Niagara's Might Flashes Forward

Tremendous Power of the Big Falls Will Run Trolley Cars in Buffalo To-Day.

ELECTRIC PLANT IN ORDER.

One Thousand Horse Power of the Subtle Fluid Was Released at Midnight.

LONG JOURNEY TO BUFFALO.

[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE HERALD.]

BUFFALO, N. Y., Nov. 15, 1896. — The electrical experts who spent the last thirty-six hours in continuous work putting the finishing touches on the apparatus to transmit Niagara power to Buffalo, declared at seven o'clock to-night that their work was finished. Just at midnight Mr. Brackenridge, resident engineer of the General Electric Company, threw the switch in the power house at Niagara Falls which sent an electric current of 11,000 voltage tingling over twenty-seven miles of wire to the power house of the Buffalo Railway Company, where the power will be used to run the street cars of this city.

The Cataract Power and Conduit Company undertook the work of delivering the power in Buffalo, and the counsel of Tesla and Edison was frequently used in planning the big scheme. This company is made up of local capitalists, who have been identified with some of the ramifications of the Standard Oil Company. The company's contract with the city did not require it to deliver power here until June, 1897.

HURRIED THE WORK.

The company hurried the work through so as to supply power to the street railroad company, which is its first customer, buying 1,000 horse power to add to the 4,000 horse power which it generates from its own plant. Under its charter the Condult company must be prepared to deliver an additional 1,000 horse power every year for five years, so that 5,000 horse power will be available five years from now.

The Conduit Company made no contracts except that with the street railroad company, for the question of transmission was largely an experiment, and the actual cost and the loss in transmission are now only matters of estimate, and must be figured out on a real basis when the line is in operation.

The power is carried on overhead wires as far as the city limits of Buffalo, and then the wires pass into cement conduits. Glass insulators were found to be unequal to the requirements of the task, and large porcelain ones were built. These are tested with a 30,000 volt current before they are put in place.

HOW POWER TRAVELS.

The power generated at the Falls is an ordinary alternating current, which travels over the wire with a voltage of 10,700. In this condition it passes into the transformer house, which has been built in the rear of the Buffalo Railway Company's power house. Here it "steps down" to 370 volts, and is passed over to the street railroad's power house, where it run runs through a rotary transformer which makes it into the ordinary 550 volt current used for trolley lines. The system is equipped with a lightning arrester, which is so arranged that if the line is struck by lightning the current is shunted off into the ground instead of being allowed to pass through the transformer.

The cables which carry the current are of one million circular mils. The full carrying capacity of each cable is 5,000 horse power. The cables now strung are capable of carrying 40,000 horse power to Buffalo. As soon as the Niagara Falls Power Company gets its ten additional turbines in the wheelpit it will be able to generate 65,000 horse power to send to Buffalo if needed.

The time occupied by the electrical current in passing through the twenty-seven miles of cable when the switch was thrown open tonight was incalculable and practically instantaneous, as the current is the same that goes out on an arc light circuit and illuminates a whole city at the same moment.