IO UTILIZATION OF WATER POWER AT NIAGARA FALLS. 



and in the local papers that its principal features are familiar to 

 you all and it is the intention of the present lecture to call atten- 

 tion to only the more unusual or interesting of its details with such 

 a brief description of its general plans as may be necessary to an 

 understanding of such details. 



In the first place consider the main conception, — a tunnel \% 

 miles long, 200 feet beneath the surface, with an area of 335 square 

 feet, designed to carry water at the rate of 29 feet per second, an 

 aqueduct such as was never before built in the history of man — a 

 conception such as could come only to a man with an imagination, 

 an imagination touched by the inspiration of the great cataract 

 within whose sound he had toiled so long. Its immensity may im- 

 press us more when we think that when running to its designed 

 capacity such a tunnel will carry enough water in one minute to 

 supply a city of 10,000 inhabitants with drinking water for a year 

 and a quarter. 



Mr. Evershed's plan was no sooner formulated than it received 

 severe criticism and eminent men condemned it as impracticable. 

 Fortunately for Buffalo the results have amply proven the incor- 

 rectness of such criticism. The faith of the investors was not 

 shaken and the preparation of working plans was immediately 

 begun. In order that such plans might be as perfect as possible 

 an International Niagara Falls Commission was formed June 1890 

 composed of five noted engineers from America, England, France 

 and Switzerland. Competitive design for power development 

 were invited, prizes amounting to 22,000 dollars were offered and 

 by January first 189 1 22 designs were received from engineers 

 dwelling from Buda Pesth to San Francisco. From these designs 

 that of Faesch & Piccard of Geneva, Switzerland, was considered 

 worthy of first prize and they proceeded with the design of the 

 turbine wheels. It was decided that such wheels were to work 

 under a head of 136 feet and after several modifications it was 

 determined to place the wheels in one long slot in the rock, the 

 end of such slot to be connected with the tunnel. 



The form of wheels and their general arrangement having been 

 decided upon, the next question that arose was the form in which 

 their power should be employed and the method of its transmis- 

 sion. This may seem a very easy question to-day but look back- 

 ward and put yourselves in the position of the engineers of 13 years 

 ago. There were then only 3 examples of commercial electrical 

 power transmission in the world, all of them in France, where 

 power was transmitted for a short distance. Mr. George Westing- 



