Niagara Falls 



1916 power and might, hurls her defiance at the assembled multitudes 

 Norlon gathered to witness the most wondrous sight on the face of the 



globe — the rebirth of a cataract. The spectacle would combine 

 all the swiftness of movement and stupendous grandeur offered by 

 the sweep of the Johnstown flood, of the tidal wave of Galveston, 

 free from the tragic terrors and horrors of those cataclysms. The 

 gloomy, beetling cliffs disappear behind the sheet of foam and 

 spray ; rainbows hover in the clouds of mist ; the gray walls of the 

 gorge echo back the roar of the proud cataract! 



When used for motive power on railways, street-car lines, etc., 

 in many branches of electro chemical industry, continuity of cur- 

 rent is imperatively necessary. ... It is, however, perfectly 

 feasible to rescue a very large proportion of the power, ordinarily 

 going to waste during the shorter period of the day, when the 

 cataract resumes its normal activity, without affecting, to any 

 noticeable degree, any elements of its scenic beauty. 



In the deep recesses behind the falling sheet of water at 

 Niagara, the Cave of the Winds, etc., a gigantic system of scaf- 

 folds could be erected. These would serve as the supports of a 

 series of overshot wheels or endless chain-bucket wheels. By 

 careful disposition a considerable fraction of the available power 

 — possibly thirty or forty per cent. — could be utilized and 

 directed to electro chemical or transportation centers without 

 revealing any portion of the mechanism to the eye of the beholder 

 gazing at the cataract. There would be a noticeable increase in 

 the volume of the spray, which could tend only to heighten the 

 scenic beauty of the waterfall. 



It is scarcely necessary to state that during the fourteen hours 

 of enforced quiet and rest, while the waters of the Great Lakes 

 are diverted through a maze of penstocks, to dash upon thou- 

 sands of turbines, the sight of a 6erried array of mechanical 

 devices, lining the cliffs of Niagara, would be sadly out of har- 

 mony with the otherwise gloomy grandeur of the gorge. 



1054 



