Industrial Niagara 



power that might have been obtained from it was wasted. In 1905 

 1 88 1 , one of the wheel pits in question was sunk to a depth of 

 86 ft. below high water level in the canal, and was given an 

 area of 20 x 40 feet. From the bottom of this pit a tunnel 

 1 60 feet long and 10x6 ft. in cross-section was cut to the face 

 of the cliff. In the pit three 45-in. turbine wheels were placed, 

 and each of these wheels, rated at 1 ,000 hp, was supplied 

 with water through an iron penstock seven ft. in diameter. 

 About one year earlier than this, in 1880, the Cataract Manu- 

 facturing Co. installed a 48-inch American turbine in a pit 

 of sufficient depth to give a water head of 83 feet to furnish 

 1 ,300 hp for the manufacture of wood pulp. The two 

 wheels first installed quickly broke under the head just named, 

 but the third was of much greater strength and able to withstand 

 the pressure. For this 48-in. wheel a circular pit 8 ft. in 

 diameter was excavated through the rock, and from the bottom a 

 tunnel 6 ft. in diameter was cut to the face of the cliff. The 

 wheel was placed on the ledge at the bottom of the pit, which 

 filled with water during operation, and the vertical shaft was 

 braced at intervals by stays across the pit. A distinct advance 

 in the use of high water heads at Niagara Falls was made in 

 the two pits last named, and what was there done has been 

 repeated on a larger scale in some of the recent power work. A 

 number of pits besides those named were sunk from time to 

 time along the top of the cliff at the lower end of the canal, and 

 the discharge from their tunnels creates a miniature Niagara 

 even to this day. 



During the winter, water falling from the tunnel outlets 

 freezes before it reaches the river, and forms a small mountain 

 of ice in the Gorge. In 1 899 the aggregate capacity of the water 

 wheels supplied by the canal and mechanically connected to the 

 machinery of manufacturing plants along the cliff was 7,523 hp. 



Among these plants was that of the Cliff Paper Company, 

 especially notable as the first to utilize substantially the entire 



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