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 THE 
 /NIAGARA IALLS 
 
 ELECTRICAL 
 MAAID 
 BOOK 
 
 MEMORANDUM. 
 
 This electrical handbook is one of a series 
 of ten similar handbooks prepared under the axis- 
 pices of the AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL 
 ENGINEERS by the local Reception Committees in the 
 Cities of Boston, New York, Schenectady, Montreal. 
 Niagara Falls, Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Wash- 
 ington, and Philadelphia. These are the stopping 
 places on the circular tour organized by the INSTITUTE 
 for the reception and entertainment of its foreign guests 
 who visit the L T nited States in connection with the 
 International Electrical Congress at St. Louis, Septem- 
 ber 12th to 17th. 1904. It is hoped in these hand- 
 books to present short historical sketches of the cities 
 visited and a rapid survey of the power plants and 
 important electrical industries along the route. 
 
 Niagara Falls. No. 316 

 
 LOCAL RECEPTION COMMITTEE 
 
 BOSTON MASS.
 
 THE NIAGARA FALLS 
 ELECTRICAL HANDBOOK
 
 of 
 
 THE 
 
 NIAGARA FALLS 
 
 ELECTRICAL 
 HANDBOOK 
 
 Being a Guide for Visitors from Abroad 
 Attending the International Electri- 
 cal Congress, St. Louis, Mo. 
 September, 1904 
 
 falls 
 
 The American Institute of 
 
 Electrical Engineers 
 
 1904 
 
 siH
 
 Copyright 1904 by 
 
 George \V. Davenport 
 
 Niagara Falls. X. Y. 
 
 THE MASON PRESS 
 Syracuse New York
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Niagara I 
 
 PART II 
 AMERICAN NIAGARA POWER DEVELOPMENT BY CANAL 
 
 The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufac- 
 turing Company 37 
 
 Tenants of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and 
 Manufacturing Company 
 
 Niagara Falls Brewing Company 48 
 
 The Pettebone-Cataract Paper Company 49 
 
 Cliff Paper Company 50 
 
 Wm. A. Rogers, Limited 52 
 
 The Niagara Gorge Railroad Company 54 
 
 The National Electrolytic Company 61 
 
 Acker Process Company 62 
 
 PART III 
 AMERICAN NIAGARA POWER DEVELOPMENT BY TUNNEL. 
 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company 71 
 
 Local Tenants of the Niagara Falls Power Company 
 
 The Carborundum Company 91 
 
 Union Carbide Company 94 
 
 Niagara Electro-Chemical Company 99 
 
 Buffalo and Niagara Falls Electric Light and 
 
 Power Company 98 
 
 The Niagara Falls Water Works Company. . . . ico 
 International Paper Company 102
 
 PACK 
 
 Electrical Lead Reduction Company 114 
 
 Castner Electrolytic Alkali Company 116 
 
 International Acheson Graphite Company 117 
 
 Roberts Chemical Company 123 
 
 Francis Hook and Eye and Fastener Company. 124 
 
 Norton Emery Wheel Company 126 
 
 The Natural Food Company is(} 
 
 Ramapo Iron Works 136 
 
 The Composite Board Company 137 
 
 Niagara Research Laboratories 138 
 
 Canadian Tenants of the Niagara Falls Power Com- 
 pany 143 
 
 Long-distance Tenants of The Niagara Falls Power 
 Company 
 
 The Cataract Power and Conduit Company. . . . 145 
 
 International Railway Company 150 
 
 Tonawanda Power Company 1 58 
 
 Lockport Gas and Electric Light Company. .. . 159 
 
 PART IV 
 NIAGARA POWER DEVELOPMENT ix CANADA 
 
 Canadian Niagara Power Company 163 
 
 The Electrical Development Company of Ontario. 
 Ltd.. and the Toronto and Niagara Power Com- 
 pany 168 
 
 The Ontario Power Company 184 
 
 PART V 
 From Niagara to Chicago 20I
 
 PART I 
 NIA GAR A
 
 The American Falls
 
 Niagara 
 
 HE Niagara Region, by which 
 title the inland - stretching 
 banks of our river, from Erie 
 to Ontario, are known to man, 
 touches the history of many 
 persons, of many inventions, 
 and of many branches of uni- 
 versal knowledge, at many 
 points. 
 
 In the records of the Amer- 
 ican Indian, of France, of 
 Great Britain, of Canada, and 
 of the United States, 
 
 " Its name is on their pages, 
 And you cannot blot it out." 
 
 Its narrative is "history," in the broadest and best 
 sense; for it tells, not only of "wars and rumors of wars," 
 but also of the religions, of the civilization, of the arts of 
 peace, and of the progress of many peoples. 
 
 It dates back, in Indian tradition, to the remotest 
 past; and in Indian story, for years before a white man 
 trod its soil. 
 
 Its name is writ large in the Indian Missions of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, and in the service of her priests 
 under the flag bearing the lilies of France. 
 
 It has acknowledged, on its eastern shore, the sov- 
 ereignty, in turn, of three of the great nations of the 
 modern world; and on its western shore, of two of them. 
 
 It has seen battles, some of undying fame, and deci- 
 sive of the ownership of vast areas, perhaps of the conti- 
 nent, fought within its limits. 
 
 Many times and long has diplomacy exerted all of its 
 arts and of its abilities for its acquisition.
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 It has played a not unimportant part in the westward 
 extension of civilization and of settlement. 
 
 Its name is linked with that of commerce, both on 
 land and water. 
 
 It is associated with the sciences, in several paths. 
 It is prominent, through its reproductions, in the illus- 
 trative; and through its achievements, in the mechanical 
 arts. 
 
 Its scenic grandeur, and the actions of two sovereign 
 commonwealths, in preserving the surroundings of its 
 main glory for all time for the free use of all mankind, 
 are known of all men. 
 
 And, in the literature of the world, and in many 
 tongues, it holds a by no means inconspicuous place. 
 
 Indian tradition tells that the aborigines were wont to 
 gaze in awe upon the spray of the Falls, as being the 
 abode of the Great Spirit of Niagara, whom the tribes, 
 from far and near, worshiped ; and to whom they offered 
 as sacrifices, by casting into the waters, weapons of the 
 braves, for success in war and in the chase ; and fruits of 
 the earth, for the abundance of the crops. In still higher 
 homage, in propitiation of His favor to their race, they 
 annually sacrificed the fairest maiden of the nation, 
 chosen by lot ; sending her over the Falls in a white canoe 
 
 bedecked with 
 fruits and flow- 
 ers. After death 
 the chiefs were 
 laid to rest on 
 Goat Island, 
 which "none 
 but brave men 
 e'er could 
 reach," and 
 which has been 
 called the ''most 
 interesting spot 
 in all Amer- 
 ica." In later 
 
 Hennepin's View of the Falls da y s the Neuter
 
 Electrical Handbook 5 
 
 Nation held sway over this region, until obliterated, about 
 1651, by the savage Senecas, who remained "lords of the 
 soil," even under French occupation, until compelled 
 to cede it to Britain, in 1764, as payment for past hos- 
 tilities. 
 
 Priests of the Catholic Church, who daily risked their 
 lives as they carried the Gospel to the Indian tribes in an 
 unknown wilderness, were here during the seventeenth 
 century. In 1626, Father Daillon crossed its stream, "the 
 great river of the Neutrals;" and others, between that 
 date and 1679, when Hennepin and his Brother Recollets, 
 who accompanied the explorer La Salle, stood upon its 
 banks. It is to Father Hennepin that the world owes the 
 earliest description of the Falls, and the first picture 
 thereof. While Champlain, who never saw them, made 
 the first reference to them in literature, just three cent- 
 uries ago, and Father Ragueneau, in 1648, wrote of this 
 "cataract of fearful height," it is Hennepin's "great and 
 prodigious cadence of waters, which falls down after a 
 surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the 
 universe does not afford its parallel," that remains even 
 until to-day as the quaintest and best known of all de- 
 scriptions thereof. 
 
 Wars have raged and bloody battles have been fought 
 upon its soil ; the earliest of record, when the Senecas 
 suddenly fell upon the inhabitants of a Neuter village and 
 annihilated them. In after years their winter's siege of 
 Fort De Nonville almost annihilated the garrison, and 
 later compelled its demolition, and the withdrawal of the 
 French. 
 
 In 1759, the thrice-projected British attack on Fort 
 Niagara took form, and an army laid siege to it. A few 
 days of cannonading, with the advantage all on the side 
 of the besiegers, and the relieving force, consisting of all 
 the Frenchmen and Indians that could be hastily gath- 
 ered in the West, reached it. Sir William Johnson, with 
 his forces in battle array, met and routed them. The 
 fort surrendered and Britain's long dream of its posses- 
 sion was at last fulfilled. Four years later, Pontiac's 
 Great Conspiracy touched this frontier, in the Devil's
 
 6 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Hole Massacre; where the Senecas, still friendly to 
 France, ambushed first a British supply train, and then 
 the force that hurried to its assistance; nearly one hun- 
 dred scalped corpses testifying to the precision of their 
 plan and to the exactness of its execution. 
 
 The control of the Niagara Region engaged the atten- 
 tion of the diplomats of both France and Britain for 
 many years; from 1680 to 1725, its acquisition was one of 
 the main features of the policies of those governments. 
 FYance secured it, but Britain promptly compassed her 
 withdrawal. Years afterwards France again acquired it, 
 and held it, in spite of all her rival's threats and wiles. 
 Then began the plannings ; on one side to hold it, on the 
 other to oust its possessor. When diplomacy and in- 
 trigue had failed, arms were resorted to ; and then Brit- 
 ain won. Her diplomacy failed again in dealing with 
 her American Colonies. To arms again ; but this time 
 Britain lost. The Revolution robbed her of all her 
 American possessions, save what she had torn from 
 France; and even of one-half of what she had thus 
 gained along this river. Even then Britain's diplomacy 
 did not despair. For thirteen years, 1783 to 1796, known 
 in history as the "Hold Over Period," she held five of 
 our forts, Niagara the most important. Only on her 
 evacuation of that fort was the tangible hope of some 
 day reconquering her rebellious Colonies dismissed. In- 
 deed, not until the close of the War of 1812 was it really 
 abandoned. 
 
 The region has played its part, and an important one, 
 in the extension of civilization and in the settlement of 
 the West. It was the great highway between the At- 
 lantic seaboard and the Mississippi. By its famous port- 
 age lay the westward route for all. Under French rule 
 it was secure ; her soldiers were there, and Frenchmen 
 were on terms of amity with the Western Indian tribes. 
 Under Great Britain it was also the favored route. But 
 it lay in the Senecas' country, and they were hostile at 
 heart. So it was fortified. There was a fort at its lower 
 end ; between that and the river above the Falls, a dis- 
 tance of seven miles, were eleven block houses, garri-
 
 Electrical Handbook 

 
 8 The Niagara Falls 
 
 soned and cannoned ; at its upper end was Fort Schlosser. 
 It was the best protected highway in all America. Over 
 it passed an enormous traffic, the trade of half a conti- 
 nent ; consisting of boats for the soldiers and trappers on 
 their way to and from Detroit and even points beyond, 
 ammunition and stores of every description for the west- 
 ern posts, and loads of cheap merchandise, to be ex- 
 changed by the traders for valuable furs. With these 
 cargoes went the different classes of men, who thus 
 taught the savages the ways of their white brethren. 
 
 Eastward, over the portage, came a steady stream of 
 peltries, gathered over a boundless territory, en route 
 from Detroit, the western metropolis of the fur trade, to 
 New York. Had there been no Niagara Portage it was 
 secure and it was easy, for by it there was an otherwise 
 unbroken water trip between Oswego and the western 
 end of Lake Superior the history of the fur trade, and 
 of its semi-settlement of the West, would have told of 
 greater hardships and of slower growth. 
 
 Its name is linked with the commerce of the conti- 
 nent. Niagara, in all its summer beauty, lies spread out 
 before our eyes. One beholds it all, and is thankful. 
 Each time that one views it some new attribute appears. 
 It is, in very truth, "The emblem of God's majesty on 
 earth." Many gifted men and women have tried to re- 
 cord their impressions of it. Has any one of them ever 
 been successful ? One of the best, probably the shortest, 
 possibly the most eloquent, certainly the most non- 
 descriptive, was that by Fanny Kemble, who merely 
 wrote: "I lifted up mine eyes, and beheld Niagara Oh, 
 God! Who can describe that sight?" 
 
 On account of its scenery this region has played a 
 prominent part in the general literature of the world. 
 It touches it at many points. In poetry, Niagara is not 
 unnamed. In prose, and in many tongues, in works de- 
 scriptive, scientific, reminiscent (especially of travel), it 
 is a component element ; even in fiction it is not neglected. 
 A bibliography of Niagara is neither uninteresting nor 
 uninstructive ; neither is it short. 
 
 The modern history of the Niagara Region began
 
 Electrical Handbook p 
 
 with the primitive Red Man. It ends to-day with the 
 progressive descendant of the colonist. At the borders 
 of the cataract, as almost everywhere, the civilization 
 and progress of the latter have swept away every vestige 
 of aboriginal occupation. For the heel of the Anglo- 
 Saxon is on the grave of the Indian, and on his dwelling 
 by "The Thunder of the Waters." 
 
 THE NAME NIAGARA 
 
 The word Niagara is a household word the world 
 over, and is the synonym for the typical waterfall. It is 
 of Indian origin. Over fifty variations of the name are 
 known, though for over 200 years the present spelling has 
 been general, and for the past 150 years in almost uni- 
 versal use. Older forms found in books of the seven- 
 teenth century are: Onguiaarha, Ongiara, Ochniagara, 
 lagara, and Niah-gah-ra, the latter accented sometimes 
 on the second syllable. In the more modern Indian dialect 
 the sound of every vowel being always given in full, 
 Ni-ah-gah-rah seems to have been the accepted pronun- 
 ciation, and is no doubt the really correct accentuation. 
 The modern word Ni-ag-a-ra, accented on the second 
 syllable, is the now invariably-used form of the word; 
 but it is of more recent origin and devoid of the beauti- 
 ful flowing articulation of the Indian tongue. 
 
 As to the meaning of the word there is great doubt. 
 The commonly accepted interpretation, "The Thunderer 
 of the Waters," is the most poetic. 
 
 Niagara appears to have been the name of a tribe, 
 given by Drake as "Nicaragas," with the added note, 
 "once about Machilimakinak, joined the Iroquois about 
 1723." This statement would seem to show that these 
 Nicaragas were a portion of the Neuters (who were con- 
 quered by the Senecas in 1651) ; this remnant then escap- 
 ing to the Northwest, and that seventy years later their 
 descendants returned and joined the Iroquois, among 
 whom the other survivors of the Neuters had previously 
 been absorbed. 
 
 It was the Indian custom to name their tribes and the 
 smaller subdivisions thereof from the most important
 
 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook n 
 
 natural feature of the country they inhabited, or to give 
 their natal name to such feature. So the deduction is 
 that the subdivision of the Neuters who dwelt along the 
 Niagara River took their name from it and its famed 
 cataract. Certainly, these were the chief natural features 
 of the territory, and their principal village, situated just 
 below the end of the lower rapids, and under Lewiston 
 heights, bore the same name, for it was called Onguia- 
 ahra. The Neuters are referred to by Father L'Allement 
 in the "Jesuit Relation" of 1641, published in 1642, as 
 "the Neuter Nation, Onguiaahra, having the same name 
 as the river." 
 
 THE NIAGARA RIVER 
 
 The Niagara, one of the world's shortest, but also one 
 of its most famous, rivers is thirty-six miles long, twenty- 
 two-miles from Lake Erie to the Falls, and fourteen 
 miles from the Falls to Lake Ontario. 
 
 Its sources are the basins of the four great upper lakes, 
 whose watershed is over 150,000 square miles. The size 
 and depth of these lakes are : 
 
 Superior. . .365 miles long, 160 miles wide, 1,030 feet deep 
 Huron ....200 " " 100 " " 1,000 " 
 Michigan ..320 " " 70 " " 1,000 " " 
 Erie 290 65 ' 84 " 
 
 The deepest channel from Lake Erie to the Falls, 
 along the centre of which runs the boundary line between 
 the United States and Canada as determined under the 
 treaty of Ghent, which ended the war of 1812 lies to the 
 west of Grand Island and to the east and south of Navy 
 Island, with an average depth of twenty feet of water. 
 Below the Falls, and extending down to near the canti- 
 lever bridge, the depth is 200 feet, as determined by 
 United States Government surveys. Under the railroad 
 bridges the depth is only about ninety feet. In the 
 Whirlpool Rapids, as calculated, it is only forty feet. 
 The depth of the Whirlpool is estimated at 400 feet. 
 From there to Lewiston, it is estimated at sixty feet in 
 places; and from Lewiston to Lake Ontario at over 100 
 feet.
 
 12 The Niagara Falls 
 
 It is a little less than one-half of a mile wide at its 
 source, one mile just above the Falls, one-eighth of a 
 mile above and at the outlet of the Whirlpool, and only 
 about one-sixteenth at its narrowest point, at Foster's 
 Flats in the Gorge. 
 
 From the outlet of Lake Ontario to the ocean, the 
 river is called the St. Lawrence ; which name one hun- 
 dred years ago, was commonly given to what we now call 
 the Niagara River. 
 
 The descent of the Niagara River, from lake to lake, 
 is 336 feet, of which 216 feet is in the rapids above the 
 Falls and in the Falls themselves, distributed as follows: 
 
 From Lake Erie to the beginning of the rapids, Feet 
 
 (21 1 /2 miles,) the descent is ...................... 15 
 
 In the half mile of rapids above the Falls ........... 55 
 
 In the Falls ...................................... 161 
 
 From the Falls to Lewiston (7 miles) .............. 98 
 
 From Lewiston to Lake Ontario (7 miles) .......... 7 
 
 Below the Falls there is said to be an undercurrent of 
 far greater strength and velocity than the surface current, 
 and to this is attributed the fact that bodies going over 
 the Horseshoe Fall are not usually seen until they reach 
 the Whirlpool. 
 
 The river is one of comparatively changeless volume. 
 When for brief periods the water is high a rise of one 
 foot in the river above the Falls means a rise of sixteen 
 feet directly below caused by the abrupt turn of the 
 river's channel at the Falls and the reduced width from 
 about a mile at the beginning of the rapids above to about 
 a quarter of a mile at the base of the Horseshoe or Cana- 
 dian Fall. 
 
 THE FALLS 
 
 Although there are waterfalls that are higher, Niag- 
 ara, the ideal waterfall, is the greatest in the amount of 
 water that pours over its brink as well as in the impres- 
 sion of immensity it creates. Niagara is deceptive in its 
 height. Viewed from above, either on the American or
 
 Electrical Handbook 13 
 
 Canadian shore, or on Goat Island, one does not appre- 
 ciate its altitude; but from below, at any point near the 
 falling sheet, one begins to comprehend its immensity. 
 
 The approach to most falls is from below, and we get 
 an idea of them as of rivers pitching down to the plains 
 from the brow of a hill or mountain ; but at Niagara the 
 first view is always from the level of the upper river, or 
 from a point above the Falls. The Falls are in latitude 
 43 6' west, longitude 2 5' west from Washington ; or 
 longitude 79 5' west from Greenwich. 
 
 Goat Island Bridge 
 
 The Height of the Canadian Fall, over which flows 
 about seven-eighths of the entire volume of water, is 159 
 feet. 
 
 The height of the American Fall is 165 feet, or about 
 six feet greater than that of the Horseshoe Fall, the dif- 
 ference in levels being caused by the greater declivity in 
 the bed of the river in the Canadian channel. 
 
 The Canadian Fall is about 3.000 feet in width along 
 the brink; the American Fall about 1,100 feet; and the 
 Goat Island cliff along the gorge is about 1,200 feet in 
 length.
 
 1 4 The Niagara Falls 
 
 The estimated volume of the Falls in horse power is 
 about 3,000,000; in tons, 5,000,000 per hour, or about one 
 cubic mile of water per week. 
 
 The top of the column of spray that is ever rising 
 from the gorge can be seen on a clear day for a great dis- 
 tance, while the roar of the Falls, it has been claimed, 
 has been heard for many miles, doubtless when the sec- 
 tion was a comparatively unbroken wilderness. 
 
 In connection with the roar of the Falls, it is inter- 
 esting to relate that, in 1897, a huge telephone transmit- 
 ter was placed at the entrance to the Cave of the Winds 
 (the other end of the American Fall was tried, but the 
 results obtained were not as satisfactory), and each 
 evening, between 7 and 10 o'clock, for a period of a 
 month, the wire connecting this receiver with the local 
 telephone office was put in direct connection, over the 
 wires of the Telephone Company, with New York city, 
 and hundreds of people listened to the roar of Niagara, 
 450 miles away ; and at the same time power was nightly 
 transmitted from the Niagara Power House over an or- 
 dinary telegraph wire to the same room in New York 
 city, and there illuminated electric lamps and furnished 
 current (less than half a horse power) to operate a min- 
 iature model of the power house itself and of the adja- 
 cent territory. 
 
 The apex of the Horseshoe Fall, which is the point of 
 the cataract's greatest erosion, has within the memory of 
 men now living, receded much more than 100 feet. 
 
 Hennepin speaks of, and his picture of Niagara (the 
 first one known), published in 1607, shows a third fall, 
 at Table Rock., It seems to be true, as gathered from 
 records, that at that time a large rock, situated near the 
 western edge of the Canadian Fall, created a third fall as 
 the water coursed around it ; but this rock has long since 
 disappeared, disintegrated by the elements and its frag- 
 ments washed away by the stream. 
 
 THE FALLS FIRST SEEN BY WHITE MEN 
 It would be most interesting if we could know the 
 name and nationality of the first white man who ever
 
 Electrical Handbook 75 
 
 gazed upon Niagara and the exact date of his visit. Ac- 
 cording to a legend, the first white man to behold the 
 Falls was a French priest, who was led one moonlight 
 night by an Indian chief to Table Rock. When the chief 
 pointed to Goat Island and said it was the abode of the 
 Great Spirit and that no one except warriors could reach 
 it alive, the priest denounced the statement as false. The 
 chief offered to test this priest's belief by taking him at 
 once to the island, and the priest agreed. The chief led 
 him up-stream to a point above the head of the rapids, 
 where they embarked in a canoe and soon reached the 
 island, on which the priest stepped, and after worship- 
 ing his Maker, demanded the fulfillment of the chieftain's 
 promise to become a follower of God if the priest trod 
 the isle alive. The chief demanded a further proof, 
 namely, that he leave the priest on the island alive, and 
 if when he returned the next noon he found him alive he 
 would believe in his God. The priest agreed, only ask- 
 ing that he wait twenty-four hours, and that the next day 
 at sunset he and his tribe should go to Table Rock. At 
 that time he (the priest) would stand on the island's 
 shore at the end of the big Fall. When they saw that he 
 was alive, if they would become followers of God, they 
 should kneel, and across the gorge he would bless them. 
 The chief paddled his bark canoe swiftly up-stream. 
 
 The next evening, at sunset, the priest went to the 
 edge of the Fall, and the Indians, who were on Table 
 Rock, seeing that he still lived, knelt down and the priest 
 "Spake the word, 
 
 Though it was not heard, 
 
 And raised his hands, 
 
 As God commands, 
 And lifted his eyes to Heaven. 
 
 Thus in the way the church decrees, 
 
 To supplicants, tho' afar, on their knees, 
 
 Was the Benediction given." 
 
 Then the priest, so runs the legend, in imagination 
 again stood in a holy church, for 
 
 "It was three long years since he 
 
 Had stept within a sacristy,
 
 16 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook 17 
 
 A wondrous church it was indeed, 
 By Nature's changeless laws decreed, 
 Tho' man reared not the structure fair, 
 All churchly attributes were there ! 
 The gorge was the glorified nave, 
 Whose floor was the emerald wave, 
 The mighty fall was the reredos tall, 
 
 The altar, the pure white foam, 
 The azure sky, so clear and high, 
 
 Was simply the vaulted dome. 
 The column of spray 
 On its upward way, 
 
 Was the smoke of incense burned, 
 And the cataract's roar, 
 Now less, now more, 
 As it rose and fell, 
 Like an organ's swell, 
 
 Into sacred music turned. 
 While, like a baldachin o'erhead, 
 The spray cloud in its glory spread, 
 Its crest, by the setting sun illumed, 
 The form of a holy cross assumed." 
 
 Father de la Roche Daillon is the first white man 
 known to have been on the Niagara River. He crossed 
 it near the site of Lewiston, in 1626. But though we 
 have no record of any prior visit of a white man, it is 
 more than probable that such had been made. 
 
 POINTS OF HISTORIC INTEREST ALONG 
 THE NIAGARA RIVER 
 
 ON THE AMERICAN SIDE 
 
 Buffalo, at the source of the river, is the eighth city 
 of the Union in point of population, which in 1900 was 
 355,000. It is famous as the western terminus of the 
 Erie Canal, and also as the chief eastern port of lake 
 navigation. It is situated twenty-two miles from the 
 Falls. It was a village in 1813, when it was burned by 
 the British, only one or two houses being left standing.
 
 iS T he Niagara Falls 
 
 Black Rock, formerly a village, now a part of Buffalo, 
 was famous in the War of 1812. Inside of the present 
 limits of Buffalo, along the river shore, some seven or 
 eight so-called forts or batteries were located; as was 
 also a blockhouse, built about 1810, at the mouth of the 
 creek. In Black Rock, General Smythe of Virginia col- 
 lected 5,000 men, who responded to his bombastic circular 
 asking all to retrieve the Nation's honor and share in the 
 glory of an invasion of Canada. There was no invasion 
 of Canada at that time, though there was much fighting, 
 and two invasions at other periods during the war. 
 
 Grand Island is noted as the proposed site, in 1825, of 
 Major M. M. Noah's "New Jerusalem," or the industrial 
 centre for the Jews of the new world. Beyond the lay- 
 ing of the corner stone, with due ceremonies, on the altar 
 of a Christian church, in Buffalo, the project never made 
 any advancement. 
 
 Tonawanda, eleven miles above the Falls, is famous as 
 a lumber market, holding the second place in America, 
 being next to Chicago, in the amount of lumber handled. 
 
 The village of La Salle, five miles above the Falls, 
 close to the mouth of Cayuga Creek, was named after 
 the famous explorer La Salle, who at this very point, in 
 1679, built his vessel, the "Griffon," the first craft other 
 than an Indian canoe, that floated on the upper lakes. 
 Here, too, about 1800, the United States Government 
 established a navy yard. 
 
 Burnt Ship Bay, at the lower end of Grand Island, 
 derives its name from the fact that there the defeated 
 French (who hastened from the West to aid in the de- 
 fense of Fort Niagara, in 1759), in their flight, burnt and 
 sunk two small vessels, in order to prevent their falling 
 into the hands of the victorious British. 
 
 At Schlosser Dock, on the night of December 29. 1837, 
 occurred the "Burning of the Caroline." She was an 
 American boat and was thought to be rendering aid to 
 the Patriots on Navy Island. Six boatloads of British 
 soldiers crossed from Chippewa, seized her, towed her 
 far out into the stream, set her on fire and let her drift
 
 Electrical Handbook ip 
 
 over the Falls. The incident came very near to involv- 
 ing the United States and Great Britain in a war. 
 
 Below Schlosser Dock, and midway between it and 
 the old stone chimney, was located Fort Schlosser, built 
 by the English in 1761 and named after its builder. Just 
 below this was located Fort de Portage, or Fort Little 
 Niagara, built by the French about 1750. This was 
 burned by Joncaire in 1759. Here stands an isolated 
 stone chimney, the oldest remaining bit of perfect ma- 
 sonry on the frontier, if not in all Western New York. 
 It was attached to the barracks which the French built 
 for Fort Little Niagara, and was also attached to the 
 mess house which the English built in connection with 
 Fort Schlosser. 
 
 The road running back into the country is still called 
 the Portage Road, and was the old road over which, from 
 the middle of the last century, was carried all the vast 
 freight going to and coming from the West. Less than 
 half a mile up this road from the river are still to be 
 plainly seen the earthwork outlines of a blockhouse built 
 by Captain Montresor in 1764. This was one of eleven 
 built by him that year to protect the portage between 
 Fort Schlosser and the top of the mountain above Lewis- 
 Ion. The Niagara Falls Power Company's power houses 
 are on the river bank a short distance below. 
 
 Below the next mill the river runs in close to the road, 
 and the spot is still known as Frenchman's Landing. 
 This was the upper end of the earliest portage from Lew- 
 iston to the upper river ; was in use by the Indians prob- 
 ably before 1600 and from about 1700 in a small way, and 
 from 1720 to 1750 was a much-used highway of commerce 
 under French control. Here, in 1745, the French built a 
 stone blockhouse and a storehouse, known as the first 
 Fort Little Niagara. 
 
 Next come the Niagara Rapids and Falls, and the 
 Reservations. 
 
 The small settlements at Schlosser and Manchester 
 (now the City of Niagara Falls) were burnt by the Brit- 
 ish in 1813.
 
 so The Niagara Falls 
 
 No point of immediate historic interest occurs until 
 we reach the Devil's Hole, a spot famed as the site of the 
 "Massacre" of the British by the Senecas, in 1763, one of 
 the most noted historic incidents of the frontier. 
 
 The Tuscarora Reservation, containing some 6,000 
 acres, lies above the mountain, some three miles east. 
 The Tuscaroras were the first settlers along this frontier, 
 in 1780, and have always been the firm friends of the 
 United States. 
 
 The bluff on top of the mountain, six miles from the 
 Falls, is, geologists tell us, the old shore of Lake Ontario. 
 On this bluff, in 1678, and at this point, stood Father 
 Hennepin and La Salle, having climbed up the steep as- 
 cent from the plain below, which, from its three plateaus, 
 Hennepin calls the "three mountains." Here, in 1764, 
 was built the first of the eleven blockhouses above re- 
 ferred to. Here, also, was located the upper end of the 
 first railroad ever built in America. It was built of logs 
 laid on crude piers and ran, in a presumably straight line, 
 from this spot on the cliff directly down the edge of the 
 bluff to the water. True, it was of wood, but cars ran on 
 it. It was operated partly by hand power, which the In- 
 dians supplied ; for an Indian brave, who would scorn 
 any other manual labor, was content in those days to 
 work at the windlass for a whole day, receiving in pay- 
 ment about one pint of whiskey and a plug of tobacco, 
 luxuries unobtainable in any other way. 
 
 Over this incline, which was built by Captain Mon- 
 tresor, and which continued in active operation for over 
 thirty years, was carried the entire freight going west- 
 ward ; not only the boats, cannon and military stores for 
 all the western English posts, but also the vast amount of 
 freight of every description and the boats and goods of 
 that large force of men who were known in history as fur 
 traders. 
 
 At this point on top of the mountain, also, was located 
 Fort Gray in the War of 1812. 
 
 The village at the foot of the mountain is Lewiston, 
 named for Governor Morgan Lewis of New York, and 
 was once a place of importance as the head of navigation
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 21 
 
 on Lake Ontario. On its site is believed to have stood 
 the important village Onguiaahra of the Neuters. 
 
