Niagara Falls 



1903 height of a man's head in one minute, or to raise an audience of 

 500 people from the floor to the ceiling of an ordinary room in 

 one minute. And this is done by a bucket of water. Perhaps 

 this may give us some idea of the power that has carved the his- 

 tory of the ages on the rocky walls of Niagara's gorge. 



• • • • • 



The first company to engage in the development and sale of 

 power on a large scale was the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power 

 and Manufacturing Co. The plan under which this com- 

 pany is working was outlined by Augustus Porter of Niagara 

 Falls in 1847. Previous to that time a few water wheels had 

 been operated from a canal above the falls and a paper mill had 

 been built on Bath Island, but Mr. Porter sought for some 

 method of development that would not mar the scenic features of 

 the falls and therefore proposed that a canal should be cut from 

 the upper river, just above the rapids, to a point on the top of 

 the high bank of the river below the falls, the water from such 

 canal to be discharged into the lower river after operating wheels 

 set below the level of the ground surface. The almost level sur- 

 face of the ground between the points of entry and discharge and 

 the substantial character of the rock through which it would pass 

 made the project an ideal one. Nevertheless Mr. Porter failed 

 to interest capital in this project and it was not until after his 

 death that work was commenced. Even then the excavation of 

 the canal was carried on intermittently by various parties until in 

 1861 Horace H. Day completed a canal 4,400 feet long, 36 

 feet wide and 8 feet deep. At the lower end of this canal was 

 constructed a basin or forebay, parallel with the face of the cliff 

 and about 350 feet from it, the present size of this basin being 70 

 feet by 600 feet although it was, of course, much smaller at first. 

 Even then the opportunities of the power do not appear to have 

 been appreciated and it was not until 1 870 that the first mill was 

 built to use water from this canal. In 1877 the canal and the 

 property and rights belonging thereto were purchased by Mr. 



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