238 H. W. BUCK 



Still another plan involved the construction of a network 

 of surface canals fed from a common intake from the Niagara 

 river. Factories were to locate along these canals and take 

 water from them for the operation of individual turbines, 

 the water to be discharged into branch tunnels connected to 

 a main trunk tunnel leading to the lower river. 



These plans now look grotesque, but at that time, 20 

 years ago or so, they were seriously considered by good en- 

 gineers. They were discarded largely for financial reasons, 

 the plans showing low efficiency and high cost of construction 

 and maintenance. 



We are all familiar with the final solution of the problem, 

 and the power house of the Niagara Falls Power company 

 need not be described in detail. The electrical solution seems 

 almost ideal as a means of distributing the power. A dynamo 

 has no links, gears or valves to wear out. It revolves day in 

 and day out, with almost no attention, and its efficiency is so 

 high that 98 per cent of the energy of the turbine shaft is de- 

 livered at the terminals of the dynamo. From the electric 

 generator the current is carried over wires and cables which 

 afford almost the limit of simplicity as a means of transmitting 

 power to the user. 



Many who come for the first time to the Niagara power 

 house are surprised to find the plant located so far from the 

 falls. They have always associated the use of Niagara's 

 power with the falls themselves, and it is difficult for them 

 to understand that the power is derived from the difference 

 in level between the upper and the lower river, of which the 

 falls are merely a result. 



The person who originated the conundrum about not 

 being able to dam Niagara knew very little about hydraulic 

 conditions there. The falls are the direct result of an enor- 

 mous dam which extends from Buffalo to the brink of the 

 falls for its thickness, and for its length it has the length of 

 the entire Niagara escarpment itself, the spillway being the 

 Niagara river. If it were not for this dam the waters of Lake 

 Erie would be discharged abruptly into Lake Ontario. 



The ultimate hydraulic conditions at Niagara, therefore, 

 are so different from those of other water power plants, 



