Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1893-02-17
NIAGARA TUNNEL.
THE CAPTURE OF THE CATARACT.

more than fifty years the dream OF engin-
GERS has been to "harness Niagara.
Well. the dream has come true. Niagara
l. in harness. 70 be sure, the trace
chains have not yet been hooked to the
whlfile-trees Of industry, but the collar
aud names, the bride and bit are in
position and ready for the strain
when it shall come. The greatest
cataract of the world has been subdued,
and If, IN knowledge of its captivity, its
roar is more sullen than of yore when it
existed only us an insurmountable obsta-
Gle to navigation and wonder for sight
seers to grow solemn over, the smiles on
the faces of capitalists, the new jingle
| in the pockets Of residents Of the village
of Niagara Falls, and the complacent
prophecies of the Buflalonan that ten
years hence "ChicagO will not be in it,
sir; no sir, not on your life" are atone
ments. 1t is estimated that the total
power of the great waterfall is equal to
who has seen its mighty volume this
does not seem absurd. The present
scheme will only utilize less than one
one-hundreth of that vast wasting force,
but Il may be stretched in the future
to as great length as may be made use
full. The effect of this great enterprise
may not be as great as the sanguine
remark of the Buffalo man who has been
quoted would imply, but it will be very
great
! OF course many of the manufacturing
interests which will be attracted by
cheap power will gather in the town
which hovers on the brink of the cataract,
and which has in the past been notable
principally for its big hotels, its clamor-
Gus cabbies and its Indian bazaars. But
a plan has teen devised whereby the
power will be electrically transmitted
to Buffalo with comparatively small loss,
so that this city will undoubtedly come
in for many of the buildings plums.
The village of Niagara Falls itself has
gone wild with boom almost Western
in its enthusiasm.
The first attempt to utilize the water
power of Niagara Falls was imade by
Horace \. Dey, who in 1850 built the old
hydraulic canal running from above
the rapids to what are now known as
Shoelkopf's mills on the brink of the
cataract. This canal discharges its
water INTO wheelpits only co feet deep,
which in turn discharge at point more
than 100 feet above the level of the river
below the falls, so that more than three
quarters of the possible. force is wasted.
The old hydraulic canal gives in all
only about 5000 available horse power.
The new method is the same principle
differently applied. \ canal has been
cut from above the rapids, as in Dey'
plan, but it runs only a short distance
before it reaches the pits, which are l20
feet deep. A sheer fall through great
pipes is thus obtained, which is nearly
as great as the height of the falls.
Thus far the work was comparatively
easy; the fun came in giving the water a
vent from the bottom of the wheel pits.
This was accomplished by the con-
struction of ii great tunnel through
solid limestone rock, from the wheelpts,
to below the falls. The water abstract
ed from the river thus flows for short
distance through the canal, then takes
its big tumble through the pits down to
the turbine wheels. and then flows
through the tunnel to the rivers lower
level This tunnel is S7l3 feet long, IS
feet high and Is feet broad, in semi-cir-
cular form. 1t is bricked up along its
whole length, an undertaking which
has consumed 100000 cubes of baked
clay. The total cost of the enterprise so
far has been trifle of S2,500,0 900. With
the wheelpits already finished or under
way, the plant will develop minimum
of 10000 horse power. This would be
more than sufficient to run seven of the
largest steamships afloat, and steam
shil are not easy things to run.
1t is highly improbable, however, that
the power from the falls will be utilized
in ocean navigation. But If the dreams
OF the projectors of this great enterprise
cometrue, some things almost as remark
able as that would be as likely to occur
Its promoters have been devoting all
most as much attention to studying how to
transmit the power as they have to study
ing how to develop it. just what their
scheme is;they won't tell. But they bold
ly assert that they can deliver power in
Buffalo at only slight loss and darkly
hint at being able to send it by wire to
any distance as easily as you can send a
message by telephone.
In order to increase the powe. it will
be necessary only to dig new wheel pits.
The canal and the tunnel are big
enough to hold waterIfor 200, 600 horse
power, and THAT is what the company
I planasg itc mo vi Foopooit,- ne