UTILIZATION OF WATER POWER AT NIAGARA FALLS. 9 



From the above details a figure to be carried away with you to- 

 night is that the wheels now installed by the Hydraulic Power and 

 Manufacturing Co. and its customers have a total capacity of 38,000 

 H. P., an amount approximately equal to the total power at Hol- 

 yoke. Very important is the announcement that a new power 

 house with a capacity of 50,000 H. P. is about to be commenced. 

 This power house will contain high voltage dynamos and will be 

 used for supplying new industries in the district just mentioned. 

 Niagara Falls will then contain three great factory districts using 

 an amount of electrical power far exceeding that of any city in the 

 world which employs water as its motive force. 



In the year 1885 there came to Niagara Falls in the course of 

 his professional services for the State of New York an engineer 

 whose name should ever be remembered by those interested in the 

 commercial prosperity of the Niagara Frontier, Thomas Evershed, 

 the man with the idea. Engaged in plans to prevent the spoilation 

 of one of the most sublime of nature's spectacles, he saw that such 

 plans were not inconsistent with the utilization of a part of the 

 enormous power represented by Niagara's falling waters. He 

 believed that by driving a tunnel from the lower river to a point 

 above the mouth of the Hydraulic Power Company's canal such 

 tunnel could be used for the discharge of water from the upper 

 river after it had done its work in the generation of power. This 

 idea of a discharge tunnel was not entirely a new one, as it had 

 previously been employed at St. Anthony's Falls oh the Mississippi, 

 but the application of this principle to Niagara had apparently 

 never been suggested until it was advocated by Mr. Evershed. 

 Having the courage of his convictions he soon interested local bus- 

 iness men in his scheme and a company of eight was formed which 

 on March 31st, 1886, obtained from the State of New York a 

 special charter which permitted the diversion of sufficient water 

 from the upper river to generate 250,000 H. P. On June 1st, 1886, 

 Mr. Evershed issued his first formal plan and estimate to which the 

 attention of capitalists was soon attracted and in 1889 was formed 

 a strong combination of men whose financial reputation was world- 

 wide. They organized the Cataract Construction Co. to build the 

 plant of the Niagara Falls Power Co. , the parent Co. The Cata- 

 ract Construction Co has now practically gone out of business, the 

 investors who formerly composed it having acquired a controlling 

 interest in The Niagara Power Co. and continuing operations in 

 its name. The plant of this company, especially in its earlier 

 stages, has been so fully described in both the engineering press 



