Like Produces Like

Electric Motors Run Big Dynamos at the Falls.

ENGINE HAS BEEN DISCARDED BY BUFFALO & NIAGARA FALLS ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY AND MOTORS RUN BY NIAGARA POWER SUBSTITUTED – A PRETASTE OF THE FUTURE.

There are two plants in operation today at Niagara Falls which are of particular interest to Buffalonians, one in a sense a demonstration of what may be expected in Buffalo when the hoped for transmission of Niagara power to this city becomes a fact, the other on a small scale, what can be for the purification of a city's water supply. The first of these plants is that of the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Electric Light and Power Company. And the Power Company, the other is of the Niagara Falls Waterworks Company, which is operated by the Niagara Falls Power Company. Both Niagara power as a motive force, and both are models in their lines and in many respects.

The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Electric Light and Power Company supplies the city of Niagara Falls with street arc lights. It uses seventy incandescent lights to private consumers and supplies a few small motors for mechanical purposes. Until the last week its plant did not differ materially from those of other small electric lighting stations. There was a 500-horsepower Corliss engine, which was coupled to a line shaft from which were run the dynamos, in the same manner that is now done at the Buffalo General Electric Company's plant. Now all this is changed. The engine has been uncoupled from the shaft, and in its stead two electric motors, which are in many respects wonders, furnish the power once made by steam, but in greater quantity and at less cost. The plant has been in successful operation by electricity since Thursday, and the change from steam power has been made with so little fuss and advertisement that few even of the consumers of light in Niagara Falls knew that it has been done. The officials of the company are delighted with the change, and it is their intention to remodel their building at once and so arrange their machinery as to make their plant a model for the inspection of those who contemplate similar ventures. Even as it stands it is said to be the most remarkable light and power plant in the United States.

Except in the matter of distance from the main source of supply — the Niagara Falls Power Company’s generating station — this plant is an exact prototype of what may be expected in Buffalo when the Falls current is brought here, and the matter of distance, say the engineers of the Power Company, is a mere detail which there are several ways of overcoming without perceptible loss of power in transmission. The plant, too, is the first application of Niagara power on a considerable scale to stationary motors. It has been in use on the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Electric Railway for some time, and one or two small motors have been run for short intervals of time by the Falls current, but the great motors of the electric lighting company can be said to be the first permanent and large application of the power in this form.

The power is taken from the generating station, a distance of 1,700 feet, by four large copper cables, one half an inch in diameter. The full current of the big dynamos is used, 2,200 volts. All previous uses of power have been through transformers which have reduced the voltage to 500 or less. The motors at the electric lighting company, however, use the full current. There are two of these motors, and two of the copper cables run to each one. At present the cables are carried over the surface of the ground in a temporary wooden box, but as soon as practicable they will be buried.

It is in the motors themselves that the greatest interest centers. They are the first of their capacity, and the largest alternating current motors ever made. In fact, there are but few alternating current motors in use in America, and it was only within a very few years that it was possible to use the alternating current at all in a motor. The discoveries of Nikola Tesla have made it possible, and these motors are of the pattern designed by him, and were made by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. They are of 300 horsepower each, and are of what is technically termed the two-phase type. When running under the full current of 2,200 volts, they revolve at the rate of 500 revolutions a minute.

One of the motors is used for the incandescent-light service, and the other furnishes the current for the street arc lights. The incandescent-light motor runs a 4,000 light Westinghouse dynamo, while the other runs four 60-light Brush dynamos, which are being replaced with 160-light Westinghouse dynamos. The incandescent motor was started up on Sunday last, while the other was not used until Thursday evening, when President George Urban, Jr., of the electric light company, pulled the switch and set the massive machine in motion. Last evening an Express reporter was present when the motors were started, and saw what will be a common spectacle in every factory of Buffalo when the electric power comes into general use.

