The Organisation of the Operating Department of the Niagara Falls Power Company, article excerpts (Cassier's Magazine, January 1902 vol. 21, no. 3, p. 179-205, col. 1-2).htm

The Organisation of the Operating Department of the Niagara Falls Power Company, article excerpts (Cassier's Magazine, January 1902 vol. 21, no. 3, p. 179-205, col. 1-2).htm

Full article discusses the reliance of the area on the power of Niagara Falls, and has additional photos of call boxes, and view of the Niagara Falls plant. (NT and other photos grabbed here.)

North Tonawanda substation tower

(First photo) Captioned: "Unfinished Section of House Adjoining the Tonawanda Sub-Station. It Will Contain Switches by Means of Which Any Conductor of the Transmission Lines May Be Divided, to Facilitate Location of A Defect." This appears to the the building that thirtheen men from the NT and Niagara Falls plant were in on October 31, 1920 for a new equipment test when an explosion and the ignition of nearby oil reulted in a horrific fore that eventually killed all thirteen men.

Around the maintenance quarters photo

"To carry on work of maintenance and repair which cannot be performed by the regular operating force without neglect of proper attention to the running of the plant, a maintenance force was established. This force ordinarily works ten hours daily, but in case of emergency it is expected to remain on duty as long as circumstances may require. If urgent repairs, requiring several days for completion, are in hand, the force is augmented, if necessary, and is divided into relays so that the work may proceed continuously. The maintenance force is divided into three general groups, though the men are sometimes shifted from one group to another as may be found expedient to facilitate the execution of work in progress."

"The foreman of the hydraulic department, assisted by two machinists, a carpenter, and two pipe-fitters, attends to the maintenance and repair of the machinery comprising the hydraulic or motive power plant and the buildings in which the main power plant and sub-stations are housed. This force, with occasional extra help, has proved itself capable of handling all work required to maintain the plant in good condition and to repair damage caused by accidents, besides accomplishing a large amount of work in making the minor alterations and improvements which are constantly suggested by experience in the operation of such a plant."

How it all works together

"The long-distance distributing plant, by means of which power is delivered to Buffalo, the Tonawandas, and Lockport, consists of three tri-phase, 22,000-volt circuits carried on two separate pole lines, each approximately twenty-two miles long. In North Tonawanda, midway between the power house and the terminal house in which the current is reduced to a pressure of 11,000 volts for underground distribution in Buffalo, is a sub-station where the lines are tapped to supply the Tonawanda Power Company, and where a fifteen-mile branch transmission line, delivering power to Lockport tenants, is supplied with energy. The care of the over-head transmission lines is entrusted to a chief lineman living in North Tonawanda. His force consists of two patrolmen and an emergency lineman stationed at the main power house at night, and a night emergency lineman living at La Salle, about five miles from the power house. The lines are inspected daily by the two patrolmen, each taking half of the line, while the emergency man at Tonawanda remains on duty at the Tonawanda station. In case of trouble on the line at night, two men start from Tonawanda,— one towards Buffalo, the other towards the power house. A man is sent from the terminal house at Buffalo to meet the man from Tonawanda, and the emergency lineman at La Salle follows the line until he meets the other man from Tonawanda. The lineman from the power house proceeds along the line to La Salle and reports from there. In this way the entire line can be covered in a very short time. Reports from the men are received by means of telephones located in patrol boxes at various points along the line.

An emergency wagon, with a complete equipment of all the appliances and material required for every kinds of line repair, is stationed at Niagara Falls, in a stable whose proprietor is under contract to have the wagon horsed and delivered at the power house, ready for a quick trip to any part of the line, at any hour of the night or day, within fifteen minutes after receipt of notice. Another wagon, similarly equipped, is stationed at Tonawanda under the same arrangement.

The night emergency lineman at the power house has been ordered out for the purpose for which he was appointed only once in more than two years of service, and in order to keep him occupied he is made responsible for the cleanliness of the step-up transformer plant and the cable subways in the power house. The emergency lineman at La Salle has also had a sinecure so far as night work is concerned, but is employed by day as one of the electric fitters. The maintenance of a line of this character demands constant watchfulness, and the sometimes dangerous work of remedying defects requires intelligence, nerve, and good judgment."

Infested region

"A record of more than thirteen consecutive months without interruption of service due to line troubles, in a region infested with mischievous, kite-flying, stone-throwing boys, and hunters, to whom an insulator is shining mark, is the best evidence of the care and vigilance with which the work has been performed."

SEE ALSO

More Tonawanda results from this collection

1902-01