 At the foot of the bluff above the village ended the 
 incline railway already spoken of, and close to it were 
 the rude wharves to which came the light-draft, old- 
 fashioned and clumsy vessels of various descriptions that 
 brought, mainly from Oswego, all the stores, both mili- 
 tary and commercial, destined for the far West. 
 
 On the first plateau above the river overlooking these 
 wharves stood the storehouses in daily use for all this 
 
 The Inclined R 
 
 merchandise during the last half of the eighteenth cent- 
 ury, and here was located, for their defense, the English 
 fort from which the two ill-fated companies started for 
 the Devil's Hole. Near here, too, in 1678, Father Hen- 
 nepin landed, built a little cabin of palisades, and said one 
 of the early masses celebrated on the river. It may not 
 have been the first, for we know that Father Daillon was 
 on this river in 1626, and to him possibly belongs the 
 honor of being the first celebrant on this frontier. 
 
 Here, in 1719, was built the first trading house on the 
 Niagara. Erected under peculiar circumstances, it was 
 destined to be a point of vast historic importance. From 
 1688, when England compelled the destruction of Fort De
 
 22 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Nonville, which stood where Fort Niagara now stands, 
 both she, the victor, and France, the vanquished, desired 
 the reerection of a fort at this location. Chabert Jon- 
 caire, a Frenchman by birth, a Seneca by adoption, and a 
 power among the Indian tribes, and whom Charlevoix 
 describes as "speaking with all the good sense of a 
 Frenchman and with all of the eloquence of an Iroquois," 
 was so beloved by the Senecas that they wanted him to 
 make his dwelling place amongst them, offering him the 
 location of a site wherever he chose, and to locate one of 
 their villages around him. 
 
 Pursuant to French instructions, he located his cabin 
 on the river bank at Lewiston. It was called "Magazine 
 Royal," and was ostensibly a trading house, but in reality 
 it was a fort. Over it floated the flag bearing the lilies 
 of France. Its attendants were all French soldiers, and 
 ere a year had passed it was described as a heavily-built 
 log house, forty feet long by thirty feet wide, two stories 
 high, musket proof, with many portholes in its upper 
 story, and surrounded with palisades. It was possible to 
 locate the fort on this plea at this point, because Lewis- 
 ton was the head of navigation on the river, and Fort 
 Niagara, where the fort was really desired, was seven 
 miles away, and a fort could not be built there with the 
 same pretense. Joncaire's house stood for about six 
 years, and then the French obtained the consent of the 
 Senecas to build a dwelling where Fort Niagara now 
 stands. 
 
 Two miles below Lewiston are the five-mile meadows, 
 where, in December, 1813, the British crossed the river 
 for their night attack on Fort Niagara. 
 
 Fort Niagara, one of the most historic spots in North 
 America, stands to-day practically defenseless, but bear- 
 ing within its walls the relics of almost two and a half 
 centuries. On this point of land, in 1669, La Salle built 
 the first structure, other than an Indian wigwam, ever 
 erected on this frontier. On this site, in 1678, La Salle 
 built Fort Conti. On its ruins, in 1687, De Nonville built 
 the ill-fated fort that bore his name, which was besieged 
 by the Senecas as soon as the army departed, and was de-
 
 Electrical Handbook 23 
 
 stroyed the following year, on the demand of the Sen- 
 ecas, acting under British instigation. 
 
 In 1725, the French erected, by consent of the Sen- 
 ecas, a stone structure on the present site of the Castle, 
 whose foundations are to-day no doubt the oldest exist- 
 ing masonry west of Albany. This fort was gradually 
 strengthened and enlarged by the French until, at the 
 time of its attack by the British in 1759, it was as strongly 
 fortified and protected as the science of that day, with 
 such material as could be gathered at so far off a point, 
 could possibly make it. The description of that siege, in- 
 cluding the three parallels built by the British along the 
 lake shore, the death of General Prideaux, and the sub- 
 sequent defeat of the French relieving force from the 
 West by Sir William Johnson, thus acquiring for Eng- 
 land that spot which for over half a century she had de- 
 sired and where for at least a score of years previously 
 her hated rival, France, had maintained a centre of mili- 
 tary and commercial activity, are matters of history ; but 
 of the buildings that stand in Fort Niagara to-day, the 
 lower part of the stone walls dates back to 1832, and the 
 upper part of these walls to about 1861. The earthworks 
 were constructed at least one hundred and fifty years 
 ago, while their brick facings date only from about 1861. 
 The large building, the Castle, or mess house, dates from 
 1725. The first and second stories of stone date back 
 prior to 1759, while the timbered roof dates from just 
 prior to the American Revolution. It was the strategical 
 centre of the middle part of North America for over 
 one hundred years, and during the eighteenth century 
 its commandant, whether English or French, was the 
 most important man west of New York. The two stone 
 blockhouses, the best specimens of their kind extant in 
 America, were built in 1770 and 1771 by the British. The 
 old bakehouse, built in 1762, replaced an earlier struc- 
 ture. The hot-shot furnace, first built prior to 1812, was 
 rebuilt some fifty years ago. 
 
 The long, low stone barracks were constructed by the 
 French about 1750, and about that same time they built 
 the square magazine which stands to the right of the
 
 24. The Niagara Falls 
 
 entrance gate. The roof of this magazine is a huge, thick 
 stone arch, the modern shingle roof having been erected 
 over that. 
 
 Between the fort and the village of Youngstown, 
 along the river shore, a line of batteries extended during 
 the War of 1812. 
 
 "Niagara is without exception the most important post 
 in America and secures a greater number of communica- 
 tions, through a more extensive country, than perhaps 
 any other pass in the world." So wrote Major Wynne 
 in 17/0 His opinion was probably correct, for no one 
 spot of land in North America has played a more impor- 
 tant part in the control, growth and settlement of the 
 Great West than the few acres embraced within its forti- 
 fications. Its cemetery is the oldest consecrated ground 
 west of Albany. 
 
 ON THE CANADIAN SIDE 
 
 At the source of Niagara River stand the ruins, part 
 of stone, part of earthwork, of Fort Erie, famed in the 
 War of 1812. The first fort near this site was built in 
 1764, as a depot of supplies for General Bradstreet's 
 army. The waves of the lake undermined and battered 
 the foundations, so that, about 1781, a new location, 
 nearer the source of the river and on the bluff out of the 
 reach of the waves was selected, and a second fort was 
 built. In 1807 this was abandoned and part of the earth- 
 works on their present location were constructed. It was 
 enlarged by the British, in 1812, by the addition of the 
 stone buildings which face the river; and still further 
 enlarged, in 1814, by the Americans, when in possession 
 of the fort for the second time during that war, by the 
 addition of two large bastions and connecting works in 
 the rear and on the side. In 1814, the Americans, after 
 the battle of Lundy's Lane, established themselves in this 
 fort, and here soon afterwards they were besieged by 
 General Drummond. 
 
 A little way down the river, and extending inland, the 
 British established a line of siege works and two bat- 
 teries, and in the northwest bastion, during one of the
 
 Electrical Handbook 25 
 
 British attacks on the fort, occurred one of the most tre- 
 mendous losses of life, due partly to hand-to-hand con- 
 flict and partly to the explosion of the magazine, that has 
 ever occurred in any war in so small a space. 
 
 From Fort Erie, on September 17, 1814, the Amer- 
 icans made that famous sortie planned and led by Gen- 
 eral Peter B. Porter, which, in the words of Sir William 
 Napier, "is the only instance in history of a besieging 
 army being utterly routed in a single sortie," and which 
 event ended the "War of 1812." 
 
 No other site of historical importance exists on the 
 river bank until we reach Navy Island. Though back of 
 Fort Erie some five miles. Navy Island is the scene of the 
 Battle of Ridgeway, fought between the Canadians and 
 the Fenians in 1866. 
 
 The Island contains 340 acres and belongs to Canada. 
 It is the only island of any size that fell to her lot in 
 determining the boundary line between the United States 
 and Canada, which line runs through the deepest channel 
 of the river. Navy Island is famed mainly as the head- 
 quarters of the Patriots during the War of 1837. 
 
 On the main shore, just east of the village of Chip- 
 pewa, are the fields where, on July 5, 1814, was fought the 
 Battle of Chippewa. On both sides of the mouth of 
 Chippewa Creek were located batteries during the War 
 of 1812. On the western bank of this creek, from 1794 
 until after 1800, stood one of the ordinary pattern of 
 blockhouses, built for the protection of the portage 
 around the Falls on the Canada side, and dignified by the 
 name of Fort Chippewa. 
 
 One mile west of the Falls, on the highest point of 
 land, on July 25, 1814, was fought the famous battle of 
 Lundy's Lane. Commenced late in the afternoon, this 
 battle, largely a hand-to-hand conflict, was continued be- 
 neath the glorious light of a summer moon until long 
 after midnight ; while the ceaseless roar of Niagara thun- 
 dered the dirge of the many that fell on both sides. The 
 central point of the battlefield was a battery located on 
 the hill where the village cemetery and a monument in 
 honor of the British who fell in that battle now stand.
 
 26 The Niagara Falls 
 
 
 The Canadian Falls, Viewed from Goat Island
 
 Electrical Handbook 27 
 
 This hill was captured by the Americans and held against 
 repeated assaults, only, after the bloody victory had been 
 gained by the Americans, to have General Brown, their 
 commander, order the army back toward Chippewa, leav- 
 ing the cannon, for whose capture so many lives had 
 been lost, unspiked and alone on the hill, which early the 
 next morning the British, without opposition, reoccu- 
 pied. It is one of the most famous battles in history 
 remarkable in that even now, nearly a hundred years 
 afterwards, the Americans still claim the victory, and the 
 Canadians, going still further, annually celebrate on the 
 battlefield, with pomp and ceremony, a famous victory 
 which in the opinion of their American cousins they did 
 not win. 
 
 The village of Drummondville, one-half mile west of 
 the Falls, was named in honor of General Drummond of 
 the War of 1812. 
 
 Queenston Heights, where was fought the battle of 
 October 12, 1812, is marked by the noble monument to 
 General Brock. The remains of the earthworks of Fort 
 Drummond are easily traceable. 
 
 A cenotaph at the foot of the heights marks the spot 
 where General Brock fell, mortally wounded. 
 
 Queenston, a small village below the heights, was so 
 called in honor of Queen Charlotte. 
 
 The village of Niagara, near the mouth of the river, 
 called also, at various times, Newark and Butlersbury, is 
 older than any settlement on the eastern bank. In 1792 
 it became the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Canada, and here was held the first session of the Parlia- 
 ment of Upper Canada. 
 
 Fort George, whose vast earthworks are plainly dis- 
 cernible to-day, was commenced in 1796 to provide a 
 habitation for the British garrison, which, soon after in 
 that year, evacuated Fort Niagara under Jay's Treaty. 
 
 It was enlarged prior to the war of 1812, and doubled 
 in size, in the immediatg preparation for that war, and 
 was, of course, the military centre of the Canadian lower 
 Niagara during that period. From here General Brock, 
 who was in command, started to take part in the Battle
 
 28 The Niagara Falls 
 
 of Queenston Heights, and when he returned it was in 
 his coffin, to be buried in the Cavalier Bastion of the 
 fort, from whence his remains were subsequently re- 
 moved to their present tomb in Brock's monument. Here, 
 in 1813, the Americans, attacking from the lake side, cap- 
 tured the village and the fort, which they held until De- 
 cember of that year, when General McClure, the Amer- 
 ican general, on a day's notice, without provocation, set 
 fire to and burned the village, thus turning the inhab- 
 itants out into the cold. His destruction of the buildings 
 in the fort and of the tents and other military stores 
 (which he left unharmed) would have done far more 
 good for the American cause and have left far less bene- 
 fits for the advancing British than they found when they 
 entered .the fort. This act so aroused the British sol- 
 diery that it resulted in the retaliation and the utterly 
 unnecessary attack and massacre at Fort Niagara and the 
 burning of the Niagara frontier. 
 
 Fort Mississaga, a stone blockhouse, surrounded by 
 high earthworks, stands to-day a perfect specimen of the 
 early nineteenth century fort. It was built by the Brit- 
 ish in 1814, when they held control of Fort Niagara; for 
 without their occupation of that fort, being directly cov- 
 ered by the guns thereof, it could not have been built. 
 Neither during the War of 1812 nor during any subse- 
 quent period has it played any important part. During 
 the War of 1812 the water front for a mile up from the 
 mouth of the river was a line of batteries. 
 
 Navy Hall, the residence of Governor Simcoe, the first 
 Governor-General of Upper Canada, is still standing, a 
 long, low, one-story wooden building (where, in 1792, 
 met the first Parliament of Upper Canada), though not 
 on its original site. 
 
 About a mile back from the river are still seen the 
 wooden barracks occupied during the Revolution by that 
 noted band of white, but savage, warriors known as "But- 
 ler's Rangers."
 
 Electrical Handbook 29 
 
 GEOLOGIC NIAGARA 
 
 During the last seventy-five years geologists have 
 written a great deal about Niagara, and from it specu- 
 latists have deduced theories as to the antiquity of the 
 earth, trying to prove 
 
 "That He who made it, and revealed its date 
 To Moses, was mistaken in its age." 
 
 In early geological days this entire section was cov- 
 ered by the salt waters of the Silurian seas, which is 
 proved by the shells of the Conularia Niagarensis, found 
 in the shale underlying Goat Island and along the gorge ; 
 this shale having once been the muddy bottom of these 
 seas, and this shell being found only in salt water. 
 
 At a later geological period, on top of what is now 
 this shale, at the bottom of a warm ocean, still covering 
 all this land, grew a vast, thick and solid bed of coral, of 
 which ancient life the Niagara limestone of to-day is a 
 monument. 
 
 Subsequently, these two ancient and contiguous sea 
 bottoms, then solid stone, were uplifted, and by the con- 
 figuration of the earth hereabouts the original Niagara 
 River was formed. In general terms its course was sim- 
 ilar to that of the present river (though its volume was 
 not as great) as far north as the Whirlpool, from whence 
 it ran, in a broadening channel, to St. David's, westerly 
 from its present outlet ; and prior to the coming of the 
 ice age it had cut this channel back to the Whirlpool and 
 perhaps even farther south. 
 
 Next came the glacial period, when this part of the 
 country was enveloped with a covering of ice (work- 
 ing down from the northeast) similar to that now cover- 
 ing Greenland, though having a depth of hundreds of 
 feet. This ice age, as approximately determined, lasted 
 50,000 years, and closed about 200,000 years ago. 
 
 This ice sheet, as it moved forward and southward, 
 broke off all the projecting points of rock and scraped 
 all the rocks themselves bare. Its presence and power 
 are attested by the scratchings and markings on the 
 smoothed surfaces of the top layer of rock wherever it is
 
 jo T h c Niagara Falls 
 
 laid bare, as far south as the Ohio River, and is apparent 
 on Goat Island and along the frontier. This ice sheet 
 brought down in its course not only boulders from the 
 far north and northeast, but its own vast accumulations 
 and scrapings and abrasions which we call "drift," and 
 with this drift it filled up (and with its enormous weight 
 pressed compactly) all valleys, gorges and indentations 
 of the earth in its course, among them the old outlet or 
 bed of the Niagara River from St. David's to the Whirl- 
 pool. 
 
 Many of the boulders brought here in the ice age, car- 
 ried perhaps hundreds of miles, have been collected in 
 this section and used in the construction of the bridges 
 that have been built on the Reservation, on the main 
 shore, opposite Goat Island. 
 
 On the recession of the ice sheet a second Niagara 
 River came into existence. 
 
 The weight of this vast ice sheet had canted or tilted 
 the land to the northeast, so that at its recession the 
 waters of the present three great northern lakes flowed 
 east by the Ottawa and later, as the land rose, by the 
 Trent Valley. As this second Niagara River drained 
 only the Lake Erie basin, and as Lake Erie was very 
 much smaller than at present, it worked in a small chan- 
 nel, was of small volume, and had but small rock-cutting 
 power to take up the erosive process of the earlier Niag- 
 ara River, which had drained only this same Lake Erie 
 basin. 
 
 This is the period, again referred to, when the present 
 channel to the south and west of Goat Island (the Cana- 
 dian channel) was made. 
 
 The second Niagara River gradually merged itself 
 into a vast fresh-water lake, formed by the melting ice 
 and heavy rainfalls, and covering all the Lake Erie basin, 
 and gradually rose in level until it stood fully 100 feet 
 above the present rocky bed of Goat Island. 
 
 Its northern boundary was the escarpment or ridge 
 whose lowest point was just above the present village of 
 Lewiston, which point is thirty-two feet above the pres-
 
 Electrical Handbook 31 
 
 ent level of Lake Erie. Here the rising waters first broke 
 oivr the dam, and here Niagara Falls were born. 
 
 From here they cut their way back to the Whirlpool, 
 for the waters found it easier to cut a new channel back 
 through the soft rock from this point in the embankment 
 than to scour out the old drift-filled channel (which was 
 at the very bottom of the lake) from the Whirlpool to 
 St. David's. 
 
 The flow of the lake set towards the Falls and brought 
 down from the Erie basin fluvial deposits in large 
 
 The Suspension Bridge Across Niagara River at Lewiston 
 
 amounts during the succeeding years, depositing them all 
 along the bottom of the lake. It is of these fluvial de- 
 posits, consisting of sand and loam (excepting a compar- 
 atively small layer of drift next to the top rock), that the 
 soil of Goat Island is formed, and of whiqh the soil cov- 
 ering the rocky substrata along the gorge is formed. 
 
 This Goat Island soil, more than any surface in this 
 section, is the geologists' paradise. While some lands 
 and forests near here may not have been cultivated by 
 man, the western end of Goat Island is an absolutely 
 unique piece of virgin forest.
 
 $2 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Most of the time it has been, in general terms, inac- 
 cessible to man ; and since accessible by bridges, no cut- 
 ting of the trees, no clearing of the land nor cultivation 
 thereof, no pasturing of cattle, in fact, no disturbance of 
 the soil has been permitted. 
 
 Here, then, is the original drift, with the subsequent 
 overlying alluvial deposits and accumulations, undis- 
 turbed by man. And when, as in this case, in this undis- 
 turbed fluvial deposit are found fresh-water shells, it 
 proves that the Niagara River to-day flows through what 
 was once the bottom of a vast fresh-water lake that cov- 
 ered all this section. 
 
 As the Falls cut their way backward, so their height 
 gradually diminished, and the level of this fresh-water 
 lake fell until, finally, there came a time when the land of 
 what is now Goat Island rose above the waters. That 
 this lake existed at a comparatively recent geological pe- 
 riod is proven by the fact that these shells now found on 
 Goat Island are identical in species with those found in- 
 habiting the Niagara River and Lake Ontario to-day. 
 According to the most accurate calculation, the consensus 
 of geological opinion is that 35,000 years have elapsed 
 since the Falls were at Lewiston, which is seven miles 
 away; and that the fluvial deposits on the island began 
 as soon as the river rose over the moraine at the foot of 
 Lake Erie can scarcely be doubted. 
 
 That in 35,000 years there is no specific difference be- 
 tween the ancient shells found in the soil of Goat Island 
 and their existing representatives and progeny in this 
 locality is wonderful indeed. 
 
 When the Falls in their recession shall have reached 
 the head of the rapids they will be about fifty feet higher 
 than they are now, or over 200 feet in height, less whatever 
 the upward slope of the bed of the river below the Fall 
 may diminish that total, and it cannot be by many feet. 
 The average dip of the rocky strata to the south is twenty- 
 five feet to the mile, and the average slope of the river 
 channel in the opposite direction is fifteen feet to the 
 mile.
 
 Electrical Handbook 33 
 
 When the Falls shall have receded yet another half 
 mile, or a total distance of one mile from their present 
 location, by the wearing away of the strata which dips 
 rapidly downward, and by the continued, but gradual 
 elevation of the bed of the river, and therefore of the 
 surface of the water below them, they will have decreased 
 in height to about 100 feet. And when they shall have 
 receded still another mile, their height will be only about 
 sixty feet. 
 
 As geologists differ by thousands of years as to how 
 long it took the Falls to cut their way from Lewiston 
 ridge to their present location it would be impossible to 
 say when in the history of this section the waters had so 
 far drained off that the muddy deposits overlying the 
 rocky bed of what is now Goat Island first appeared 
 above the slowly-receding waters of the lake, unless we 
 adopt some length of time for this work as a basis. 
 
 But it is not so difficult, by noting the elevation of the 
 land, the trend of the rocks and the depth of the over- 
 lying "drift," to locate approximately where the Falls 
 were when this occurred. At that time, judging from 
 the present levels of the land, the Falls must have been 
 at a point nearly a mile north of the present location of 
 the Horseshoe Fall. And if we accept, as above, one 
 foot a year as a fair average estimate of the recession of 
 Niagara from Lewiston Heights in the more recent geo- 
 logical time, it must have been between four and five 
 thousand years ago that the soil of Goat Island, then a 
 part of the mainland, first appeared ; and probably it is 
 nearly as long since it became an island. 
 
 In speaking of the recession of Niagara, the recession 
 of the Horseshoe Fall is referred to, for it recedes several 
 hundred times as fast as the American Fall; for in the 
 time that the Horseshoe Fall has receded from Prospect 
 Point, at the lower or northern edge of the American 
 Fall, across the width of the American Fall and across 
 the width of Goat Island to its present position, the 
 American Fall has receded but a very few feet. Hence, 
 on these deductions, Goat Island has existed as an island
 
 34 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 from about the time of the Flood, or from about 2,300 
 B. C. 
 
 This proves the statement that "in a scientific sense 
 the island is of trifling antiquity, in fact, it would be dif- 
 ficult to point out in the western world any considerable 
 tract of land more recent in its origin." 
 
 Niagara has been called the "sun clock of the ages," 
 and the stratification of the rocks through which it has 
 cut its way may be studied at many 'points, especially at 
 the "Whirlpool Rapids," above the Whirlpool, where both 
 shores of the gorge are little covered with foliage, and 
 again on the Goat Island cliff. 
 
 The Whirpool Rapids
 
 PART II 
 
 AMERICAN NIAGARA POWER 
 DEVELOPMENT BY CANAL
 
 36 The Niagara Falls
 
 The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power 
 and Manufacturing Company 
 
 IN the development of the Niagara Falls Hydrau- 
 lic Power and Manufacturing Company there 
 is to be found the oldest power project at Ni- 
 agara Falls. In the year 1852 the Porter family, 
 which was among the early settlers and much inter- 
 ested in the future of the place, donated the land 
 necessary for the construction of a canal extending 
 from the upper river to the edge of the high bank a 
 short distance below the falls. In the year mentioned, 
 negotiations were commenced with Caleb J. Wood- 
 hull and Walter Bryant for the construction of the 
 power canal. Under the agreement made, these men 
 were to construct the canal and receive a plot of land 
 having 800 feet frontage on the upper river, and a 
 strip 100 feet wide extending the entire length of the 
 canal, namely 4,400 feet. They also received 75 acres 
 of land about the lower end of the canal, which plot 
 had a frontage of nearly a mile along the high bank. 
 The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Company was in- 
 corporated in March, 1853, with Caleb J. Woodhull 
 as president, and Walter Bryant, agent. This com- 
 pany immediately contracted for the construction of 
 a canal 70 feet wide and 10 feet deep, with wharves 
 along the company's land on the upper river. The 
 turning of the first sod was made the occasion of a 
 celebration. Work progressed for 16 months, when a 
 lack of funds caused suspension of operations. In 1858 
 the work was resumed by the Niagara Falls Water Power 
 Company, of which Stephen M. Allen was president. On 
 Saturday, September I, 1860, Horace H. Day secured 
 control of the property, and by July i, 1861, had 
 completed a canal 36 feet wide and about eight feet 
 
 37
 
 38 T h c N i a g a r a Fall s 
 
 deep. The breaking out of the Civil War delayed 
 operations, and for years the canal stream poured 
 over the cliff unused. Early in the '7o's, Charles B. 
 Gaskill built a grist mill at the lower end of the 
 canal, and thus became the first user of the canal 
 power. 
 
 In the year 1877 the canal property and all its 
 belongings and rights were purchased by the late 
 
 Upper End of Canal 
 The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and M 
 
 ifacturing Company 
 
 Jacob F. Schoellkopf, father of Mr. Arthur Schoell- 
 kopf, and the late Abram Chesbrough. These men 
 organized the present Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power 
 and Manufacturing Company, of which Jacob F. 
 Schoellkopf was president up to September 15, 1899, 
 the day of his death. From the date of the acquire- 
 ment of the canal property by this company, the 
 development has continued steadily, and what the 
 company has accomplished has been a large factor 
 in the development of the industries of Niagara 
 Falls. They proceeded along the conservative lines
 
 Electrical Handbook 39 
 
 that characterize all the Niagara development. To- 
 day the canal has a width of 100 feet for its full 
 length, while its final depth will be 14 feet. At 
 the lower end of the canal proper there is a basin 
 850 feet long and 70 feet wide, the length of which 
 is to be still further increased to 1,000 feet. Ex- 
 tending from this basin to forebays located close 
 to the edge of the high bank are two connecting 
 canals, through which water flows from the basin 
 to the forebays and then through penstocks to the 
 turbines. 
 
 It should be remembered that the early develop- 
 ment of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and 
 Manufacturing Company was begun before engineers 
 and manufacturers dared to design and build water- 
 wheels for use under the high head possible in con- 
 nection with this plant. For this reason, shafts or 
 pits were sunk in the rock near the edge of the cliff 
 to such depths as were considered safe for the opera- 
 tion of the water-wheels then made. These depths 
 varied from 25 to 75 feet. The turbines were located 
 at the bottoms of these pits, from which the water 
 escaped through tunnels into the gorge below. The 
 discharge from some of these tunnels is still to be 
 seen at Niagara, as portrayed in an accompanying 
 illustration. Vertical shafts were installed to bring 
 the power to the surface of the ground. 
 
 In 1881 the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and 
 Manufacturing Company established its first station 
 to supply electricity for commercial purposes. This 
 station was known as Station No. i, and was located 
 in what was then Quigley's mill, now the Cliff Paper 
 Company's mill. In this station were installed arc 
 light machines to furnish a street and store service, 
 the machines being operated from the mill shaft. 
 It was here that the public distribution of electricity 
 in Niagara Falls began. 
 
 In 1895-96 methods applied to the development of 
 power had made considerable progress, and about 
 this time the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and
 
 40 The Niagara F alls 
 
 Manufacturing Company began the erection of 
 Power House No. 2. This power house was erected 
 at the water's edge in the gorge, and was so designed 
 that the water could be used under the full available 
 head of 210 feet. Not only was this made possible, 
 but the company was also able to take advantage of 
 the use of horizontal shafts for turbines and genera- 
 tors which method practically eliminates all bearing 
 
 Interior of Station No. 2 
 The Niagara Falls Power and Manufacturing Company 
 
 trouble, not a single shut down from any such trou- 
 ble having been necessary in seven years. 
 
 In the first section of this power house there were 
 installed four double discharge Leffel turbines giv- 
 ing a total capacity of 6,850 horse power. A steel 
 penstock eight feet six inches in diameter carries 
 the water supply for these wheels from the forebay 
 at the top of the cliff to the power station below. 
 
 The first section of the gorge power house having 
 proved a great success, the company at once added
 
 Electrical Handbook 41 
 
 two more sections making a station 170 feet long by 
 100 feet wide. The construction is of stone and 
 steel. In this power house there are now in opera- 
 tion 15 turbines, the capacity of 14 of them ranging 
 from 1,600 to 3,500 horse power. The combined out- 
 put capacity is about 34,000 horse power. The tur- 
 bines of the two sections last built receive their 
 supply of water through steel penstocks n feet in 
 diameter. In respect of their power capacity, these 
 penstocks are the largest in the world. 
 
 In this connection it is interesting to review the 
 machines driven by each turbine, and the application 
 that is made of the electric power so developed: 
 
 Turbines Nos. 4, 5 and 6, each drive two s6o-kw. 
 300-volt, direct current, Westinghouse generators, 
 the current from which is supplied to the Pittsburg 
 Reduction Company. 
 
 Turbine No. 7 drives two s6o-kw., sso-volt, direct 
 current generators of General Electric make. One 
 of these generators carries a commercial load, sup- 
 plying current to the Niagara Falls Brewing Com- 
 pany and to fifty other users of power. The other 
 generator carries a railway load, for the operation 
 of the Niagara Gorge Railroad. A booster with a 
 range of 300 amperes is attached, and is in circuit 
 with the Youngstown and Lewiston railroad four- 
 teen miles distant from the power house. Turbine 
 No. 7 has also conected to it one 2OO-kw., 135-volt 
 generator, the current from which goes to the Na- 
 tional Electrolytic Company. Both generators and 
 booster, are of General Electric make. 
 
 Turbine No. 8 has attached one 875-kw., direct 
 current generator, feeding 5,000 amperes, 175 volts, 
 to the National Electrolytic Company. The generator 
 is of General Electric make, and is of the double 
 commutator form. It is shown in one of the accom- 
 panying illustrations. Turbine No. 8 also drives an 
 alternating current generator of i,ooo-kw., 11,000- 
 volts, 3-phase, and of Bullock make. 
 
 Turbine No. 9 has attached a General Electric
 
 42 The Niagara Falls 
 
 generator of 875-kw., 5,000 amperes, 175 volts, cur- 
 rent from which goes to the National Electrolytic 
 Company, and also a i,ooo-kw., direct current, Gen- 
 eral Electric, 325-volt, 3,100 ampere generator, the 
 current from which goes to the Acker Process Com- 
 pany. 
 
 Turbine No. 10 drives two General Electric, 1,000- 
 kw., 325-volt, 3,100 ampere generators, the current 
 from which is used by the Acker Process Company. 
 
 No. 8 Turbine Driving 875-Kw. 5000 Ampere Generator 
 The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company 
 
 Turbine No. n and turbine No. 12 each operate 
 two Westinghouse, 75o-kw., direct current, 30O-volt, 
 2,500 ampere generators for the Pittsburg Reduction 
 Company. 
 
 Turbine No. 13 has a Bullock i,ooo-kw., 11,000- 
 volt, 3-phase generator on one end, and on the 
 other end a 7oo-kw., 2,2OO-volt, single-phase alter- 
 nator, made by the Walker Manufacturing Company. 
 This latter machine supplies the current for over 
 fifty per cent, of the incandescent lighting through-
 
 Electrical Handbook 43 
 
 out the city. It is operated for the Buffalo and 
 Niagara Falls Electric Light and Power Company. 
 
 Turbine No. 14 and turbine No. 15 each operate 
 two Westinghouse, i,ooo-kw., 30o-volt, 3,330 ampere 
 generators for the Pittsburg Reduction Company. 
 
 Turbine No. 16 and turbine No. 17 each operate 
 two Westinghouse, 750-kw., direct current genera- 
 tors for the Pittsburg Reduction Company. 
 
 Turbine No. 18 is a 25o-h.p. wheel made by J. M. 
 Voith, Heidenheim, Germany. It drives the exciters 
 used in connection with the 3-phase alternators above 
 referred to. 
 
 Turbine No. 19 is of 500 h.p., and drives a 4OO-kw., 
 50O-volt generator, for commercial service. 
 
