Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

WATER-POWER STATIONS OF NIAGARA FALLS. 307 LAYING THE GREAT STEEL FLUME OF THE ONTARIO POWER COMPANY, NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK. (Photo, Orrin E. Dunlap.) boundary line in the middle of the stream with the lines of the Niagara, Lockport, and Ontario Company, an American corporation, owning no generating plant of its own, which delivers power for use in the United States. The operations of this company ar© prob- ably unequalled by any other transmission system in the world, for its lines already form a network having a length of about 450 miles through the western and central parts of New York State as far east as Syracuse. On the Canadian side, current at 12,000 volts tension is purchased from the Ontario Power Company by the Ontario Distributing Company, the Falls Power Company, and the Hydro-Electric Power Commission—the last- mentioned an official body created by the Legislature of Ontario for the purpose of dis- tributing electric power throughout the pro- vince. By means of these agencies power is transmitted to municipalities and a vast number of industrial establishments and other consumers within a distance of about 150 miles from the Falls. Not content to purchase power from other companies, certain Toronto capitalists sought and obtained rights in 1903 to proceed with the construe- The tion of a third great Canadian Electrical _ ° Development power-plant. This was de- Company, signed to utilize 11,200 cubic feet of water per second, diverted from the Niagara River at a point midway between