Niagara's Power

It is Now Said that Nikola Tesla's Method of Transmission Will be Used to Distribute it.

TO BE SENT BY FLUID, NOT WIRE.

Salt Solution in an insulated Tube — Cataract General Electric Company Has Solved the Problem of Canal Trolley Propulsion — South Carolina Man's Idea.

A New York dispatch says: “The canal trolley problem has been solved to the satisfaction of the Cataract General Electric Company, and the first test of the new motor on the Erie canal is to be made on a strip of four miles just above Black Rock, where the wires of the Niagara Falls trolley line run close to the bank. Furthermore, it can be stated on good authority that Nikola Tesla’s method of transmitting electricity bas been adopted for carrying the current from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, that the power company is prepared to deliver power at the city line in three months and that the carefully guarded Tesla method of transmission is not by wire, as has been supposed, but by fluid — a solution of some metallic salt, contained in a metal tube surrounded by rubber.

“The new motor is an extraordinary looking affair, as different as possible from the trolley-towing device first used by Frank Hawley near Rochester with much ceremony and blowing of horns. The canal men scoffed at that trolley. It was expensive and it was slow. The motor that has just been adopted weighs less than 80 pounds and is made to hang from the upper of two steel cables carried on steel posts along the line of the canal. The lower cable, which is wound twice around the driving shaft of the motor, is attached to the boat and serves as the tow line. The motorman, who is almost as big as his motor, has a seat projecting out from his machine.

“The electric current is supplied from the dynamo through the upper cable and returns through the lower cable, forming a complete circuit. The motor does not depend upon its weight for pulling power, and can climb up an incline as easily as it can roll down a sloping wire.

“The inventor of the new device is a South Carolina man named Lamb, who used it first in hauling logs out of a Southern swamp. It had been working remarkably well for some time before Mr. Lamb happened to hear that the Cataract General Electric Company was looking for a good motor with which to take possession of the Erie canal under the State grant. He harried to Rochester, had a conference with Vice-President Hawley and finally exhibited his contrivance before a committee of experts on the Trenton canal. The objections were many, but the inventor met them all and has come out triumphantly, expecting to become a millionaire before long. He is a sunburned, stocky man, who looks as if he had spent a large proportion of his 35 or 40 years out of doors, in a region where personal adornment was not a matter of prime importance.

“In an interview he has said: ‘I shall have my motor ready for operation at Buffalo in about a month. We have been trying to keep our plans out of the newspapers, and I am surprised they have leaked out. You see, the canal men are suspicious of electric towing, and we will, no doubt, meet with opposition. We intend to overcome by towing free of charge over a four mile strip of the canal at a rate of six miles an hour. We hope especially to tow boats provided with steam propellers and to prove that the new motor is more economical.

“After a six-months’ trial, the next step will be getting the approval of the State Superintendent of Public Works and the commercial bodies interested in the canal. That is all that stands in the way of putting motors at work the whole length of the Erie canal, and that can hardly stand in the way long, for the simplicity and economy of the device must appeal to everybody, as they evidently appealed to the Cataract General Electric Company.

“ ‘One feature of the device will appeal especially to the drivers on the canal. It will save their jobs for them, as the motor is easily handled. The driver will simply step from behind his mules up into the seat beside his machine, and his wages can go right on. Only the mule will suffer, and I suppose he can be made into sausage without much loss of money to his owner.’

“It will be possible to use the new motor on one line of poles if necessary, instead of two. In this case, the motor would tow the boat only until it meets another going in the opposite direction, when the boats would exchange motors, and the motors would travel back in the direction they came from. Incidentally, the electrically charged cables will provide a telephone system by which the owner of the boat can call up the captain at any time, and the exact location of every boat on the canal can be made known.

“It was stated here that Nikola Tesla had lately made further improvements in his method of transmitting electricity by fluid and had declared that he was more certain than ever that the current could be sent from Niagara Falls to New Orleans and Chicago and delivered there at less than it would cost to generate power on the spot by steam. The fluid he uses in the tubes costs scarcely more than water, and loses so little electricity in transit that the cost of transmission is little more than the cost of putting up the poles and tubes.

“It is asserted that the Niagara Falls Power Company, having at last obtained all the consents for the right of way from the Falls to Buffalo along the shore, the Grand Island route having been given up, will prepare at once to supply power for the trolley line between the two cities, and every one else along the route who will pay the price. What the price will be cannot be determined until the line for transmission has been actually completed and the loss of power in transit has been determined. If Nikola Tesla’s predictions about his tubes are fulfilled, it is believed that the company will agree to the maximum price insisted upon in Buffalo. My informant says the Power Company intends to have its transmission lines to Buffalo completed for the use of the trolley system by August, and that the same lines can also carry power for general use in the city. All the power required at first can be given by placing another 5,000 horse-power dynamo over the wheel-pit at the Falls, and it is said that the Westinghouse Company, having got the ‘hang’ of these dynamos now, can turn out new ones in short order.”