 In addition to the distribution of electric power 
 as above outlined, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic 
 Power and Manufacturing Company has tenants to 
 whom it supplies hydraulic power, as follows: The 
 Cliff Paper Company, 2,500 h.p.; Cataract City Mill- 
 ing Company, 700 h.p.; Pettebone-Cataract Paper 
 Company, 2,200 h.p.; Oneida Community Company, 
 Ltd., 300 h.p.; City Water Works, 400 h.p.; Niagara 
 Falls Milling Company, 1,800 h.p., making a total of 
 7,900 h.p. 
 
 Inasmuch as it was possible to locate factories 
 very close to the power house, practically the entire 
 electrical development has been in the forms required 
 by the different industries. The majority of these 
 call for direct current at voltages varying from 175 
 to 300. However, the last two machines to be 
 installed in this power house were i,ooo-kw., 11,000- 
 volt, 3-phase alternators, built by the Bullock Manu- 
 facturing Company. An illustration given herewith 
 shows one of the horizontal shaft turbines, to one 
 end of which is connected an 875-kw., direct-curent 
 generator, while at the other end is connected one 
 of the i,ooo-kw. alternators. These alternators are 
 the first installation of alternating current machinery 
 made by the company. 
 
 The u,ooo-volt current generated by the machines
 
 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook 45 
 
 attached to turbines Nos. 8 and 13 is transmitted by 
 a 3-phase, lead-covered cable system to a trans- 
 former station located on the top of the cliff along 
 the canal basin. In this station the voltage of a 
 portion of the current is reduced to 2,200 for trans- 
 mission and use in the vicinity, the building also 
 serving as the terminal station of an overhead trans- 
 mission line carrying power at high voltage to the 
 company's factory property at the north end of the 
 city. This property is connected with the railroad 
 lines by a switch over a mile long laid by the com- 
 pany. On this land the new plant of the Carter- 
 Grume Company, and the plant of the Central Ma- 
 chine Company are located. 
 
 The switchboard of Power House No. 2 is about 
 100 feet long and is located on a gallery that runs 
 along the cliff side of the station. It has 32 panels 
 of Vermont marble, on which are installed some of 
 the largest switches in existence. The switchboard 
 ;md station wiring are of fireproof construction, and 
 the board is so arranged that although there are 
 many different kinds of currents generated in the 
 station, a relay is obtained for every generator and 
 water wheel in the station, except the single-phase 
 alternator. The n,ooo-volt portion of the switch- 
 board was designed and built by employees of the 
 company. 
 
 The present development does not represent the 
 full capacity of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power 
 and Manufacturing Company's canal, and the com- 
 pany has commenced the erection of an additional 
 power house. This new station will be located at 
 the water's edge, in the gorge, north of the present 
 station. When completed, it will have a length of 
 350 feet, and a width of 90 feet. Sketches of Station 
 No. 3 are presented herewith. Unlike the present 
 station, it will have a centre wall extending the 
 entire length of the station, dividing the water wheels 
 from the generators. The capacity of the station 
 will be 100,000 horse-power, and there will be a
 
 7 h c N i a g a r a F alls 
 
 Power House No. 3 
 The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacti 
 
 ing Company
 
 Electrical Handbook 47 
 
 separate penstock to supply water to each 8,000 horse- 
 power unit. These units will also be of the hori- 
 zontal shaft form, and will run at 300 rev. per min., 
 giving 25-cycle, 3-phase current, at 11,000 volts direct 
 from the generators. It is expected that the first 
 section of this power house will be in operation by 
 January, 1906.
 
 Tenants of The Niagara Falls Hy- 
 draulic Power and Manufactur- 
 ing Company 
 
 THE NIAGARA FALLS BREWING COMPANY 
 
 THE Niagara Falls Brewing Company manu- 
 factures lager beer, ale, and porter. Its plant 
 is operated by electrical power exclusively. 
 The brewery has been in operation since 
 1880. It has an annual capacity of 90,000 barrels, 
 with a storage capacity of 60,000 barrels. Its ex- 
 tensive cellars are excavated in the solid rock, the 
 stone taken out having been utilized in the construc- 
 tion of the buildings. These buildings cover an area 
 of two acres and are situated on the highest ground 
 in Niagara Falls, on the river bank, commanding a 
 beautiful view of the cataract above and of the 
 Whirlpool Rapids below. 
 
 The cellars of the Niagara Falls Brewing Com- 
 pany are chilled by the direct expansion refrigerating 
 system. The 6o-ton refrigerating plant is of the vertical 
 double-acting type, and is driven by a Soo-volt direct 
 current motor. This machine is capable of main- 
 taining a temperature as low as 30 fahr. throughout 
 the cellars, which have a capacity of 443,197 cubic 
 feet. A second soo-volt motor serves to operate all 
 the machinery in the brewery, including the mash 
 machine, malt mill, freight elevator, keg washers, 
 beer pump, rotary water pump, bottling works ma- 
 chines, etc. The power is obtained from the circuits of 
 the Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company.
 
 Electrical Handbook 49 
 
 PETTEBONE-CATARACT PAPER COMPANY 
 
 THE predecessor companies going to make up 
 the Pettebone-Cataract Paper Company rank 
 among the oldest of industrial concerns at 
 Niagara Falls, and were the pioneers in the 
 manufacture of news paper in this locality. The first 
 mill was located on Bath Island, now Green Island. 
 News paper was first made from rags, later on from 
 straw, and finally from wood. 
 
 This company was formed October first, 1892, 
 by the consolidation of The Pettebone Paper Com- 
 pany and the Cataract Manufacturing Company. 
 The latter company had erected on the Hydraulic 
 Canal, in 1880, a mill for the manufacture of ground 
 wood, used in the manufacture of news paper, and 
 the former company had built a paper mill in the 
 same locality in 1884. 
 
 The property of the company consists of a strip 
 of land on the Hydraulic Canal with a frontage of 
 115 feet, extending back some 330 feet to the high 
 bank of the river, on which are located a four-story 
 brick mill 100 by 115 feet, containing two Fourdrinier 
 paper machines, and all the machinery and apparatus 
 required in a well-equipped plant. In the rear there 
 is a three-story stone building for the manufacture of 
 ground wood pulp. 
 
 Hydraulic power is used exclusively, the com- 
 pany developing 1,400 h. p. by the use of turbines 
 placed one hundred feet down the high bank. Water 
 is taken from the canal of the Niagara Falls Hydrau- 
 lic Power and Manufacturing Company, and after 
 passing the water-wheels is discharged into the lower 
 river. 
 
 The daily output of the plant is twenty-five tons 
 of finished news paper and twenty tons of ground 
 wood pulp.
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 CLIFF PAPER COMPANY 
 
 T 
 
 HE Cliff Paper Com- 
 pany is engaged in 
 the manufacture of 
 wood pulp and news 
 paper. The process is com- 
 mon to all mills in the 
 United States making this 
 class of paper. The peculiar 
 features of the plant are that 
 the pulp mill, situated at the 
 foot of the high bank, in the 
 gorge of the Niagara River, 
 is driven by water power, 
 using water which has been 
 used once under 75 feet 
 head. After doing duty un- 
 der this head, the tail water 
 is delivered to a penstock 
 running down 125 feet fur- 
 ther and is utilized in hori- 
 zontal turbine Leffel wheels 
 p. These wheels are direct 
 connected. The power is therefore used as econom- 
 ically as possible. The pulp is brought to the paper 
 mill above the bank by a chain carrier. 
 
 The paper machines are driven by electric motors 
 supplied with current from generators direct connected 
 to 300 h. p. Leffel horizontal turbine wheels using 
 tail water from other wheels. 
 
 The pulp mill and paper mill are connected by 
 an inclined railway used for carrying freight and 
 passengers. 
 
 The Cliff mill was the first development of Niagara 
 water power under a head of over 100 feet, and was in 
 operation before either of the power companies. 
 
 Paper Mill at Top of Cliff 
 
 Pulp Mill at Water's Edge 
 
 Cliff Paper Company 
 
 about 2,500 h. 
 
 giving
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 51 
 
 Turbine and General 
 Cliff Paper Company
 
 $2 The Niagara Falls 
 
 WM. A. ROGERS, LIMITED 
 
 THIS business was started at Niagara Falls in 1893 
 under the name of the Niagara Silver Company. 
 It has grown very rapidly and in 1902 it was 
 amalgamated with the important business of 
 Wm. A. Rogers, of New York city, at which time the 
 present name of Wm. A. Rogers, Limited, was adopted. 
 Several extensions of the manufacturing plants have been 
 
 \. Rogers, Limited 
 
 made in recent years, and at the present time, in addition 
 to the large plant now operated at Niagara Falls, the 
 company owns and operates factories at Oneida, N. Y., 
 and Northampton, Mass. The recent enlargement of the 
 Niagara Falls factory has very considerably added to its 
 capacity and at the present time the company is employ- 
 ing in Niagara Falls nearly 500 employees. The com- 
 pany manufactures silver plated ware and cutlery.
 
 Electrical Handbook 53
 
 54 The Niagara Falls 
 
 THE NIAGARA GORGE RAILROAD CO. 
 THE NIAGARA GORGE 
 
 IN its passage from the Falls to Lake Ontario the 
 Niagara River passes through a deep and narrow 
 cleft between rocky cliffs, falling, in its course of 
 fourteen miles, more than in feet, and forcing 
 its way through a channel so confined and precipi- 
 tous that the tumult of the waters makes a scene 
 of grandeur that, in the estimation of many travelers, 
 exceeds the spectacle of the cataract itself. The 
 only means of entrance to the Gorge is by the 
 Niagara Gorge Railroad, a well-built, double-track 
 electric road, whose cars start from Prospect Park, 
 Niagara Falls, and traverse the length of the Gorge 
 to Lewiston in forty-five minutes, running the en- 
 tire distance within a few feet of the water, and 
 giving the passenger an opportunity to obtain an 
 unrivaled view of the Rapids and Whirlpool, or 
 to stop at various points for a longer inspection 
 of the wonders of the mighty river. The construc- 
 tion of the Gorge Road is considered by experts to 
 be one of the greatest engineering feats of modern 
 times. For years engineers contended that it could 
 not be built, but in 1890 surveys were made by Mr. 
 George A. Ricker, a civil engineer of Buffalo, N. Y., 
 which proved that it was perfectly feasible to con- 
 struct a railroad through the Gorge that would 
 be at once safe and comparatively easy of opera- 
 tion. Work was begun soon afterwards, and in 1895 
 the road was opened for passenger traffic. The 
 completion of the road which was rebuilt and im- 
 proved in 1890 makes it possible for the tourist 
 to visit the Gorge from end to end where before it 
 was only accessible in spots. 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE GORGE 
 
 Passing down a moderate incline, the Gorge 
 Road takes the sightseer under the two railroad 
 bridges which, spanning the Gorge below the Falls,
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 55 
 
 give access to Canada, as well as providing the most 
 direct rout between the East and the great West. 
 The cantilever bridge of the Michigan Central Rail- 
 road was built in 1882; while the steel arch bridge, 
 built in 1897 by the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada, 
 replaces the familiar old Suspension Bridge, which 
 was long one of the wonders of this point. The 
 Grand Trunk bridge is said to be the largest arch 
 in the world. 
 
 THE WHIRLPOOL RAPIDS 
 
 Just below the railroad bridges the gorge sud- 
 denly narrows and the Whirlpool Rapids begin. 
 
 Falls and Whirlpool Rapids 
 Niagara Gorge Railroad 
 
 The depth of the channel of the river at this point 
 has never been ascertained. So precipitous is the 
 rocky bed of the stream that the river reaches a 
 speed of twenty-seven miles an hour, and the waves 
 which are formed in its passage reach a height of 
 thirty feet at times. Two attempts have been made 
 to navigate these rapids in vessels, both being suc- 
 cessful. The original "Maid of the Mist" was taken
 
 56 The Niagara Falls 
 
 through the lower river safely several years ago, 
 and C. A. Perry of Niagara Falls went through 
 safely in a lifeboat, which he made himself. Two 
 persons have attempted to swim through the rapids. 
 One got through alive, but the other, Capt. Matthew 
 Webb, an Englishman, who had swum the English 
 Channel sucessfully, lost his life in the Niagara 
 rapids, on July 24, 1883. Several persons have gone 
 through the rapids successfully, inclosed in barrels 
 built for the purpose. 
 
 THE NIAGARA WHIRLPOOL 
 
 Three quarters of a mile below the bridges the 
 river broadens, and, changing its course suddenly, 
 an immense whirlpool is formed, into which is 
 gathered all the floating material that the current 
 has brought down from above. Driftwood, which 
 may have started on its course to the sea far up in 
 Lake Superior, may be seen whirling slowly about 
 in the surface current that seems to make a com- 
 plete circle from side to side of the chasm. Occa- 
 sionally, the fragments of a wrecked vessel will be 
 seen in the Whirlpool's clutches, brought from 
 above the Falls by the river, and here, too, are 
 usually found the bodies of the unfortunates who, 
 through accident or the deliberate intent to end their 
 lives, are carried over the cataract to a certain death. 
 Many accidental deaths occur every year in this way, 
 while Niagara Falls has long been known as a 
 favorite resort for suicides. Once the unfortunate 
 victim is in the grasp of the swift current above the 
 Falls there is no hope for him, although the his- 
 tory of the region teems with stories of efforts to 
 succor those whose rashness or folly has led them 
 too near the brink of the Falls. 
 
 The passenger on the Gorge Road who looks 
 across the Whirlpool may discern a wooded glen 
 running back from the river on the Canadian side. 
 This glen, it is said by geologists, marked the ori- 
 ginal channel of the river, but, owing to some mighty
 
 Electrical Handbook 57 
 
 convulsion of nature, that outlet for the waters 
 of the great lakes was closed and the river was 
 forced to make a new passage for itself through the 
 present channel. In cutting out its new course the 
 waters have worn away the rocks into peculiar and 
 interesting shapes. Not the least interesting of 
 these is the large rock which towers up on the 
 Canadian side just at the angle where the river 
 turns from the Whirlpool to flow onward toward 
 Lake Ontario. For years every photograph taken 
 of the Whirlpool from the American side has shown, 
 apparently carved in the top of this rocky eminence, 
 a strange resemblance to a human face. Within 
 the last few months the .action of the atmosphere 
 has crumbled the rock to such an extent that the 
 face is discernible to the naked eye. It has been 
 named "The Demon of the Gorge," and it stands 
 there immovable and inscrutable, keeping watch and 
 ward over the awful secrets of nature and the mys- 
 terious Whirlpool. 
 
 THE LOWER NIAGARA RAPIDS 
 
 Below the Whirlpool the channel through which 
 the waters have to force their way again becomes 
 narrower, and a second set of rapids is formed 
 by the descent of the stream not so swift nor so 
 tumultuous as the Whirlpool Rapids, but still 
 very swift and strong and of great interest. To 
 this series of lower rapids has been given the name 
 of "Devil's Hole Rapids," the name being that of 
 a historic spot a little farther down the Gorge. The 
 channel of the river is said to be deeper through 
 these rapids than at any other point, but the exact 
 depth cannot be ascertained, because the strong 
 current deflects any sounding apparatus that is used. 
 
 Fronting the Devil's Hole Rapids is Ongiara 
 Park. This is a pleasant glen in the woods on the 
 sloping bank above the river, owned by the Niagara 
 Gorge Railroad Company, and used as a picnic grove 
 for passengers by that route.
 
 5# The Niagara Falls 
 
 THE GIANT ROCK 
 
 Just below Ongiara Park the Gorge Road passes 
 behind an enormous rock, that rises from the edge 
 of the water and towers high above as the car 
 passes. What cataclysm of nature detached this 
 rock from the cliff above and sent it thundering 
 down the precipice to find a resting place on the 
 river's brink is not known. Ever since white men 
 first explored the Gorge the Giant Rock has stood 
 like a silent sentinel, and when the Gorge Road 
 was built it was decided to leave it where it is, 
 rather than to destroy the ancient landmark. 
 
 THE DEVIL'S HOLE 
 
 From end to end the Niagara Gorge teems with 
 historical incident. For the first century and a halt" 
 after white men took possession of the lands in the 
 Niagara region, there were continual struggles 
 first between the whites and the savages, later be- 
 tween the English and the French, and latest of 
 all, between the English in Canada and the men of 
 English descent, who had cast their lot with the 
 young American republic. The Devil's Hole, which 
 is reached by an easy ascent from the Gorge Road, 
 was the scene, in 1763, of one of the most awful 
 of the many tragedies of the Niagara region. On 
 the I3th of September in that year a train of British- 
 American troops under Lieut. Don Campbell of 
 the Royal American Regiment, was returning to 
 Fort Niagara from Detroit, where it had been with 
 a load of supplies for the garrison there. Fort 
 Schlosser, now the village of Echota, above the 
 Falls, was reached on the morning of the I3th, 
 and that evening the train set out for Fort Niagara, 
 taking the well-beaten road along the top of the 
 cliff on the American side. Accompanying the 
 troops was John Steadman, one of the first settlers 
 in this region and master of the portage around the 
 Falls. Heedless of impending danger, the caval-
 
 Electrical Handbook 59
 
 60 The Niagara Falls 
 
 cade traveled along in safety until the cleft in the 
 rocks since known by the name of the Devil's 
 Hole was reached, when, without a moment's 
 warning, a large band of Seneca Indians who had 
 been lying in ambush at this point attacked the trav- 
 elers with guns and tomahawks. Of the ninety 
 persons in the company, all but three were either 
 driven over the precipice to meet a horrible death 
 on the rocks below or killed outright by the savages. 
 One drummer-boy escaped by his drum-straps catch- 
 ing in a pine tree, part way down the cliff, where 
 he hung until rescued. His name was Matthews, 
 and he lived until 1821, when he died in Canada at 
 the age of seventy-four. One driver was wounded 
 and lay concealed in a clump of evergreens, where 
 the blood-thirsty savages overlooked him. Stead- 
 man himself who, the Indians said later, seemed to 
 bear a charmed life, spurred his horse through the 
 opposing Indians and made his escape to Fort 
 Schlosser. 
 
 The noise of the conflict was heard at Lewiston 
 and two companies of troops which were stationed 
 there came hurriedly up the trail to the rescue- of 
 the supply-train. Seeing no enemy, they marched 
 boldly across the little bridge that spanned Bloody 
 Run, a small stream, the dry bed of which may 
 be seen to-day, and when half way across the bridge 
 were themselves attacked by the Senecas, who had 
 hidden in the evergreens as they heard the approach 
 of the troops. Only eight of the soldiers survived 
 this second ambush. The Indians hastily scalped 
 their victims, taking in all eighty scalps, including 
 those of six officers, and mounting the horses that 
 had not been forced over the cliff, went back to their 
 home on the banks of the Genesee. It is only fair 
 to the generally peaceable Seneca nation to say that 
 this attack was made without the knowledge of the 
 chiefs of that tribe, by a band of young braves under 
 the leadership of "Farmer's Brother," a man who aft- 
 erwards became a leader of his people and a friend
 
 Electrical Handbook 61 
 
 of the whites, and who regretted to the end of his 
 life his youthful folly. 
 
 After the massacre at the Devil's Hole block- 
 houses were erected at different points along the 
 portage trail, 1,200 yards apart, for the better pro- 
 tection of travelers. The ruins of some of these 
 structures may yet be seen. 
 
 LEWISTON 
 
 Where the splendid steamers of the Niagara 
 Navigation Company's Toronto line touch at Lewis- 
 ton is the spot where the first white man who ever 
 entered the Niagara River, so far as history tells, 
 landed after sailing up from Lake Ontario. This 
 was in 1678, and the explorer who braved the en- 
 trance to an unknown river was the intrepid La 
 Salle. In his search for a portage La Salle ascended 
 as far as the lower rapids. Finding no safe landing 
 place, he returned to Lewiston, and there built a 
 cabin, surrounded by a palisade, as a storehouse and 
 base of supplies for his projected expedition above 
 the Falls, which he had not yet seen. This struc- 
 ture is believed to have been almost at the point 
 where the present dock is. From this point a 
 portage was established, the trail leading up the 
 mountain above Lewiston and traversing the table- 
 land above the cliff to a point above Echota. This 
 trail was followed for many years, or until railroads 
 were built, which made it unnecessary to transport 
 t goods by wagon. Farmer's wagons and pleasure 
 vehicles, however, still follow the old road, that 
 runs almost exactly as La Salle laid it out more 
 than two centuries ago. 
 
 NATIONAL ELECTROLYTIC COMPANY 
 
 THE National Electrolytic Company com- 
 menced business in 1898. It has a large 
 plant on the lands of the Niagara Falls Hy- 
 draulic Power and Manufacturing Company 
 and is engaged in the electrolytic manufacture of 
 chlorate of potash. The company uses 2,500 horse
 
 62 The Niagara Falls 
 
 power, which is transmitted by aluminum cables from 
 Power House No. 2, located at the water's edge in 
 the gorge, to the works on top of the high bank. 
 It is one of the successful electrochemical industries 
 of Niagara Falls. 
 
 ACKER PROCESS COMPANY 
 
 THE works of the Acker Process Company are lo- 
 cated in the lower power district on property 
 bounded by Third street, Walnut street, New 
 York Central Railroad tracks, and by the gorge 
 of the Niagara River below the falls. 
 
 The works cover a ground area of about 70,000 
 square feet. The total power utilized aggregates 
 about 3,800 electrical horse power, and is delivered 
 in the form of direct current, the greater portion be- 
 ing utilized in electrolytic furnaces for the decompo- 
 sition of sodium chloride. This current of 9,000 am- 
 peres and 300 volts is conducted through great bundles 
 of aluminum conductors placed in trenches under ground, 
 leading from the power house in the gorge below the 
 falls to the company's works, a distance of approxi- 
 mately 1,600 feet. The aggregate cross-section of the 
 conductors carrying this current is, of course, very large. 
 The entire current is utilized in a single series or row of 
 furnaces. 
 
 The products manufactured by the company are: 
 caustic soda, bleaching powder, tetrachloride of tin 
 (known to the trade as bichloride of tin), oxide of tin, 
 tin crystals, and carbon tetrachloride. 
 
 The electrolytic alkali process was the first of 
 the several processes to be installed and put in oper- 
 ation, and is due to Mr. Charles E. Acker. A de- 
 scription of the process was first given at the inau- 
 gural meeting of the American Electrochemical So- 
 ciety, at Philadelphia, in 1902, and was published in 
 the Transactions of the Society, Volume I., 1002. 
 An article by Clinton Paul Townsend may be found 
 in the ''Electrical World and Engineer" (New York),
 
 Electrical Handbook dj 
 
 of April 5, 1902. An article by Professor Haber, 
 being the first part of a report to the German Bunsen 
 Society for Applied Chemistry, on "The Industrial 
 Development of Electrochemistery in America," ap- 
 peared in the "Zeitschrift fur Elektrochemie," begin- 
 ning April 16, 1903. 
 
 Mr. Acker was awarded the Elliott Cresson gold 
 medal by the Franklin Institute, for his process of 
 
 Acker Process Company 
 
 producing caustic soda and chlorine by the electrolysis 
 of fused common salt. 
 
 Various American and Canadian patents covering 
 this particular process have been issued. The process 
 has also been patented in the principal European coun- 
 tries, the number of such patents aggregating about 
 forty. 
 
 A new process for the manufacture of tetrachlo- 
 ride of tin was introduced in the works in 1903, and 
 the company now turns out a considerable propor- 
 tion of the tetrachloride of tin consumed in the coun- 
 try. The company does not distribute this product
 
 6 4 
 
 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook 65 
 
 at retail, but makes shipments in carload lots only. 
 This process, as well as that for the manufacture of 
 tetrachloride of carbon, tin crystals, oxide of tin, 
 etc., is due to Mr. Charles E. Acker. Numerous pat- 
 ents have been applied for in the United States Pat- 
 ent Office, and have been allowed, although they 
 
 have not been issued. There have as yet been no 
 published descriptions of these methods. 
 
 The companyis works are illustrated on page 63, 
 and an interior view of the furnace room showing 
 a row of electrolytic furnaces on page 64. Each 
 furnace is here represented with five electrodes or
 
 66 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 anodes. Since this photograph was taken these 
 anodes have been enlarged, so that there are now 
 four anodes employed in each furnace instead of 
 five. The current of 9,000 amperes passing through 
 the furnaces in series is, therefore, carried by four 
 anodes in each furnace. The normal current carried 
 by each anode is approximately 2,250 amperes. A 
 
 B K'BTB 
 
 Figure 2 
 
 single anode may be removed at any time from a fur- 
 nace, during which time the current is carried by the 
 three remaining anodes to the extent of 3,000 am- 
 peres or more for each anode. 
 
 The cathode is of molten lead which is caused 
 to circulate by a jet of steam introduced into a 
 well containing the molten metal at the end of the 
 furnace, shown in Fig. i. The operation of this
 
 Electrical Handbook 6f 
 
 steam injector is shown in detail in Fig. 2. The 
 jet of steam issues from a small orifice under pres- 
 sure, and passes through an injector or converter 
 pipe made of cast iron, which, in practice, is a 
 single casting with the cover D. There are thus only 
 two parts to the furnace, namely, the main casting E, 
 which is lined with ordinary firebrick for containing 
 the molten salt, and the cast iron cover D. The 
 steam passing through the converter carries along 
 
 Figure 3 
 
 with it more or less of the molten lead in its path. 
 This lead strikes the curved cover and is deflected 
 into the long channel B, through which it passes to 
 the other end of the electric furnace, where it spreads 
 over the hearth and becomes the cathode, taking up 
 the sodium liberated from the salt by the current of 
 9,000 amperes. The alloy of lead and sodium finally 
 reaches the injector in the course of the circulation, 
 and the sodium decomposes the steam, thereby form- 
 ing anhydrous caustic soda, hydrogen gas and metal- 
 lic lead. The hydrogen burns continuously in a large
 
 68 The Niagara Falls 
 
 flame, the lead again flows back through the long 
 channel B and the molten caustic soda runs continu- 
 ously out of the furnace through the overflow spout. 
 The molten caustic soda is now collected from all 
 the furnaces and, while still molten, is conducted to 
 a caustic pot, where it is allowed to settle. This 
 operation goes on continuously twenty-four hours 
 per day, and seven days per week. There is no inter- 
 mission. 
 
 A general idea of the setting of the furnaces is 
 given in Fig. 3, which also indicates the method 
 of taking off the chlorine gas. This is taken away 
 by slight suction through passages in the brick piers 
 between each pair of furnaces.
 
 PART III 
 
 AMERICAN NIAGARA POWER 
 DEVELOPMENT BT TUNNEL
 
 The Niagara Falls 'Power Company 
 
 THE utilization of the power of Niagara Falls 
 has for years been the dream of engineers 
 and of all those interested in industrial devel- 
 opment. In the past many schemes for this 
 purpose have been suggested by engineers and in- 
 ventors, but never, until the advent of the modern 
 era in electrical engineering, has the proposition, on 
 a large scale, been able to stand upon a basis attrac- 
 tive to the capitalist. The difficulty in the past has 
 not been to apply the waters of Niagara for the turn- 
 ing of a water wheel, for many of the schemes then 
 suggested would have accomplished this success- 
 fully; but what to do with the power when thus de- 
 veloped at the water wheel shaft was the problem 
 before the engineer. Obviously here the question of 
 transmission arose as of prime importance. 
 
 Among the numerous early plans suggested will 
 be found extensive systems of pneumatic tubes oper- 
 ated by turbine driven air compressors, the air pipes 
 leading therefrom to factories located in the vicinity 
 of a power house, each factory having its own air 
 motors thus operated. It may be of interest to note 
 that one of these early plans contemplated the 
 transmission of power to Buffalo by this means. 
 
 Another plan consisted in lines of countershaft- 
 ing, bracketed on columns, extending radially from 
 a central power station, this long shafting to be 
 driven by water wheels at the power station through 
 a system of gearing. Factories were to be located 
 along these lines of shafting and were to receive their 
 power by clutches connected to these shafts. 
 
 Still another plan involved the construction of a 
 network of surface canals fed by a common intake 
 from the upper Niagara River. Factories were to
 
 7^ The Niagara Falls 
 
 be established along these canals and take water 
 from them for the operation of individual turbines; 
 the dead water to be discharged in branch tunnels 
 connected to a main trunk tunnel leading to the 
 lower river. 
 
 These plans now look grotesque, but twenty years 
 ago or so they were seriously considered by good 
 engineers. They were discarded largely for finan- 
 cial reasons, the systems showing low efficiency and 
 high cost of construction and maintenance. The 
 final solution of the problem by electrical methods 
 is almost ideal in its simplicity and efficiency as a 
 means of transmitting the energy of Niagara to the 
 consumers. 
 
 In the electrical distribution of Niagara power 
 an essential advantage has resulted which was not 
 fully recognized at the time of its first adoption. 
 As the uses of this power have developed it has been 
 found that not only was power wanted for industrial 
 purposes but primarily electric power. This is espe- 
 cially true in the case of the electrochemical and 
 electric lighting applications. If pneumatic, hy- 
 draulic or mechanical power had been supplied for 
 use, it would have been necessary for all the electro- 
 chemical plants to convert the power into electric 
 current, before they could use it, with all the loss 
 in power which would result from this conversion. 
 So also with the electric lighting and electric rail- 
 way applications, where power is wanted in the form 
 of electric current. 
 
 The general construction and organization of 
 apparatus adopted by The Niagara Falls Power 
 Company for utilizing the hydraulic energy of the 
 Falls is as follows: A short canal has been exca- 
 vated at a point about one mile above the Falls on 
 the American side, its direction being approximately 
 at right angles to the river. This canal leads the 
 water into two power houses located on opposite 
 sides. From the canal the water flows into pen- 
 stocks and thence to the turbines, which are installed
 
 Transverse Section of Power House No. 2 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company
 
 74 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 near the bottom of the two wheelpits excavated 
 out of solid rock under the two respective power 
 houses. After passing through the buckets of the 
 turbines and giving up its energy thereto, the water 
 is discharged into a tunnel about twenty-one feet in 
 diameter, which carries it off under the city of Ni- 
 agara Falls, a distance of approximately 7,000 feet, 
 to the lower river. Each turbine is direct con- 
 
 Interior of Power House No. i 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company 
 
 nected through a hollow vertical shaft to an electric 
 generator installed above near the ground level. 
 
 Power House No. I, which was the first to be 
 constructed, contains ten vertical shaft turbines, each 
 direct coupled to an alternating current generator of 
 5,000 h.p. capacity. Power House No. 2, which was 
 completed early in 1904, contains eleven generating 
 units of the same capacity, making a total capacity 
 for the two plants of 105,000 e.h.p.
 
 Electrical Handbook 75 
 
 The illustration shows Power House No. 2 in 
 section and illustrates the general arrangement of 
 apparatus as adopted in both plants. From the canal 
 the water flows through submerged arches into an 
 enclosed forebay F. Thence through the racks R 
 the water enters the penstock P and flows downward 
 through it to the wheel case W. From the wheel 
 case it is forced at a pressure of about fifty pounds 
 per square inch inwardly through the buckets of the 
 turbine and out through the draught tube D into the 
 tail race T, and thence through the tunnel to the 
 lower river. 
 
 Power House No. i differs from this arrangement 
 hydraulically in that the turbines discharge their 
 water into the tail race openly without draught 
 tubes. 
 
 In both power houses the electric generators are 
 of the alternating current type, wound for 2,200 
 volts. 2-phases, 25-cycles, and operate at a speed of 
 250 r.p.m. 
 
