l8 UTILIZATION OF WATER POWER AT NIAGARA FALLS. 



length of time that is supplied to the entire city of Buffalo from 

 all its enormous pumps. The generator is of the inward revolving 

 field type, revolving 250 revolutions per minute with a peripheral 

 speed of no miles per hour, generating current at 12000 volts. 

 The entire weight of the revolving parts of the macnine is 251,000 

 lbs., or about the weight of the bricks in a good-sized dwelling. 

 Such weight will be sustained as in the American turbines by water 

 and oil under heavy pressure. A large amount of work has now 

 been done toward the development above described. The tunnel 

 excavation is practically finished, the wheelpit excavation is nearly 

 completed, the canal is practically dug and a considerable amount 

 of masonry is in place. A contract has been made for five 10,000 

 H. P. dynamos which are to be built in this country, while three 

 10,000 H. P. turbines are being manufactured in Zurich, Switzer- 

 land, and contract for two more will soon be let. The first instal- 

 lation will thus be 50,000 H. P. but the canal, wheelpit and tunnel 

 are all built for the development of 100,000 H. P. in addition to a 

 reserve unit. 



The next company to engage in power development on the Ca- 

 nadian side was the Ontario Power Co. in which Buffalo capital is 

 so largely interested. This company entered into an agreement 

 with the Park Commissioners April nth, 1900, by which they were 

 given rights for two forms of development. The first method was 

 to bring water through an open canal from the Welland River near 

 its junction with the Niagara River to the top of the high bluff 

 west of the park, where a fall of about 50 feet was available upon 

 wheels in a power house located within the Park at the foot of the 

 bluff. The discharge water was to be at first conducted to the 

 upper river but at a later time to flow in a canal to the high bank 

 of the lower river near the Table Rock House, where it would 

 enter penstocks and there be led to wheels in a power house situ- 

 ated in the gorge on the bank of the lower river. The powers of 

 the Ontario Power Co. have since been increased and its plans 

 have been somewhat changed. A large temporary coffer dam of 

 timber and puddle has been constructed in the upper river near 

 the Dufferin Islands, thus cutting off the flow of water around these 

 islands for the first time in history. While this coffer dam is in 

 place a permanent stone wing dam will be constructed with its top 

 below the surface of the water. The bottom of the river will be 

 dredged and there will be built an entrance forebay with regula- 

 ting devices from which an underground pipe 18 feet in diameter 

 will be laid to a point just north of the Table Rock House. Pro- 



