Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1892-11-17
NIAGARA IN HARNESS
WATER FROM THE GREAT FALLS
USED TO DRIVE MACHINERY.
A Great Engineering Work-Over &c.
100000 Spent for 1907 900 Horsepower.
There vii. BE Little DiminutiOn of the
Flow Over the Falls.

thClC vi lvOWCl
falls without feeling that it was
crime to allow the enormous energy
there stored up to run to waste from
eternity to eternity. The artist is con-
tent to steep his soul in the beauty of
the scene. but the average utilitarian
American is likely to do some figuring
on horsepower and available units of
work The prophecies of years are
about to materialize in great power
plant which will utilize 100000 of the
$4,000 900 Of horsepower going to waste
over the falls, and $500, 900 has been
expended. and the water wheels will be
III place and the sluices will be opened.
From the early years of the owner
ship of the falls by the Porter family
the advantages of the great water power
were freely discussed, but nothing was
done until about 1850, when Horace A.
Dey caused the construction of canal,
which takes water from a point above
the rapids and conducts it to set of
mills built on the banks below the falls
and now known as Schoellkopf mills
The Niagara river makes a bend at
right angle, and the falls are at the apex
Of that angle. This canal forms the n.y.
pothenuse of right angled triangle, of
which the longest side is the river above
and the shortest side the river below the
alls. The mills are near the falls and
are not picturesque feature of the
scenery.
The turbines which drive the mills are
sunk in pits only about fifty or sixty feet
deep. and consequently their tail races
discharge hundred feet or more above
the surface Of the rapids below the falls,
and half Of the available power of the
water brought down by the canal is thus
wasted. Less than 5000 horsepower is
utilized.
The new works have reversed this
plan of "A long supply canal and a short
tailrace. They have been constructed
on modification of IA plan first proposed
by Thomas Duershed, division engl-
neer Of the New York state canals. The
plan is to have the mills on the banks
above the falls and at distance from
the scenic locality, and then to have a
long tunnei TO carry the waste water
down to the rapids.
The month of the canal is more than
81 mile above the falls. As far as con-
structed the canal is about | 800 feet
long, II feet deep and varies from
breadth of 200 feet at the mouth TO 100
feet at its inner end. Along the sides
of this canal and Of its branches to be
Dnilt are sunk pits TO d depth Of 100
feet and at the bottom of these pits are
placed the turbine water wheels. Each
of these wheels has l40 feet effective
head of water over it. The water is
carried down to them in great pipes
seven or eight feet in diameter. called
peIstocks. After the water had done
its work on the wheels it is discharged
INTO the big tunnel. which runs away I'M
foreground to the river below the falls.
This tunnel has been the most diff
cult and costly part of the work So far.
Ii was cut through solid limestone rock,
hut the rock was found to crunble so
badly after exposure that the whole
1000 feet of the tunnel had to be bricked
up. 1t is i'll the form of Il horseshoe,
twenty eight feet high and eighteen feet
broad. inside dimensions. Starting at
depth of 100 feet it has downward
slope or pitch of four feet in a thousand
at first. increasing to seven feet in a
thousand Its mouth where it dis
charges into the rapids is pa feet below
Inc brink of the cliffs which form the
ravine. its cross section is 365 square
feet. and at the speed of twenty feet
second. with which the water will rush
out of it. there will be discharge of
about 50. o0O gallons every minute.