Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1896-07-16
NIAGARA
Wonderful Results ACHE we'd by
Skilled Mechanics.
Scientific Tcsts Show the Enormous Power
Which Will BE Developed-Great
Expectations of tho Mann
moth Project.

The experiments which have been
going on at Niagara falls have been as
delicate, as carefully conducted, as are
those which h chemists or scientists
make in the field of original research.
The human intellect can scarcely con-
eeive of the enormity of some of the
results already obtained and of others
which are expected. In the Harvesting
Of a majestic implement which is to De
used to develop an electric current of
enormous power to another colossal ma
Chine, which is to receive the prodigious
power that is in the Niagara current
and convey it to this electric trans
former, work was necessarily as deli
cate as that which the matchmaker has
Heed of. The expectation is, says the
keO York Sun, that the revolutions of
: this dynamo will be so rapid Chat only
by comparison can they be understood.
Therefore, it has been necessary to test,
and, with gradually increasing speed,
the relations of the various parts of
this complicated whole machine to one
another. Suppose there had been a
deviation of a fraction of an inch in
measurements. or some chance for fric-
ton, which had been overlooked, and,
therefore, unprovided for, or some vari-
alton from the quality of the bearings
of the machine; then there was danger
that after a certain rate of speed was
reached there might come one mighty
crash involving the whole machinery in
destruction.
A few days ago some of the capital
lists and a few scientists went to Nj
agara to see how far the tests had been
made. Their going and coming was
not known by the public, nor have they
felt free to give any detailed informa-
ton of their experiences. The number
of revolutions of the dynamo was run
run up TO about one hundred and fifty
and with perfect success. The wheels
spun with the beauty and evenness of
a top, upon which only the laws of ma
ture operate. One hundred and fifty
revolutions a minute do not convey the
idea to the mind of the prodigious
force that is required to produce that,
but some idea may be obtained by say
ing that if the wheel were placed upon
a railroad track and was set agoing at
that speed it would cover a mile i in a
minute.
That, however, is scarcely fifty per
cent. of the power that is contemplated.
ISOASiCiS lAAIS
speed will be increased, and probably
within the next three or four weeks,
until, at last, when the full force of
Niagara, SO fast al the pcnstock can
carry it, is delivered to the turbine
and by that agency redelivered to the
dynamo, that instrument will receive q
force capable of making it revOlve at
ther rate of nearly three hundred rcvo-
buttons a minute-not quite that, about
two hundred and eighty, to be APP
p~roXlmately accurate. That viii rep
resent a speed upon a railway of two
miles a minute, and it is only by such
comparison hat the mind can grasp
the enOrmity of these figures. at the
rate of two miles q minute the CONT
nent 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 a single
day. But that is not all. When at
last this wheel is set going at this
speed it must go day and night, week
In and week out, at a rate equivalent to
nearly three thousand 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 com
mercial development of the electricity
there obtained proves to be as great as
now expected, there may be as many
as three or four transformers whirling
at this speed, which can be likened
only to some of the movements of the
celestial bodies.
The capitalists and most of the scien-
lists who witnessed the experiments
the other day have now nc doubt about
the commercial as well as the scien-
tifc success of this mighty work. Yet
they admit that the problem will not
be solved unit the transformer con-
verts the mighty force of niagara into
an electric current, and delivers that
current to the shop, the trolley, the
electric lighting plants in Buffalo and
elsewhere.
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 permitted
to CONVEX the force into an electric
current. Yet there was not one of the
scientists who did not express the opin-
ion that when the electrical machinery
is attached and the current developed
it will be found to have rs perfectly
solved the problems as all of the work
hitherto has done.