In March 1895, the world’s attention was drawn to Niagara Falls, New York where for decades people had been trying to figure out how capture a sliver of the mighty cataract’s enormous power.
On July 7, 1895, The New York Times took note and published an extensive feature on page 20. Its coverage traced the history of past attempts and posited a very bright electric future.
The piece details the awesome potential power of Niagara, the elaborate engineering, enormous construction, and financial challenges that had to solved to tame it. It even details the two Pittsburg (sic) companies that have built nearby factories to use the initial electric power that is being produced
Yet as detailed and illumenating as the Times feature is, it has one glaring omission.
Despite their huge and crucial contributions to the project, the feature has only one passing mention of Nicola Tesla and none at all of George Westinghouse.
A consequence of the “Current War” between Westinghouse and Edison, who was a favorite of the NYT?
The Times followed up again on November 17, 1896, when electricity generated at Niagara was first distributed to Buffalo, New York, 22 miles away.
It was another significant milestone in the history of electricity, but no credit was given to either George Westinghouse or Nicola Tesla.