 In the older plant the alternators are all of the 
 external "revolving field or umbrella type, while in 
 Power House No. 2 the last five machines are of the 
 internal field construction. This internal field ar- 
 rangement affords several advantages of simplicity 
 and o-f accessibility to the various parts of the ma- 
 chine. 
 
 In -general construction and method of operation 
 the two power houses are very similar, the structural 
 changes introduced in No. 2 being principally along 
 the line of improvements in detail, which are the 
 result of the evolution which has taken place in 
 engineering methods since the first plant was in- 
 stalled. 
 
 When the first power house at Niagara Falls was 
 proposed for a capacity of 50,000 h.p., with an ulti- 
 mate tunnel capacity of 100,000 h.p., many people 
 wondered how it would be possible to dispose com- 
 mercially of such a large amount of electric power. 
 Central station managers who, after a strenuous
 
 76 The X i a g a r a Falls 
 
 canvass for new customers, had been accustomed to 
 increasing the output of their plants by the addition 
 of a i5O-kw. Edison bi-polar machine, were stag- 
 gered by the magnitude of the quantities involved in 
 this new proposition. Skeptical opinions were ex- 
 pressed based upon industrial and electrical condi- 
 tions then existing, and these opinions at that time 
 were, in the main, justifiable. 
 
 Since that time, however, great developments have 
 
 2200O Volt Switches and Bus-bars at Tonawanda Section 
 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company- 
 taken place in the electrical arts which have made pos- 
 sible the present realization of such a demand for 
 power. The developments which have created this de- 
 mand have been, first of all, in electro-chemistry, though 
 the output of the Niagara plant is not confined to 
 electro-chemical applications, as is generally sup- 
 posed. Large blocks of its power are in use for 
 electric railway propulsion, electric lighting, and 
 mechanical power application. One of the most
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 77 
 
 recent and important factors in the growth of this 
 power system has been the introduction of the elec- 
 tric motor drive for factory appliances. The evolu- 
 tion of economical methods in power transmission 
 has made the delivery of Niagara power commer- 
 cially possible to a widely scattered market. 
 
 As a result of these developments in the applica- 
 tion of electrical energy the first power house has 
 
 Internally Revolving Field 5000 H. P. Alternator and Hydraulic 
 
 Governor in Power House No. 2 of The Niagara 
 
 Falls Power Company 
 
 reached the limit of its capacity of 50,000 h.p. and 
 the second plant, having a capacity of 55,ooo h.p., 
 is well along towards its limit. 
 
 The electrical energy starts from the bus-bars of 
 the power house at a pressure of 2,200 volts, two- 
 phase, 25-cycles, constituting, so to speak, the raw 
 material upon which the various transformations are 
 subsequently made. From the bus-bars the system 
 divides into three distinct classes of service. 
 
 The first of these embraces the local distribution
 
 5000 H.P. GENERATORS 
 
 f \f \f v 
 
 U POWER HOUSE Ull BUSBARS \\[( 8M Q VOLTS [(((
 
 Electrical Handbook /p 
 
 to factories which are in the immediate neighbor- 
 hood of the power house, these customers being 
 supplied by underground cables directly from the 
 bus-bars at the generator voltage, phase and fre- 
 quency. 
 
 The second class might be termed the interme- 
 diate-distance transmission. 
 
 In this case, the 2,2OO-volt, two-phase current, 
 immediately after leaving the power house bus-bars, 
 is transformed to u,ooo-volt, three-phase current 
 by means of step-up transformers, and transmitted 
 underground to a step-down transformer station 
 about two miles from the power house. There it is 
 reconverted into 2,2OO-volt, two-phase current, and 
 is distributed, as in the first system, for various fac- 
 tory uses by means of underground cables. This 
 system is used to supply factories whose distance 
 from the power house renders it cheaper to buy 
 step-up and step-down transformers and transmit at 
 a high voltage, than to buy the copper necessary to 
 supply them with power directly from the power 
 house bus-bars at 2,200 volts. The object in trans- 
 forming into three-phase current in this system and 
 back again into two-phase at the step-down station 
 is to effect the saving in copper resulting from the 
 use of the three-phase transmission, which amounts 
 to twenty-five per cent., while maintaining the serv- 
 ice to all factories uniform at 2,2OO-volt, two-phase 
 current. In all the underground distribution, con- 
 duits are used with the cables drawn through ducts 
 in the usual manner. 
 
 In the third class we have long-distance trans- 
 mission. Here the 2,2OO-volt, two-phase current is 
 transformed at the power house to three-phase cur- 
 rent at 22,000 volts and distributed on overhead bare 
 conductors to points at a considerable distance from 
 Niagara Falls, such as Buffalo, Tonawanda, and 
 Lockport. The three-phase system is also used in 
 this case on account of the saving in copper. 
 
 The long-distance transmission is operated over
 
 8o The Niagara Falls 
 
 three separate circuits, each having a length to the 
 Buffalo city line of about twenty-two miles. Two of 
 these circuits are of 350,000 cir. mil. stranded copper 
 installed on the same pole line. The third circuit is 
 strung upon a separate pole line throughout its 
 entire length, and is of aluminum instead of copper. 
 This aluminum line has the same resistance as each 
 of the other two, and is composed of three cables of 
 
 The Step-Up Transformer Plant of The Niagara Falls Power 
 
 Company, Containing Transformers Having 
 
 Aggregate Output of 60,000 H. P. 
 
 500,000 cir. mil. each, made up of thirty-seven strands. 
 At the present market price of copper wire it is 
 cheaper to use aluminum for overhead lines where 
 the conductors do not have to be insulated. The 
 conductivity of aluminum is less than copper, and 
 the price per pound is greater, but the volume per 
 pound of aluminum is much greater than that of 
 copper on account of the lower specific gravity of 
 the metal. When, therefore, resistance per pound
 
 Electrical Handbook 81 
 
 is taken as the basis for comparison, aluminum is 
 found to be cheaper. Furthermore, on account of 
 the increased section of the aluminum conductor and 
 its greater lightness, it is better able to resist span 
 strains due to gravity than a copper conductor of 
 the same resistance. It is interesting to note that 
 the aluminum of which these cables are made is the 
 product of the plant of the Pittsburg Reduction 
 Company, which is operated by Niagara power. 
 
 The capacity of the three Buffalo circuits 'is ap- 
 proximately 10,000 h.p. each at 22,000 volts. 
 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company's distributing 
 system now covers a very large territory; thousands 
 of people are dependent upon it in their daily lives, 
 and commercial interests of great importance are 
 involved in it. The industrial world has learned that 
 the Niagara power enterprise is no longer an experi- 
 ment, and that it has already become an important 
 factor in the manufacturing status of this continent. 
 Its extent and the great variety of the industries 
 which it supplies will be seen from the list which 
 follows: 
 
 THE NIAGARA FALLS POWER COMPANY- 
 LIST OF USERS 
 
 NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y. 
 
 Maxi- Trans - 
 mum mission 
 
 Name Power Dist. 
 
 H.P. Miles 
 
 The Pittsburg Reduction Company 8,000 0.46 
 
 The Carborundum Company 5,000 0.38 
 
 Union Carbide Company 1 5,000 2. 
 
 Niagara Electro-Chemical Company... 2,000 0.75 
 
 Niagara Falls Lighting Company 1,000 0.14 
 
 International Railway Company 1,500 
 
 The Niagara Falls Water Works Com- 
 pany, hydraulic power 300 
 
 International Paper Company, hydraulic 
 
 power 8,000 
 
 Castner Electrolytic Alkali Company... 7,000 0.85
 
 82 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Maxi- Traivs- 
 
 Name Power Dist. 
 
 H.P. Miles 
 
 Niagara Development Company 100 1.23 
 
 Oldbury Electro-Chemical Company... 1,500 2.18 
 
 Electrical Lead Reduction Company... 500 0.19 
 
 International Acheson Graphite Co.... 1,000 0.28 
 
 Acetyvone Manufacturing Company.... 50 0.95 
 
 Roberts Chemical Company 500 1.90 
 
 Francis Hook and Eye and Fastener Co. 15 0.47 
 
 Norton Emery Wheel Company 650 0.95 
 
 The Natural Food Company 1,500 0.66 
 
 Ramapo Iron Works 500 1.70 
 
 By-Products Paper Company 500 0.19 
 
 Composite Board Company 200 0.34 
 
 Atmospheric Products Company 50 0.47 
 
 Niagara Research Laboratories 500 0.28 
 
 NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO 
 
 A. C. Douglass, contractor 400 3. 
 
 M. P. Davis, contractor 300 3.7 
 
 A. C. Jenckes, contractor 200 3.5 
 
 The Carborundum Company 200 3.6 
 
 Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Ry. 500 3.8 
 Lighting Company 500 3.4 
 
 TONAWANDA 
 
 International Railway Company 1,500 
 
 Tonawanda Board and Paper Company 1,200 15 
 
 Buffalo Bolt Company 160 14 
 
 Philip Houck Milling Company 142 14 
 
 F. J. Alliger Company 107 15 
 
 Adamite Abrasive Company 50 14.5 
 
 Orient Manufacturing Company 20 14 
 
 Felton School 22 14 
 
 LOCKPORT 
 
 Lockport Lighting Company 500 25 
 
 International Railway Company 1,000 26 
 
 OLCOTT 
 
 International Railway Company 1,000 39
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 
 ISlsffl?
 
 8 '4 The N ia gar a Fall s 
 
 Maxi- Trans- 
 mum mission 
 
 Name Power Dist. 
 
 H.P Miles 
 
 Buffalo Railway Company 7,000 27 
 
 Buffalo General Electric Company 6,000 27.6 
 
 The Charles G. Curtiss Company 125 25.5 
 
 McKinnon Dash Company 100 24.4 
 
 Pratt & Letchworth 233 24.5 
 
 W. W. Oliver Manufacturing Company. 15 24.7 
 
 Acme Steel and Malleable Iron Works. 50 24.8 
 
 N. Y. Car Wheel Works 200 24.3 
 
 National Battery Company 90 26.3 
 
 Standard Plaster Company 100 25.5 
 
 Great Northern Elevator Company 900 29.5 
 
 Buffalo Dry Dock Company 133 30 
 
 Electric Grain Elevator 200 30.7 
 
 Barcalo and Boll Manufacturing Co.... 60 30 
 
 Schoellkopf & Company 50 30 
 
 Iron Elevator and Transfer Company.. 165 30 
 
 Great Eastern Elevator 900 30 
 
 Sidney Shepard & Co 100 30 
 
 J. I. Prentiss & Co 30 29 
 
 Edward Elsworth & Co 150 30 
 
 American Agricultural Chemical Co.... 125 32 
 
 Jacob Dold Packing Company 100 32.5 
 
 Empire Bridge Company 90 33 
 
 Buffalo Elevating Company 950 29 
 
 John Kam Malting Company 225 24.3 
 
 American Brake Shoe and Foundry Co. 40 33.2 
 
 Buffalo Cereal Company 375 30.3 
 
 Taylor Signal Company 65 25.5 
 
 Snow Steam Pump Works 150 33.3 
 
 Wood & Brooks Company 100 24.4 
 
 U. S. Rubber Reclaiming Works 995 31.7 
 
 American Radiator Company 200 24 
 
 Cumpson-Prentiss Coffee Company.... 30 29.1 
 
 Duffy Brothers & Nellis 50 33.5 
 
 Buffalo Foundry Company 240 35.1 
 
 H. O. Mills 255 29.3 
 
 Jewett Manufacturing Company 30 24.8
 
 Electrical Handbook
 
 86 T h c N i a g a r a Falls 
 
 Maxi- Trans- 
 mum mission 
 
 Name Power Dist. 
 
 H.P. Miles 
 
 Buffalo Pitts Company 187 35.5 
 
 Buffalo Brake Beam Company 30 25 
 
 Buffalo Dental Manufacturing Company 20 35.5 
 
 Keystone Manufacturing Company 25 24.8 
 
 R. L. Ginsburgh & Sons 33 34 
 
 Buffalo Weaving and Belting Company 65 25.5 
 
 H. W. Dopp & Co 10 25 
 
 Frontier Iron Works 15 25 
 
 The Crosby Company 50 33 
 
 Lackawanna Steel Company 70 29.4 
 
 West Manufacturing Company 40 28 
 
 Buffalo Gasoline Motor Works 20 25 
 
 Pratt & Lambert 10 24.5 
 
 Wegner Machine Company 40 29 
 
 Spencer Kellogg Company 500 29.2 
 
 Hygiene Food Company 300 32.3 
 
 Collins Baking Company 50 33.2 
 
 George Urban Milling Company 450 34.5 
 
 Niagara Mill and Elevator Company... 100 26 
 
 D. L. & W. R. R. Shops 150 34.5 
 
 Ryder Belt and Cordage Company 65 24.7 
 
 United States Headlight Company 40 26 
 
 George E. Laverack Building 100 28.2 
 
 Buffalo Structural Steel Company 30 26 
 
 J. N. Adam & Co 100 28.2 
 
 Genesee Hotel 100 28.1 
 
 The figures given are for maximum power used 
 in each case. Since the maximum in the various 
 plants does not occur at the same time, the resultant 
 maximum at the power house is somewhat less than 
 their sum. At present it amounts to about 75,000 
 e.h.p. 
 
 On a large system of electric power distribution, 
 such as that of the Niagara Falls Power Company, 
 the power users have necessarily widely differing 
 requirements and comparatively few utilize the elec- 
 tric current in the exact form in which it leaves the 
 terminals of the generators. A large variety of sec-
 
 Electrical Handbook 87 
 
 ondary and tertiary systems are therefore derived by 
 transformation and conversion. The following are 
 some of the systems thus derived from the primary 
 supply mains at 2,200 volts, 2-phase, 25-cycles: 
 
 25 CYCLE 
 
 2,200 volts 3-phase 
 
 22,000 volts 3-phase 
 
 1 1,000 volts 3-phase 
 
 4,500 volts 3-phase 
 
 350 volts 3-phase 
 
 350 volts 2-phase 
 
 1 10 volts single-phase 
 
 30 volts single-phase 
 
 60 CYCLE 
 
 2,200 volts 2-phase 
 
 8,000 volts single-phase (arc). 
 
 no volts 2-phase 
 
 125 CYCLE 
 
 2,200 volts single-phase 
 
 8,000 volts single-phase (arc). 
 
 DIRECT CURRENT 
 
 ioo volts 130 volts 
 
 160 volts 250 volts 
 
 550 volts 8,000 volts (arc) 
 
 All these systems are derived by simple transfor- 
 mations by means of transformers, rotary converters, 
 or motor-generator sets. 
 
 Such then is the present status of the power 
 system of the Niagara Falls Power Company, and a 
 glance at its past development indicates the lines 
 along which it is likely to grow in the future. 
 
 When the Canadian plant is completed The Niag- 
 ara Falls Power Company and the Canadian Niagara 
 Power Company will have available three large 
 independent power houses for the operation of their 
 system and will be the only power companies hav 
 ing more than one power house for the protection 
 and assurance of continuous supply of power. This
 
 88 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 is a matter of great importance to customers. In 
 case of some unforeseen accident to any one of the 
 plants, interconnections can at once be established 
 
 Interior of Power House No. 2 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company 
 
 so that the most important users of power sup- 
 plied normally by the disabled plant can be supplied 
 \vith power from the other two without interrup-
 
 Electrical Handbook 89 
 
 tion. This is especially important where the public 
 utilities are involved, such as the electric railways 
 and electric lighting companies. As the manufac- 
 turing arts advance, the element of power becomes 
 more and more important and cheap power there- 
 fore more demanded. Electro-chemistry is a new 
 art, and one which has great possibilities ahead of 
 it. The high temperatures obtainable in electric 
 furnaces have opened up a new field to chemical 
 synthesis, and it is likely that many as yet undis- 
 covered processes, which will require large amounts 
 of electrical power for their operation, will be 
 brought to light. The supply of power for electro- 
 chemical purposes is especially desirable in a 
 water power plant where large investment is neces- 
 sary, for the power used by these processes is prac- 
 tically constant for twenty-four hours of the day, 
 thus tending to reduce load "peaks" on the total 
 station output. 
 
 The economical distance to which power can be 
 transmitted extends every year as the general de- 
 mand for power increases and methods of handling 
 high voltages improve, and the electric equipment 
 of steam railway systems, which is certain to come 
 in time, will open up a further field for the long- 
 distance transmission of large amounts of power 
 from a central point. 
 
 All these tendencies in industrial conditions, which 
 have been mentioned, result in an accelerating de- 
 mand for power from Niagara Falls.
 
 90 The Niagara Falls 
 
 18931903 
 
 The Carborundum Company
 
 Local Tenants of the Niagara Falls 
 Power Company 
 
 THE CARBORUNDUM COMPANY 
 
 THIS company takes its electrical power from 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company. It lo- 
 cated at Niagara in 1895, having been the 
 second customer to make a contract with the 
 Power Company. 
 
 1000 II. I>. Transformer with Induction Regulator 
 The Carborundum Company 
 
 The Carborundum Company manufactures, under 
 the trade-mark of "carborundum," silicon carbide 
 and its by-products. 
 
 Carborundum is a chemical combination of car- 
 bon .and silicon, which elements are obtained from 
 coke and sand; these materials being fused in an 
 electric furnace at an estimated temperature of 
 about 7,000 fahr.
 
 9 2 The X i a g a r a Falls 
 
 The Carborundum Company was incorporated in 
 1891, and carried on its earlier operations at Monon- 
 gahela, Pa., where furnaces using 120 e. h. p. were 
 employed, the electrical energy being developed by 
 generators driven by steam. 
 
 Furnace Ready for Burning 
 
 Furnace During Burning 
 The Carborundum Company 
 
 On locating at Niagara Falls in 1895, the first 
 installation was a unit of five furnaces, these being 
 operated successively one at a time. The current 
 used was i.ooo e. h. p., received on the premises of 
 the company at 2,200 volts and transformed down 
 to 150 volts, from which point it could be regulated 
 in one-half volt steps between 100 and 200 volts. At 
 the time of the installation the transforming ap- 
 paratus was the largest in the world.
 
 Electrical Handbook 93 
 
 In 1899 a second, and in 1902 a third unit of 1,000 
 e. h. p. were put into operation; the transforming 
 apparatus being of practically the same type as that of 
 the first unit. 
 
 In April, 1904, 2,000 additional e. h. p. were taken 
 on. This is used as one unit, handled through one 
 transformer and regulator, which is believed to be 
 the largest regulated transformer in the world. 
 
 The Carborundum Company is now using three 
 units of 1 ,000 e. h. p. and one unit of 2,000 e. h. p., 
 which are used continuously twenty-four hours per 
 day and 365 days per year. 
 
 The company's plant covers eight acres of ground 
 and consists of a series of brick buildings having a 
 
 Furnace Aft 
 The Carborundum Company 
 
 total floor space of 221,009 square feet, and being 
 especially adapted to the various purposes of crush- 
 ing and mixing raw materials, operating furnaces, 
 grinding, washing and sifting the carborundum, and 
 of making the carborundum into the various market- 
 able forms of wheels, stones, paper, cloth, etc. 
 
 The principal characteristics of caborundum are 
 hardness, brittleness, infusibility and insolubility. 
 In hardness carborundum ranks next to the dia- 
 mond; and this, with its other properties, makes it 
 peculiarly adaptable to its principal use as an abra- 
 sive or grinding material.
 
 94 The X i a gar a Falls 
 
 Other uses to which carborundum has been put 
 are for furnace linings and for various refractory 
 purposes where a great heat resistance is required; 
 and for increasing the fluidity of molten metals, or 
 adding to their silicon content. 
 
 Quite recently the company has produced large 
 quantities of pure metallic silicon. This metal, 
 which now sells as a laboratory curiosity at $7.00 
 per ounce, can be manufactured in unlimited quanti- 
 ties at approximately 25 cents, or one shilling per 
 pound. 
 
 UNION CARBIDE COMPANY 
 
 THE plant of the Union Carbide Company is 
 one of the largest on the lands of the Ni- 
 agara Falls Power Company. It is located 
 about one and one-half miles east of the 
 power stations, the site occupying about eight acres. 
 The buildings are of brick and steel, covering a 
 space over 200 feet wide and more than 880 feet long. 
 In the manufacture of calcium carbide, the raw 
 materials used are burnt lime and ground coke, the 
 proportions of these materials being about one of 
 lime to two-thirds of coke. The temperature at 
 which calcium carbide is formed is very high com- 
 pared with metallurgical electric-furnace work, and 
 is far higher than can be obtained in the ordinary 
 combustible-heated furnace. It is, however, below 
 the temperature used in the manufacture of artificial 
 graphite, siloxicon or carborundum. 
 
 The power supply of the Union Carbide Company 
 is transmitted to the works over cables laid in an 
 underground conduit. The company uses alternat- 
 ing current at 2,250 volts. At present approximately 
 15,000 h.p. is used. In the works the company has 
 installed ten 2,ooo-h.p. transformers, and two 5OO-h.p. 
 transformers, as well as about 40 motors ranging 
 from one to 200 h.p. 
 
 There are 72 furnaces, more than 50 of which are in 
 operation. These furnaces are circular in form and of
 
 Electrical Handbook 95
 
 9<5 The Niagara Falls 
 
 iron, each having a recessed rim, to the top of which are 
 bolted segmental wings. In the space thus formed two 
 carbons are placed at the top of a wheel. The charge 
 of lime and carbon there fed to them is fused by 
 the arc formed by the current passing from one car- 
 bon to the other. The furnace revolves slowly on 
 trunnions, making an entire turn once in forty-eight 
 hours, and the fluid carbide resulting from the action 
 of the arc, as above described, is thus taken out of 
 the field and solidifies. The ingots are taken from 
 the lower side of the wheel comparatively cold, and 
 from 24 to 30 inches thick. In diameter the furnaces 
 are about ten feet, each furnace taking about 2,000 
 amperes at no volts, or about 300 h.p., to operate 
 it. The output of each furnace is about one ton per 
 day. 
 
 The Niagara Falls plant of the Union Carbide 
 Company is known as Plant No. i, and was erected 
 in 1899. Plant No. 2 is located at Sault Ste. Marie, 
 Mich. The site at the "Soo" covers ten acres, and the 
 buildings are even larger than those at Niagara Falls, one 
 having a length of 725 feet with a width of 75 feet, 
 while another is 680 feet long and 75 feet wide. At 
 the "Soo'' the company has a contract for 20,000 
 h.p., and owns its own electric generating plant, as 
 well as a lime burning plant. An interesting point 
 in connection with the "Soo" works is that all the 
 coke and coal used is secured during the summer 
 season when lake navigation is open. 
 
 Calcium carbide and the great industry that has 
 developed through its manufacture owe their exist- 
 ence to an accidental discovery made in 1892 at an 
 aluminum works in Spray, N. C. At that time an effort 
 was being made to reduce lime by carbon in order to 
 make calcium, which it was hoped would prove 
 an aid in the reduction of aluminum. While these 
 experiments were in progress, it was discovered 
 that the carbide product gave off an inflammable 
 gas when it came in contact with water. An analy- 
 sis resulted in its recognition as calcium carbide, an
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 97 
 
 article of great commercial value. Later its manu- 
 facture was begun on a commercial scale, and to-day 
 the Union Carbide Company, which controls calcium 
 carbide manufacture in the United States, has ware- 
 houses in forty cities and its main offices in New 
 York City and Chicago. 
 
 Ingots of Calcium Carbide 
 Union Carbide Company 
 
 Calcium carbide furnishes upwards of five cubic 
 feet of acetylene gas per pound. This gas burns with 
 a soft, steady, brilliant flame, and its use is now very 
 extensive. It has won favor for town lighting and 
 is utilized in illuminating large buildings, houses, and 
 grounds. Its use in portable lamps is very extensive.
 
 9<? The Niagara Falls 
 
 BUFFALO AND NIAGARA FALLS ELECTRIC 
 LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY 
 
 THE Buffalo and Niagara Falls Electric Light 
 and Power Company acts as a distributing 
 agent of Niagara power in the city of Niagara 
 Falls, and supplies current for all commer- 
 cial and municipal lighting. The company's station 
 is located on Fourteenth street, near Buffalo avenue, 
 and receives through underground cables, 2-phase, 
 25-cycle current at a potential of 2,200 volts from 
 The Niagara Falls Power Company. Westinghouse 
 induction motors, direct connected to General Elec- 
 tric rotary field generators, transform this current 
 to single-phase, 2,200 volts, 125-cycles, for use in 
 both arc and incandescent lighting of the southern 
 and central portions of the city. The municipal 
 street lighting is accomplished by means of 7^2 am- 
 pere, series, alternating, arc lamps operated from 
 constant current transformers, and the commercial 
 lighting from single-phase, primary circuits which 
 are stepped down from 2,200 volts to 108 volts. Di- 
 rect current for power purposes is delivered at 500 
 volts, and is obtained from air-blast transformers in 
 connection with synchronous converters. 
 
 Three-phase, 25-cycle, alternating current for 
 power purposes will be distributed from this station 
 
 volts. 
 
 he company has a rotary field, single-phase 
 alternator directly connected to an I. P. Morris 
 turbine in the plant of The Niagara Falls Hydraulic 
 Power and Manufacturing Company. The output 
 of this generator is distributed single-phase at 2,200 
 volts for commercial lighting in the northern section 
 of the city.
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 99
 
 TOO The Niagara Falls 
 
 THE NIAGARA FALLS WATER WORKS 
 COMPANY 
 
 ALTHOUGH a small user of power, The Ni- 
 agara Falls Water Works Company is one of 
 the most important clients of The Niagara 
 Falls Power Company. The entire southerly 
 half of the city is supplied with water for domestic 
 and manufacturing purposes from the plant located 
 near the southerly end of the Power Company's 
 canal. This district includes all of the large manu- 
 facturing plants located in the upper power district. 
 As a reliable supply of water is essential to the pro- 
 cesses of many of these plants, it will be seen that 
 the importance of the water works is second only 
 to that of the power plant itself. Foreseeing the 
 necessity of a water supply other than that of the 
 municipal plant, which supplies the other end of 
 the city, The Niagara .Falls Power Company early 
 interested itself in the private plant, held a con- 
 trolling interest in it for a number of years, and sup- 
 plied all the necessary capital for extensions, but 
 after the mains had been extended so as to assure 
 a proper water supply for manufacturing purposes 
 and fire protection for all its tenant companies, the 
 Power Company sold the water works plant in 1903 
 to the Western New York Water Company of Buf- 
 falo, and the Power Company has no longer any 
 interest in the plant except as a tenant company. 
 
 A few mains had been laid in the southern half 
 of the village of Niagara Falls as early as 1877, but 
 it was not until 1892 that the main arteries were laid 
 and connected to a new pumping station, and to a 
 standpipe located at a high elevation. One of the 
 most important mains then laid was that extending 
 past the principal factory sites to the industrial 
 village then being built at Echota. The marvelous 
 growth of the city has necessitated numerous exten- 
 sions of the earlier system, until at the present time 
 the Water Works Company has nearly twenty-five
 
 Electrical Handbook 101 
 
 miles of mains, thus adding in no small degree to the 
 prosperity of industrial Niagara. 
 
 The growth of the pumping plant has been com- 
 mensurate with the demands brought upon it. Com- 
 mencing in 1892 with a small wooden building hous- 
 ing three 100 h. p. boilers and two 3,000,000 gallon 
 compound duplex steam pumps, a handsome brick 
 building 78 by 142 feet was erected in 1895-96. Realiz- 
 ing the necessity of furnishing pure and wholesome 
 water The Niagara Falls Water Works Company 
 installed in this building a mechanical nitration plant 
 of the Morrison-Jewell type, having a rated capacity 
 of 4,500,000 gallons per day, complete with all acces- 
 sories. Water taken from the canal of The Niagara 
 Falls Power Company is raised to the top of the 
 filters by centrifugal pumps, direct-connected to elec- 
 tric motors. After being filtered the water flows 
 to a clear water basin, from which it is taken to the 
 pump suction. 
 
 Finding the capacity of its pumping plant over- 
 taxed, and realizing the superiority of water to steam 
 as a motive power, the Water Works Company in 
 1900 installed in wheelpit No. I of The Niagara Falls 
 Power Company, two 6,000,000 gallon Riedler pump- 
 ing engines, direct-connected to 400 h. p. Pelton 
 water-wheels. These pumps are installed in cham- 
 bers 16 by 35 feet cut from the solid rock, the head 
 of water upon the wheels being about 120 feet. 
 Such an installation was somewhat novel, but has 
 proven entirely successful, requiring but a minimum 
 of repairs. As up to the present time the city has 
 no steam fire engines it was necessary that the pumps 
 should be capable of a sudden increase of pressure 
 on the mains in case of fire. This is accomplished 
 by providing each wheel with two nozzles, one of 
 which is ordinarily employed, while the other is used 
 only in case of fire. By this means the pressure can 
 be practically doubled in less than two minutes, or 
 before the fire department reaches the scene of the 
 fire. An unusual feature of these pumps is that they
 
 io2 The Niagara Falls 
 
 operate under a suction head of about 120 feet from 
 the main connected with the clear water basin at 
 the nitration plant. The loss in head due to the 
 location of the pumps in the wheelpit is, therefore, 
 only that due to the frictional losses in the pipes as 
 the water flows to and from the pumps. 
 
 To measure the water pumped, a 24-inch Venturi 
 meter has been installed. To this is attached the 
 first automatic recording device ever placed in com- 
 mercial service. This device indicates every ten 
 minutes the rate of pumping. The pumping plant 
 is of up-to-date construction in all respects and 
 corresponds with the industrial progress everywhere 
 apparent in the principal power centre of the country. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY 
 
 A SMALL portion of the water diverted from the 
 upper river by the Niagara Falls Power Com- 
 pany is used to operate the Niagara Falls Mill of 
 the International Paper Company, which is lo- 
 cated on a site reclaimed from the river west of Power 
 House No. i. This Company has built its own wheelpit, 
 and the discharge from its turbines reaches the main 
 tunnel through a lateral tunnel 7 feet in diameter and 600 
 feet long. 
 
 The International Paper Company was incorporated 
 under the laws of the State of New York' January 28, 
 1898. It acquired at the time of its incorporation almost 
 all the important mills which manufacture news paper in 
 the Eastern States, and, since its incorporation, it has ac- 
 quired by purchase several additional paper and pulp 
 mills, wood lands, water-powers and other properties. 
 Its manufacturing plants, water-powers and wood lands 
 are located in the States of New York, Maine, New 
 Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Michigan, and in 
 Canada. It also owns a controlling interest in the fol- 
 lowing companies : The Continental Paper Bag Com- 
 pany, Rumford Falls, Me., which has a capacity for mak- 
 ing upwards of 12,000,000 bags per day ; the St. Maurice
 
 Electrical Handbook 103
 
 104 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Lumber Company, which conducts wood operations and 
 operates saw mills in Canada, having a capacity of 30,- 
 000,000 feet of lumber per year, in addition to handling 
 pulp wood which is imported into the States for the use 
 of some of the mills of the company ; the American 
 Realty Company, which owns wood lands and conducts 
 wood operations in Maine ; the Michigan Pulp Wood 
 Company, which conducts wood operations in Michigan 
 and Central Canada, amounting to 27,000,000 feet per 
 year; the American Sulphite Pulp Company, which con- 
 trols the most valuable patents connected with the pro- 
 cess of making sulphite pulp ; and the Winnipiseogee 
 Lake Cotton and Woolen Company, which owns hy- 
 draulic developments controlling headwaters of the Mer- 
 rimac River. It also controls other companies owning 
 wood lands, water-powers and valuable franchises. 
 
