UTILIZATION OF WATER POWER AT NIAGARA FALLS. 5 



nels. Among those who many years ago felt the mighty power of 

 the falling waters and contemplated the results of using it to pro- 

 duce useful mechanical power was the famous Dr. Siemens, who 

 in a lecture delivered in 1877 before the Iron and Steel Institute 

 of Great Britain referred to his impressions of Niagara and stated 

 that all the coal raised at that time throughout the entire world 

 would be required to produce energy equal to that produced by 

 the falls alone, without considering the force of the rapids. This 

 statement may have been somewhat exaggerated but the following 

 figures are believed to be accurate. The total difference in level 

 of Lakes Erie and Ontario is 328 feet. The minimum flow in the 

 Niagara River, as observed by the government engineers is 178,000 

 cubic feet per second. The total energy represented by this 

 amount of water in passing from one lake to the other therefore 

 equals 6,635,000 H. P. or in passing from the upper river above 

 the rapids to a point above the lower rapids equals 4,380,000 H. P. 

 But such figures are like those representing the capital of the steel 

 trust, (although this is not entirely a "water" power), or the distance 

 to the nearest fixed star — they convey but little meaning. But 

 take, as an example, the energy produced by a single cubic foot of 

 water per second in dropping from the upper river to a point below 

 the falls, which is 25 H. P. That does not seem a large amount 

 in these days of large numbers, but what does it represent? A 

 force sufficient to raise a one pound weight 2^ miles in one second, 

 to raise a large sized passenger locomotive to the 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 history of the ages on the rocky 

 walls of Niagara's gorge. 



To utilize a portion of this enormous power four great companies 

 are now at work and a fifth is about to commence operations. It 

 is the object of our talk to-night to give a brief outline of the plans 

 of each of these companies and to call your attention to such points 

 in their several plans of development as may be of special interest. 



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 company is work- 

 ing 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 



