was i,
| Buffalo, A salute of twenty-one guns wa
fred by battery stationed near the powe
> house.