Arizona republican., 1893-02-08
In HARNESS
NLIeR FROM THE GREAT FALLS
Used 70 DRIVE MACHINERY.


Flow over the Falls,
80 engineer ever looked at the spec
Icle Of power displayed by Niagara
L,Is without feeling that it was a
rr,mp 10 allow the enormous energy
,bere stored up to run to waste from
,rprrity 10 eternity The artist is con-
lent 10 steep his soul in the beauty of
l5e scene, but the average utilitarian
american is likely TO do some figuring
I'm horsepower and available units of
work The prophecies of years are
sbout to materiali2e in great power
Nlant which will utilize 100000 of the
$1,000 900 of horsepower going TO waste
over the falls, and $2,5OO,0OO has been
expended, and the water wheels will be
IN place and the Sluices will be opened.
From the early years Of the owner.
shin of the falls by the Porter family
,be advantages of the great water power
were freely discussed, but nothing was
done until about 1850, when Horace A.
Dpy 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 ,he falls
and now known as Schoellkopf S mills
The Niagara river makes a bend at
right angle, and the falls are at the apex
Of that angle. This canal forms the hy-
potheuusc Of a right angled tri9 ngle, Of
which the longest side is the riv above
and the shortest side the river below the
falls The mills are near the fl lis and
are not a picturesque feature of the
scenery
The turbines which drive the hills are
sunk in pits only about tiftyor sixty feet
deep and consequently their tell races
discharge a 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 cancl is thus
wasted Less than 5000 HORSEPOWER is
utilized
The new works have rever ed this
plan OF long supply canal and short
tailrace They have been con itructed
on a modification of plan first proposed
BY Thomas Duershed, a 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 t. have a
long tunnel to carry the vase water
down to the rapids.
The mouth OF the canal is m IRE than
a mile above the falls. As far as con-
structed the canal is about 900 feet
long, u feet deep, and varies from
breadth of 200 feet AT the mouth to 100
feet at its inner end Along tde sides
Of this canal and OF its branches to be
built are sunk pits to a depth of 100
feet and at the bottom of these pits are
placed the turbine water wheels Each
Of these wheels has $40 feet effective
head Of water over it. The water is
carried down to them in great pipes
seven or eight feet in diameter, called
penStocks 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
1t was cut through solid limestone rock
Out the rock was found to crumble SO
badly after exposure that the whole
1000 feet Of the tunnel had to be bricked
Up 1t is in the form Of horseshoe,
twenty-eight feet high and eighteen feet
broad, inside dimensions. Starting at a
depth Of 100 feet it has 4 downward
slope or pitch of four feet il thousand
al first, increasing to seven feet in
thousand. Its mouth where it dis
charges into the rapids is PA feet below
the brink of the cliffs which form the
ravine. Its cross section is 1865 square
feet, and at the speed of twenty feet
second, with which the water will rush
out Of 1t, there will be a discharge Of
about so, 900 gallons every minute.
And yet this enormous amount Of
water will not show any appreciate
drain whatever on the magnificent vol.
ume Of Niagara It will lower the
level Of the great food only about one
and half inches The extent and con-
stancy Of this water power can be I'M
derstOOd when IT is realized that the
water service Of the great lakes, with
the land sloping into them and contrib
uting to the Falls of Niagara, has to-
tai drainage basin of over 24O, 900 square
mlles-equal TO more than twice the area
OF Great Britain and Ireland, about 40
VO square miles more than the total
area Of France. and more than fifteen
times the total area of Switzerland. The
horseshoe falls are 1853 feet high and
2OOO feet wide The other channel, in
The state Of New York, forms the Amer.
lean falls, which are 1869 feet high at
the eastern side. and 1000 feet wide,
both falls comprising 5000 linear feet of
water
The extreme limits Of variation in the
depth of the river at different times
above the falls are 81 feet, but these
limits are rarely reached The ordinary
variation Is about one foot. Below the
ialls the extreme variation reaches fif-
Teen feet. Generally variation of one
loot above the falls is followed by a
change of level of five feet below the
iaIIs. These slight changes are Of short
duration, and are due mainly to long con-
unued and violent wind or sudden great