Interesting Visitors Here

Officers and Directors of the Cataract Construction Company Arrived This Morning.

AND SO DID NIKOLA TESLA.

The Great Electrical Expert Couldn’t Talked Though Well Attacked by Newspaper Men — The Visitors Are to Attend the Great Power Banquet in Buffalo This Evening.

A very interesting party of visitors arrived in the city this morning on a special car from New York over the New York Central Railroad which reached the Falls Street station at 9 o’clock. They are the men who furnished the money and enterprise that has made the great power development here a success.

In the party were Edward D. Adams, president of the Cataract Construction Company, Francis Lynde Stetson and Edward A. Wickes, vice-presidents, and F. W. Whitridge, Charles F. Clark, Arthur H. Masten, directors of that company. Then there were as guests Nickola Tesla, the famous electrical expert and inventor; Clemens Herschel, hydraulic engineer and expert; Lemuel Bannister, first vice-president of the Westinghouse Company; L. B. Stillwell, electrical engineer of the same company, and Mr. Terry, the company’s attorney.

These visitors were met at the Prospect House by Secretary William B. Rankine of the Cataract Construction Company and after taking breakfast all went out to the power house, where most of the day is being spent in viewing the work of enlarging the plant of the Power Company and also in inspecting the machinery that is now in operation, while many looked over the grounds where new factories have gone up since their last visit here.

A small knot of newspaper men waited at the Prospect House to see the most interesting of electrical experts, Nickola Tesla, who was being specially entertained by President Adams of the Power Company, and when his tall slim figure appeared from the breakfast room he was rapidly surrounded. Mr. Tesla smiled when he saw his captors and threw up his hands in fright.

“Oh, I can’t talk to you now; you will have to excuse me this time,” he said, with playful pleading.

“Just a moment, Mr. Tesla,” said one of the newspaper men. “Is your visit here in any way connected with further improvements in the transmission of power?”

“I can not say anything at all,” said Mr. Tesla. “I can not talk.”

At this point President Adams came up and took charge of his guest and pulled him over to the coat-room, telling him he must hurry; but the newspaper men followed and called out, “Mr. Tesla, have you made any recent discoveries in the way of electrical science?”

“Lots of them,” he replied, with a smile, “but I can not tell you anything now.”

A half-dozen other questions were rained upon the good-natured visitor, but by that time he had pulled on his coat and was hurried to the door and into a carriage.

From Secretary Rankine it was learned that a number of other noted electricians had stopped over in Buffalo, where they are to be entertained during the day by business men. The Construction Company officers, all mentioned above, are going to Buffalo this afternoon to attend the banquet at the Ellicott Club and will return home to New York tomorrow morning. All were pleased with the way work was progressing at the power house and made up a merry party of visitors as has visited Niagara in many a day.

Among those from Niagara Falls and vicinity who have been invited to be present at the banquet are: E. G. Acheson, president of the Carborundum Company; W. A. Brackenridge, resident engineer of the Niagara Falls Power Company; Hon. F. A. Dudley, Senator T. E. Ellsworth, Gen. Benjamin Flagler, W. W. Humbert, Capt. A. E. Hunt, president of the Pittsburg Reduction Company; Major James Low, Paul M. Lincoln, electrical superintendent of the Niagara Falls Power Company; J. C. Morgan, general manager of the Niagara Falls Paper Company; S. T. Murray, superintendent of the Niagara Falls Water Works Company; Hon. Peter A. Porter, A. J. Porter, A. H. Porter, L. W. Pettebone, Richard F. Rankine, treasurer of the Niagara Falls Paper Company; Jacob F. Schoellkopf, president of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company; Hon. Arthur Schoellkopf, Mayor; Bert Van Horn, general manager of the Ely Road; A. H. Van Cleve, Cataract Construction Company; E. S. Wheeler, superintendent of the Niagara Junction Railway; F. C. Wilcox, treasurer of the Niagara Falls Power Company.