482 



NATURE 



[March 22, 1894 



THE FALLS OF NIAGARA AND ITS 

 WA TER-PO WER. 



TO render the vast energy of the Niagara Falls avail- 

 able for use in the industrial world has been the 

 dream of many an enterprising spirit who has watched 

 the immense volume of water plunging over the precipice, 

 only to expend its energy in transforming itself (or its 

 equivaltfnt) into an invisible vapour, to be carried by the 

 winds over to the lakes supplying the Falls, and pass 

 through the same cycle again. But till quite recently 

 little has been attempted. For many years past a i^w 

 mills on the eastern cliff of the Niagara Gorge, below the 

 Falls, have used a certain amount of the power, now 

 aggregating about 6000 horse-power, by conducting 

 water from the river above the Falls through a canal, and 

 using it to drive turbines placed so as to benefit from 

 only 90 to 100 feet or less of the total fall available, the 

 water discharging down the side of the gorge after it has 

 done its work. In this way it may be said that a start 

 has been made, but it is only within the last few years 

 that the utilisation of the power has been undertaken in 

 a bold spirit, and this has become possible by the recent 

 developments in electrical science, which enable power 

 to be transmitted to a distance economically on a 

 commercial basis. 



To ensure success the enterprise had to be taken up 

 on an extensive scale by a powerful company. Such a 

 company is the Niagara Falls Power Company, who 

 have been granted franchises for the utilisation of some 

 of the water-power available. The company owns lands 

 covering an area of 1500 acres on the "American"' 

 side, and extending along the upper river front for over 

 two miles, on which they propose to develop a large 

 manufacturing centre, but one of an entirely new order — 

 one without the abominations of smoke and concomitant 

 dirt, now so intimately associated with centres of the 

 kind. An allied company has built a whole village on 

 the lands of the Power Company ; another has con- 

 structed railways to place the various factories in com- 

 munication with the main lines of railway in the 

 immediate neighbourhood ; and others, again, have been 

 formed to deal with the distribution of the power to all 

 the cities and towns coming within the sphere of opera- 

 tions — a rather elastic term when dealing with high 

 pressure electrical distribution. But although it is now 

 more than three years since the Cataract Construction 

 Company — the company formed for carrying out the 

 engineering portion of the immense scheme projected by 

 the Niagara Falls Power Company — commenced their 

 operations, many in this country seem to be quite un- 

 aware that a great portion of their work has been already 

 accomplished and the rest is in an advanced state, and 

 of the manner in which the power is to be rendered 

 available for industrial purposes. It is thought that a 

 short description of the works, soon to be in operation, 

 may not be without interest to the readers of Nature. 



That the Niagara Falls are peculiarly well suited to 

 an undertaking of the kind now entered upon is well 

 known. Situated in a comparatively narrow river, con- 

 necting Lakes Erie and Ontario, and supplied from a vast 

 collecting ground, draining into the huge North American 

 lakes forming the centre — Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, 

 Lake Huron, and Lake Erie— the whole having an area 

 of above 300,000 square miles, or nearly three times the 

 area of Great Britain and Ireland combined, it might be 

 expected that the discharge over the Fails would vary 

 but slightly in volume or height. And such is the case. 

 An estmiated quantity of 265,000 cubic feet is precipitated 

 over the Falls each second of time, with but slight 

 variations, all the year round, in winter and summer, 

 whether the river be laden with ice or the foot of the 

 Falls appear choked with frozen spray, and in periods of 

 drought or flood. The ordinary variations in level are 

 NO. 1273, VOL. 49] 



not more than i foot above or 5 feet below the Falls, 

 wind in general having the greatest effect on the level of 

 the river. " The greatest authenticated changes of 

 level," says Prof. \V. C. Unwin, " below the Falls, due to 

 ice-blocks in the river and other causes, amount to only 

 135 feet rise above mean level and 9 feet fall below it." 

 The drop at the Falls being about 160 feet, or, with the 

 rapids above and immediately below the Falls, 214 feet, 

 within a distance of a mile or a mile and a quarter, it will 

 be seen that the above variations are unimportant ; and, 

 in addition, the actual fall to be used for the turbines 

 will be 140 feet. Further than the above, the level 

 character of the land on the " American " side, adapted 

 for the cutting of canals and erection of factories ; the 

 right-angular relative position of the upper and lower 



Fig. I. 



rivers, facilitating the construction of tunnels or tail- 

 races for the disposal of the discharge water from the 

 turbines ; and, finally, the abundant means of com- 

 munication, for the transport of raw materials and 

 manufactured goods, with distant parts, existing in the 

 three or four great lines of railway and the huge chain of 

 navigable lakes in connection with the upper river ; all 

 point to the neighbourhood as being one particularly well 

 adapted to the requirements of a power centre for in- 

 dustrial works of the character of that now being formed. 

 The hydraulic part of the works will be seen, on re- 

 ference to Fig. I, to consist broadly of a canal, a wheel- 

 pit with its turbines, and a tunnel or tail-race. The canal, 

 A, opens out from the upper river, about i^ miles above 

 the American Falls, that is, on the north or "American'" 