 The authorized capital stock of the company is $25,- 
 000,000 preferred, of which $22406,700 is issued, and 
 $20,000,000 common, of which $17,442,800 is issued. 
 
 In considering the application of Niagara power to 
 paper-making it is most interesting and instructive to 
 note that before paper came into existence, many other 
 materials, among them stone, metals and clay, had been 
 used to preserve the records of the past. Then came 
 papyrus, the connecting link between such crude mate- 
 rials and what might properly be called "paper." Papy- 
 rus was the pith of an ancient Egyptian plant the bul- 
 rush of the Nile cut into strips or ribbons, laid side by 
 side crosswise, and pressed together; whereas the most 
 distinctive feature of what we know as paper is that the 
 original structure of the material from which it is made 
 is destroyed by making it into pulp, the fibres then being 
 reconstructed into sheet form. 
 
 It is probable that paper, as thus distinguished, orig- 
 inated in China about 150 A. D. Several centuries after- 
 wards the Arabs, during their conflicts with the Chinese, 
 learned the art of paper-making; from the Arabs in turn 
 that knowledge was gained by the Crusaders, and thus 
 the art was introduced into western Europe by way of 
 Syria, Palestine and Byzantium. On the other hand, the
 
 Electrical Handbook 105 
 
 Arabs, in their conquests of Spain, carried the practice 
 of paper-making to that country, so that it reached Eu- 
 rope through two avenues. France first learned to make 
 paper in 1189 A. D., and England not until two or three 
 hundred years later. 
 
 Up to the beginning of the present century the method 
 of making paper had been practically the same the world 
 over and the same as practiced originally by the Chinese, 
 fibrous materials being beaten into a pulp, which, mixed 
 with water, was moulded into sheets, all by direct manual 
 labor; but in 1804, a machine, which had been invented 
 in France a few years before, was put into successful op- 
 eration in England. The machine bears the name, to 
 this day, of the original makers, "Fourdrinier," not that 
 of the inventor, Roberts. 
 
 This machine multiplied the productive capacity of 
 labor a thousandfold, and produced a continuous web of 
 paper instead of single sheets. Fundamentally, the pro- 
 cess to-day is the same as it has been for the past cent- 
 ury, although great improvements have been made in the 
 machinery, very radical changes in the raw material and 
 vast progress in the rapidity and scale of manufacture. 
 
 Paper, like all other fabrics, is divided into different 
 classes, depending mainly upon the use to which it is put. 
 Broadly speaking, paper is used for three purposes ; writ- 
 ing, printing, and mechanical, such as wrapping. Print- 
 ing paper is the most important class. This may be fur- 
 ther divided into paper for printing newspaper and paper 
 for printing books and other publications, although there 
 is no hard and fast line between the two grades. The 
 newspapers consume one-quarter of all the paper manu- 
 factured in this country. News paper is the principal 
 product of the International Paper Company and the ex- 
 clusive product of its Niagara Falls mill. 
 
 Uritil the last half century, practically all kinds of 
 paper had been made from rags ; but since then, various 
 inventions have led to the almost complete substitution 
 of wood fibres in the making of many grades, especially 
 news paper. These inventions related to the processes 
 by which vegetable fibrous substances from their natural
 
 106 The Niagara Falls 
 
 state are transformed into pulp. The processes are me- 
 chanical and chemical. 
 
 The mechanical process consists essentially in disin- 
 tegrating wood by grinding; thereby the whole structure 
 of the wood, except the bark, is reduced to pulp. 
 
 The chemical process which is used in making news 
 paper is known as the "sulphite" process, and consists of 
 treating wood with a solution of sulphurous acid in 
 water, heated in a closed vessel under pressure sufficient 
 to retain the acid gas, until the inter-cellular matter is 
 dissolved, leaving the fibres intact. 
 
 Mechanical or ground wood pulp, although invented 
 in Germany in 1844, was first made by the present pro- 
 cess in this country in 1867, at Stockbridge, Mass. The 
 sulphite process was invented in America in 1867, and the 
 first sulphite pulp made in the United States was made 
 in 1884 at Providence, R. I. Pulp prepared in these two 
 ways is the basis of most of the news paper made in this 
 country. 
 
 Paper was made in America first in 1690 at German- 
 town, Pa., by William Rittenhouse. To-day the United 
 States manufactures more news paper, as well as more 
 paper in general, than any other country in the world, 
 and also more per capita, which is of much significance, 
 since it is said, "The consumption of paper is the meas- 
 ure of a people's culture." 
 
 There are in operation in the United States 1,178 
 paper and pulp mills, and their annual output of paper is 
 about 2,500,000 tons, which is estimated to be worth upon 
 the market not less than $200,000,000. It may aid to a 
 conception of what this means to say that the quantity 
 of paper produced annually in the United States is 400.- 
 ooo tons more than the annual production of cotton in 
 the United States and four times the annual consump- 
 tion, being equal to the annual consumption in the United 
 States of all kinds of fibres, including cotton, wool, jute, 
 flax. etc. 
 
 Regarded as a whole, the mills of the International 
 Paper Company balance each other so that any lack in 
 one respect at one mill is offset by a corresponding ad-
 
 Electrical Handbook 107 
 
 vantage at another. The properties of the company, 
 however, are so scattered that it is difficult to get a com- 
 prehensive idea of them or to appreciate their extent. It 
 may be well to describe them as though they were all 
 consolidated into one property ; in other words, to imag- 
 ine a composite picture of them all and, where possible, 
 to reduce them to the still more concrete form of statis- 
 tics. As in other kinds of manufacturing, it is essential 
 that paper mills should be located, not only with refer- 
 ence to cheap power and labor, but near the source of 
 the principal materials used. An outline sketch of news 
 paper-making will serve to connect these facts. 
 
 As wood is the most important component of news 
 paper, it will be interesting to consider the resources of 
 the company in respect to that material. It comes first 
 from the lands which the company owns in fee, which 
 let us regard as one tract of forest containing nearly 
 900,000 acres. Another source is lands, the timber on 
 which has been sold to the company under contracts ex- 
 tending over long terms. These contracts cover the 
 wood upon a tract of about 200,000 acres. A third source 
 is wood lands in Canada, on which the company has the 
 exclusive right to operate. These amount to about 
 1,730,000 acres. All these three sources together are 
 equivalent to a tract one mile wide and about 4,000 miles 
 long, which would reach from Newfoundland to New 
 York, and thence to San Francisco. In addition the com- 
 pany buys a large portion of its supply in the open mar- 
 ket, thus conserving its own resources. The wood is 
 conveyed to the mills either by driving in the river or by 
 rail. If shipped by rail, the annual supply would fill 
 63,500 freight cars, making a train 480 miles long. 
 
 Imagine a mammoth paper mill operated by 150,000 
 horse power, which would be 45,000 horse power more 
 than is developed in the two power houses of the Niagara 
 Falls Power Company. This amount of energy rented 
 at $18 per year for a twelve-hour day would represent a 
 rental of $5,400,000, or ten per cent, on $54,000,000. Then 
 add to this picture another 100,000 horse power, repre- 
 senting the undeveloped water-powers of the company,
 
 io8 The Niagara Falls 
 
 held in reserve, which if developed would represent an 
 additional asset of $36,000,000. Stretching away from 
 the mill on either side would be 6,300 acres of farm land 
 which the company now possesses along the banks of va- 
 rious rivers to give flowage and other riparian rights. 
 
 The principal mill buildings, built of brick, stone and 
 iron, and of the most substantial construction, would 
 cover an area equal to that between Forty-second street 
 and Central Park, New York City, from Fifth to Sixth 
 avenues, in the same city, and surrounding them would 
 be many stores, houses and miscellaneous buildings. 
 Hundreds of dwellings and tenements would be neces- 
 sary to complete the picture, all belonging to the com- 
 pany. 
 
 The power to operate this wonderful mill would be 
 derived from 702 water wheels, ranging from 80 to 1,300 
 horse power each. In addition to this there would be a 
 steam power plant consisting of a battery of 295 boilers. 
 These boilers consume 443,000 tons of coal per year, and 
 produce steam for driving 196 steam engines, which de- 
 velop 26,511 horse power. These, however, require not 
 more than fifteen per cent, of the steam developed, the 
 greater part being used for drying the paper. For every 
 pound of paper made two and a half pounds of water 
 must be raised from normal temperature to the point of 
 evaporation, and this would amount to evaporating nearly 
 4,000 tons of water every twenty-four hours. Steam is 
 also used for cooking the wood in the sulphite digesters, 
 for heating the plants during the winter and for various 
 minor purposes. 
 
 Let us return to the point where the wood is brought 
 into the mill, both for making ground wood and sulphite. 
 We see the logs sawed into convenient lengths. The 
 bark is then removed by machines called "barkers," which 
 are rapidly revolving disks having many radial knives. 
 If arranged in a single row, with the customary space 
 between them, these "barkers" would extend 1,700 feet. 
 Just here the preparation of the wood differs, according 
 as it is intended for the ground wood mill or the sulphite 
 mill. If for the former, the wood goes directly to the
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 109 
 
 mill after passing through some minor processes ; if for 
 the latter, it is introduced to the "chippers," which con- 
 sist of revolving knives set at such an angle that they cut 
 the wood into small chips. The chips are then conveyed 
 mechanically to storage bins, ready for the digesters. 
 
 Entering the ground wood pulp mill we see an array 
 of 416 pulp "grinders," attached directly to the shafts of 
 the water wheels, and requiring a room one mile long if 
 arranged one grinder on a shaft. These grinders on an 
 
 Grinder and Screen Room 
 The International Paper Company 
 
 average require 300 horse power each, making a total of 
 124,800 horse power. By these grinders the wood is 
 ground into pulp, which, mixed with water, passes on to 
 the "screens," numbering 765. The screening or strain- 
 ing process is to remove the coarse pieces of wood. After 
 being screened, the pulp, amounting to 1,100 tons every 
 twenty-four hours, either passes to the presses, by which 
 a greater part of the water is extracted; or the liquid 
 pulp is pumped into storage tanks, ready for mixing with 
 the other ingredients of the paper.
 
 no 
 
 The X i a g a r a Falls 
 
 A visit to the sulphite mill will be most interesting. 
 In the sulphur storehouse there are frequently stored 
 4,500 tons of sulphur or brimstone. This sulphur is 
 burned in ovens at the rate of 20,000 tons a year, and the 
 fumes are combined with other chemicals to produce the 
 liquor in which the wood is cooked. The other principal 
 ingredient of the liquor is lime. Of lime about 20,000 
 tons are used every year. The lime, water and sulphur 
 fumes are mingled and make sulphurous acid, which is 
 
 Digesters 
 The International Paper Company 
 
 stored in tanks in readiness for use in the process of 
 cooking the wood. From these tanks the liquor is 
 drawn to the "digesters," which are huge steel boiler-like 
 structures standing on end, and lined in various ways 
 with cement and lead so as to be impervious to acid and 
 to withstand steam pressure. There are fifty-eight of 
 these, ranging in height from twenty-seven to forty- 
 seven feet, with a total cubical contents of 780,000 gal- 
 lons.
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 in 
 
 Every nine hours on the average, these digesters are 
 filled with chips and sulphite liquor and the contents are 
 emptied at like intervals, the wood having been reduced 
 to a pulpy state by the process of cooking. This sub- 
 stance is screened and pressed in a manner similar to 
 that used in treating the ground wood. From the presses 
 415 tons of sulphite pulp are taken off every twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 The next step in the process takes us into the paper 
 
 Paper Machine 
 The International Paper Company 
 
 mill, where the ingredients of paper are assembled. In 
 an immense room there are 282 beating engines of an 
 average capacity of 3,200 gallons. In these are mixed 
 the ground wood, sulphite pulp and various chemicals. 
 It requires 100 tons of concentrated coloring matter, 
 10,500 barrels of rosin and 4,628 tons of alum per year to 
 color and "size" the product of the International Paper 
 Company. 
 
 This stock, in a liquid form, finally reaches in paper
 
 ii2 The Niagara Falls 
 
 machines, which range in length from 125 to 225 feet, and 
 from which, day and night, is reeled off a total of 1,600 to 
 1,700 tons of paper in twenty-four hours. These paper 
 machines are massive in construction, but of the finest 
 adjustment. If made into a strip the width of the aver- 
 age daily newspaper, this daily output of the combined 
 mills of this company would form a ribbon long enough 
 to encircle the earth. 
 
 As it comes from the machines, the paper is mostly 
 finished or wrapped in the form of rolls, varying in 
 weight from 300 to 1,500 pounds each. Some of the 
 product is cut into sheets and wrapped into bundles. 
 Merely to wrap the paper requires annually more than 
 8,oco tons of wrappers, which are made by the company. 
 
 It is well understood that in supplying the daily pa- 
 pers all over the world, their fluctuating demands should 
 be responded to promptly, and therefore it is necessary to 
 carry in store at the mills, on an average, 15,000 tons of 
 paper in addition to the stock carried at all important 
 points of delivery, which is even a larger quantity. To 
 get to market in one train the total output of paper dur- 
 ing one year, which amounts to 450,000 tons, would re- 
 quire 22,500 cars. 
 
 It is of this vast and thoroughly organized business 
 that the big paper mill of Niagara Falls is an important 
 factor. When the development of the Niagara Falls 
 Power Company was commenced, the river washed the 
 site where the mill now stands, but in response to the 
 demands of industry the river was crowded back to make 
 room for this plant. The buildings are all of brick, some 
 two stories and some three stories high. Five acres of 
 ground are covered, and to the west of the mill there is a 
 spacious wood yard. 
 
 The wheelpit of the mill is 28 feet wide, 56 feet long 
 and 165 feet deep. In it are installed six water-wheels, 
 three of which have an individual capacity of 1,100 horse 
 power, while each of the other three develops 1,300 horse 
 power, making the total power of the mill over 7,000 
 horse power. The mill has six paper machines, five of 
 which are 120 inches wide, and the sixth 136 inches wide.
 
 Electrical Handbook 7/3 
 
 The plant is devoted to the manufacture of news paper, 
 the output being 140 tons a day. Of ground wood 65 
 tons are made daily and a further capacity is projected. 
 There is also a daily output of 42 tons of sulphite. 
 
 In addition to the water power referred to, the mill 
 has a steam plant of 2,600 horse power, which is used 
 mainly for drying purposes. It has its own electric light 
 installation in two 6oo-horse-power electric generators, 
 while for operating its wood conveyors two 3O-horse- 
 power motors are used. Possibly there is no more inter- 
 
 Press Room 
 The International Paper Company 
 
 esting feature about Niagara and its paper mills than the 
 manner in which this great mill receives its wood sup- 
 ply. The wood is brought down the lakes from Brimley, 
 Mich., on barges, and unloaded in a boom yard on Grand 
 Island, two miles above the mill. The company has a 
 tug and a tow boom, and by this means the wood is 
 brought from the island to the mainland near Schlosser 
 Dock, where it is floated into a boom that runs parallel 
 with the shore, along the lands of the Niagara Falls 
 Power Company, to a point back of the mill, the current 
 carrying it down stream. Near the entrance to the inlet
 
 ii4 The Niagara Falls 
 
 canal it is placed on a log conveyor, which carries it to 
 the company's yard, where distribution is made by means 
 of three lateral conveyors, all operated by electric power. 
 The capacity of the wood yard is about 30,000 cords, 
 which supply carries the mill through the winter months. 
 
 ELECTRICAL LEAD REDUCTION COMPANY 
 
 ANEW process for the reduction of lead by 
 electricity, under patents of P. G. Salom, has 
 been conducted at Niagara Falls during the 
 past three years by the Electrical Lead Re- 
 duction Company. 
 
 The chief merits of the invention are the reduced 
 cost of production of pure lead, for all the uses for 
 which it is adapted, and the rapid and economical 
 conversion of the same into its various commercial 
 forms. The process as now conducted is as follows: 
 The ore, after having been carefully washed, to 
 remove as far as possible the dirt and loose gangue, 
 is ground up into fine powder, of 40 or 50 mesh, and 
 is fed into large circular cells with rotating bottoms. 
 As the bottom slowly revolves, the ore is subjected 
 to a current of electricity, and by the time it has 
 reached the point of entry is thoroughly reduced to 
 metallic spongy lead and is removed from the cell 
 through an opening in the top, from time to time as it 
 accumulates, by a scraper resting on the bottom of the cell. 
 Each cell has a capacity of 200 pounds of sponge 
 a day. The process is continuous a uniform quantity 
 of ore being charged per hour. The operation of the cell 
 is entirely automatic. The cells are placed in rows of 
 seventeen or more each, with a motion rod or bar be- 
 tween them, to which is fastened from each cell a lever 
 actuating a pawl and ratchet, with suitable gear wheels, 
 by means of which the cell is rotated at the speed 
 desired the only manual labor employed at present, 
 being in charging the cells with the raw ore, and 
 in taking out the spongy lead obtained by the process 
 of reduction. The time required for reduction is 
 about one and one-half hours.
 
 Electrical Handbook 115 
 
 The process of charging the ore can readily be 
 accomplished automatically, when a sufficient num- 
 ber of cells are in operation to make it desirable to 
 do so. To operate 100 cells, capable of producing 200 
 Ibs each of lead sponge per day, only three men are 
 required. As the operation, however, is continuous, 
 day and night, two shifts per day are required. 
 
 The sponge is readily convertible into any of the 
 lead compounds, such as litharge, red lead, white 
 lead, etc., and in the space of a few hours. The 
 
 company's product up to the present time has been 
 litharge, for which it has found a ready market for 
 every pound manufactured. The chief value of the 
 sponge is in the manufacture of white lead and for stor- 
 age batteries. 
 
 The electrical equipment consists of two 3OO-h.p. 
 Westinghouse Type "C" induction motors, con- 
 nected direct to two 25O-kw. direct current, no-volt 
 generators. The induction motors take current 
 direct from the 2,2OO-volt, 2-phase circuits of The 
 Niagara Falls Power Company.
 
 n6 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook 117 
 
 INTERNATIONAL ACHESON GRAPHITE COM- 
 PANY 
 
 IN the plant of the International Acheson 
 Graphite Company is found one of the few 
 successful duplications of nature's processes. 
 Graphite and its many important uses have 
 been known for many ages, but it is only during 
 the last few years that it has been produced arti- 
 ficially. The company started commercial work on 
 a small scale in the year 1898 and contracted for 500 
 h. p. with The Niagara Falls Power Company. This 
 was soon increased to 1,000 h. p., and arrangements 
 are now being made for extensive additions to the 
 plant and for a still further increase to 2,000 h. p. 
 in the power consumed. With this increase several 
 thousand tons of artificial graphite will be manu- 
 factured each year. 
 
 In 1891, Mr. E. G. Acheson was experimenting on 
 the production of a crystalline form of carbon by heat- 
 ing a mixture of clay and coke in an electric furnace. 
 These experiments resulted in the discovery of a new 
 compound of carbon and silicon, now well known as 
 the celebrated abrasive carborundum. While manu- 
 facturing this in the electric furnace, Mr. Acheson 
 frequently found in the latter a form of carbon having 
 all the properties of graphite, and investigation proved 
 that this was formed by the decomposition of the car- 
 bide of silicon. It requires a very high temperature to 
 form carbide of silicon, but if the temperature is raised 
 still higher the compound is broken up into its ele- 
 ments, the silicon being driven off as a vapor and the 
 carbon left behind as pure graphite. 
 
 Having developed the manufacture of carbide of 
 silicon, Mr. Acheson next took up the problem of the 
 commercial manufacture of graphite from amorphous 
 carbon. The fact that graphite is formed by the de- 
 composition of carbide of silicon suggested that other 
 carbides might also yield graphite when decomposed 
 by raising them to a high temperature. This inference 
 proved to be correct, for Mr. Acheson found that he
 
 n8 The Niagara Falls 
 
 could produce graphite from a great number of car- 
 bides, such as the carbides of aluminum, manganese, 
 iron, etc. But in most carbides the weight of the 
 carbide-forming element is much greater than that of 
 the carbon ; for example, carbide of silicon contains 
 70 per cent, of carbide-forming material, i. e., silicon, 
 therefore from 100 pounds of that carbide there can be 
 produced only thirty pounds of graphite, and sufficient 
 heat energy to vaporize seventy pounds of silicon is 
 required. However, as the investigation progressed it 
 was found that if a relatively small amount of the 
 carbide-forming material was intimately mixed with 
 the amorphous carbon, the latter was converted into 
 graphite, this being explained by the hypothesis of a 
 catalytic or contact action. 
 
 The first use for Acheson Graphite was found in 
 the manufacture of electrodes for electrolytic and 
 electro-metallurgical work. These are made up like 
 an ordinary carbon, such as is used in arc lights, but 
 a certain amount of carbide-forming substance is added. 
 When the electrode is heated in the electric furnace 
 the carbide-forming element reacts with the carbon, 
 forming a carbide, and at a still higher temperature 
 is driven off, leaving the electrode in the form of 
 perfectly pure graphite. 
 
 Such articles, known as Acheson Graphite Elec- 
 trodes, are proving invaluable in practically all lines 
 of electrochemical work on account of their purity, 
 high electrical conductivity, uniformity and resist- 
 ance to oxidizing and disintegrating action. The 
 density is 2.25 and the specific electrical resistance 
 Sooxio- 8 ohm per cubic centimetre as against 4,ooox 
 IO-* for the ordinary amorphous carbon. In such 
 processes as the decomposition of sodium chloride 
 solutions in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic 
 soda, they have a life from four to eight times that 
 of even the best retort carbon. A further and dis- 
 tinct advantage not possessed by any other form of 
 carbon material is the ease with which the graphite 
 articles can be machined. Rods and slabs can be
 
 Electrical Handbook 119 
 
 assembled into economical anode forms, and in elec- 
 tric furnace work threaded joints can be made be- 
 tween electrodes and these electrodes fed into the 
 furnace one after the other as consumed. The 
 graphite articles are also used in other lines of 
 electrical work, such as for motor and generator 
 brushes, sliding contacts, plungers for dash-pots and 
 circuit-breaker terminals. For this latter purpose 
 they possess peculiar non-arcing properties. 
 
 In the Acheson process of making carbide of sili- 
 con, the furnace is heated by passing an electric cur- 
 rent through a core of granular coke. After the 
 furnace has been operated, many of the grains of 
 coke are found to consist of an excellent grade of 
 graphite; and examination has shown that its forma- 
 tion is dependent on the ash contained in the original 
 coke. The graphite, however, is by no means uni- 
 form, as might be expected, as the distribution of 
 the carbide-forming ash is irregular. But the pro- 
 duction of this graphite suggested the idea that a 
 highly satisfactory graphite might be obtained if 
 a carbonaceous material containing a suitable, uni- 
 formly distributed ash could be found. With this 
 object in view, Mr. Acheson made numerous ex- 
 periments on various carbonaceous materials, and 
 found that he could produce the most generally 
 useful graphite from anthracite coal. It was also found 
 that petroleum coke yielded a very satisfactory graphite 
 for certain purposes. 
 
 The furnaces used for the conversion of anthracite 
 coal into graphite are in the form of long, narrow 
 troughs built of fire brick and lined with some suit- 
 able refractory material. At each end of the trough 
 is a terminal built of large carbon rods, to which 'are 
 connected the cables conveying the current. The trough 
 is filled with anthracite coal, in which is bedded a 
 carbon rod to make electrical connection between the 
 terminals. Anthracite coal is a very poor conductor 
 of electricity, hence the necessity for this rod. A cur- 
 rent developing a thousand horse-power is used in
 
 120 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook 121 
 
 operating one of these furnaces, although larger fur- 
 naces are now being installed with a capacity of 2,000 
 h. p. each. The temperature to which the coal is 
 raised before conversion into graphite is very high. 
 Some notion of the temperature may be obtained from 
 the observation of the deposit of silica on the walls 
 of the furnaces. During the operation the silica of 
 the ash carried by the anthracite coal is reduced and 
 the silicon combines with carbon to form silicon car- 
 bide; eventually this is decomposed and the silicon 
 is driven to the outside of the furnace in the form of 
 incandescent vapor, which burns in the air, depositing 
 silica as a fine, white powder on the brick walls. In 
 the same way other constituents of the ash, such as 
 iron and aluminum, are vaporized and dissipated. 
 
 When the furnace has cooled the graphite is re- 
 moved, taken to a mill, where it is crushed, and finally 
 separated into the sizes necessary for the various uses 
 to which graphite is put. Thus, graphite used for a 
 pigment is ground to an impalpable powder, while that 
 used for crucibles is in the form of a coarse grain or 
 flake. In the case of natural graphites, when a pure 
 product is desired, recourse must be had to a costly 
 and troublesome process of purification by acids and 
 washing; but since Acheson graphite is produced at 
 a temperature where all bodies but carbon are vaporized, 
 it follows that its purity depends on the length of time 
 for which it has been heated. For commercial pur- 
 poses it is customary to leave only from one to ten 
 per cent, of impurities in the graphite. It is possible 
 to make it practically chemically pure, for graphite 
 containing only three parts of ash in 10,000 Iris been 
 obtained ; but for ordinary commercial purposes such a 
 high degree of purity is unnecessary, and of course 
 such a pure graphite is more expensive than the lower 
 grades. When the graphite is burnt, all the impuri- 
 ties are found in the residual ash, which consists 
 principally of silicon, iron and aluminum, the first 
 predominating. 
 
 One of the most valuable applications of Acheson
 
 122 The Niagara Falls 
 
 graphite is found in the manufacture of protective 
 coatings for structural iron and steel, and large quan- 
 tities are now used for this purpose, for which its 
 qualities of purity, uniformity and chemical inertness 
 make it especially valuable. The only impurities present 
 are silicon carbide one of the most chemically inert 
 bodies known and traces of silica, iron oxide and 
 alumina. Since Acheson graphite is made at a tem- 
 perature at which all but the most stable chemical 
 compounds cease to exist, all decomposable bodies 
 are destroyed. In its use there is absolute control 
 over all three elements entering into the manufac- 
 ture of a high grade protective coating, viz.: The 
 oil or medium, the pigment and the drier. The drier 
 can be selected to meet the requirements of each 
 particular case, and the degree of drying can be 
 regulated at will. Most natural graphites, or so- 
 called graphite pigments, are either by-products or 
 low grade ores, in both cases too impure for other 
 purposes. They vary considerably in quality, and have 
 to be mixed with lampblack or high grade graphite 
 in order that some semblance of uniformity may be 
 maintained. Acheson graphite is standard and has 
 fully proved its superiority over the natural graphites 
 for the protection of buildings, bridges, cars, vessels, 
 or in fact every form of structural iron and steel. 
 
 Acheson graphite is also used in lubricating work 
 and as foundry facings. In the electrical arts it has 
 values peculiar to itself. There is no other form of 
 carbon, either amorphous or graphitic, which possesses 
 in the same degree high electrical conductivity, purity, 
 uniformity and inert characteristics. These properties 
 are all absolutely necessary in the material to be used as 
 the filler in dry batteries. The high conductivity 
 gives a battery of low internal resistance and high 
 current capacity; the purity and inert characteristics 
 give one free from deterioration and local chemical 
 action between the graphite and the solution used as 
 electrolyte; and the uniformity gives one whose effi- 
 ciency and reliability of action can be guaranteed.
 
 Electrical Handbook 123 
 
 Acheson Graphite is also used for electrotyping purposes 
 and is added to the carbon compounds from which 
 motor brushes are manufactured, not only increas- 
 ing the electrical conductivity of the brush, but giv- 
 ing self-lubricating properties as well. 
 
 Acheson graphite is a manufactured product pos- 
 sessing all the value, with none of the inherent dis- 
 advantages, of the natural graphites. Over all stages 
 of its manufacture there is absolute control. By the 
 choice of different forms of raw materials, and by the 
 proper application of the principles involved in its 
 manufacture, different grades can be made to meet the 
 requirements of different lines of work. All grades are 
 pure, uniform and inert, but in other characteristics 
 each grade is made to fulfill most satisfactorily the con- 
 ditions of the work in which it is to be used. 
 
 ROBERTS CHEMICAL COMPANY 
 
 THE Roberts Chemical Company manufactures 
 high grade caustic potash and chemically pure 
 muriatic acid. The process is purely electrolytic, 
 and consists in electrolyzing muriate of potash in 
 a diaphragm cell. On the cathode side of the parti- 
 tion liquid potash and hydrogen gas are produced, 
 while the anode side gives off chlorine gas. A con- 
 siderable quantity of the potash is sold in the liquid 
 form, but most of it is concentrated and then evap- 
 orated in kettles to the solid form. In this form 
 it is put up in iron drums. The liquid potash is 
 shipped in carboys or iron tanks. 
 
 Muriatic acid is produced by the chemical combi- 
 nation of the hydrogen and chlorine gases. The 
 muriatic acid fumes thus formed are absorbed by 
 distilled water, producing muriatic acid of excep- 
 tional purity. The muriate of potash from which 
 these products are manufactured is imported from 
 Germany, and is also used in the manufacture of 
 chloride of potash, fertilizers, and a number of other 
 products.
 
 124 The Niagara Falls 
 
 The use of potash in manufacturing soaps is 
 similar to that of caustic soda, but since it sells 
 at from three to four times the price of caustic 
 soda, it is not used when the latter can be sub- 
 stituted. Caustic soda makes hard soaps; whereas 
 caustic potash makes a soft soap. All the high 
 grade toilet soaps contain a large quantity of 
 potash, and practically all of the soaps used for 
 washing silks and woolens must be made of potash, 
 since soaps made with caustic soda deteriorate the 
 fibre of such fabrics. 
 
 Caustic potash is very extensively used by the 
 electro-plating trade for removing grease from the 
 work before it is plated. The soft soap formed with 
 the grease by potash is much more readily dissolved 
 than hard soap would be, with the result that the 
 work is cleaned much more quickly and much more 
 thoroughly than if caustic soda was used. 
 
 Muriatic acid is largely used by chemical labora- 
 tories and by manufacturing chemists in the pro- 
 duction of a number of other chemicals. 
 
 THE FRANCIS HOOK AND EYE AND 
 FASTENER COMPANY 
 
 THE Francis Hook and Eye and Fastener 
 Company, located upon the lands of The Ni- 
 agara Falls Power Company, manufactures 
 snap fasteners of an improved type for use 
 on gloves, purses, umbrellas, optical goods, ladies' 
 garments, and on the many other articles to which 
 snap buttons are applicable. These fasteners are pat- 
 ented. The machinery and processes used in their 
 production are of such a nature as to require much 
 skill and care in handling. 
 
 The Francis machines were constructed to a large 
 extent in the machine shop of the company, where 
 new machines are constantly being built and old ones 
 improved.
 
 Electrical Handbook 125
 
 126 The Niagara Falls 
 
 All the machinery is operated by electric power, 
 derived from 550-volt direct current motors. 
 
