THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



WITHIN THE POWER-HOUSE 



And yet if you will turn aside from the canal and 

 enter one of the long, low buildings that flank it on 

 either side, you will soon be made to feel that the meta- 

 phor was amply justified. Little as there was exteriorly 

 to suggest it, you are entering a fairyland of applied 

 science, and within these plain walls you shall witness 

 evidences of the ingenuity of man that should appeal 

 scarcely less to your imagination than the sight of the 

 cataract itself in all its sublimity of power. 



For within these walls, by a miracle of modern 

 science, the potential energy which resides in the water 

 of the canal is transformed into an electrical current 

 which is sent out over a network of wires to distant 

 cities to perform a thousand necromantic tasks, pro- 

 pelling a street car in one place, effecting chemical de- 

 compositions in another; turning the wheels of a factory 

 here and lighting the streets of a city there ; in short, sub- 

 serving the practical needs of man in devious and won- 

 derful ways. 



Even as you gazed disdainfully at the stagnant canal, 

 its waters, miraculously transformed, were propelling 

 the trolley cars along the brink of the cliff over there 

 on the Canadian shore, and at the same time were turn> 

 ing the wheels in many a factory in the distant city of 

 Buffalo. After all, then, the quiet pool of water was 

 not so prosaic as it seemed. 



As you stand in the building where this wonderful 

 transformation of power is effected, the noble simplicity 

 of the vista heightens the mystery. The most significant 



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