Industrial Niagara 



And why should it not be so? Nearly 6000 cubic miles of 1895 

 water, pouring down from the upper lakes with 90,000 square ,cUon 

 miles of reservoir area, reach this gorge of the Niagara river at a 

 point where its extreme width of one mile is by islands reduced 

 to two channels of only 3,800 feet. Here, in less than half a 

 mile of rapids, the Niagara river falls 55 feet, and then, with a 

 depth of about 20 feet at the crest of the Horse Shoe Falls, 

 plunges 165 feet more into the lower river. The ordinary flow 

 has been found to be about 275,000 cubic feet per second, and in 

 its daily force, equal to the latent power of all the coal mined in 

 the world each day — something more than 200,000 tons. 



This natural comparison at once suggests, as through the cen- 

 tury it has invited, an estimate of this power in the terms of 

 mechanics, and it has been computed by Professor Unwin that 

 these falls represent theoretically seven million horse-power 

 (others think more), and for practical use, without appreciable 

 diminution of the natural beauty, several hundreds of thousands 

 of horse-power. The idea of subjecting to industrial uses some 

 part of the enormous power of Niagara Falls has, since the loca- 

 tion of the pioneer saw-mill in 1 725, occupied the minds and 

 stirred the inventive faculty of engineers, mechanics and manu- 

 facturers. Early in the century, the pioneers in the locality, to 

 which they then gave the name of Manchester, contemplated 

 the probability, but were unable to demonstrate the practicability, 

 of reducing this mighty force to obedient and useful service. 

 They dwelt upon, and to some extent exploited, the idea; but 

 before the development or adoption of any method promising 

 satisfactory returns, steam and steam engines had properly 

 attained such a place in the favorable estimation of manufac- 

 turers that water-powers in general, and especially those incon- 

 veniently situated and variable in quantity and quality, fell in 

 comparative disesteem. 



No one needs much persuasion to admit that, except for the 

 decided merits of water-power even in competition with steam, 



969 