 The Francis plant is of the most approved factory 
 construction, having been built especially for the 
 purposes of the company after years of experience 
 in a smaller building. 
 
 NORTON EMERY WHEEL COMPANY 
 
 THE Niagara Falls Works of the Norton 
 Emery Wheel Company are devoted ex- 
 clusively to the manufacture of the abrasive, 
 "alundum." This abrasive is manufactured 
 by a patented, electrical-furnace process and is 
 shipped to the main works of the company at 
 Worcester, Massachusetts, where it is prepared for 
 grinding wheels, stones, grains, and other abrasive 
 articles. 
 
 This electrical-furnace plant was started in 1901, 
 being located at Niagara Falls to secure the advantage 
 of electric power. The factory has been enlarged sev- 
 eral times and additional furnaces and other ap- 
 paratus have been installed. 
 
 Alundum is an electrically produced crystal- 
 line oxide of aluminum. In nature the crystalline 
 oxide of aluminum occurs in its purer forms as the 
 ruby and sapphire, and in its more common form as 
 corundum. Corundum is the hardest natural product 
 known except the diamond, but is not as hard as 
 alundum. 
 
 The superiority of alundum in hardness and 
 toughness is accounted for in the process of manu- 
 facture by the peculiar conditions of its crystalliza- 
 tion in the electric furnace, and by the control of its 
 purity and uniformity. This electrically produced 
 corundum, while it resembles natural corundum in 
 many respects, is much superior in hardness and 
 toughness. 
 
 Bauxite, the raw material from which alundum 
 is made, is an amorphous hydrate of aluminum, asso- 
 ciated with certain impurities which are removed in
 
 Electrical Handbook 127 
 
 the process of manufacturing alundum. Bauxite 
 was originally found at Baux, France, from which it 
 derives its name, but purer forms are now found in 
 Georgia and Arkansas. 
 
 This hydrate is reduced to an oxide, melted in 
 electric furnaces of special design, the impurities 
 removed, and large pigs of solid alundum pro- 
 duced of most beautiful coloring and crystalline structure. 
 
 The process of transforming bauxite into a pure, 
 crystalline abrasive, was invented by Charles B. 
 
 Norton Emery Wheel Company 
 
 Jacobs, of New York City, and is protected by United 
 States and foreign patents, which are controlled 
 exclusively by the Norton Emery Wheel Company. 
 
 Six large electric furnaces are installed, together 
 with other apparatus for carrying out the process. 
 
 A large crushing and grading mill for crushing 
 and grading alundum is located at Worcester, 
 Mass., where it is manufactured into abrasive wheels, 
 stones and other articles. Alundum is also used 
 to a large extent on abrasive paper, for grinding glass 
 and for polishing, in all of which lines it has marked 
 advantages.
 
 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook 129 
 
 THE NATURAL FOOD COMPANY 
 
 THE Natural Food Company manufactures the 
 products known as Shredded Wheat Biscuit 
 and Triscuit. In the manufacture of "Tris- 
 cuit," the first commercial use of electricity 
 for baking has been made. 
 
 The factory of The Natural Food Company is 
 situated on Buffalo avenue, between Fourth and 
 Sixth streets, occupying an entire block. This loca- 
 tion is in the heart of the residence section of the 
 city. It has a frontage of 900 feet on the Niagara 
 River and adjoins the State Reservation, so that 
 other manufacturing industries cannot encroach upon 
 the plant. The absolute cleanliness in surroundings, 
 required in the process of the manufacture of a pure 
 food, is thus secured. The building is 466 feet long 
 by 66 feet deep, and consists of a main building with 
 four connecting wings. 
 
 Upon entering the building one steps directly into 
 a large foyer or reception hall, where guides are at 
 hand for the purpose of conducting parties through 
 the plant. Just off the foyer are two electric ele- 
 vators used for conveying visitors to the roof garden, 
 or observatory, from which a magnificent view of 
 the upper rapids and of the industrial section of the 
 city ma} r be obtained. 
 
 The first process of the manufacture is seen in 
 the cleaning room. This process is that of cleaning 
 the wheat as it is received from the fields, and con- 
 sists of twenty-six steps, by means of which fourteen 
 foreign substances are removed from the grain, 
 which is thus rendered thoroughly clean and ready 
 for the cooking and shredding processes. 
 
 From the cleaning room the visitor is conducted 
 to the gallery of the girls' dining room, where a 
 substantial luncheon is provided daily, at the ex- 
 pense of the company, for the girls in its employ. 
 
 From the dining room, one enters the sealing 
 room, in which is conducted the last step in the 
 process of manufacture. The sealing is done by a
 
 The Niagara Falls
 
 Electrical Handbook 137 
 
 very ingenious machine, which receives the packages 
 conveyed automatically from the packing tables on 
 the second floor, and which closes and in turn seals 
 each individual package. After this operation the 
 packages are placed in cases containing twenty-five 
 or fifty cartons each, and are then ready for shipment. 
 
 The visitor is next brought to the auditorium, 
 which has a seating capacity of 1,080, and is used 
 for concerts, lectures and other entertainments. 
 The use of this hall is given free to any convention 
 desiring to hold its sessions at Niagara. The hall 
 is well equipped and has adjoining toilet rooms and 
 committee rooms. 
 
 From the auditorium one passes to the third floor 
 of the building, where the wheat is exposed in large 
 open trays undergoing the "curing process,", which 
 consists merely of drying the wheat to bring it to 
 the proper consistency for shredding. This is the 
 third step in the process of manufacture, the wheat 
 having been previously "cooked" for thirty-five min- 
 utes by steaming in revolving wire kettles located 
 upon the sixth floor. After the wheat has reached 
 the proper consistency, it is "spouted" to the shred- 
 ding floor directly beneath. 
 
 Adjoining the curing room is the space devoted 
 to the manufacture of "Triscuit," which is made and 
 baked by electricity. Its manufacture is identical 
 with that of Shredded Wheat Biscuit, with the ex- 
 ception of the baking. The wheat is spun into 
 shreds by mechanical process and is conveyed by an 
 endless belt to ovens, each consisting of a series of 
 electric stoves, each link of which is somewhat simi- 
 lar to an ordinary waffle iron, and contains 127 elec- 
 trical points. The shreds are deposited automat- 
 ically upon the series of links, which are met from 
 above by another series of links which, pressing 
 upon the product, forms and bakes the wafer known 
 as "Triscuit." Three hundred and fifty horse-power 
 is used in the operation of each of the electrical 
 ovens. The triscuit are automatically deposited on
 
 I 3 2 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 carriers and taken to the packing tables, where, for 
 the only time, they are touched by hand, when they 
 are placed in cartons by neatly attired girls. 
 
 From the triscuit room one descends to the sec- 
 ond floor, where the Shredded Wheat Biscuit are 
 prepared. The wheat ''spouted" from the curing 
 room is distributed automatically to a series of 
 thirty-six pairs of rolls, technically known as "shred- 
 
 Electric Triscuit Oven 
 The Natural Food Company 
 
 ders." The shredder consists of a corrugated roll 
 four inches wide, with twenty corrugations to the 
 inch. This corrugated roll "antagonizes"' a smooth 
 roll, and the wheat being pressed between is spun 
 into shreds and deposited on an endless belt directly 
 beneath it. Each shredder in turn deposits a layer 
 of shreds upon this belt, until the proper thickness 
 is reached. From the shredding machine the shreds 
 pass to the cutter, which automatically cuts the
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 133 
 
 shreds into biscuit shape, and places them on a wire 
 pan for baking. The pans are placed in racks and 
 carried to a large Ferris wheel oven, where for thirty 
 minutes they revolve slowly over a bed of coals in 
 a temperature of about 450 F. The biscuit are thus 
 thoroughly baked, but to expel any moisture which 
 may be yet present in them they go through a sec- 
 ond baking in a drying oven, consisting of a* low 
 
 Transformers and End of Electric Triscuit Oven 
 The Natural Food Company 
 
 horizontal structure, approximately 150 feet in 
 length, through which the pans are carried automat- 
 ically. In this oven the biscuit are exposed to a 
 temperature of from 200 to- 300 F. for a period of 
 nearly one and one-half hours. As the biscuit come 
 from this second oven they are thoroughly dry and 
 crisp and are ready for the market. 
 
 From the second oven the biscuit go to the pack-
 
 134 The Niagara Falls 
 
 ing tables, where, for the first time in the process, 
 they are touched by hand, when the girls pack them 
 in cartons holding one dozen each. From the pack- 
 ing table the cartons are conveyed automatically to 
 the sixth floor, where they enter the sealing machine 
 previously described. 
 
 The visitor is next taken to the basement floor, 
 where are located paint shop, mill-wright and car- 
 penter shops and electrical rooms, as well as bicycle 
 racks. Here, also, is located the ventilating system, 
 which changes automatically every fifteen minutes 
 the air in the manufacturing section. In the offices 
 the air is changed every seven and one-half minutes, 
 and in the lecture hall every five minutes. 
 
 Each floor is provided with two lavatories, 
 finished in marble and mosaic, and equipped with 
 shower and needle baths supplied with hot and cold 
 water. The employees are allowed ample time for 
 the use of the baths and are furnished with soap and 
 towels by the company. Individual lockers are also 
 provided for the employees. 
 
 In the work conducted by the Natural Food 
 Company there has been no attempt to work out 
 any sociological problems, or to carry on experi- 
 ments of any kind. The thought which has actuated 
 the company has been merely to surround the em- 
 ployees with ideal working conditions. 
 
 In the manufacture of Shredded Wheat Biscuit 
 and Triscuit nothing is used but the whole of the 
 wheat, the grain being merely cleaned, steamed, 
 shredded and twice baked. Nothing is added to and 
 nothing is taken away from the perfect wheat. 
 
 In the operation of the factory and for its light- 
 ing, 2-phase, 25-cycle alternating current, supplied 
 by The Niagara Falls Power Company, at a potential 
 of 2,200 volts, is used. After leaving the terminal 
 board, located in the east Transformer Room, the 
 current passes through automatic oil circuit break- 
 ers. There are three of these circuit breakers, two 
 of which control the lines supplying the east and
 
 Electrical Handbook 135 
 
 west Transformer Rooms, while the third handles 
 the lines supplying the transformers located in the 
 Triscuit Department on the third floor of the fac- 
 tory. In each Transformer Room are located four 
 Westinghouse oil-insulated self-cooling transform- 
 ers. Two of these transformers, of 75 kw. each, 
 furnish half the factory with a ii5-volt lighting cur- 
 rent. The two remaining transformers furnish their 
 half of the factory with a 440-volt current for oper- 
 
 Triscuit Cutter and Fanner 
 The Natural Food Company 
 
 ating the motors. In the east Transformer Room 
 is located a i5O-kw. rotary converter, supplying a 
 22O-volt direct current for operating the elevators in 
 both the Administration Building and the Factory. 
 The west Transformer Room is a duplicate of the 
 east Transformer Room, with the exception that it 
 contains a 12-kw. motor generator set instead of a 
 rotary converter. This generator is used in charging 
 storage batteries which in turn operate the bells and 
 the telephone system. The factory is operated by
 
 i j<5 The Niagara Palls 
 
 87 induction motors, ranging in size from one h.p. to 
 40 h.p., and the buildings are lighted by 2,500 incan- 
 descent lamps. 
 
 On the third floor of the factory are located eight 
 i4O-kw. transformers, supplying the four triscuit 
 ovens with current for baking. By means of a volt- 
 age regulator the voltage on the secondaries may be 
 varied from 80 volts to 127 volts. Each set of trans- 
 formers is supplied by an automatic oil circuit 
 breaker. 
 
 RAMAPO IRON WORKS 
 
 THE Niagara Falls plant of the Ramapo Iron 
 Works of Hillburn, Rockland County, N. Y., 
 is situated at the corner of Buffalo avenue 
 and Iroquois street. 
 
 In 1903, the Ramapo Iron Works took over the 
 interests and building of the MacPherson Switch 
 and Frog Company, a company engaged in manufac- 
 turing switches, frogs and other railway supplies. 
 Since this combination was formed, the Ramapo 
 Iron Works has added to its Niagara plant several 
 new buildings, including a switch shop 293 feet long 
 by 85 feet wide, and a crossing shop 285 feet long 
 by 75 feet wide. The output of the old MacPherson 
 Switch and Frog Company has thus been multiplied 
 threefold. The buildings are of brick and wood, 
 with iron sheathing covering the wood. The sides 
 of the buildings are mainly of glass, making a very 
 light and healthful plant for the men to work in. 
 
 The machines are all driven by electric power 
 obtained from The Niagara Falls Power Company, 
 no steam or other power being used. The electrical 
 equipment consists of step-down transformers hav- 
 ing ratios of 2,200 volts to 440 volts and to no volts, 
 with an aggregate output of 450 kw. Current is 
 supplied through these transformers to 44O-volt, 2- 
 phase motors, scattered about the works, and to 
 incandescent lights operating on no-volt circuits.
 
 Electrical Handbook 137 
 
 The company is now constructing a building to 
 be used as a restaurant for the employees, in which 
 hot meals will be served at noon. 
 
 THE COMPOSITE BOARD COMPANY 
 
 COMPOSITE board is the result of numerous 
 experiments to produce a material having 
 the desirable qualities of ordinary lumber 
 without the objectionable features of natural 
 wood. The patentees of the process have succeeded 
 in producing from wood pulp and flax fibre, a chemi- 
 cally treated board or panel, which having no grain 
 like ordinary wood will neither split nor check, and 
 which may be made in sheets or boards of any de- 
 sired thickness by glueing, under great pressure, the 
 separate layers. The material is produced in panels, 
 7 feet by 14 feet, thus obviating the necessity of 
 joints or seams where large surfaces are to be cov- 
 ered. In the process of manufacture it may be 
 curved to any given radius. Efforts to fireproof 
 the material have been successful, and board is now 
 produced which is not only flame resisting, but which 
 has excellent qualities as an insulator of electricity. 
 Tests have proved that a quarter-inch sheet of com- 
 posite board required 28,000 volts alternating for its 
 puncture, while a half-inch sheet withstood success- 
 fully 47,000 volts alternating. 
 
 Composite board is used extensively for interior 
 finish of railway coaches and in marine work. 
 
 The plant of the company consists of large brick 
 buildings on the lands of The Niagara Falls Power 
 Company. Power is received from the circuits of 
 that Company at 2,200 volts, 2-phase, and is stepped 
 down to 220 volts for use in induction motors, by 
 means of which the various machines in the plant are 
 driven. Upwards of 200 h. p. in all are used.
 
 / j# The Niagara Falls 
 
 NIAGARA RESEARCH LABORATORIES 
 
 THE maintenance of universities and, espe- 
 cially, of technical institutions, is generally 
 recognized as an efficient means of promot- 
 ing the development of science and of en- 
 abling the greatest industrial benefits to be derived 
 from the results of scientific progress. 
 
 The rapidly increasing importance attached to 
 applied science in the courses of instruction in the 
 
 Niagara Research Laboratories 
 
 scientific schools has necessitated a corresponding 
 enlargement of laboratory equipments; so that to- 
 day, many of these institutions offer excellent facili- 
 ties for a thorough education, and for scientific re- 
 search. Although many industrial processes have 
 originated and have been investigated in the univer- 
 sity laboratory, most of these have required further 
 development before commercial success was attained, 
 because of the limited scale upon which experimental 
 work is usually conducted in such laboratories. The
 
 Electrical Handbook 139 
 
 unexpected technical difficulties frequently encount- 
 ered when these processes are operated on a manu- 
 facturing basis, and not previously met with in the 
 work on a small scale, have in many cases, been the 
 cause of unfortunate results. 
 
 Realizing that the establishment of a plant 
 equipped with facilities for chemical, electrochemical, 
 and electro-metallurgical investigations and develop- 
 ments on a commercial scale, would offer peculiar 
 advantages to inventors and manufacturers, fulfill an 
 obvious need, and enable the experimental and con- 
 sulting engineers of the company to develop their 
 original ideas, the Niagara Research Laboratories 
 were organized, and erected the building shown in 
 the accompanying illustration, on the lands of The 
 Niagara Falls Power Company. 
 
 Situated on the ground floor of the building are 
 the machine shop, grinding room, transformer and 
 dynamo room, electric furnace laboratory, and the 
 isolated spaces available for experimenters wish- 
 ing to conduct work of a private nature. On the 
 second floor are the chemical and electrochemical 
 laboratories, and offices of the company. The top 
 story is used for photographic work, for investiga- 
 tions of the chemical effects of the various light rays, 
 and for storage purposes. 
 
 Electrical energy is received from The Niagara 
 Falls Power Company, in the form of a two-phase 
 alternating current, at 2,200 volts, constant potential. 
 By means of various transforming devices and motors 
 located in the power room, this energy is utilized in 
 the operation of electric furnaces and electrolytic 
 cells, the machine shop and grinding room, and in 
 the heating and lighting of the building. 
 
 The alternating current transformer used in con- 
 nection with high temperature experimental work is 
 of the water cooled, oil insulated type, and has its 
 windings so constructed that the full capacity of the 
 apparatus, 500 e. h. p., may be obtained at variable 
 secondary voltages.
 
 140 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Interior Views 
 Niagara Research Laboratories
 
 Electrical Handbook 141 
 
 Direct current of sufficient volume to permit of 
 the electrolysis of compounds in the fused condition 
 is derived from a low potential generator of the 
 double commutator type. According to the arrange- 
 ment of the external connections of this separately 
 excited dynamo, which commutates perfectly its full 
 load current under wide variations of field strength, 
 either a current of 2,000 amperes at any electro- 
 motive force, not exceeding eight volts, or a current 
 of 1,000 amperes at any pressure not exceeding six- 
 teen volts may be obtained. 
 
 Separate sets of bus bars carry the current from 
 the generator and transformer to the electric fur- 
 naces, and are so arranged that connections can be 
 readily made to apparatus erected in any part of the 
 furnace room. 
 
 Various types and sizes of electric furnaces are 
 in use. Some of these are suitable for a general 
 class of work and are frequently employed in the 
 early stages of an investigation; other furnaces have 
 been constructed to meet the requirements of special 
 problems and utilize 500 e.h.p. in their operation. 
 The electrical instruments employed in the furnace 
 room are mounted on a portable switchboard and 
 their design is such that accurate scale readings may 
 be obtained from zero to 10,000 amperes. Integra- 
 ting wattmeters are also used in connection with the 
 electric furnace circuits, thus enabling, in the case 
 of alternating currents, the determination of the 
 power factor of such circuits, a matter that has not 
 received too great attention. 
 
 The analytical laboratory is equipped in a modern 
 way for the analysis of such organic and inorganic 
 compounds as may be met with in experimental 
 work, and with facilities for general chemical re- 
 search. Many convenient electrical heating appli- 
 ances are in use in this laboratory. 
 
 The equipment of the electrolytic laboratory con- 
 sists of the electrical measuring instruments, resist- 
 ances, storage batteries, rectifiers, and other appar-
 
 1^2 The Niagara Falls 
 
 atus necessary for the simultaneous conduct of sev- 
 eral electrochemical investigations. 
 
 Ore crushing and pulverizing machines of a 
 standard type are installed in the grinding room, 
 and the machine shop tools are also of a standard 
 type. They are necessary adjuncts, however, to an 
 experimental laboratory of this class. 
 
 It may be understood from the above description 
 that the object of this company was not only to 
 establish a laboratory in which scientific research 
 could be conducted, but to provide facilities for the 
 development and demonstration of electrochemical 
 processes on a sufficiently large scale to determine 
 the prospects of their commercial success.
 
 Canadian Tenants of the Niagara 
 Falls Power Company 
 
 THE first demands for Niagara power in Canada, 
 aside from that used for railway purposes, 
 were met by the Canadian Niagara Power 
 Company by the installation in the Power 
 House of the International Railway Company, in 
 Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park, of two soo-h.p., 
 2,200-volt, 3-phase alternators, driven by turbines. 
 Subsequently this installation was reinforced by the 
 laying of a 2,2OO-volt, 3-conductor cable from the 
 Power House of The Niagara Falls Power Company 
 on the American side to the railway Power House in 
 Canada, the carrying capacity of this line being ap- 
 proximately 1,000 h.p. The distribution to the vari- 
 ous users of power is made by means of overhead 
 3-phase 2,20O-volt transmission circuits. 
 
 To meet the increased demands for power, and 
 in anticipation of the abandonment of the alternator 
 plant in the Railway Company's Power House, an 
 n,ooo-volt, 3-conductor cable was installed between 
 the American Power House and the railway plant 
 in Canada, and step-down transformers having a 
 ratio of 11,000 to 2,200 volts were placed at the 
 Canadian end of this cable. On account of the 
 reconstruction of the Railway Power House, the 
 two alternators were removed in July, 1903, since 
 which time all Niagara power used in Canada for 
 other than railway purposes has been transmitted 
 from the American side by means of the n,ooo-volt, 
 3-conductor cable. The 2,2OO-volt line will be 
 eventually transformed into an n,ooo-volt circuit. 
 
 The principal Canadian power users are as fol- 
 lows: The Niagara Electric Light Company, using
 
 144 The Niagara Falls 
 
 about 400 h.p., mainly in induction motors driving 
 arc machines and alternators; The Toronto and St. 
 Catharines Railway, using 400 h.p.; Ontario Silver 
 Company, 100 h.p.; The Carborundum Company, 300 
 h.p.; Monastery of Mount Carmel, 100 h.p. 
 
 Since the large power developments have been 
 started on the Canadian side, contractors on the 
 three plants have been taking from The Niagara 
 Falls Power Company and the Canadian Niagara 
 Power Company approximately, 1,000 h.p., most 
 of which is utilized by means of induction motors 
 for the driving of air compressors which supply the 
 drills, and other appliances used in excavation. 
 Power is also used for lighting, for traveling cranes 
 and for machine shops. The amounts used by each 
 contractor are as follows: 
 
 By A. C. Douglass, in excavating the tunnels of 
 the Canadian Niagara Power Company and of the 
 Toronto & Niagara Power development, 400 h.p.; 
 by the Jenckes Machine Company in the con- 
 struction of the steel pipe line for the Ontario Power 
 Company's development, 200 h.p.; by M. P. Davis 
 in excavation of wheelpit for the Toronto & Niagara 
 Power Company, _|OO h.p.
 
 Long-distance Tenants of the Niag- 
 ara Falls Power Company 
 
 THE CATARACT POWER & CONDUIT COM- 
 PANY 
 
 THE Cataract Power & Conduit Company is the 
 distributor, within the city of Buffalo, of power 
 generated by the Niagara Falls Power Com- 
 pany. 
 
 The three tri-phase transmission lines from Niagara 
 are carried into a transforming station known as the 
 Terminal House, located at the foot of Ontario street 
 on lands abutting on the Erie Canal. The power is 
 received at the line pressure of 22,000 volts and all 
 Niagara power used in Buffalo is there transformed in 
 pressure from 22,000 volts to 11,000 volts. 
 
 The transmission lines enter the building from dif- 
 ferent routes, two of the circuits carried by No. i 
 pole line following the Erie Canal from Tonawanda, 
 while the third circuit carried by No. 2 pole line parallels 
 the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. from Tonawanda to Ontario 
 street, Buffalo, and thence follows Ontario street to the 
 station. 
 
 Entering the building, each conductor passes through 
 a heavy porcelain tube inserted in a pine board one inch 
 thick. The tube, twelve inches in length, is inclined 
 at an angle of about thirty degrees with the horizontal, 
 the lowest point being outside the building. A metallic 
 awning extends over the lines outside the building and 
 serves as a protection against rain and snow. Inside 
 the building, the circuits consist of rubber-covered, 
 single-conductor cables supported on Niagara type in- 
 sulators attached to seasoned and well oiled Georgia 
 pine. There is a 22,ooo-volt switchboard in each end 
 
 145
 
 146 The Niagara Falls 
 
 of the building three panels at one end and two at 
 the other. These switchboards are equipped with non- 
 automatic "circuit breakers, some being of the swinging 
 arm air break form, while others are of the oil type. The 
 latter are operated electrically by means of auxiliary con- 
 trolling switches located at a distance. 
 
 As stated above, all power used in Buffalo is trans- 
 formed in pressure at this station. For this purpose 
 there are in use nine 2,250-kw. oil-insulated, water- 
 cooled step-down transformers having a transforma- 
 
 \Vilkeson Street Station 
 Buffalo General Electric 
 
 Company 
 
 The Cataract Power and 
 Conduit Company 
 
 tion ratio of two to one. These transformers are con- 
 nected in delta in banks of three each. Their secondary 
 leads pass to a double set of bus-bars forming part of 
 an n,ooo-volt switchboard consisting of eleven panels. 
 Mounted on each of these panels are indicating and 
 integrating wattmeters ; two oil type feeder switches 
 by means of which connection can be made to either 
 set of bus-bars ; and controlling switches and signal 
 lights connected with the automatic oil type circuit 
 breakers, which are placed above the switchboard 
 structure. 
 
 The iijOOO-volt current is carried under ground
 
 Electrical Handbook 147 
 
 from the Terminal House to three substations of The 
 Cataract Power & Conduit Company and to five sub- 
 stations belonging to the International Railway Com- 
 pany. The Terminal House itself also serves as one 
 substation. 
 
 At the Terminal House are installed nine 25O-kw. 
 air-blast transformers, receiving n,ooo-volt current and 
 transforming it to a pressure of 2,200 volts, at which 
 
 Transformer Room, Wilkeson Street Substation 
 The Cataract Power and Conduit Company 
 
 pressure it is carried overhead to consumers, consisting 
 mainly of manufacturers located in North Buffalo. 
 Seven feeder panels are used for the control of the 
 2,2OO-volt distributing circuits. These panels are 
 equipped with integrating wattmeters, a double set of 
 bus-bars and oil switches, and also with automatic 
 overload and reverse current circuit breakers. The 
 transformers are connected in delta. The air blast is 
 supplied by a blower connected direct to an induction 
 motor.
 
 148 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Of the other substations owned and operated by The 
 Cataract Power & Conduit Company, No. 2 is located 
 at Ohio street and Love alley, No. 3 is located at Wil- 
 keson street and No. 4 at Babcock and Hanna streets. 
 These three substations receive current from the under- 
 ground circuits at 11,000 volts and transform it to 2,200 
 volts. In general, the secondary distribution is by means 
 of overhead conductors, but in a few cases, by means of 
 underground cables. 
 
 Substations No. 2 and No. 4 are purely step-down 
 stations, the former being equipped with oil-insulated, 
 water-cooled transformers, 
 and the latter with air-blast 
 transformers. They supply 
 manufacturing establish- 
 ments in their respective 
 districts. 
 
 Substation No. 3 is 
 equipped with air-blast 
 transformers. Its princi- 
 pal load is that of the 
 Buffalo General Electric 
 Company, whose plant 
 is located in the same 
 building. Current is de- 
 livered to the Buffalo 
 General Electric Company in the form of 352-volt, 
 3-phase, 25-cycle current and is transformed to 550- 
 volt direct current for power purposes; to oo-cycle, 
 2,4OO-volt, 2-phase current for commercial incandescent 
 lighting; to 22O-volt direct current for an Edison 3-wire 
 system operated in connection with a 6,ooo-ampcre~ 
 storage battery; and to direct current for series arc 
 street lighting circuits. For the transformation to 550- 
 volt direct current, rotary converters are used. For 
 the frequency changers and for the Edison system, 
 motor generator sets are utilized, while for the arc 
 lighting service synchronous motors connected direct 
 to Brush arc machines are employed. These arc ma- 
 chines deliver a current of 6.8 amperes and each is 
 
 Induction Motor 
 
 The Cataract Power and Conduit 
 
 Company
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 140 
 
 capable of supplying 125 arc lights in series. The fre- 
 quency changers are driven by synchronous motors, 
 while the charging sets for the Edison 3-wire circuits 
 are driven by induction motors, the largest being rated 
 at 1,200 h.p. In addition to the power used by the 
 Buffalo General Electric Company, this substation sup- 
 plies power to a large hotel and to two department 
 stores and to other miscellaneous users. The 25-cycle 
 current is used in many cases directly for incandescent 
 lighting, the excellent speed regulation and the uniform 
 
 Switchboard Room at the Great Northern Elevator 
 The Cataract Power and Conduit Company 
 
 angular velocity of the generators at the Falls making 
 this current entirely satisfactory for lighting purposes. 
 To the substations of the International Railway 
 Company current is delivered at 11,000 volts from 
 underground circuits consisting of triple-conductor, 
 paper-insulated, lead-covered cables laid in tile conduits. 
 The equipments of the various stations are similar, each 
 consisting of air-blast transformers and converters, by 
 means of which the n,ooo-volt, 3-phase current is trans- 
 formed into 550 to 6oo-volt direct current. From May 
 1st to October ist, the International Railway Company
 
 150 The Niagara Falls 
 
 operates its entire system by Niagara power. During 
 the winter months an auxiliary steam plant is operated 
 to take care of the peak loads. 
 
 Niagara power supplied through The Cataract Power 
 & Conduit Company has been applied in Buffalo to 
 varied uses in establishments of many kinds, among 
 which may be mentioned the following: Grain eleva- 
 tors, cereal mills, foundries, machine shops, malt houses, 
 tanneries, electrolytic and chemical manufactories, ship 
 yards, dry docks, packing houses, metal stamping works, 
 structural steel works, manufactories of jewelers' sup- 
 plies, car wheel factories, weaving and belting factories, 
 rubber re-claiming works, steel and malleable iron 
 foundries, breweries, bakeries, silk-throwing establish- 
 ments, flouring mills, railroad shops, box factories, de- 
 partment stores, hotels, central station and isolated 
 lighting plants, street railway power houses, and manu- 
 factories of steam and hot water radiators, brass and 
 iron beds, dental supplies, linseed oil, gasoline engines, 
 varnish, cordage, head-lights, refrigerators, refrigerat- 
 ing machines, automobiles, rubber goods, cast iron pipe 
 and fertilizers. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY COMPANY 
 
 THE system of the International Railway Company 
 presents many features which are of great inter- 
 est to engineers. Operating over 360 miles of 
 track, its cars traverse all the principal streets of 
 Niagara Falls and Buffalo, and serve all the important 
 neighboring towns. 
 
 Crossing the company's beautiful steel arch bridge, 
 just below the falls of Niagara, the tourist is carried 
 eight miles northward to the historic town of Queens- 
 ton, or three miles southward to the ancient village of 
 Chippewa. Both these places can be visited conveniently 
 on a single trip without changing cars. The scenery be- 
 tween them is beautiful and unique, and possesses much 
 historic interest. 
 
 In going from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, a distance of 
 twenty-three miles, the cars pass along the Niagara River
 
 Electrical Handbook
 
 I $2 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 through the village of La Salle and the cities of Tona- 
 wanda and North Tonawanda. At the latter point con- 
 nection is made with the line to the city of Lockport, the 
 town of Olcott, and the villages of Charlottville, Burt and 
 Newfane. Lockport is thirteen miles and Olcott twenty- 
 six miles from the North Tonawanda Junction, which is 
 situated about midway between Niagara Falls and Buf- 
 falo. Running east from Buffalo are lines to the towns 
 of Lancaster and Depew, eleven miles distant. 
 
