Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

298 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. SCENE DURING CONSTRUCTION OF POWER-HOUSE NO. 3 OF NIAGARA FALLS HYDRAULIC POWER AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY. ONE PENSTOCK COMPLETED AND A SECOND PARTLY BUILT. Connections for eleven others visible in fore-bay wall. (Photo, Orrin E. Dunlap, Niagara Falls, N.Y.) a mile, but increases again as the channel narrows, until at length, almost midway between the Falls and Lewiston, there is formed a great circular basin, with an almost impassable whirlpool. Between the Falls and this locality the difference in the level of the river is about 85 feet. When Father Hennepin, in 1678, turned aside from his religious and commercial pur- suits to investigate the reports of his Indian guides, and become the first Hpower°f European to view that “great Development. and Prodigious cadence of waters which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its parallel,” he found an insurmountable obstruction to progress further westward. Later, however, the swiftly-running waters were used for sawing timbers with which to build forts for the protection of the settlers; as the population increased, for grinding corn ; and eventually, in 1825, for running paper-mills. Of the several companies which claim to have been pioneers of the industrial development of Nia- gara, by supplying electrical energy for commercial pur- poses, the Niagara Falls Hy- draulic Power and Manufac- turing Company seems to us unquestionably to merit the distinction. Fort he purpose of power great electro- Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company.