IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020 - 107

that all the phases of a circuit should
be in the same cable to reduce eddy
currents and that circuits should be
separated from each other to stop fault
propagation resulted from painful incidents at Niagara Falls.
Today, only a few of the original industries are active in Niagara
Falls, and they are known by different
names. But those early industries left
an important legacy. If it were not for
the electrochemical industry providing
the financial incentive to find a better way, the electrical technology we
know today may have taken decades
longer to develop.

For Further Reading
figure 11. The Horry carbide furnace. (Source: The Electric Furnace, 1914.)

debating whether two or three phase
power would be best for transmission and
utilization. Some thought that two phase
would be better for lighting and three
phase for industrial power. This followed
from the fact that lighting, the major load
at the time, was single phase. There was
also the concern that single-phase loads
drawn from a three-phase circuit would
cause serious voltage-balance problems.
It was anticipated that most industrial
loads would be motors,
and three-phase motors
were considered better
for that application. As
it turned out, at Niagara
Falls, most of the early
industrial processes were
electrochemical and
thus would be either single-phase ac or dc, with
the dc being provided
by two-phase synchronous converters.
One may well wonder why two phase was
considered in the first
place. Nikola Tesla's original patents
were for two-phase circuits, so when
Westinghouse bought these p a tents, it -a cquired a two-phase system.
Westinghouse designed and built the
first Niagara alternators, so they were

two phase by default. Two-phase systems
would not to be repeated for large-power
alternators outside of the two original
Adams Plants. The other four generating stations at Niagara Falls, with several
units online by 1910, would use threephase alternators closely resembling
those in modern-day use.
In a way, the first Adams Plant
could be considered a pilot project
for modern power technology. Several
concepts were worked
out during the operation
of this plant, while some
were never repeated.
Others would be a template for what would follow, such as using oil
circuit breakers on highvoltage transm ission
circuits to protect against
short circuits of a magnitude not previously
envisioned but, from the
level of faults experienced at Niagara, their
need became painfully
obvious. The removal of power circuit
breakers for the operator's location was
first done in the Adams Plants. Previously, all the breakers and fuses were
located on a common board in the operator's control room. The realization

The first
Adams Plant
could be
considered a
pilot project
for modern
power
technology.

november/december 2020	

M. M. Trescott, The Rise of the American Electrochemicals Industry. West
Port, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.
Niagara Falls Electrical Handbook, American Inst. of Elect. Eng.,
New York, 1904.
The Harnessing of Niagara, The
Cassier Magazine Co., New York, 1895.
R. Barnett, "Energy in Niagara Falls:
International Niagara -C ommission,"
IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 18,
no. 4, pp. 76-86, July/Aug. 2020. doi:
10.1109/MPE.2020.2967906.
H. W. Buck, "The utilization of Niagara power," J. Assoc. Eng. Soc., vol.
32, p. 344, June 1904.
E. D. Adams, Niagara Power, vol.
1. Niagara Falls, NY: Niagara Falls
Power Co., 1927.
E. D. Adams, Niagara Power, vol.
2. Niagara Falls, NY: Niagara Falls
Power Co., 1927.
J. S. Peck, "Transformers for electrochemical work," Electrochem. Ind.,
vol. 1, pp. 5-8, Sept. 1902.
L. B. Stillwell, "The electric transmission of power from Niagara falls,"
Trans. Amer. Inst. Elect. Eng., vol.
XVIII, pp. 445-544, Aug. 1901. doi:
10.1109/T-AIEE.1901.4764192.
A. D. Adams, Electric Transmission of Water Power. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1906.
A. Stansfield, The Electric Furnace. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1914.


p&e
ieee power & energy magazine 	

107
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020