 On its interurban routes the company has provided 
 elegant, roomy cars with comfortable steam-coach seats 
 and broad windows. These cars are operated by the 
 
 Passenger Train on the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Division 
 The International Railway Company 
 
 multiple-unit system of control, either singly or in trains 
 as the service may demand. 
 
 The motive power used on the system is entirely elec- 
 trical and is derived from the hydraulic power of Niagara 
 Falls, and from an auxiliary steam plant in Buffalo. 
 Storage batteries are used to carry peak loads. During 
 a portion of the year the operation is entirely by power 
 taken from the Falls. 
 
 The power used locally in the Niagara Falls district 
 is taken partly from the Railway Company's hydraulic 
 plant near Table Rock, on the Canadian bank of the 
 river, and partly from its rotary converter plant in 
 Power House No. i of the Niagara Falls Power Com- 
 pany.
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 153 
 
 The hydraulic plant receives its water in a fore-bay 
 just above the Horseshoe Falls, and discharges through 
 a tunnel 600 feet in length, having its outlet at the face 
 of the cliff close beside the Falls. The effective head of 
 water is 62 feet. The plant contains two 1,000 h.p. 45- 
 inch vertical turbines of the Globe type, bevel-geared to 
 line shafting, from which are belted five 2OO-kw. railway 
 generators and one 2OO-kw. feeder booster. There is 
 also in process of installation one 2,000 h.p. 175 r. p. m. 
 
 View in Victoria Park, Niagara Falls, Ontario 
 The International Railway Company 
 
 turbine of the single Francis type. This turbine is direct- 
 connected to a i,5OO-kw. double commutator, vertical 
 shaft, General Electric railway generator. The power 
 house is arranged to accommodate three more of the 
 i,5OO-kw. generators when conditions may require them. 
 
 The plant in the Niagara Falls Power House No. i 
 consists of three 4OO-kw. quarter-phase, 25-cycle, rotary 
 converters. 
 
 At Paynes avenue, North Tonawanda, where the 
 Buffalo & Niagara Falls and the Buffalo & Lockport lines 
 cross, is located one of the new modern substations.
 
 154 
 
 The Niagara Falls 
 
 This station receives 3-phase 22,000 volt, 25-cycle cur- 
 rent from the Niagara Falls Power Company's trans- 
 mission line. The station equipment consists of three 
 4OO-kw. General Electric 3-phase rotary converters. The 
 a. c. current for each rotary is stepped down from 
 22,000 volts to 375 volts by a bank of three i5O-k\v. air- 
 blast transformers. The rotaries are started by means of 
 double-throw switches connected on one side to half volt- 
 age taps and on the other side to full voltage terminals 
 
 Electric Locomotive 
 The International Railway Company 
 
 on the secondaries of the transformers. This method of 
 starting obviates the loss of time and the uncertainties of 
 synchronizing. 
 
 This station contains a 288-cell 1,000 h.p. (one hour 
 rate) storage battery with motor generator booster 
 for control. There are also high tension and direct cur- 
 rent lightning arresters, reactive coils, blower sets for 
 cooling transformers and ventilating battery room, air 
 compressor for cleaning machinery and complete modern 
 a. c. and d. c. switchboards.
 
 Electrical Handbook 155 
 
 A feature of the station is the absolute safety in the 
 arrangement of 22,ooo-volt bus bars and other high pres- 
 sure devices. The bus bars are installed in separate 
 brick and concrete compartments, where it would be un- 
 likely for a person accidentally to come in contact with 
 them, and where short-circuits would be quite impossible. 
 The current on the incoming and outgoing 22,ooo-volt 
 lines and also on the primaries of the transformers, is 
 controlled by means of automatic oil-switches. The 
 switches are of the remote control type, so that at the 
 switchboard panels, where the operator is engaged, there 
 
 Fruit and Produce Train on Lockport Division 
 The International Railway Company 
 
 is nothing but low pressure current to be handled. The 
 current for operating the oil-switch motors is taken from 
 a u5-volt storage battery. 
 
 The high pressure current for the Lockport and Olcott 
 substations passes through* switches in this station, and 
 the power used by all three stations is measured at this 
 point by graphic recording wattmeters. 
 
 The Lockport and Olcott substations are fed by the 
 railway company's 22,ooo-volt transmission line. 
 
 The Lockport station contains the same number, type 
 and capacity of machines and batteries as the Tonawanda 
 station, with some modifications of arrangement.
 
 156 The Niagara Falls 
 
 The Olcott substation contains two 4OO-kw. rotaries, 
 with the necessary auxiliaries, and a go-kw. i,O4O-volt 
 single-phase alternator for lighting the Park and hotel 
 property. The alternator is belted to the shaft of one of 
 the rotaries. 
 
 A feature of the Tonawanda-Lockport-Olcott system 
 is the freight service. Two 40-1011 electric locomotives 
 are constantly employed in the transferring of freight for 
 the steam roads and in hauling between towns. A large 
 part of the traffic is in fruit from the luxuriant orchards 
 on the shores of Lake Ontario. 
 
 The steam-plant of the Railway Company is situated 
 at Niagara and School streets, in the City of Buffalo, on 
 
 Upper Steel Arch liridge at Night 
 The International Railway Company 
 
 the line of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls road. It con- 
 tains two modern Corliss engines of the Allis-Chalmers 
 make, driving i,soo-kw. n,ooo-volt, 25-cycle alternators 
 of General Electric Company revolving field type. There 
 are also three 8oo-kw. d. c. railway generators, direct 
 connected to upright Lake Erie engines, and a 286-celI 
 i,8co h.p (one hour rating) storage battery. 
 
 Part of the power house is occupied by a rotary con- 
 verter plant, consisting of four 4OO-kw. 25-cycle rotaries. 
 
 This station is fully equipped with modern switching 
 devices, embracing 11,000 volt bus bars individually iso- 
 lated in brick and concrete compartments, automatic 
 motor-driven oil-switches with remote control, and latest 
 type of alternating and direct current switchboards.
 
 Electrical Handbook 157 
 
 That part of the alternating current switchboard 
 which accommodates the hand-operated control switches, 
 rheostats, indicator lamps, etc., is assembled in the form 
 of a benchboard. The indicating and recording instru- 
 ments are situated on panels several feet above this 
 benchboard, allowing the attendant to look out over the 
 station between the instrument and controlling panels. 
 
 The Niagara power used in the City of Buffalo is taken 
 in the form of n.ooo-volt, 25-cycle, 3-phase current, 
 from the Cataract Power and Conduit Company's ter- 
 minal house located in the northern part of the city. 
 This current is delivered to the various substations by 
 means of underground lead-covered ii,ooovolt cable. 
 The Cataract Power & Conduit Company is the local 
 retailer of Niagara Falls Power Company power, and re- 
 ceives the Niagara power from the 22,ooo-volt overhead 
 transmission lines. 
 
 The Railway Company's substations are located at 
 Seneca and Elk streets, at Walden avenue and Belt Line, 
 and at Virginia and Washington streets, the last named 
 being the largest, newest and most interesting. This 
 station is located approximately at the load centre of the 
 city system, and, in addition to its equipment of four 
 i,ooo-kw. 6-ph'ase rotary converters, has two 288-cell 
 1,500 h.p (on one hour rating) storage batteries. 
 
 Each rotary converter receives its current directly 
 from the secondaries of one 3-phase air-cooled 
 transformer. The starting of the rotaries is accom- 
 plished by the use of switches connected to one-third, 
 two-third and full-voltage taps on the secondaries of the 
 transformers. Reactive coils are in circuit with the ro- 
 taries, and the machines are equipped with speed limiting 
 and mechanical end-play devices. 
 
 The alternating current for this station is received 
 over 11,000 volt, paper-insulated, lead-covered cables 
 leading from the steam plant. Both Niagara Falls 
 power and steam-generated power are used. 
 
 The high pressure bus bars, as in the steam plant, are 
 carefully isolated in masonry compartments, located in 
 the capacious air pit under the air-blast transformers and
 
 1 58 The Niagara Falls 
 
 oil-switches. All oil-switches can be separated com- 
 pletely from the bus bars for repairs by means of knife 
 blade type "disconnecting switches." 
 
 The new Entz system of regulation is here used with 
 the storage batteries. The fluctuations of station load 
 are reduced by this below ten per cent. 
 
 This station is arranged to receive three more of the 
 i,ooo-kw. rotaries and one more storage battery. As the 
 batteries, when fully charged, are good for 1,300 kw. 
 each, and the rotaries are capable of fifty per cent, over- 
 load, the station has an ultimate capacity of 14,400 kw. 
 for an hour, which is the usual duration of the highest 
 peaks. 
 
 The other substations, as well as the steam plant, have 
 ample arrangement for accommodation of additional ma- 
 chinery to take care of increased traffic. 
 
 The power houses and substations of the International 
 Railway Company are open to visiting engineers who 
 may be interested in making an inspection of them. 
 
 TON AW AND A POWER COMPANY 
 
 THE Tonawanda Power Company bears to the 
 cities of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda 
 the same relation that the Cataract Power 
 and Conduit Company does to the City of 
 Buffalo, namely, that of local distributor of power 
 generated and transmitted by The Niagara Falls 
 Power Company. 
 
 About 2,200 h. p. is delivered to the Tonawanda 
 Power Company, which is used for street arc light- 
 ing, commercial and residence incandescent lighting, 
 and for varied industrial enterprises, among which 
 may be mentioned paper mills, nut and bolt works, 
 flouring mills, machine shops, and the manufacture 
 of abrasives. 
 
 The station is located in North Tonawanda on 
 Robinson street at its junction with the right of way 
 for The Niagara Falls Power Company's 22,ooo-volt 
 transmission lines,
 
 Electrical Handbook 159 
 
 The transformer installation consists of two banks 
 of step-down transformers, aggregating 3,000 kw. in 
 capacity, from which secondary voltages of 360 volts, 
 or of 4,400 volts may be obtained. These transform- 
 ers are connected in delta. The lighting apparatus 
 consists of induction motors driving 6o-cycle, 2,300- 
 volt, 2-phase alternators, and of three constant cur- 
 rent transformers for the operation of the series arc 
 system used for street lighting. For general power 
 distribution, 4,4OO-volt current direct from the trans- 
 formers is used. All of the local distribution is by 
 means of overhead circuits. 
 
 Adjoining the plant of the Tonawanda Power 
 Company is the section-house of The Niagara Falls 
 Power Company, through which are carried the 
 three tri-phase transmission lines. In this section- 
 house are installed sectionalizing switches arranged 
 in such a way in combination with bus-bars that 
 either of the three transmission lines may be cut at 
 this point, and so that any desired combination of 
 lines or sections of lines in parallel may be effected. 
 Arrangements are also provided for transferring the 
 load of the Tonawanda Power Company and of the 
 Lockport transmission line to any of the three main 
 transmission lines. 
 
 THE LOCKPORT GAS AND ELECTRIC LIGHT 
 COMPANY 
 
 THE Lockport Gas and Electric Light Com- 
 pany distributes in the City of Lockport, 
 power delivered by The Niagara Falls Power 
 Company. The power is delivered at the 
 Power Company's section-house in North Tona- 
 wanda and is transmitted to Lockport by a 22,000- 
 volt branch transmission line belonging to the Inter- 
 national Railway Company under a special arrange- 
 ment with that company. 
 
 Twenty-two thousand-volt, 3-phase current is re- 
 ceived in the transforming station in Lockport, from
 
 160 The Niagara Falls 
 
 which point it is transmitted at 2,2OO-volts, 2-phase, 
 to the larger users of power for manufacturing pur- 
 poses, and to the lighting company's distributing sta- 
 tion. At the latter point, by means of step-down 
 transformers and converters, it is further trans- 
 formed into direct current for public and domes- 
 tic lighting, and for other purposes for which direct 
 current may be required. The amount of Niagara 
 power used is approximately 500 h. p., the additional 
 requirements being met by a local water power 
 development taking water from the Erie Canal.
 
 PART IV 
 
 NIAGARA POWER DEVELOP- 
 MENT IN CANADA
 
 Canadian Niagara Power Company 
 
 THE Canadian Niagara Power Company was 
 incorporated by an Act of the Legislature 
 of the Province of Ontario in the year 1892, 
 which act confirms a certain agreement, 
 dated April 7, 1892, with the Commissioners for the 
 Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park, providing that 
 the Power Company shall have the right, for one 
 hundred years, to construct and operate works with- 
 in the Park, by means of canals, wheelpits and tun- 
 nels for the development of electrical and pneumatic 
 power for transmission, distribution and sale with- 
 out the Park. This company is an allied company 
 of The Niagara Falls Power Company, which has 
 built the two power houses on the American side 
 heretofore described, and it now has under construc- 
 tion a development of 110,000 e.h.p., 20,000 e.h.p. of 
 which it is expected will be ready for transmission 
 and delivery on December I, 1904, and 30,000 e.h.p. 
 additional within a few months thereafter, while the 
 water connections, wheelpit and tunnel, have been 
 constructed already for the full 110,000 e.h.p. This 
 company had the first choice of location for power 
 development works within the Park and will be the 
 first power company to produce power on the Cana- 
 dian side of the Falls. 
 
 In general, the hydraulic development of the Cana- 
 dian power house will be similar to that of the Ameri- 
 can plants of The Niagara Falls Power Company. 
 The power house is situated in the Queen Victoria 
 Niagara Falls Park, about half a mile above the 
 Horseshoe Falls. The water is taken in from the 
 river through a short canal and forebay, discharged 
 through penstocks into turbines near the bottom of a 
 
 163
 
 i6 4 
 
 The N i a P a r a Falls 
 
 wheelpit, and carried away to the lower river through 
 a tunnel about 2,000 feet in length. 
 
 The most distinctive feature of this plant is the 
 size of the generating units, each of which is to have 
 a capacity of 10,000 h.p., the largest machines which 
 have thus far been constructed. The plant, when 
 completed, will include eleven of these generators. 
 A unit of this size was adopted for reasons of econo- 
 my in hydraulic development and in electrical equip- 
 ment. These 10,000 h.p. units occupy but little more 
 space than those of 5,000 h.p. Thus results a great 
 reduction in length of wheelpit and power house for 
 
 Power House 
 The Canadian Niagara Povvi 
 
 a given horse-power output. Furthermore, the gen- 
 erators cost considerably less per horse-power than 
 those of 5,ooo h.p. capacity. 
 
 The generators will have vertical shafts, and are 
 wound for three-phase current, 11,000 volts, 25 cycles 
 at 250 revolutions per minute. This high generated 
 voltage was selected for economy in local distribution 
 of power. The cost of distributing underground at 
 11,000 volts, three-phase, is about one-fifth that re- 
 quired for a 2,2OO-volt, two-phase system. For long- 
 distance transmission step-up transformers have been 
 installed in a transformer house outside of the Park and 
 will be used to raise the voltage to 22,000, 40,000, or
 
 Electrical Handbook
 
 i66 T h c A r / a g a r a Falls 
 
 60,000 volts, depending upon the distance of trans- 
 mission. Three-phase was decided upon rather than 
 two-phase for the reason that one less conductor is 
 required, which simplifies cable connections, and 
 because the three-phase system requires twenty-five 
 per cent, less copper for transmission than one of 
 two-phase for the same voltage. Power from this 
 plant will be distributed by means of No. ooo B. & S. 
 triple conductor, lead-covered cables laid in ducts 
 underground. 
 
 It is the intention to have cable connections so 
 that the power house of the Canadian Niagara 
 Power Company can operate, if desired, in parallel 
 with either or both of the power houses of The Ni- 
 agara Falls Power Company on the American side. 
 The output of the Canadian Niagara Power Company 
 will be used primarily for Canadian industries and for 
 public utilities in the Province of Ontario within the 
 range of long-distance transmission from the power 
 house. When used upon the American side, the gen- 
 erated current will he carried across the Niagara 
 River by way of the Upper Steel Arch Bridge, a total 
 distance of about three and one-half miles. This 
 n,ooo-volt, 3-phase current will be changed on the 
 American side by step-down transformers to 2,200 
 volts, 2-phase for paralleling, or will be delivered 
 direct to tenants of the American Company. A part 
 of the output may be sent to Buffalo by a transmis- 
 sion line to be built along the Canadian side of the 
 Niagara river from the Park to Fort Erie, a com- 
 plete right of way for which has been obtained.
 
 Electrical Handbook 167
 
 The Electrical Development Com- 
 pany of Ontario, Limited, and The 
 Toronto 6f Niagara Power Com- 
 pany 
 
 THE world-wide fame of Niagara Falls has for 
 many years attracted the engineers of all nations, 
 and they have been at work devising means for 
 utilizing the great power in these Falls. So dif- 
 ficult and varied are the many problems connected with 
 the installation of the plants necessary for the utilizing 
 of this power that it has taken the combined efforts of the 
 best engineers of the world to devise apparatus and plant 
 which have made possible the development of thousands 
 of horse-power within comparatively small limits, and 
 the transmission of this power to cities many miles dis- 
 tant. 
 
 As the development of power for use within a few 
 miles of Niagara Falls advanced, the progress made was 
 anxiously watched by the citizens of Toronto with the 
 hope that some day the power available on the Canadian 
 side of Niagara Falls might be utilized to furnish light 
 and power to the Queen City. Among the anxious 
 watchers, perhaps the keenest and the ones to realize 
 most the advantages to be derived from Niagara power 
 transmitted to Toronto, was a syndicate composed of 
 Messrs. Frederic Nicholls, H. M. Pellatt and Wm. 
 Mackenzie. From its connection with Canada's greatest 
 developments and chief manufacturing companies this 
 syndicate was probably better fitted than any other com- 
 bination of business men in Canada to undertake the 
 organization and management of the companies neces- 
 sary for the development of a large power at Niagara 
 Falls and the transmission of this power to Toronto and 
 other points in Ontario where it is to be utilized. 
 
 1 68
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 169 
 
 After the long distance transmissions at high voltages 
 in the West and in Mexico had demonstrated satisfac- 
 torily the commercial practicability of long distance 
 
 transmission, the syndicate proceeded to obtain the nec- 
 essary rights for a large hydro-electric development at 
 Niagara Falls. On January 2Qth, 1903, an agreement 
 was entered into between the Queen Victoria Niagara
 
 ijo The X in gar a Falls 
 
 Falls Park Commissioners and the syndicate granting 
 it rights to take water from the Niagara River at Temp- 
 est Point for the purpose of generating electricity to the 
 extent of 125,000 electrical horse-power. On the i8th 
 of February following, the Electrical Development 
 Company of Ontario, Limited, was incorporated by 
 letters patent under the authority of the Legislature 
 of Ontario. This company has a capital stock of 
 $6,occ,oco. At a meeting of its shareholders, held on 
 March 2ist, 1903, the agreement above mentioned which 
 had been made with the Park Commissioners, was ac- 
 quired by the company. Although the Canadian Niagara 
 Power Company and the Ontario Power Company had 
 already obtained sites by agreement with the Park Com- 
 missioners for the location of their power plants, the 
 engineers engaged by the syndicate to select a site chose 
 one which appears to be second to neither of those of 
 the companies just mentioned. Its location on the 
 river bank is such that the flow of ice. which is con- 
 siderable in the river in the early spring, will not 
 interfere with the operation of the plant, as at this point 
 the ice follows channels some distance from the power 
 house site, and only occasional small gatherings of ice 
 will pass near the power house. On account of the 
 construction of the tail race tunnel directly below the 
 Niagara River in a straight line between the wheel- 
 pit at the power house and the foot of the Horseshoe 
 Falls, a shorter tail race than that of the Canadian 
 Niagara Power Company will be obtained, and also it 
 will be much shorter than the supply pipes of the On- 
 tario Power Company. 
 
 While the agreement with the Park Commissioners 
 was being considered, a second company the Toronto 
 and Niagara Power Company was organized by the 
 syndicate above mentioned. The charter of this com- 
 pany gave the right to transmit power and acquire 
 a right of way for the transmission line. Incident- 
 ally the right of expropriation of lands was ob- 
 tained. This company has already purchased a right 
 of way seventy-eight and fifty-eight hundredths miles
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 171 
 
 in length between Niagara Falls and Toronto, eighty 
 feet wide at its narrowest point. The line is practically 
 straight between the limits of the City of Toronto and 
 
 Burlington Beach, near Hamilton, and also between 
 Burlington Beach and Niagara Falls. Its width and 
 grade are such that a double track railway can also be 
 operated upon it after the construction of the transmis- 
 sion lines, should future developments warrant it.
 
 If 2 
 
 T h c X i a g a r a Palls 
 
 With a view to providing manufacturing sites for 
 industries which may desire to locate near Niagara 
 Falls in order to use the power of the Electrical De- 
 velopment Company, some 5,30 acres of land have been 
 purchased fronting on the Chippewa River, situate;! 
 about two miles from Niagara Falls, and only three 
 and one-half miles from the point where the Chippewa 
 River has entrance to the Welland Canal as shown 
 on the map on page 171. These lands have a river front- 
 age of one and one-half miles. It is expected that indus- 
 
 Constructing Coffer Dam at the Cascade 
 The Electrical Development Company of Ontario. Limited 
 
 trial plants of various sorts, and especially electrochem- 
 ical plants, will be established on this site. 
 
 On the second of April, 1903, work was begun at 
 Niagara Falls and has been energetically pushed ever 
 since both as to the development at Niagara and as to 
 the transmission plant. The general plan of develop- 
 ment at the hydraulic plant of the Electrical Develop- 
 ment Company may be described as below and is further 
 shown by the plan and illustrations. The swift mov- 
 ing waters as they passed Tempest Point previous to
 
 Electrical Handbook 17$ 
 
 tne commencement of work by the Electrical Develop- 
 ment Company, seemed to defy human powers to con- 
 struct in their swiftest part a coffer dam which could 
 reclaim the river bed which has been covered by- 
 Niagara's flow for countless centuries. But the irre- 
 pressible engineer has by pluck and skill constructed 
 a coffer dam as shown on the plan. As the work on 
 the coffer dam progressed, the difficulties of its con- 
 struction which had appeared serious enough in the be- 
 ginning grew greater. When the cascade indicated on 
 the plan was reached instead of a depth of eight feet of 
 water, as had been expected, twenty-four feet of water 
 were found, and that, too, just where the water falls 
 about eight feet. The coffer dam has been successfully 
 completed and has unwatered about eleven acres of 
 the river bed, where a gathering dam and the power 
 house are being constructed as indicated on the plan. 
 
 The gathering dam will be of concrete, capped with 
 cut granite. It will extend into the river for about 
 750 feet at an angle of about 60 from the line of the 
 power house. The height will vary from 10 to 23. 
 feet. This dam is intended to divert toward the power 
 house an amount of the river's flow sufficient for the 
 development of the maximum capacity of the plant to be 
 installed. Incidentally, within this dam the level of 
 the water will be raised about eighteen feet above its- 
 former natural level, thus increasing the effective head 
 at the wheels. At the power house end of the dam 
 will be a spillway of large capacity, and over this such 
 an immense flow of water will take place that it is ex- 
 pected that the ice and other debris deflected by the 
 arched wall, further described below, will be carried 
 away and discharged into the river on the lower side 
 of the dam. 
 
 The power station will be located practically on the 
 original shore line and parallel to it. The length will' 
 be about 500 feet, the width 70 feet, and* the height 
 .jo feet. The inside walls will be of stone, and it is 
 the intention of the company to construct such a build- 
 ing a< will harmonize with its surroundings. The Park
 
 174 The Niagara Falls 
 
 Commissioners have approved of the plans submitted, 
 which show a building whose style of architecture on 
 the outside is of the Italian Renaissance. The front 
 elevation will show a centre bay containing the main 
 entrance and two end bays. Between the centre and end 
 bays will be a colonnade with a loggia. Along the 
 loggia will be large windows, through which it will be 
 possible for the public at large to view the generator 
 room. Suitable entablature, balustrading, etc., will be 
 employed to obtain harmony in the design. The other 
 
 Main Coffer Dam 
 The Electrical Development Company of Ontario, Limited 
 
 sides of the building will be comparatively plain. In 
 plan the building will be composed of three portions; 
 the entrance with offices, board and visitors' rooms 
 leading off from it ; the main generator room ; and 
 the screen and gate room. Around the generator room 
 there will be a tiled brick dado about ten feet high. 
 Above this to the roof light yellow brick will be used. 
 In the front centre above the main entrance and pro- 
 jecting into the generator room there will be a gal- 
 lery containing the switchboard and the indicating and
 
 Electrical Handbook 775 
 
 recording instruments for all of the electrical apparatus. 
 This gallery will be reached by the elevator. The 
 generator room will contain eleven generators, of 
 8,000 kilowatts capacity each, all in line in the 
 centre of the room. They will be of the vertical 
 inside revolving field type, with twelve poles, 250 revo- 
 lutions per minute, and delivering a three-phase alter- 
 nating current of twenty-five cycles at twelve thousand 
 volts. The weight of each generator will be about 
 400,000 pounds and that of the revolving part about 
 141,000 pounds. The side of the power house toward 
 the river will be carried on a wall in which, below the 
 water level, will be arched openings. Through these 
 openings the water will pass to the screens, gates and 
 penstocks, but the outside face of the wall will divert 
 ice and other floating substances to the spillway at the 
 end of the gathering dam as already described. There 
 will also be a spillway at the down-stream end of the 
 screen room over which the debris gathered by the 
 screens will be discharged into the river. The gates 
 will be operated by electric motors. Below the gen- 
 erating room will be the wheelpit, about 416 feet long, 
 22 feet wide, and 158 feet deep. The pit will be 
 lined with masonry and will have several floors or 
 stories. At various points will be store and pump 
 rooms, etc. The penstocks leading from the gate and 
 screen rooms to the wheels, which will be at the bot- 
 tom of the pit. will be steel tubes ten feet six inches 
 in diameter. The wheels will discharge the water 
 through draft tubes into the side discharge tunnels 
 to be described below. They will have two runners 
 right and left and will be connected to the generators 
 on the main generating floor by means of hollow steel 
 shafting about 115 feet in length with solid couplings. 
 The moving parts of the generators and wheels will 
 be carried under normal conditions upon the oil thrust 
 bearings. An adjustable floating piston will carry each 
 wheel shaft, if for any reason the oil thrust bearing 
 does not work. The pressure upon the piston will be 
 applied automatically. Each unit will be provided with
 
 176 
 
 T h c N i a ? a r a F a I } s 
 
 its own independent oil pump for the oil supply. Suit- 
 able air compressors will be provided for cleaning the 
 generators and other uses about the plant. 
 
 Besides the above described equipment the power 
 station will contain two 125-volt exciters of 30O-kilo- 
 
 \VheeI Pit, June 7th, 1904 
 The Electrical Development Company of Ontario, Limited 
 
 watts capacity driven by water wheels, and three ex- 
 citers driven by induction motors ; the necessary cables, 
 bus-bars and switches for properly controlling the gen- 
 erators and distributing the electric current; the gov- 
 ernors for the water wheels ; a machine shop for general
 
 Electrical Handbook if? 
 
 repairs and all the equipment necessary for the suc- 
 cessful operation of the plant. 
 
 The discharge water from the draft tubes will be 
 carried away by two discharge tunnels one on each 
 side of the wheelpit. The draft tubes will enter these 
 tunnels at the bottom, thus forming a water seal. Six 
 of the large wheels will thus discharge into one tunnel 
 and five into the other. At a point about 165 feet from 
 the wheelpit these two tunnels will come together and 
 form the main discharge tunnel which will convey the 
 water to the base of the Horseshoe Falls, at a point 
 about midway between the Canadian and American 
 banks. The form of the tunnels is generally described 
 as horseshoe. The main tunnel has an extreme width 
 of about twenty-four feet and a height of about twenty- 
 six feet. The velocity of the water in the main tun- 
 nel under maximum load will be about twenty-six feet 
 per second. 
 
 Before work in the main tunnel was begun some 
 preliminary work was necessary in the form of a con- 
 struction drift, shown on the plan. This drift started 
 from a shaft which was sunk on the river bank oppo- 
 site the crest of the Horseshoe Falls and had for its 
 objective point the lower end of the main tunnel. Until 
 the face of the Horseshoe Falls was almost reached 
 and only about fifteen feet of wall remained, no 
 difficulties of exceptional character were encountered, 
 and the tunnel had been relatively dry. A fissure in 
 the rock here allowed so much water to enter 
 that it was impossible to keep the tunnel dry enough for 
 working. After fighting the water with varying suc- 
 cess it was decided to explode a large quantity of dyna- 
 mite close to the wall between the tunnel and the face 
 of the Falls. Besides this, the eighteen holes which 
 had with difficulty been drilled in the wall were filled 
 with dynamite and all were exploded together, after 
 the drift had been allowed to flood. The explosion 
 caused an opening into the face of the cliff, but, unfor- 
 tunately, so near the roof of the tunnel that it was im- 
 possible to work at the opposing wall from the inside.
 
 i/8 The X i a g a r a Falls 
 
 At this point the resident engineer undertook heroic 
 measures and called for volunteers to crawl along the 
 ledge on the face of the cliff behind the Falls to the 
 opening which had been made. Two volunteers made 
 the first trip, and finally with great difficulty, large 
 quantities of dynamite were placed against the wall 
 at the end of the tunnel, and it was blown away suffi- 
 ciently to allow the water to run out of the tunnel. In 
 the main tunnel, which is now nearly completed, there 
 is no infiltration whatever. 
 
 Main Tail Race Tunnel Above Spring Line 
 The Electrical Development Company of Ontario, Limited 
 
 The Toronto and Niagara Power Company will re- 
 ceive at its step-up terminal station through under- 
 ground conductors the electric power generated by the 
 Electrical Development Company. The terminal sta- 
 tion will be located on the top of the Niagara embank- 
 ment about fifteen hundred feet from the generating sta- 
 tion, near the tracks of the Michigan Central Railway, 
 and sufficiently far from the river to be free from 
 the dangerous deposit of ice formed by the spray from 
 the Falls. This terminal station will be about 200 feet
 
 Electrical Handbook 179 
 
 long and 65 feet wide. The current will be delivered 
 from the generating station at approximately 12,000 
 volts. The transformers are so designed that current 
 may be distributed from them at forty, fifty or sixty 
 thousand volts. Leading from the terminal station will 
 be local circuits at 12,000 volts and other circuits at 
 higher voltages depending upon the length of the 
 transmission line and the quantity of power to be trans- 
 mitted. 
 
 For the transmission line a right of way has been 
 
 
 
 ical Development Company of Ontario, Limited 
 
 either purchased or arranged for, from the terminal sta- 
 tion at Niagara Falls to the terminal station on the 
 northern boundary of the city of Toronto. It has an 
 average width of over eighty feet. At the crossing of 
 the Welland Canal, towers, carrying the conductors, 
 will be erected of such a height as to allow passage of 
 ships below the conductors. At Burlington Beach, the 
 canal connecting Lake Ontario with Burlington Bay will 
 be crossed, and high towers will also be used at this 
 point. Generally speaking, and with the exception of 
 the rise to the Niagara plateau near Gritnsby, and the
 
 iSo 
 
 ravines in the township of Pelham, the right of way 
 passes through practically a level country, and will pre- 
 sent few difficulties for construction. 
 
