Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

■ 306 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 1 CANADIAN NIAGARA FALLS POWER COMPANY’S GENERATING STATION. countered much popular opposition, owing to a natural fear that the headworks near Dufferin Island and the great trenches which must be excavated through Queen Victoria Park would spoil the scenery. The company, however, undertook to meet these objections, and, as a matter of fact, has rather added to than detracted from the amenities of the locality. The design of the intake or head works is as unique as their operation is successful. The works include a dam of reinforced con- , crete, nearly 600 feet long, and divided into twenty-five bays, stretching out into the river in a down-stream direc- tion, almost parallel to the current; an outer fore-bay, having an area of eight acres, and bounded on its down- stream side by a submerged dam, 725 feet long ; a screen house, whence, by means of a curtain wall, only deep water is admitted into the inner fore-bay; a pool of two acres area, where the water is once more cleared of ice and foreign, matter ; and finally, the gate- house, guarding the entrance to the conduits. As a result of all these precautions, the plant has never for a moment been stopped by ice. From the gate-house the water is conducted through, half-inch steel conduits, 18 feet in diameter and 6,300 feet long, to an overflow chamber, whence vertical pen- stocks, 307 feet long, convey ^>ower= u + k i % . • , Station, it to the balanced twin-tur- bines, working on a level slightly below that of the power-house floor. The capacity of each pair of turbines is 12,500 horse-power, while that of the six generators at present installed aggregates 66,000 horse-power. The distributing station is built on the hill above the power-station, and is connected with the latter by a tunnel, inclined at an angle of about thirty degrees from the horizontal, containing the cable system. In the distributing station are installed the usual low and high tension electrical apparatus and twelve transformers, each enclosed in a steel tank capable of withstanding an internal pressure of 150 lbs. per square inch, and con- taining 70 barrels of oil. Two60,000-volt lines, carried on steel towers, with an average span of 500 feet, run from, the distributing station to a point on the Niagara River six miles distant. Here they cross the gorge, connecting at the international SECTION THROUGH POWER PLANT OF ONTARIO POWER COMPANY. F, flume bringing water from above Falls, P, penstock; D.S., distributing station.