Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

WATER-POWER STATIONS OF NIAGARA FALLS. 299 Canal production there had been completed, in 1861, after some vicissitudes, a canal extending from Port Day, on the upper Niagara River, to the edge of the high bank on the American side about half a mile below the Falls. Owing, how- the Turbines DIAGRAM OF POWER-HOUSE OF THE NIAGARA FALLS HYDRAULIC POWER AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, SHOWING PENSTOCK CARRIED DOWN THE CLIFF FROM THE CANAL TO THE TURBINES. ever, to the outbreak of the Civil War, further operations ceased, and for years the stream flowed over the cliff unused. In 1877 the Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Com- pany was formed, purchased the canal, and began the construction of a mill equipped to give 900 horse-power under a 50 feet head of water. The iron flumes, 9 feet in diameter, carrying water to the wheels, were the first iron penstocks to be used at Niagara. The head on the mill was eventually increased to 86 feet, the highest up to that time utilized in the district. With the construction, in 1881, of its first hydro-electric station, the same company opened a new epoch in the history of industrial development, and showed the world how to use large volumes of high-pressure water. Pits were sunk in the rock near the edge of the cliff to depths varying from 25 to 86 feet, and at the bottoms were placed turbines with vertical shafts for bringing the pcnyer to the sur- face of the ground, the “dead” water being dis- charged through tunnels into the gorge below. Within a few years, however, such rapid pro- gress was made in the methods applied to the development of power under high heads that this enterprise was dwarfed to comparative insignificance by the side of the larger opera- tions initiated by the same company and other corporations. In the map printed on page 296 are shown positions occupied by the generating stations, etc., of the principal power- supply companies on the Canadian and American sides, taking water directly from the Niagara River. These under- takings, it should be clearly understood, however, only partially represent the present stage of development of power production in the Niagara region. Although, of course, each of the great plants has distinctive features, hydraulic or electrical, all are based upon fixed principles. These are :—An upper level, TRANSMISSION LINES OF THE NIAGARA FALLS AND CANADIAN NIAGARA POWER COMPANIES.