Niagara Falls-Buffalo transmission line

THE TRANSIIUSSION OF NIAGARA POWER TO BUFFALO.

SOME INTERESTING FEATURES CON- NECTED WITH THIS IMPORTANT PROJECT.

The successful opening of the electric transmission line between Buffalo und Niagara Falls on November 16, which was fully described in last week’s ELECTRICAL Review, passed off unusually smoothly for such a large undertaking. The success of the project, aside from the engineering ability displayed in the construction and operation of the live, is primarily due to Messrs. William B. Rankine, George Urban, Jr., and Charles R. Huntley, all of whom are prominently connected with the Cataract Power and Conduit Company and the Cataract Construction Company. ‘The labors of these gentlemen during the past few months have been almost Herculean. Mr. Rankine has devoted his time principally to the Niagara Falls end of the line, while Messrs. Urban and Huntley have taken care of the Buffalo end.

At the last minute it seemed as if all this labor would go for naught, and the opening of the line would have to be postponed. At 10 o’clock on Saturday morning Mr. Huntley received word that the three transformers, shipped from Lynn, Mass., which were to be installed at the Buffalo end of the line, were sidetracked on a condemned car 11 miles east of Syracuse, and it seemed a physical impossibility to bring them to Buffalo and get them installed in time to open the line on the 15th, as required in the 35-year contract entered into between the Cataract Power and Conduit Company and the Buffalo Railway Company.

When the ELECTRICAL REVIEW representative saw Mr. Huntley shortly after 10 o’clock Saturday morning, he was hard at work on the telephone, endeavoring to get the transformers started on their way to Buffalo. Through the courtesy of the officials of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and after a great deal of hard work and mental agony, the transformers were finally landed at the Carroll street freight house, Buffalo, at 12.40 A. M, Sunday. Each of the transformers weighed 9,000 pounds. They were loaded on trucks and hauled around to the Niagara street power house of the Buffalo Railway Company. Here they were unloaded, placed on skids and lowered down the hill in the rear of the power house, to the door of the transformer house, where they were to be installed. The first transformer was set in place at seven o’clock A. M., and the others were setup by 10’clock. Mr. Huntley had followed the progress of the work until five o’clock, when he returned home for a short rest. After the transformers were up, the connections were made and everything was pronounced in readiness for the current at five o’clock Sunday afternoon. Some of the General Electric Company’s men, who were installing the transformers, worked continuously without sleep for 48 hours at stretch.

Earlier in the week another possible cause of delay presented itself in the way many of the porcelain insulators broke down under the rigid test of 40,000 volts of alternating current. Mr. J. G. White, of the White-Crosby Company, who constructed the line, having a force of some 200 men, saw that there was a chance for delay in this respect, and at once telegraphed to the three concerns who manufactured the insulators to express all that they had on hand to Buffalo at once. When it is borne in mind that these insulators weigh nearly 12 pounds apiece, the size of Mr. White’s express bill may be inferred. Suffice it to say that enough insulators were received and passed through the test to equip the line and have it ready for the current on Friday evening, November 13, at five o'clock.

On Sunday afternoon a group of interested men were waiting at the Niagara street power station for the transformer work to be finished. Mr. Huntley asked Mr. White if his part of the work was finished, and Mr. White reported that his line had beer ready and waiting for nearly 24 hours, and that it had been inspected and carefully gone over several times. Mr. White at once went to the telephone, called up his branch office in Tonowanda, and asked the foreman in charge of the work if there were any men at work on the line. The reply came back that all the men had reported, and that no one was on the line. In order that no chances might be taken, Mr. White instructed another inspection of the line, and ordered his foreman to make certain that no one should be sent out to work on the line from that time on.

