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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



On the Canadian side of the Niagara Eiver are three great power 

 plants which are now generating about 160,000 horse-power, but which 

 will ultimately develop nearly 400,000 horse-power. The Canadian 

 generators are of much greater capacity than those on the American 

 side and develop from' 10,000 to 12,500 horse-power each. Two of 

 these plants are built over wheelpits like those described on the Amer- 

 ican side and one of the companies in order to release the water used 

 in its turbines has constructed under the Niagara Eiver a tail race 

 tunnel, the portal of which discharges directly beneath the Horse 

 Shoe Falls. 



The Ontario Power Company by erecting a power-house at the level 

 of the lower river and near the foot of the Horse Shoe Falls and by 



Canadian Niagara Power Company's Power House. 



conveying water through an eighteen-foot conduit from an intake canal 

 above the falls has obviated the necessity and the great expense of 

 building a wheelpit for the utilization of the water pressure and has 

 acquired for its turbines practically the full head of water between 

 the upper and lower rivers, a difference in level of approximately 175 

 feet. 



Directly above the Ontario Company's power-house the great 

 eighteen-foot conduit is tapped by penstocks nine feet in diameter 

 which convey the rushing water to the blades of the turbines. The 

 generator attached to each turbine is thereby caused to revolve at the 

 rate of 1871/2 revolutions a minute. Each generator weighs 231 tons 

 and develops an alternating current of 10,000 to 12,000 horse-power at 

 12,000 volts, much of which is transformed to a voltage of 60,000 and 

 transmitted with comparatively small loss over aluminum cables to 

 Eochester, Auburn and Syracuse, a maximum distance of 160 miles. 