 The transmission lines to Toronto will consist of 
 four three-phase circuits to be operated at 60,000 volts. 
 These four circuits will be carried on two lines of steel 
 towers, each line carrying two circuits. The towers will 
 be constructed of galvanized steel angles bolted together. 
 They will be 46 feet high, having a base 14 feet by 12 
 feet. Lengthwise of the line the towers will have a 
 uniform width of 14 feet, top and bottom, while cross- 
 wise of the line the base will be 12 feet, the two sides 
 coming together at the top of the tower. Cross bracing 
 after the general design of wind-mill towers will be 
 used. At the top will be a cross arm in the form of a 
 steel pipe on which will be placed four steel pins carry- 
 ing insulators. The fifth and sixth pins will be sup- 
 ported on vertical steel pipes which will be supported 
 at the point where the sides of the tower come together. 
 The towers are so designed that they will withstand 
 with safety a side strain of io,oco pounds applied at their 
 tops. They will be erected at intervals of about 400 
 feet on the straight line. At curves a less spacing will 
 be used so that the strain upon the tower will be within 
 safe limits. At points where ravines are crossed or 
 abnormal conditions exist, special towers will be pro- 
 vided. 
 
 Porcelain, brown, glazed insulators, having three or 
 four parts according to the manufacturer, will be used. 
 Their approximate dimensions will be, diameter of 
 top of umbrella, 14 inches; height over all. 14 inches. 
 The parts making up the insulator will be cemented 
 together, and the insulator itself will be cemented to the 
 steel pin. 
 
 The conductors will be. carried upon the insulators 
 which will be so placed upon the tower that the con- 
 ductors will be located at the points of intersection of 
 the sides of an equilateral triangle having a horizontal 
 base of six feet. The conductor will be composed of 
 six strands of hard drawn copper wire forming a cable,
 
 Electrical Handbook 
 
 181 
 
 the combined area of the strands being 190,000 circular 
 mils. This wire is being specially drawn with a view 
 of obtaining a high conductivity and at the same time 
 a high tensile strength and elastic limit. The results 
 of tests upon samples of the wire have been very satis- 
 factory, and show that an elastic limit exceeding 35,000 
 pounds per square inch can be obtained with an ulti- 
 mate tensile strength of over 55,000 pounds per square 
 inch. In fixing the spacing of towers, and the sag to 
 be allowed, maximum conditions of wind combined with 
 
 t Company of Ontario, Limited 
 
 sleet and a low temperature have been provided for. 
 The conductor, which will be supplied by the manu- 
 facturer in lengths of 3,000 feet, will be joined by 
 twisted copper sleeves unsoldered. Copper tie wires 
 will be used. 
 
 At various points in each circuit will be placed light- 
 ning arresters of ample capacity, each lightning arrester 
 having a knife switch for disconnecting it from the 
 transmission line. 
 
 The step-down terminal station will be located at
 
 182 T 1 1 c X i a g a r a F a 1 1 s 
 
 the Toronto end of the right of way just outside of 
 the northern boundary of the city of Toronto. This 
 station will be similar in design to the step-up terminal 
 station. From this station will be laid conductors in- 
 stalled in underground conduits connecting with the sub- 
 stations of the Toronto Electric Light Company, and the 
 Toronto Railway Company.
 
 184 'I* h c Niagara Palls
 
 The Ontario Power Company of 
 Niagara Falls 
 
 GENERAL PLAN 
 
 NIAGARA River descends more than 200- feet 
 between the upper line of breakers opposite 
 DufTerin Islands and the foot of Horseshoe 
 Falls. To utilize this head of water, the 
 Ontario Power Company has laid a pipe from an 
 intake at these islands for more than a mile down 
 stream along the Canadian bank of the river, and 
 then dropped it to an electric generating station 
 at the water level in Niagara canon opposite Goat 
 Island. With the intake of the pipe line above the 
 upper rapids, and the power, house in the canon 
 below the falls, nearly 55 feet are added to the head 
 of water available from the cataract alone. This 
 pipe line also passes the series of cascades that ex- 
 tends three-fourths mile up-stream from the falls, 
 and reaches smooth water for the forebay, so that 
 frazil ice will be avoided. Located in the canon 
 near the river level, the power house will require 
 neither vertical generators at the tops of towering 
 shafts, nor a long tunnel to carry off the tail water. 
 
 Electrical energy developed near the base of the 
 cataract passes up through cables and conduits in 
 the cliff to a transformer house above for distribution 
 and transmission. Queen Victoria Park is the site 
 of this hydro-electric system from intake to power 
 house, but the transformer station is located on the 
 land of the company. 
 
 The distinct features of this power development 
 include the following: 
 
 A large, deep forebay with a smooth water sur-
 
 186 T h c .V iaara Pall s 
 
 .n !
 
 Electrical Handbook 187 
 
 face, and a series of ice screens swept clear by cross 
 currents. 
 
 Forebay and penstocks connected by a line of the 
 largest steel water pipe in the world. 
 
 Not less than 175 feet of effective head on tur- 
 bine water wheels. 
 
 Horizontal turbines and electric generators direct 
 coupled at the bottom of the canon. 
 
 The discharge of tail water from the draft tubes 
 directly into the river. 
 
 All main switching and controlling apparatus lo- 
 cated in a distant transformer station instead of at 
 the power house. 
 
 Isolation of each unit of electrical apparatus con- 
 sisting of a generator, its transformers and all inter- 
 mediate connections. 
 
 CAPACITY OF THE WORKS 
 
 Plans now under way provide for the diversion 
 of not less than 11,700 cubic feet of water per sec- 
 ond from the Niagara River at the Dufferin Islands,, 
 the transmission of this water to the power house 
 through steel pipes, and for the development there- 
 from of 135,000 kilowatts or 180,000 electrical horse- 
 power by eighteen generating vmits. 
 
 The immediate development, now well advanced 
 toward completion, includes the entire intake works,, 
 one of the three steel pipes from the intake to the 
 cliff above the power house, penstocks from this 
 pipe to six pairs of main turbine water-wheels, and six 
 io,ooo-h.p. generators with exciters, transformers and 
 accessories. One-third of the complete power house,, 
 and one-third of the transformer station, will be 
 built at once to contain the water-wheels, and the 
 electrical apparatus just named. 
 
 THE INTAKE 
 
 Dufferin Islands, at the head of which the intake 
 works are located, mark a deep indenture in the 
 Canadian shore of the river just where its rush
 
 i88 The Xiagara Palls 
 
 toward the cataract begins to quicken. Toward this 
 indenture the waters strongly set and after passing 
 the intake and ice curtain they are caught between 
 converging walls that extend down to the screen 
 house and form the sides of the outer forebay. On 
 passing through the screens from the outer to the 
 inner forebay, the water changes its direction of flow 
 by almost a right angle, and completes a reverse 
 quadrant between the screen house and the gate 
 house. 
 
 More than double the volume of water that can 
 be drawn from the forebay by the steel pipes is inter- 
 cepted by the up-stream face of the intake, and much 
 is there deflected to form a cross current and carry 
 away ice. This deflection is brought about by the 
 intake construction, which consists of concrete piers 
 and curtain wall, the latter reinforced with steel. 
 These piers and the solid curtain that connects them, 
 rise to elevation 560, or 5 feet above the water level. 
 The curtain drops 12 feet between the piers to within 
 6 feet of the river bed, and / feet below the normal 
 level of the river. In this way a strung current 
 across the face of the curtain wall is set up and will 
 carry floating ice with it. 
 
 Like the walls of the outer forebay, those of the 
 inner one constantly converge. The intake and ice 
 diverting curtain make an angle of about 45 degrees 
 with the centre line of the forebay and is 618 feet 
 long. On a line at right angles to this centre line 
 and at the up-stream end of its river wall the width 
 of the forebay is 420 feet. Where the turn to the 
 screen house begins, the side walls of the forebay 
 are 295 feet apart, and this house connects the two 
 walls with its length of 320 feet. The gate house 
 closes the down-stream ends of the forebay walls 
 and is 120 feet in length. 
 
 At the intake and ice screen the normal depth of 
 water is 13 feet and its velocity about 3 feet per sec- 
 ond. Across the line of greatest forebay width at 
 420 feet the current is 4.7 feet per second and this
 
 Electrical Handbook 189
 
 igo The X i a g a r a Fall s 
 
 velocity is maintained down to the line of 295 feet 
 width where the depth of water is 12 feet. Between 
 this last named line and the screen house the depth 
 of water increases to 20 feet and its velocity drops 
 to 2 feet per second. After passing the screen house 
 the floor of the forebay continues to drop until a 
 depth of 30 feet is reached at the gate house, where 
 the velocity is 3.4 feet per second. 
 
 In the outer forebay, bounded by the river wall, 
 the islands, the intake and the screen house, the area 
 is 8 acres. 
 
 The inner forebay extends between side walls 
 from the screen house to the gate house and has an 
 area of 2 acres. All of this forebay area of 10 acres 
 lies in the normal bed of the river just outside of the 
 Dufferin Islands, and leaves their former area un- 
 diminished, while several entirely new islands of con- 
 siderable area have been added. Besides the line 
 of intake piers and ice curtain. 618 feet in length, 
 which extends diagonally out from the bank above 
 the islands, the larger or outer forebay is separated 
 from the river by a confining wall some 780 feet long, 
 which describes a curve from the outer end of the 
 intake down to the screen house. 
 
 On the river side the screen house and the gate 
 house are connected by an artificial island and a re- 
 taining wall. The confining wall along the river side 
 of the entire forebay sets a little inside of the high- 
 est line of cascades and is sunk one to; five feet below 
 the outside bed rock of the river. In order to ob- 
 tain the required depth of water in the forebay a 
 large amount of limestone bottom which forms the 
 river bed at that point had to be excavated. This 
 removal of rock from the bed of the river left a 
 natural limestone wall along the bank and island 
 side of the smaller or inner forebay. and this natural 
 wall was supplemented with concrete. 
 
 Intake piers that support the ice curtain, as well 
 as the river wall of the entire forebay, the founda- 
 tions of the gate house, and the head block were also
 
 Electrical Handbook 191 
 
 laid with concrete. The retaining walls were laid 
 in sections with dove-tail joints, and their cores were 
 made up in large part of irregular blocks of lime- 
 stone spaced with at least several inches of concrete 
 between. For all this work the regular concrete 
 mixture was one part of Portland cement, three parts 
 of sand and five parts of crushed stone from the river 
 bed. 
 
 At the intake and along down the forebay to the 
 gate house the low water elevation was taken as 
 553 feet above tide water. The top of the retaining 
 wall on the river side of the forebay from the intake 
 piers to within 100 feet of the screen house has an 
 elevation of 553 feet, or just the low water level of 
 the river. At a point TOO feet up-stream from the 
 screen house the top of the wall on the river side 
 of the forebay drops to an elevation of 551 feet and 
 runs at this height for a length of 50 feet, then drops 
 to a 549 foot level and maintains that height down 
 to the screen house. 
 
 When water at the intake is at extreme low level, 
 there is thus a discharge of approximately 50 x 4 or 
 200 square feet cross section over the 50 foot spill- 
 way next to the screen house, and a discharge of 
 50 x 2 or 100 square feet cross section over the 
 5o-foot spillway next up-stream. These spillways 
 consequently will create a strong surface current right 
 across the front of the screens, and this tends to 
 sweep all ice that may have passed the ice curtain 
 at the intake out into the river. With high water 
 the entire river wall of the forebay as far down as 
 the screen house acts as a spillway. This interferes 
 in no wise with the regular action of the deeper 
 weir section, in reality supplementing it throughout 
 the entire length of the wall. 
 
 The screen house foundations and screens rise to 
 an elevation of 560 feet, or 7 feet higher than low 
 water, and 25 feet above the floor of the forebay at 
 this point. Both walls of the inner forebay stand 
 at this elevation of 560 feet, from the screen house
 
 Electrical Handbook 193 
 
 down to the gate house, where the floor level of the 
 forebay is 525 feet. Just in front of the gate house 
 at the river end there is an ice run 5 feet wide, 3 
 feet high, and with its sill at an elevation of 550 feet 
 in the forebay wall. This provides a further means 
 of discharging ice and floating debris at this point. 
 
 Across the floor of the outer forebay, just in 
 front of the rack in the screen house, there is a 
 trench two feet wide and four feet deep to catch sand 
 and gravel that may be moving along the floor of 
 the forebay. This trench connects with the river 
 through an arched opening in the forebay wall, and 
 is swept clean when required by a strong discharge 
 current. 
 
 At the gate house as well as at the screen house 
 there is an ice screen, and it is expected that these 
 two will clear the water of all floating object? that 
 pass the solid curtain at the intake. An artistic 
 stone structure with steel trusses covers the entire 
 length of the screens, and its roof forms a broad 
 promenade commanding an exceptionally fine view 
 of the rapids. The gate house is also of stone, and 
 of artistic design. Entry to each main pipe at the 
 gate house is closed by a steel gate 18 feet square, 
 of the "Stoney" type, which rests on a steel sill when 
 down. This gate is counterbalanced and runs be- 
 tween roller guides so that the work of operation 
 is done by a motor of only 5 h.p. 
 
 THE PIPE LINES 
 
 Starting from the gate house three steel pipes 
 will follow the river bank through the Queen Victoria 
 Park to the top of the cliff above the power house 
 and there connect with eight penstocks each. From 
 head gates to the nearest penstock the length of each 
 of the pipes is 6,180 feet, and the most distant pen- 
 stock is nearly 1,000 feet farther down stream. 
 
 Each of the main pipes has an inside diameter of 
 18 feet, the largest used anywhere to convey water, 
 and connects with six penstocks of 9 feet diameter,
 
 i(?4 The Niagara Fall s 
 
 and two of 30 inches diameter, at the top of the 
 cliff. At the gate house the centre elevation of 
 each i8-foot pipe will be 534 feet, or 19 feet below the 
 low water level in the forebay, and the centre eleva- 
 tion of the same pipes at that point on the cliff 
 where the first penstock is connected will be 506 feet, 
 showing a 28-foot drop in the pipes. Each of these 
 i8-foot pipes with its eight penstocks conveys water 
 for the development of 60,000 electrical horse power 
 besides that delivered by the exciters. For this 
 power development each pipe will deliver about 3,900 
 
 The 
 
 cubic feet of water per second when its connected 
 generators are fully loaded, and the velocity of the 
 water in the pipe will then be nearly 15 feet per 
 second. 
 
 Steel plates l / 2 inch thick and joined with double 
 rows of one inch rivets are used to form the i8-foot 
 pipes, and these plates are reinforced by 8-inch steel 
 bulb tees, or deck beams, bent to the radius of each 
 pipe and riveted to its upper half at intervals of four 
 feet throughout its entire length. From head gates 
 to penstocks the pipes will lie in trenches excavated
 
 Electrical Handbook 19$ 
 
 for the purpose through the Park, and with these 
 trenches filled with earth the support thus given to 
 the lower halves of the pipes makes unnecessary the 
 use of circular beams to reinforce those parts. Be- 
 fore each pipe is covered its outside surface is 
 cleaned by sand blast and painted to prevent rust, 
 and conducting terminals are also attached to it 
 at intervals of four feet. These terminals are con- 
 nected to a conductor for carrying off stray electric 
 current which might otherwise cause damage by 
 electrolysis. The earth covering varies in depths 
 with the surface of the park. One of the three pipes 
 is included in the section of the work now nearing 
 completion. 
 
 Each i8-foot pipe turns up into an open relief 
 and spillway at its end on the cliff where the pen- 
 stocks are connected. These spills serve to reduce 
 fluctuations of head and pressure at both increase 
 and decrease of loads. 
 
 The spillways being open and provided with over- 
 flow pipes send any excess of water to the river 
 when the load is suddenly reduced, and thus prevent 
 any dangerous rise of pressure. 
 
 THE PENSTOCKS 
 
 Eight penstocks will connect with each i8-foot pipe 
 at the top of the cliff, and drop through shafts and 
 tunnels in the rock to the power house in the canon 
 below. These penstocks are divided into four pairs, 
 each of which has its own shaft and tunnel. Six of 
 the penstocks, forming three pairs, have a diameter 
 of 9 feet each and carry water to the wheels of six 
 main generators. The two smaller penstocks are 
 each 30 inches in diameter, pass through the same 
 tunnel, and deliver water for the wheels of two ex- 
 citers. A chamber beneath the point where each 
 pair of penstocks joins the main pipe provides. room 
 for their valves and for the electric motors by which 
 the valves are operated. 
 
 Each 9-foot penstock for the turbine of a gen-
 
 iy6 The Niagara Falls 
 
 crating unit rises to the wheel centre at elevation 
 373 after passing through a tunnel of somewhat 
 lower level, so that the drop between the centre of 
 the i8-foot pipe and the centres of the main wheels 
 is 133 feet. The exciter penstocks reach their wheel 
 centres at elevation 380.8 or about 125 feet below the 
 centre of the main pipe on the cliff above. 
 
 THE TURBINES 
 
 A twin turbine wheel mounted on a horizontal 
 shaft in the power house will be direct connected to 
 
 Interior of Pipe 
 The Ontario Power Company 
 
 each 7,50O-kw. generator. Each of these wheels has a 
 diameter of 6.5 feet at the tips of the runners, and 
 operates at 187^ rev. per min. The pair of wheels 
 on each shaft is mounted with the centres of their 
 cases 18 feet, 2 inches apart, and between the cases 
 there is a draft tube and also a bearing for the shaft. 
 Before delivering its water to the turbine the 9-foot 
 penstock divides into two branches, one for each 
 wheel. Each main penstock is also provided with 
 two relief valves that discharge into the tail race 
 when open.
 
 Electrical Handbook 197 
 
 The two draft elbows from each pair of main tur- 
 bines will unite near the floor line of the power house 
 in a single tube formed in the concrete foundation. 
 This concrete draft tube has a total length includ- 
 ing its curved portion of nearly 50 feet. It is circular 
 in cross section and 10 feet in diameter near the 
 floor level, but changes lower down to a rectangular 
 section of equal area. Each concrete draft tube will 
 terminate in a tail race beneath the foundations of 
 the power house, and this tail race will be provided 
 with a wall of overfall section on its river side. The 
 top of this wall is at elevation 349.5, or 7 feet above 
 the mean water level of the river outside. 
 
 When all the turbines are in operation at full 
 load the surface of the water in the tail race will rise 
 to about 353.2 feet in elevation, so as to give a dis- 
 charge nearly 3.5 feet deep over the crest of the 
 waste wall. 
 
 Electric exciters and their direct connected tur- 
 bines will be located on a raised gallery on the side of 
 the station farthest from the river, and the oil actu- 
 ated governors controlling the speed of all turbines 
 will be also mounted upon this gallery. This loca- 
 tion was selected to bring them within easy reach 
 of the attendant stationed on this gallery, which 
 overlooks the entire generating station. From it 
 the operation of the station will be conducted. Each 
 exciter will be of 5oo-h. p. capacity and will be driven 
 at 300 rev. per min. by a 39-inch impulse wheel 
 mounted upon the exciter shaft. The effective head 
 on the exciter wheel will be the same as that on the 
 main turbines. The wheels for each exciter will pass 
 50 cubic feet of water per second at full load. 
 
 ELECTRIC GENERATORS 
 
 Three of the eighteen main generators provided for 
 by the general plan will make up the first installation. 
 Each of these generators is rated at 7,500 kw., or 
 10,000 e.h.p., and to deliver three-phase current of 25 
 cycles per second at 12,000 volts when operating at
 
 ip8 The Niagara Falls 
 
 187.5 re v. per min. The armatures in these generators 
 are stationary and the magnets rotate on horizontal 
 shafts. The bed plate of each generator measures 
 26 feet, 7 inches, at right angles to the shaft, and 
 the length from the centre of coupling to the end 
 of shaft is 20 feet, 2 inches. For each generator and 
 its pair of direct connected turbines the floor space 
 will be about 20 by 49 feet. The revolving part of 
 each generator weighs 82.5 tons, and the total weight 
 of the machine is 204.6 tons. The revolving magnet 
 has a diameter of 15 feet, 2.5 inches, and carries 10 
 poles. In the external armature the dividing line of 
 its halves is the horizontal diameter. The external 
 diameter of the armature casing measures about 21 
 feet, 6 inches. The shaft diameter is 21 inches. 
 
 Two exciting dynamos, of 500 h.p. capacity each, 
 will be provided for the six main generators that are 
 driven by the water from one of the i8-foot pipes. 
 Direct current at 250 volts will be delivered by 
 these dynamos, and used for the operation of lamps, 
 motors, oil switches, and for charging storage bat- 
 teries, as well as for exciting the generator magnets. 
 One of the 5OO-h.p. dynamos will have sufficient 
 capacity to excite the magnets of six main genera- 
 tors, with the second dynamo of like capacity held 
 in reserve. Two of these exciting dynamos direct 
 connected to their respective wheels are being in- 
 stalled with the first three of the main generators. 
 
 SWITCHES AND SWITCHING 
 
 Generators at the power house in the canon are 
 to be connected and controlled by apparatus in the 
 transforming and distributing station some 550 feet 
 distant and 255 above on the cliff. 
 
 This distant control removes from the power 
 house the possible dangers incident to the operation 
 of high voltage switches for generators as well as 
 transformers, and also concentrates the management 
 of both in a single operating room. 
 
 At the power house will be located 25O-volt
 
 Electrical Handbook 199 
 
 switches that connect the exciters with generator 
 magnets, motor, control and lighting circuits, and 
 with a storage battery that is located in or near the 
 distributing station. 
 
 The power house will contain also time limit and 
 overload relays for the main generators to protect 
 them from overload by opening any generator 
 switch when the load for which the relay is set is 
 exceeded. Either or both of the exciters may be 
 used at any time to supply current for the purposes 
 named, including the excitation of magnets at any 
 
 Site of Power House 
 The Ontario Power Company 
 
 of the six generators that are driven by water from 
 the same i8-foot pipe. 
 
 Among the important control circuits that may be 
 operated from the power house will be those of the 
 motors in the valve chambers under the i8-foot pipe 
 which admit or shut off water from the g-foot pen- 
 stocks of the main wheels. Each of these valve 
 motors is of the induction type and is rated at 3O-h.p. 
 
 Aside from the necessary operation of the 
 switches already named at the power house, the 
 speed, voltage and connections of the main generators
 
 200 The Niagara Falls 
 
 will be controlled at the distributing station. To this 
 end the distributing station will contain a complete 
 group of indicating instruments for each generating 
 unit and is connected by telephone with the power 
 house. In the switch room at the distributing sta- 
 tion the oil switches for the I2,ooo-volt generator 
 circuits will be mounted in concrete cells and grouped 
 separately for each unit. These switches are to be 
 all of the vertical plunger type and operated by elec- 
 tromagnets. 
 
 Three-pole oil switches like those used in the 
 generator circuits will connect the primary coils of 
 transformer groups to the I2,ooo-volt bus bars, and 
 other three-pole switches of special design will join 
 the secondary coils of transformers to the high- 
 tension bus bars. Each circuit will pass through 
 two of these special switches before it reaches these 
 bus bars. As these switches must break a maximum 
 current of 10,000 h.p. at transmission voltage, they 
 will necessarily involve some novel construction, and 
 each is expected to contain 500 gallons of oil. 
 
 A complete set of control devices for the circuits 
 of each io,ooo-h.p. unit will be located on a single, 
 isolated pedestal, to prevent the possible communica- 
 tion of trouble from the connections of one unit to 
 those of another, and this pedestal will carry a dia- 
 gram on its face representing the arrangement of all 
 the connections concerned. 
 
 Just back of each control pedestal there will be an 
 instrument stand that will carry a full set of indicat- 
 ing instruments. Each transmission circuit will also 
 be provided with control pedestals and instrument 
 stand like those just named. 
 
 TRANSFORMERS 
 
 Besides main and control switches and connec- 
 tions the distributing station will contain an isolated 
 group of three single-phase transformers for each 
 main generator. The rating for each of these trans- 
 formers is 2,500 kw., or 3.300 h.p., a capacity greater
 
 Electrical Handbook 201 
 
 than that of any that have yet been built. Each 
 transformer will have a weight of about 40 tons, 
 and will contain 70 barrels of oil. To cool one of 
 these transformers, 10 gallons of water will enter 
 and flow through its case per minute. Pits formed 
 of concrete and connected with a sewer will con- 
 tain these transformers in groups of three, so that 
 any trouble in one group will not extend to another. 
 
 CABLE CONNECTIONS 
 
 All of the cables and control wires for the six main 
 generators and two exciters, driven by water from 
 one of the i8-foot pipes, will leave the power house 
 by way of the tunnel that also carries the exciter pen- 
 stocks, and pass from its top to the distributing sta- 
 tion through a line of clay conduits near the surface. 
 The length of this tunnel is about 280 feet, and its 
 angle varies from 33 to 60 degrees. Power cables 
 are carried by tile ducts imbedded in the concrete 
 sides of the tunnels, and broken at intervals for the 
 insertion of steel clamps to prevent sliding of the 
 cables. These power cables are to be paper-insulated 
 lead covered, and protected with layers of jute and stee 
 wires. 
 
 The control wires will be suspended from the roof 
 of the tunnel in iron pipes, and will be also clamped 
 at frequent intervals to prevent displacement.
 
 PART V 
 FROM NIAGARA TO CHICAGO
 
 From Niagara to Chicago 
 
 THE Niagara River is crossed by way of the 
 steel cantilever bridge of the Michigan Cen- 
 tral Railroad, a structure possessing some 
 features of interest to engineers. From it 
 the cataract is plainly visible on the left, and the 
 dark, angry waters of the narrow gorge for below 
 at the right. At Falls View a magnificent panorama 
 
 is spread out before the spectator who stands upon 
 the bluff 150 feet above the crest of the falls, and 
 here the train stops for five minutes to allow pas- 
 sengers to enjoy the spectacle. Far beyond to the 
 south is seen the grand sweep of the rapids of the 
 upper river; directly in front is the magnificent 
 Horseshoe Falls, "The Heart of Niagara," and be- 
 yond lies Goat Island and the American Falls, while 
 
 . 205
 
 206 The Niagara Falls 
 
 to the north is the gorge. In the immediate fore- 
 ground is the construction work of the three Cana- 
 dian Power Companies, which are pushing rapidly 
 toward completion the development of 375,000 horse- 
 power. The Carmelite Monastery on the bluff just 
 beyond Falls View is interesting on account of the 
 electric heating plant installed by a scientific Brother, 
 one of the first of the kind in the country, and which 
 does all the work of the kitchen and laundry for the 
 entire establishment. 
 
 At Welland a glimpse may be had of the Welland 
 Canal, a small but most important waterway, giving 
 access by way of the St. Lawrence River to the most 
 extensive mid-continental water system in the world. 
 
 St. Thomas is midway between Niagara and 
 Detroit, and is one of the most important cities of 
 central Ontario. London, with a population of 
 38,000 is but fifteen miles north, and Port Stanley on 
 Lake Erie is close by. The southern portion of 
 Ontario is a rich agricultural country noted for its 
 fine crops of grain and fruit, and for its blooded 
 stock, which is not excelled by the most favored 
 region of the States. At Windsor the Detroit River 
 is crossed, the entire train being taken upon one of 
 the powerful steel ferry boats of the Michigan Cen- 
 tral. The Detroit River is a busy waterway, and 
 from its beauty as well as from its topographical 
 situation has been called the Bosphorus of America. 
 Standing upon the bridge of the transfer steamer by 
 night, and gazing at the moving lights on the river 
 and the constellations upon the tall masts that illu- 
 mine the city, or by day watching the thronging 
 commerce, the lover of the picturesque will regret 
 the day when the necessities of commerce demand 
 a more speedy passage of the river by bridge or 
 tunnel instead of the more attractive, though brief, 
 sail across the straits. 
 
 Detroit has a better class of workingmen's homes, 
 with a larger percentage owned by the occupants 
 than the majority of American cities. Points of
 
 Electrical Handbook 207 
 
 especial interest are the water works, located in a 
 beautiful park; the fine Museum of Art; Belle Isle 
 Park, a magnificent island pleasure ground; Lake 
 St. Clair; Mount Clemens, with its saline springs 
 and baths; and the watering places of Grosse Isle 
 and St. Clair Flats where Detroiters take their sum- 
 mer recreation. Nearly 700 miles of electric roads 
 radiate from Detroit. 
 
 Ypsilanti is twenty-nine miles from Detroit and 
 is noted for its saline wells and baths, and also for 
 the gardens and greenhouses which supply the Mich- 
 igan Central Station grounds and dining cars with 
 plants and flowers. It is lighted by electricity and 
 has a fine water system. 
 
 Ann Arbor, thirty-seven miles, is one of the 
 handsomest cities in the state. The University of 
 Michigan, ranking fourth in point of attendance 
 among the great institutions of learning in America, 
 is located here. Not only are students present from 
 every state and territory in the union, and every 
 province of Canada, but Japan, China, Egypt, South 
 Africa, England, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Turkey, 
 Hawaii, Porto Rico and Philippine Islands are rep- 
 resented. The Engineering laboratory, several times 
 enlarged, now occupies 30,000 feet of floor space and 
 is very complete. 
 
 Jackson, finely located on Grand River, one of 
 the most important cities of Southern Michigan, and 
 a considerable railway centre, is seventy-five miles 
 from Detroit. The city is lighted by electricity, and 
 is supplied with both illuminating and fuel gas. 
 Artesian water is supplied by the Holly System. 
 Grand Rapids, ninety-four miles from Jackson, is 
 the metropolis of western Michigan, and is noted far 
 and wide for its furniture and other manufacto- 
 ries. The city has a fine water power and is well 
 provided with electric light and transportation facil- 
 ities. Marshall, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Niles 
 are fine towns on the main line. 
 
 Battle Creek is a thriving town with an interest-
 
 208 The Niagara Falls 
 
 ing history. Its name is often met with in far away 
 places on threshing machines and furniture and espe- 
 cially upon breakfast foods, of which a hundred 
 kinds are manufactured here. The Battle Creek 
 Sanitarium accommodates 800 to 1,000 patients, and 
 maintains branches in the various capitals of Europe 
 as well as in India, Australia and Japan. Its electri- 
 cal equipment, not only as regards light and power, 
 but in the various apparatus for Finsen and X-ray 
 treatment, electric light and current baths, is inter- 
 esting and complete. Battle Creek has a water 
 power, being situated at the junction of Battle Creek 
 and the Kalamazoo river. At Buchanan, a quiet 
 little town eighty-six miles from Chicago on the St. 
 Joe river, is a new electric installation which was 
 recently described by an authority as likely to be 
 one of the most permanent and financially successful 
 water power electric plants in the country. 
 
 Michigan City, the southernmost port on Lake 
 Michigan and noted for its curious sand dunes, has 
 considerable manufacturing and is well lighted by 
 electricity. 
 
 Between New Buffalo and Chicago (Kensington) 
 the Michigan Central Railroad has had in operation 
 for some time a telegraphing system, by which a 
 single wire is employed simultaneously for telegraph- 
 ing and telephoning. 
 
 Chicago is reached after a pleasant ride along the 
 shore of Lake Michigan, whose waters sparkle in the 
 sun, with views of Jackson Park, the Field Colum- 
 bian Museum and the Chicago University passing in 
 quick succession as the train passes by, and almost 
 before one realizes that he is in the heart of the 
 great, bustling city of Chicago, the train rolls into 
 the Central station on the Lake Front.
 
 O nr 
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