About eight o’clock Sunday evening everything was got in readiness at both ends of the line for a preliminary test. The big 5,000-horse-power Westinghouse generator at the Falls, which had been at rest, was gradually started up. The switches were closed, and, as the machine picked up, current was gradually sent in increasing force over the line. At 8.57 P. M. the first note of the alternating current in the transformer house in Buffalo was heard. At 9.10 P. M. the current was thrown on to No. 1 rotary in the Niagara street power house. To the surprise of every one present, the converter began to revolve in the opposite direction from which it was designed to work. The current was thrown off, connections on the machine were changed, and at 9.41 P. M. current was again turned on and everything worked smoothly. After a few minutes’ run the switches were opened and everything was closed down in readiness for the final test at 12.01 A. M., November 16, as already described in the ELECTRICAL REVIEW. Among those who were present at the final opening were Mayor E. B. Jewett, of Buffalo; E. J. Hall, general manager of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company; Henry M. Watson, president of the Buffalo Railway Company; George Urban, Jr., president of the Cataract Power and Conduit Company; Charles R. Hantley, vice-president and general manager of the Cataract Power and Conduit Company; H. H. Littell, general manager of the Buffalo Railway Company; W. L. R. Emmett, chief engineer of the General Electric Company’s lighting department; J. G. White, of the White-Crosby Company, builders of the line; Horatio A. Foster, Frank S. McGraw, and the ELECTRLCAL REVIEW representative.

In the building of the line the heavy overhead conductors were stretched upon the cross-arms by means of a horse hauling on the end of a wire. A thrilling incident took place toward the close of this work. Mr. Wilson, foreman in charge of the work for the White—Crosby Company, was leading the horse hauling the conductors in place. A small boy was playing in the vicinity, and as the shining copper cable dragged over the ground he took hold of it with both hands. Just at that minute all the slack in the line was taken up and the boy went up in the air with the wire. He let the wire slip through his hands, slightly lacerating them, but finally decided to hold fast. As the wire stretched he was carried toward the cross-arm on one of the poles and finally let go of the wire and took hold of the cross-arm with both hands, hanging in that manner about 40 feet from the ground. As soon as the workmen saw what had occurred, they yelled to Mr. Wilson, who at once stopped the horse and ran back to the boy, telling him to hold on as long as he could. Mr. Wilson shinned up the pole, got the boy just in time, and placing him on his back, carried him safely to the ground. What might have been a fatal accident was averted by the prompt action of Mr. Wilson.

The following table of dates will be of interest as giving in brief form a history of the work done in harnessing Niagara Falls for electric power:

One of the best stories describing the transmission of current over the line was that printed in the Buffalo Express on Sunday, November 16. The first two paragraphs of this article will show the character of the story, and are printed below:

Out of the mystical world of mightiness, gliding through the darkness silent as the sun, there came to Buffalo at midnight the most potant factor in civilization—energy. What is a throne without the power behind it, or the sword without the strength to wield it, or the pen with a nerveless hand to touch it? The citadels of civilization, massive monuments uplifted by man, quake and crumble above the heaving of the earth. The bursting breast of Nature razes what is raised by her children. The wild rush of waters hitherto has swept onward unrestrained. Strongest of all the streams below the stature of the sea is Niagara. Through countless centuries, when all else put on the yoke of bondage, she poured in power supreme. The ocean bowed her head while the creation of commerce ploughed deep furrows across her face. The mountains, punctured by the paths of progress, yielded up their treasure. The skies gave forth their rain in response to the explosive clamor of mankind. Yet Niagara rolled on, free and unrestrained. The labors of modern genius, backed by the efforts of bygone brains, have been directed to breaking her to harness made by man. The dream of capital has been of the goal sought by genius. That dream has come true. The goal has been reached. The power of Niagara not only has been harnessed, but can be driven wheresoever the wheels can turn or the lines can guide.

Like a wild, new-broken colt is this power. The reins that hold her head are the long wires stretching from the power house at Niagara Falls to the power house of the Buffalo Railway Company on Niagara street, at the end of Prospect avenue. The wheels of her vehicle are the ponderous circles that mark the whirl of the business world. Her heart is the throbbing dynamos, out of which comes the current of commercial life. Safe in her stable, she has learned to labor. This morning she made her first miles outside. Swiftly she sped. The boon that she brings bodes millions to men. Her power is practically unlimited. Her resources measure the means of mankind, and still are unfathomed.

When the first 1,000 horse-power of current is put to actual use in Buffalo, it is expected that the drop in the line 26 miles long, between Niagara Falls and Buffalo, will be 11.4 per cent. The contract calls for the delivery of 10,000 horse-power by January 1, 1897. When this amount is supplied, it is expected that the drop in the line will be materially reduced.