Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

' Ä ■ V/ ■MHlMHnnMMMHnM THE WATER-POWER STATIONS OF NIAGARA FALLS. BY JOHN GEORGE LEIGH. WHERE are the wheels ? ” is the not unnatural inquiry of many latter-day travellers who, for the first time, gaze upon Niagara Falls—their attention divided between the bewildering roar and blinding mist of the rushing waters, and their futile attempts to trace amidst the latter some outline of the scores or hundreds of monster paddle-wheels which imagination had suggested would be found protruding from the face of the cataract. Then they learn that it is not the waters which pass over the Falls, but those of the Niagara River immediately above, which have been confined to generate that subtle and elusive force now adaptable, at the will of man, to turn the shafts of great factories, light the streets and homes of far-away cities, and propel the cars of long-distance traction systems. each side buildings, At Niagara Falls. Above and below the Falls, on of the Niagara River, are many known as power-houses or distributing stations, where the wondrous energy is generated, or from which it is transmitted, at pressures suit- able for various requirements, to consumers in the neighbourhood or in distant placos, sometimes 150 miles away. In these buildings are installed the largest, most powerful, and most complete electrical plants the world has yet produced—marvels of capacity, ingenuity, and workmanship. Not always at the surface, however, but sometimes buried in secluded chambers burrowed deep in mother Earth, are found the great water turbines. To appreciate fully the circumstances which have made the neighbourhood of Niagara one of the most notable manufacturing centres of