Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-04-15
NIAGARA IN HARNESS
WATER FROM THE GREAT FALLS
USED TO DRIVE MACHINERY.
A Great Engineering work-over s2.-
100000 Spent for 100, 900 Horsepower.
There VIII Iie Little D.r.ina.!sr ss the
Flow Over the Falls.

No engineer ever looked at the spec
tacle of power displayed by Niagara
falls without a feeling that it was q
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 aud available units OF
work The prophecies Of years are
about to materialize in a great power
plant which will utilize 100. 900 of the
10000 600 of horsepower going to waste
over the falls, aud T.. SOC. 900 has been
expended. aud the water wheels will be
in 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 1870. when Horace A.
Dey caused the construction Of canal,
which takes water from a point above
the rapids and conducts il 10 a set of
mills built on the banks below the falls
and now known rs Schoellkopf' = mills.
The Niagara river makes bend at a
right angle, and the falls are at the apex
OF that angle. This canal forms the hy-
pothennsc Of a right aDgled triangle. OF
which the longest side is the river above
and the shortest side the river below the
falls 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 6.OU0 horsepower is
utilized
The new works have reversed this
plan Of long supply canal and a short
tailrace. They have been constructed
on modification Of a plan first proposed
by Thomas Duershed, a division engl-
neer OF the New York state canals Tho
plan is to have the mills on the banks
above the falls and at distance from
the scenic locality, aud then to have
long tunnel to carry the waste water
down to the rapids.
The mouth Of the canal is more than
| a mile above the falls. AS far as con-
strncted tile canal is about | 500 feet
long IL feet deep and varies from a
breadth of 200 feet at the mouth to 100
feet at its inner end Along the sides
Of this canal aud OF its branches TO DO
built are sunk pits to a depth Of 1860
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 II. The water Ia
carried down 10 them in great pipes
seven or eight feet IN diameter, called
penstocks. After the water had done
its work on the wheels it il discharged
into the big tunnel, which runs away un-
derground TO the river below the falls.
! This tunnel has been the most diff
cult and costly part Of the work so far.
IL was cnt through solid limestone rock,
but the rock was found to crumble SO
i badly after exposure that the whole
/ 1000 feet of the tunnel had To be bricked
/ up. II Is in the form Of horseshoe.
| twenty eight feet high and eighteen feet
broad inside dimensions Starting at a
depth of 100 feet IL has downward
slope or pitch of four feet in thousand
at first. increasing to seven feet in a
| Thousand. Its mouth where 1t dis
charges into the rapids is PA feet below
the brink of the cliffs which form the
ravine. Its cross section Is 1876 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 30. .en0 gallons every minute
And yet this enormous amount of
tsssHt al.,a.
drain whatever on the magnificent vol
ume OF Niagara. Ii will lower the
level Of the great food only about one
and a half inches The extent aud con-
siancy Of this water power can be un-
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 PIC. 600 square
miles-equal 10 more than twice the area
OF Great Britain aud Ireland. about 40,-
900 square miles more than the total
area of France aud more than fifteen
times the total area OF Switzerland. The
Horseshoe falls are 15s feet high and
1000 feet wide The other channel. in
the state of New York. forms the Amer
lean falls, which are 1859 feet high at
the eastern side. and 900 feet wide,
both falls comprising 5000 linear feet Of
water
The extreme limits of variation in the
depth of the river al different times
above the falls are 81 feet, but these
limits are rarely reached. Theordinary
variation IL about one foot Below the
falls the extreme variation reaches fif-
teen feet GENERALLY variation of one
foot above the falls is followed By a
change of level of tive feet below the
falls These slight changes are of short
duration. and are due mainly to long con-
tinued aud violent wind or sudden great
accumulations of ice.
The average discharge of water at the
outlet of Lake Erie into the Niagara
river Is estimated by some authorities at
265, 600 cubic feet second Moreover
as far as this or the next two genera
tions are concerned. it doesn't matter
whether there Is any rainfall, for there
are 5000 cubic miles of water backed nm
in the little mill pond of the niagara
Falls Power company. which Is sufficient
10 run the falls in their present style for
100 years without the help of another
drop from the clouds. New York Trib-
une.