26th August 1895: Niagara Falls became the world's first large-scale electricity producer

[Music] hello and welcome to historypod on the 26th of august 1895 the world's first large-scale alternating current power plant began producing electricity at niagara falls water from niagara falls had been used to power industry since at least 1757. by the middle of the 19th century a number of mills were powered by canals drawn from the river and work began on a new hydraulic canal to drive even more industries in the 1880s the hydraulic canal began to supply water for small-scale direct current power plants but within a decade construction of a new power plant based on plans by engineer thomas evershed had begun after much consultation the decision was made to contract westinghouse electric to build ac generators for the transformer house due to the potential benefits of long distance ac transmission the intake canal channeled water from the upper river into deep pits that extended 180 feet beneath the ground and contained the generators themselves above these were built the buildings of the transformer house to direct the tail water from the generators to the lower river a seven and a half thousand foot race tunnel was constructed beneath the city from 16 million bricks electricity was first generated on the 26th of august 1895 making the new niagara plant the first large-scale alternating current plant in the world although the electricity was only initially delivered to the nearby pittsburgh reduction company long distance transmission lines were installed over the course of the next year this extended niagara's electricity supply to the city of buffalo 22 miles away by the end of 1896 by 1902 a series of expansions and improvements meant the power plant at niagara was generating one-fifth of all the electricity in the entire united states you

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Id: 8eN90ZuUM_U

Length: 2min 37sec (157 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 25 2020