As electric power has heretofore been produced, for the most part, by
the consumption of coal and evaporation of steam, it has had to compete
with steam on disadvantageous terms, as the steam lay one step nearer
the base of the power, namely, the fuel.
Coal produced steam; steam, in turn, produced electricity; and as
success in any line of manufacture consists largely in the application
of economical methods, steam power has been preferred to electric power
because it has been cheaper, except, probably, in running small plants
with electricity supplied from a central station. In Rochester, N. Y.,
this is done to a very considerable extent, the idea being that
electricity produced by steam can be furnished from a central station to
many small factories as cheaply or almost as cheaply as steam power
could be produced on a small scale in each one of the factories. The
centralization of the power economizes both in machinery and labor. In
larger plants, however, it has been found impossible to produce
electricity from steam power to compete with steam. Waste in the
process, steam being the parent force, prevents a pound of coal from
producing as much electric power as steam power. To accomplish such a
thing would be like turning base metal into gold.
But with electric power produced by the water power of the Niagara Falls
tunnel, steam is dethroned as the King of Force. Electricity takes its
place and builds an empire on the banks of the Niagara. And the heart of
that empire is Buffalo, and will be forever. The wonderful power has its
source near to us; only a few miles of copper wire brings it to our
workshops; and here are concentrated shipping facilities unequaled upon
the continent. Economy in collecting the raw material, and distributing
it again in the shape of manufactured articles, is as important as
economy in manufacturing. With cheap power from the Niagara we have the
two great economies joined. What a tremendous aggregation of advantages!
No wonder conservative business men prophesy a million population for
Buffalo within ten years. No wonder the New York _Tribune_ says that our
“manifest destiny is evidently to be something tremendous.”