Harnessing
Niagara Falls 1886, 1895, and
beyond
People have been
inspired to tap the power of Niagara for industrial use before the advent
of electric power.
The Edward Dean Adams Power Station built in 1895 was not the first hydro power station at Niagara, but it goes down in history as being the largest hydro electric power generation site of it's era. The site consisted of several buildings just southeast of Niagara Falls itself. The generators were the showpiece of Westinghouse's engineering capabilities. The power transmission contract was won by General Electric which had already done a few other projects of similar size. Power was sent 25 miles to the booming industrial city of Buffalo, New York. The Adams power station was accompanied by an enormous world-wide publicity campaign. This long lasting publicity is part of the reason why many falsely believe the Niagara Falls power plant was the first AC hydro power plant. AC hydro electric power goes back to the 1870s in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Adams Power Station stands as a monument to the first large scale application of AC power in North America.
The transformer house. The last remaining building from the Adams Power Station. The main powerhouse was demolished in 1961.
The facility in 1941. The transformer house is seen center-left.
About this Power Generation Site:
Notable features: Largest power station ever built until 1895. Attracted national attention due to the enormous size of the project, and collaboration of both electric giants of the continent: GE and Westinghouse contributed to the publicity engine.
Frequency: 25 Hz
Two-Phase, Alternating Current
Power Transmission Length: 25 miles at 11,000 volts using #1 wire
Power system built by: Westinghouse
Notable Engineers:
Thomas Evershed
Cataract Company: George Forbes
Westinghouse: Benjamin G. Lamme, Oliver Shallenberger, Nikola Tesla
General Electric: William Stanley, Dr. Louis Bell, Charles P. Steinmetz
Maximum Power Output: 37 Megawatts: 50,000 horsepower (1896)
Important Dates:
1886 - Thomas Evershed develops a plan to use massive underground tunnels and a powerhouse to capture the power of the Niagara River at the falls.
1880s - Other small scale DC hydro power operations existed at Niagara, none compared to the scale of Evershed's plans.
1892 - George Forbes decides to use an alternating current system instead of direct current. AC power had proven itself the best system for power transmission the year before at the Electro-Technical Exposition at Frankfurt, Germany.
1892 - Construction started on a 21 ft. high 18 ft. wide tunnel to capture Niagara waters for the power plant. The tunnel took 3 years to build and cost 28 lives
1893 - Final bids were presented by GE and Westinghouse for the generators. The Cataract Company chose 2 phase instead of GE's 3 phase system. Westinghouse proposed 30 and 60 Hz systems. General Electric proposed 41.66 Hz. President Adams and Forbes of the Cataract Co. chose Westinghouse's system, thinking that two phase would work better for the anticipated single phase distribution to homes.
1895 - Powerhouse #1 began producing power. Consisted of 5000 hp, 25 Hz, two-phase, four-wire generators
1896 - November 15th the City of Buffalo first recieves power from the falls from a 25 mile transmission line
Further Reading:
We recommend you visit the various well made sites about the famous 1895 Niagara Falls electric power efforts.
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/niagara.htm/
Sources:
IEEE - Early Electrification of Buffalo: Adams Station - Electric Development
Niagara Falls History of Power - www.niagarafrontier.com
Adams Power Plant Transformer House - WikipediaPhotos
M. Whelan
Library of Congress
Other early power plant links:
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Mechanicville Power Station, Mechanicville, New York 1897 |
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Schaghticoke Power Station and Steinmetz's monocyclic power experiment |
Great Barrington 1886 The first AC power distribution system using transformers |
copyright 2010 Edison Tech Center