WHAT ERASTUS WIMAN SAYS.
That well-known and successful financier, Erastus Wiman, of New York, who is deeply interested in electrical enterprises, read a very able paper at the convention of the National Electric Light Association held in Buffalo in February, 1892. In his paper he devoted considerable attention to the Niagara Falls tunnel scheme, and among other things he said:
“How vast is the internal commerce that throbs and pulsates over this fair land we may not now stop to estimate, and how important a part this great city of Buffalo is destined to play in it, electrically, we can only dimly guess. * * * The whole electrical community are watching with intense interest the possibility of the development in this city of Buffalo electrical transmission arising out of the successful effort which is now being made to harness the power hitherto latent in the Niagara River. The boldness of the proposal, the extent and character of the enterprise which is now nearing completion in this effort, the pluck and push in the work, challenge alike the attention of the engineering and the commercial world. The relation of this enormous power of nature to the transmission of electricity is the most important consideration which now occupies the thoughts of those most interested. The success which has attended the three-phase current from Lauffen to Frankfort in the transmission of power 112 miles, without material loss, comes just at the right moment to make it seem possible that the enormous potentialities in the forces of Niagara can be made to reach a degree of usefulness never dreamt of in the past and hardly realized in the wonderful present. It seems fortunate, therefore, that the convention which is here assembled should, as it were, be in the presence of the most stupendous event possible in the history of the science of electricity. In the development of the next few years will be found ample food for thought and effort, out of which may grow a relief for electric lighting plants of the greatest possible consequence. If in the city of Buffalo and from the Niagara River there can be transmitted power in such enormous proportions as are now contemplated, sub-divided and reduced, so that into every factory and almost into every house the force and energy can be controlled and operated, there is latent in every central station the possibilities that may come to every town in the country and to all electric light plants now lying idle during the day, an imitation in modified form of the power that of all forces in the world, Niagara is the best example.”