Manager J. P. Chapin piloted the reporter about the plant. Over in one corner a little engine was running a tiny dynamo for the day service, which is, of course, very small compared with the number of lights in use at night. Aside from this there was no motion about the building. The big motors with their massive belts running to the dynamos were still, and one not versed in electric science could not have distinguished the power producer from its actuating instrument. Against the wall was a marble slab, with two long handles projecting from it. “That is the switchboard,” said Mr. Chapin. “Now, if you have ever been in a factory run by steam, when the engines were starting, you will note the difference when I turn on the current here.” He pulled one of the switches. Like lightning the big incandescent motor responded. It started in a flash to revolve at its highest speed, and the dynamo whizzed away at full velocity. No dirt, no bother, no trouble at all — only the opening of the switch, and the incandescent plant was in full operation for the night. Mr. Chapin pulled the other switch, and the arc motor followed the example of the other. The line shaft revolved, and the little 60-light dynamos got to work as if running a race with each other. That was all there was to it.

“It is going to be a great deal cheaper to run even this little plant by electricity than it was by steam,” said Horatio A. Foster, the consulting engineer of the company, to The Express representative. “We cannot tell yet just how much cheaper, but we are satisfied that we will save money. We are getting our power here without perceptible loss, and we are paying for only what we consume. This Watt meter records the power more accurately than a gas meter does gas. It would surprise you to learn that there is less loss of power between the generating station and this plant than there is in the ordinary office building having its own dynamo. In such plants they usually figure on 5 per cent of loss, but there is much less than that here.”

The other plant in which Buffalo should take great interest, that of the Niagara Falls Waterworks Company is now owned and operated by the Niagara Falls Power Company, which has put up a splendid building on its land, and is rapidly converting an antiquated plant into one embodying the most modern inventions and discoveries in the way of water-supply systems. The two great features of especial interest are the fact that all the water which passes through the mains fed by the pumping station is filtered, and the fact that some of the pumps are now operated by electricity generated by the Falls, and it is the intention of the company so to equip the rest of the pumps as soon as possible. Power company officials are reticent about giving out information regarding the waterworks plant for publication, preferring to wait until they have completed the improvements contemplated, when it will be made a show-point, but enough was learned yesterday to warrant the assertion that it is being run on scientific lines and in a unique manner.

The water is taken from the Niagara River, at the entrance to the power company’s canal. It is pumped from the river by electrically operated pumps. These pumps are not of great lifting capacity, their duty being simply to raise the water into the filtering beds. They have a daily capacity of 6,000,000 gallons, and the water which they pump supplies the territory which was the old village of Niagara Falls, the section of the city lying south of Pine Street and including Echota.

The filtering beds are great tanks, partly filled with sand. Through this sand every drop of water is run before it goes out to consumers. Similar systems of filtration are in use in many cities of the old world, but so far as known this is the only attempt of the kind that has been made on a large scale in this country. The result of the filtering is that not only dirt and other mechanical impurities are removed from the water, but a large proportion of animal and vegetable life, in the form of animalcules and bacteria, which may be injurious to human beings, is also removed.

After passing through filtering beds, the water is pumped into settling tanks, where it remains sufficiently still for all remaining sediment to sink to the bottom. Thence it is pumped by two large force pumps into the mains, and it is safe to say that nowhere in the world can be found a purer water supply than that which is furnished by this plant. The engineers who have designed and carried out the construction of the pumping and filtering station claim that the system can be applied as successfully on a much larger scale, so that even Buffalo, with its enormous consumption of water, could be amply protected from all fear of contamination from this source.

Yesterday Dr. McFarlane, professor of electrical engineering at Lehigh University, arrived at Niagara Falls with the senior class in electricity of that college, 26 in number. The young men visited the power station and the waterworks. Today they will inspect the aluminium, carborundum and calcic carbide plants and the electric light station. Prof. McFarlane, who is an authority on mathematics and electricity and of high repute in the scientific world, said to The Express representative yesterday: “There is a wider field of object lessons in electricity in Niagara Falls than in any other two or three points in the world. The development of Niagara power on the present successful and extensive lines is destined to work wonders in the field of science, and it is of the greatest benefit to students to have the opportunity to inspect the great plants in operation here.”

So far, no decision has been reached by the engineers of the Niagara Falls Power Company as to the method of transmission which will be used in bringing the power to Buffalo. Several schemes are under consideration, the object being to select the one which promises the least loss of power in transit. Extensive and exhaustive experiments are being made, but up to date the only active steps in the preparations for conveying the current to this city have been the ordering of the poles on which the wires will be strung. There is still, however, 14 months of time before the company will be compelled by the terms of its franchise to supply power to Buffalo consumers.