Electricity on the Canals - A Trial to Be Made Next Week - Niagara Falls as a Source of Power

ALBANY, October 30. — The statement sent out from this city on Saturday that the electricity as a motive power on the canal would not be tried is false, and it is announced from the office of the superintendent of public works that the Westinghouse Company will begin a trial on the Pittsford level near Rochester about the first of next week. Gov. Flower and some of the other state officers are to witness the test, and nearly all of the great electricians of the country and those who are visiting here at present from foreign countries, including Nikola Tesla of Hungary, are to be present.

In connection with this statement, the Cataract General Electric Company of Niagara Falls announce that on Saturday they let the contracts for the electrical apparatus to be run by power from the falls to the Westinghouse Company of Pittsburgh. This apparatus will be four times larger than any aver before constructed, and is to be made after designs originated with the engineers of the Cataract Company. Technically the system adopted involves the use of a two-phase current with a frequency of twenty-Ave periods per second, generated at a voltage of 3,000, and the use of transformers for long-distance transmission at higher tension. The work sought to be accomplished is the most stupendous ever undertaken, including a plan to transmit electricity as a commodity for power to cities and manufacturing centres within a radius of 500 miles. The Cataract Company also propose to furnish a current for use on the canal.