View of Niagara Falls with the Adams Power Plant transformer house in the distance .
floor dining room of the 10-story Ellicott Square Building for a banquet — an electrically lit banquet — organized by the Cataract Power and Conduit Company . Adams and the capitalists traveled from New York City along with the world-renowned Tesla in a private railcar , and they visited the powerhouse on the way to the banquet . Tesla was to be the keynote speaker , but New York moneyman Francis Stetson spoke first and took some of the air out of what was to be a festive evening by complaining about his company ’ s lack , as of that date , of profits . He and his fellow investors , he lectured , had shelled out over $ 6 million to build the great power station — he made a point of quoting the precise amount —“ without thus far receiving one penny of profits or dividends or interest .”
The audience was in too good a mood to be put out for very long by this self-interested diatribe . Tesla ’ s speech followed , and he focused instead on the “ type of man ” responsible for this great engineering feat , one “ whose chief aim and enjoyment is the acquisition and spread of knowledge , men who look far above earthly things , whose banner is Excelsior !”
The crowd roared . Buffalo ’ s citizens were proud of their city ’ s new and growing power grid . It had started modestly , but it would escalate rapidly : by May 1900 , all 10 turbines connected to power house # 1 were spinning and generating 50,000 horsepower ( 37 million watts ).
Buffalo ’ s merchants were so enchanted by the illumination of their business district that they financed an exposition — a “ World ’ s Fair ”— in 1901 that would highlight this new electric age . They were intent on outdoing the Chicago World ’ s Fair of 1893 , the one that had first hinted at the tremendous technical capabilities of electricity . And it was a success , although it is known to history now largely as the site of President William McKinley ’ s assassination in September 1901 .
The technical achievement of those Niagara engineers and workmen is easily forgotten . ( A large 1950s era dam project increased power generation at the site and left few remnants of their 1890s work .) The pioneering engineers were too busy to spend much time touting or documenting their Niagara achievement . Their leader , Westinghouse , was famously non-reflective , and Tesla was quickly absorbed with other projects . The electric age had begun , and they were at the vanguard .
One man did not forget . Adams quietly kept the documents and tracked the project ’ s tremendous influence on the world . In 1927 , he produced a beautiful two-volume history of the project , Niagara Power , and sent copies to libraries around the country . He compiled statistics showing how influential the Niagara project was on the nation ’ s total electrical power output : Niagara power initially accounted for a substantial fraction of the total electric power produced in the country , but by the 1920s long distance AC transmission from coal powered plants had grown so fast that Niagara ’ s share of the nation ’ s total electric power generation was much reduced . Adams and his advisors cautioned , however , that coal was a finite resource , while hydro power was renewable and sourced ( via evaporation ) from the sun .
Adams also made a detailed accounting of the value of the metallurgical and chemical products made possible by Niagara power . “ The value of the products dependent upon Niagara power is reckoned in billions of dollars annually ,” he wrote , “ whereas the gross earnings of the Niagara Falls Power Company from the largest and finest hydro-electric development in the world was $ 8,549,269.83 in 1926 . The [ company ’ s ] tax budget for 1926 was $ 1,508,794.94 , thus making the Niagara Falls Power Company not only one of the real conservers of natural resources ( its power houses operate at an efficiency of 90 %), but a source of income to the state and a benefaction to the industries and citizenry of the nation .”
Daniel C . Munson enjoys reading and writing economic and scientific history . His writings have appeared in Barron ’ s , Financial History and other publications .
Sources Adams , Edward Dean . Niagara Power . Niagara
Falls Power Company : Highland , NY . 1927 .
Ambrose , Stephen E . Nothing Like it in the World : The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863 – 1869 . Simon & Schuster : New York . 2001 .
Carlson , W . Bernard . Tesla : Inventor of the Electrical Age . Princeton University Press : Princeton , NJ . 2013 .
Dalrymple , Willian . The Anarchy . Bloomsbury Publishing : New York . 2019 .
Jonnes , Jill . Empires of Light : Edison , Tesla , Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World . Random House : New York . 2003 .
Prout , Henry G . A Life of George Westinghouse . American Society of Mechanical Engineers : New York . 1926 . “ Science : Golden Jubilee .” Time . May 27 , 1929 . Wasik , John F . The Merchant of Power : Sam Insull , Thomas Edison , and the Creation of the Modern Metropolis . St . Martin ’ s Press : New York . 2006 .
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