Niagara Falls 



1905 Substantially every type of hydraulic construction in the great 

 plants now nearing completion has had a forerunner on an 

 humble scale. Wheel pits and tunnels, canals and pipes, hori- 

 zontal wheels and vertical shafts, stations above the falls and 

 stations in the gorge below, have been repeatedly constructed on 

 different scales as the engineering arts and the methods of power 

 distribution have advanced. 



Perhaps the first industrial application of Niagara power was 

 that in the sawmill built by the French in 1 725, on the New 

 York bank of the river near the upper rapids, for the purpose 

 of making lumber to be used in Fort Niagara. From the date 

 just named down to about 1800 sawmills appear to have been 

 constantly in use along these rapids. Augustus Porter built a 

 sawmill on the New York bank of the upper river in 1 805, and 

 two years later Porter and Bacon erected a gristmill near the 

 same location. It seems probable that small heads of water were 

 obtained at these mills by means of short canals approximately 

 parallel with the river bank. From about 1822 to 1885, in 

 which latter year the mainland opposite Goat Island was taken 

 as a part of the New York State Park, a canal ran from near 

 the head of the upper rapids down toward the American Falls, 

 and mills were built between this canal and the river. In these 

 rapids there is a fall of about 50 feet, and a part of this head 

 was utilized by taking water from the canal to the wheels, and 

 then discharging it into the river above the falls. Bath Island 

 lies between the New York bank and Goat Island, and was the 

 site of a paper mill as early as 1825. This mill, destroyed by 

 fire in 1858, was replaced by another which met a like fate in 

 1 882, and the third mill seems to have been in operation on this 

 island when it was taken for the state park in 1885. Five tons 

 of paper was the daily production of the second mill. The third 

 mill had turbines of 400 hp capacity. The head of water for 

 these wheels could have been no more than the fall of the rapids 

 along the sides of this small island. As late as the year last 



named there was standing between a canal and the river, a little 



1022 



