BULLETIN 



OF THE 



Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. 



Vol. VIII. No. i. 



Utilization of Water Power at Niagara Falls. 



Few branches of Engineering show more clearly the rapid 

 progress of the age in which we live than the advancement made 

 during the past fifteen years in the art of water power develop- 

 ment. Nearly all of us can remember the time when the word 

 "water- wheel" was associated in our minds with the rustic grist 

 mill with its stagnant pond, its moss covered shingles, and its 

 slowly revolving overshot wheel. Such mills seemed to have 

 come to us as a legacy of the past. They had no place in the 

 strenuous, hurrying life of the age of steam. It is no wonder that 

 they formed a favorite subject for the artist who wished to depict 

 an idyllic scene or a common theme for the pastoral poet. The 

 dull, monotonous rumble of the grindstones, the groaning of the 

 wooden shaft come back to us from our childhood days with the 

 picture of the sleeping miller, of cattle standing knee deep in 

 water and all the myriad sights and sounds of a drowsy August 

 day. Little did we think then that in a few years the utilization 

 of the power of falling water would form such a chapter in our 

 national development and in the history of our material prosperity. 

 It seemed that except in isolated cases water power development 

 was doomed to be left far behind in the race with steam. But 

 what a wondrous change has now appeared. Every water-fall in 

 settled communities is carefully examined, companies are formed 

 to develop its power, vast capital is invested and some of the best 

 engineering talent in the country is employed in its utilization. 

 Such is the result of the past decade and yet the work is only 

 begun. 



What has caused this wondrous change ? What mighty magi- 

 cian has wrought this transformation ? The question may be 

 answered in one word, — "Electricity. " Thinking scientists had 

 long deplored the decadence of water power and had carefully in- 

 vestigated its causes. They found that it was largely due to the 

 fact that water-falls were usually situated at inconvenient loca- 



