Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Portrait of entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse , circa 1906 .
1904 photograph of the 5,000 horsepower Westinghouse generators at the Edward Dean Adams Power Plant in Niagara Falls . This was the first large-scale , alternating current electric generating plant in the world , built in 1895 .
Library of Congress
more flamboyant New Yorkers a quiet reputation as a thorough investigator and sound organizer of the projects into which men put money .” Such a man was known to Morgan through Morgan ’ s many railroad reorganizations , and such a man could be expected to make things happen and get things done — i . e ., “ to run it .”
The promoters approached Adams , and he agreed to a six-month contract to “ see what could be done .” He consulted mechanical engineers , including a man he would depend on for the project , Dr . Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia . Adams also cabled Thomas Edison , who at the time was in Paris : “ Has power transmission reached such development that in your judgment scheme practicable ?” he asked the world-famous Edison . Edison replied : “ No difficulty transferring unlimited power . Will assist .”
A company was organized , the Cataract Construction Company , in early 1890 . Adams was put in charge of it , and when news of this got around , the company was quickly capitalized at the then lavish sum of $ 2.63 million .
The core mechanical principle was compelling and thoroughly understood . By diverting the river flow from a point above the falls and channeling the flow downwards using large diameter pipes — called “ penstocks ”— the tremendous hydrostatic pressure unleashed at the bottom of the vertical column of water could be used to
spin turbines . The motion of those turbines would then spin long vertical shafts that could be used to generate power .
The work to channel the flow was daunting and began before the question of precisely how to use the energy of the spinning turbines was fully answered . The work was brutal : dynamiting and excavating a tunnel first alongside , then downward some 150 feet through bedrock near the falls , then sloping down gradually through a more than one-mile long tunnel ( the “ tailrace tunnel ”) to an exit ( the “ tunnel portal ”) that channeled the water back into the Niagara River downstream of the falls . More than 1,300 men worked day and night in blasting and excavating 600,000 tons of rock ; 28 of them would die in the process .
The central technical issue to be resolved was the transmission of the power generated . To merely send power to the 2,500 people in the nearby town of Niagara would not justify the tremendous expense . The challenge was to transmit the power to the 250,000 people in the bustling port city of Buffalo .
The uncertainties led to fractious technical disputes . George Westinghouse , known now as one of engineering ’ s towering figures , was so skeptical in 1890 of the idea of long-distance electricity transmission that he originally suggested using compressed air to transmit the power to Buffalo . ( Mr . Westinghouse , it may be recalled , had invented the railroad air brake .) “ Today it is almost impossible ,” Adams wrote years later of the technical uncertainties , “ to realize the situation at the earlier date [ i . e ., in 1890 ].”
Technology , however , was moving fast . Long-distance transmission using alternating electric current ( AC ) was demonstrated in 1891 in Germany over a 100-mile span , with a power loss of less than 25 %. That same year , at the Gold King Mine in Colorado , Westinghouse engineers sent AC current thousands of feet above the waterwheel hydro power source to energize a Nikola Tesla-designed AC-motor near the mine to drive a stamp mill . It was proof-of-concept , but the power transmitted was modest .
Vexing details remained in the translation of Niagara ’ s spinning turbine power into electricity . A professor from Scotland was brought over to design a few critical parts of the translating system , but the Westinghouse engineers found his low frequency design completely unworkable . It was left to Adams , using the skills he had developed in getting railroad managers and financiers to cooperate , to work out a technical compromise .
Much has been written about these technical details ; it is a pivotal point in the history of electrical engineering . The contestants were some of the titans of technological history : Thomas Edison and General Electric on one side of the debate , and
36 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2024 | www . MoAF . org