Electricity, Harnessing Niagara Falls, 1890s
The enormous energy of Niagara Falls has long been recognized as a potential source of power. In 1890, an International Niagara Falls Commission headed by William Thomson deliberated on the expansion of Niagara hydroelectric capacity. In 1893, Westinghouse Electric (which had built the smaller-scale Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant two years earlier) was hired to design a system to generate alternating current on Niagara Falls, and three years after that this large-scale AC power system was created (activated on August 26, 1895). The Adams Power Plant Transformer House remains as a landmark of the original system. By 1896, financing from moguls including Morgan, John Jacob Astor IV, and the Vanderbilts had fueled the construction of giant underground conduits leading to turbines generating upwards of 100,000 horsepower (75 MW), sent as far as Buffalo, 20 miles away.
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