Niagara Raises a Roar

Transmission of Electric Power from the Fails to New York Questioned.

EXPERTS ACCUSED OF DECEPTION.

They Promptly Force the Editor of the Electric Railway Gazette to Retract.

TELEGRAPH WIRES BRING THE POWER

It Is Made Small in Quantity to Avert Injury to Western Union Property.

The greatest object of scientific interest in the electric show has been the long-distance transmission of power from Niagara Falls to operate the model of the power plant and several small motors.

In the last issue of the Electric Railway Gazette the charge was made that this transmission was not fairly accomplished and that the public had been deceived. Figures were given alleging to prove the statement.

The appearance of this article created great excitement among the electricians concerned. T. C. Martin, editor of the Electrical Engineer, says:

“The Niagara power transmission to the exposition building in this city is not only an actual fact, but I take pride in having suggested it and in having assisted in carrying it out. The idea had been in my mind for nearly a year, and was generally ridiculed except by Mr. Tesla, who encouraged me to go ahead and offered to contribute $500 towards the expense.

“I asked Gen. Eckert and A. S. Brown, of the Western Union Company, for two wires and got them. Mr. Brown showed much interest in the scheme, but insisted that I must limit myself to ordinary telegraph pressure for the current, namely, somewhere around 400 volts, as the wires ran through buildings and he wished to guard both life and property. Then I brought various parties together and with their active and intelligent work was able to see my idea realized — to see the little model run by the energy of Niagara itself and listen by telephone to the falls at the same time, at a distance of 465 miles.”

The Westinghouse Electric Company furnished the apparatus for the transmission, under the direction of L. B. Stillwell and Charles F. Scott. They tried the experiment yesterday of calling up the Niagara power-house by telephone, and having the motor in the exposition building stopped and started at will by the turning of a switch at the falls.

“The power used to operate the small Tesla motor actually comes from Niagara,” said Mr. Stillwell. “During the evening it is transmitted over a circuit consisting of three conductors. Two of these are wires ordinarily used for telegraphic purposes by the Western Union Telegraph Company. The third is the earth. In technical language, it is a case of tri-phase alternating current transmission. For a time direct or continuous current was used.

“When the alternating current is in use the potential, as measured at the Niagara end of the line, is approximately 500 volts. The currents are delivered to the exposition building at a potential approximating 250 volts.

“The gentlemen in charge of this undertaking have accomplished precisely what they undertook, and the transmission is an unqualified success.”

Editor W. J. Johnston, of the Electric Railway Gazette, was summoned to the exposition yesterday and surrounded by a group of angry electricians. He made a written retraction of the charge of fraud, but the indignant leaders of electrical science, from Tesla down, who were accused of lending themselves to a deception, were not appeased. They threaten tremendous suits for libel.