# Niagara polyphase current is transmitted commercially to Buffalo

Date: 1896

## The fact

In mid-November 1896 Niagara’s polyphase plant began sending commercial current to Buffalo, New York. It is a dated transmission opening, not a continental interconnection.

## Context

DC’s short radius was the rival limit stored on [Edison](/people/thomas-edison)’s dossier. Rate series for Buffalo households are not supplied here because they are not in the cited milestone pages as a complete tariff table.

[Nikola Tesla](/people/nikola-tesla) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

IEEE/ETHW’s Niagara milestone frames long-distance AC from Adams. Smithsonian’s current-war account independently treats Niagara-to-city transmission as AC’s industrial proof.

Official or archival record: ETHW — Adams Hydroelectric Generating Plant, 1895 (https://ethw.org/Milestones:Adams_Hydroelectric_Generating_Plant,_1895; IEEE / ETHW).

## Significance

High confidence on 1896 Buffalo service; medium on a dollar series.

A twenty-mile line is not rural electrification statute. Keep the lag.

## What is established and what is not

Established: commercial Niagara-to-Buffalo AC transmission in November 1896. Not established: a 49-state grid, or that Tesla threw the Buffalo switch as a utility officer.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Nikola Tesla: https://factrail.ai/people/nikola-tesla

## Drivers

- Energy-Price Volatility: https://factrail.ai/drivers/energy-price-volatility

## Sources

- https://ethw.org/Milestones:Adams_Hydroelectric_Generating_Plant,_1895
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-edison-westinghouse-and-tesla-battled-over-electricity-120438080/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/us-tesla-niagara-buffalo-1896