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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



with the river and through which water could be taken, to lie 

 discharged upon turbine wheels placed in vertical wheel pits and 

 connected with the tunnel at various points. 



The Niagara River Hydraulic Tunnel, Power and Sewer Com- 

 pany of Niagara Falls was incorporated in 188G for the purpose 

 of constructing and operating, in connection with Niagara river, 

 a hydraulic tunnel or subterranean sewer for public use in the 

 disposal of sewage and drainage and for furnishing hydraulic 

 power for manufacturing purposes in the town of Niagara Falls. 

 In consideration of the public service of sewerage and drainage, 

 this company was authorized to acquire land by condemnation. 



The general plan of development is described by Mr Evershed 

 in a report made July 1, 1886, in which he states that the main 

 tunnel would begin at a point on the lower river immediately 

 north of the State reservation, with its mouth as low as high 

 water below the falls would permit. From this point to half a 

 mile above Port Day it should have a rise of 1 foot in 100, or 52.8 

 feet per mile, and a section above Port Day equivalent to a circle 

 24 feet in diameter, the tunnel gradually diminishing in size in 

 accordance with the number of mills emptying tail-water into it, 

 until at the upper end it would have the same area of cross section 

 as the connecting cross tunnels. 1 



The matter remained in abeyance until 1889, when the Niagara 

 Falls Power Company was organized to carry out, in effect, Mr 

 Evershed's plan. The actual work of construction was under- 

 taken by the Cataract Construction Company, composed of 

 William B. Rankine, Francis Lynde Stetson, Pierpont Morgan, 

 Hamilton McK. Twombly, Edward A. Wickes, Morris K. Jesup, 

 Darius Ogden Mills, Charles F. Clarke, Edward D. Adams, 

 Charles Lanier, A. J. Forbes-Leith, Walter Howe, John Crosby 

 Brown, Frederick W. Whirtridge, William K. Vanderbilt, George 

 S. Bowdoin, Joseph Larocque, John Jacob Astor and Charles A. 

 vSweet. This company has modified the original plans in some 

 particulars, although the general scheme has been carried out. 



The plan finally determined on comprised a surface canal 250 

 feet in width at its mouth on the river, li/i miles above the falls, 



'See pamphlet, Water Power at Niagara Falls, prospectus of the Niagara 

 River Hydraulic Tunnel, Power and Sewer Company (1886), 



