NIAGARA, THE UTILIZATION OF, Few persons can have seen Niagara Falls with out reflecting on the enormous energy which is there continuously expended. No one con versant with the national importance and commercial value of supplies of motive power can have passed the falls without some feeling of regret that so much available energy was wasted. To an engineer it must have occurred that the constancy of the volume of flow, the small variation of levels, the depth of the plunge over the escarpment, the nature of the rocks, the topography of the land, the proximity of railways, the access to the Great Lakes—all marked out Niagara as a site for an ideally perfect and unprecedentedly import ant water-power station.
The great system of lakes or inland seas, which extend half way across the continent, collect the rainfall from a vast territory, store it temporarily, and discharge it through the St. Lawrence into the Atlantic. Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie receive the drainage from a catchment basin of 240,000 square miles, whence it flows through the Niagara River into Lake Ontario, falling in level 326 ft. in a distance of 374- miles. The average volume of flow is estimated at 265,000 cub. ft. per second If the whole stream between Erie and Ontario could be used to drive hydraulic machinery, more than seven million horse power could be rendered available.
Immediately below the falls the river turns at right angles, and flows through a narrow gorge. The city of Niagara Falls occupies a flat table-land in the angle formed by the river. The variation during the year of the river levels is small, and is chiefly clue to the action of wind. The ordinary variation of level does not exceed 1 ft. in the upper river, or 5 ft. in the lower river. The greatest authenticated changes of level in the lower river, due to ice blocks and other causes, amount to 14. ft. rise above mean level, and 9 ft. fall below it. The rock consists of limestone and shale, in nearly horizontal strata, and is trustworthy for foundation works and tunneling, though timbering is required in the shale, and lining throughout, for a tunnel of large dimensions.
Ea•ly History of Water Power at Niagara.—The early traders erected stream mills in 1725. Later, the Porter family caused to be erected factories on the islands in the rapids above the falls, and obtained power from the river. Thirty years ago a much more syste matic attempt was made to utilize the falls. A canal was constructed from Port Day, about three-fourths of a mile above the falls, to the cliff above the lower river. In 1874, the Cataract
mill was erected by Mr. Charles B. Uaskill. Since then other mills have been built along the cliff, taking water from the same canal, and utilizing altogether about 6,000 horse-power. These mills employ about a thousand operatives, and pay yearly in wages 030,000. They are prosperous partly because of the cheapness and steadiness of the motive power, partly because of the facilities of transport. These mills discharge the tail water on the face of the cliff over the river. Since the growth of a feeling against disfiguring the falls, it has become undesirable to extend works of this kind.
The idea of a better method of utilizing the falls is due to the late Mr. Thomas Evershed. He proposed to construct canals and head races on unoccupied land a mile and more above the falls, and to drop the water down vertical turbine-wheel pits into tunnels, discharging into a great main tunnel passing under the town of Niagara to the lower river. Apart from an inappreciable diminution of the volume of flow over the falls, this plan avoids any damage to the scenery, and permits the utilization of a fall of 200 ft. It is essential to the plan of constructing a tail-race tunnel in the rock, that a very considerable amount of power should be utilized. Otherwise the proportionate cost of the tunnel would be excessive.
The Niagara Falls Power Co. and the Cataract Construction Co.—In 1886, the Niagara Falls Power Co. was incorporated by a special act of the legislature of the State of New York, for the purpose of utilizing Niagara in accordance with Mr. Evershed's plans. (Laws of New York, 1886, ch. 83, 489 ; 1889, ch. 109 ; 1891, ch. 253 ; 1892, ch. 513.) Land extending along two miles of the shore above Port Day was obtained. Subse quently, in 1889, the Cataract Construction Co. was formed, the primary object of which is, under contract with the Niagara Falls Power Co., to execute all the works required. The President of the company is 14r. Edward D. Adams ; its vice-presidents are Mr. Francis Lynde Stetson and Mr. Edward A. Wickes. and its secretary and treasurer Mr. William B. Rankine. To advise and direct the works they have constituted a board of engineers, consisting of Dr. Coleman Sellers. Mr. John Bogart, Mr. Clemens Herschel, Mr. George 13. Burbank, and Mr. Albert D. Porter, Co]. Theodore Turrettini. who directed the works for utilizing the motive power of the Rhone at Geneva, is associated with them as foreign consulting engineer.