The Washington herald., 1914-03-27
HISTORY BUILDERS.
How Westinghouse Gave the Credit to
NikoIa Tesla.

~ " 'D~->>@or or-~-~~ -~-'~ ~<@< Ds~>s&k ~
Nikola Tesla.
(written Expressly for The Herald.)
~ DIR. Z. J. EDWARDS.
In the early spring Of 1se2 the late
George Westinghouse invited me to Join
party Of men Of science and of large
capital who were to visit Niagara Falls
with view Of inspecting the preliminary
work which afterward became the colos-
sal Niagara Falls power plant.
II was a distinguished company. The
great engineer, DR.. Coleman Sellers, of
Philadelphia, who had been associated
with those who were undertaking this
important work, was Of the party. Nikola
Tesla was also one of the group. That
brilliant constructive genius OF engineer
ing and finance. Edwin d. Adams, was
Of the company. William Rankins, to
whose perseverance the organization of
the company was due. and Francis Lynde
stetson. one Of the ablest and most dis
tinguished of the members Of the Ameri-
can bar, who took keen interest In this
proposition. were also there.
But easily the leader Of the group was
Mr.. Westinghouse himself. Those who
were OF the party gathered around him
at the opening of what became the great
tunnel. They listened eagerly to all he
had to say. They followed him here and
there. Yet he was distinguished for his
modesty and utter lack Of self-conscious-
| ness. At one moment when happened 10
be by his side he nudged me gently with
his elbow and then. pointing to Tesla,
said:
That mans invention of the stepdown
transformer. by means of which a great
voltage Is converted into one which Is
OF commercial practicability. has made
all of this work possible
This was a remark characteristic OF
Mr.. Westinghouse, who was singularly
free from Jealousy Of any kind.
asked Mr.. Westinghouse when we
were on our way back to the hotel what
particular feature Of this proposed work
would be Of special consequence. in his
opinion. to American industry. He an
swered, without hesitation: THE great
problem in the commercial utilization of
electricity for power purposes of all kinds
will, ! think. be answered satisfactorily
after this Niagara Falls plant is COM
pleted.
at will then be demonstrated that eIec-
tricity can be carried to commercial ad-
vantage certainly from twenty-five to
thirty miles. i believe that when this
work is completed the energy which is in
the Niagara waterpower after II has been
converted into electric energy will be
carried to Buffalo. and IL will furnish
all the power needed In that city for its
Industries and for lighting and for oper-
ating its entire system Of street car
traffic"
He paused a moment as though won
dering whether he ought to say some
thing which he had in mind. Apparently
he decided TO do SO. for he continued: "If
the current can be carried with CONNER
ciaI prscticability, as belie~e it will De.
TO Buffalo. / see no reason why a per-
fected apparatus should not be able to
deliver IL perhaps as far away as Roches-
ter OF even farther. I look. too. for the
establishment of Industrial plants here
which require very high electric energy.
and will thereby give the world some
thing of very great Industrial value"
All that Mr.. Westinghouse predicted
was afterward justified by the facts. and
five years later so great had been the
development at Niagara that Lord Kelvin
came from England TO make inspection
of the wonderful electrical Industrial
plants established there, and also the
methods by which electric energy has
been so utilized at Niagara as to furnish
tn. great city of Buffalo with power for
all commercial purposes. He came as the
guest of Mr.. WestinghOuse. with whom
he had long maintained Intimate friend
ship.
Copyright. islIJ
row-westinghouse's Prophecy
of Southern DEVELOPMENT.