The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-15
HARNESS0F NIAGARA
1T WILL BE FULLY READY FOR
SERVICE SOME TIME TO-
DAY.
A GREAT CATARACTS WORK.
How the Great Chains Were FORCED
and How the Current Will Be
Carried.

NIAGARA FALLS, Nov. 12.-One
part of the task undertaken by the
Cataract Construction company and
the Niagara Power company was com
pleted on March %, 1895, when the
builder Of the giant dynamos in the
power house there threw back the
controlling lever al big No. 1 began
to revolve as easily and steadily as the
water slips over tie brow of the preci-
pice itself. Stree that day the "har-
Messing of Niagara, which was for $50
years the dream of engineers, has been
an accomplished fact But to subdue
the great cataract and make it turn
the wheels of the mills that have
sprung up about it, though an engin-
eering feat of greater dimensions than
any before attempted, was only half
the enterprise in which the men who
have wrought such wonders here had
embarked
The second half Of the scheme was
fully as interesting as the first to the
engineering world, because, while it's
feasibility could be perfectly demon
strated on paper, it offered new and in
teresting problems in actual construc-
ton. Although long-distance trans
mission was not an untried thing, and
electric power had been sent for con-
siderable distances in Germany and
France, it never before had been at
tempted on anything like so exteisive
scale. Now, on Nov. Is, a year and
q half after the first part Of the plan
was demonstrated to be success, the
second part is to be put into practical
effect and the city of Buffalo will tin
gle from the impulse of an electric cur
rent set in motion twenty-six miles
away. 1t is accordingly the purpose of
this article to follow, in language
stripped of all technicalities, the trans
formation from the rushing waters Of
the great river to the whirring wheel
in the factory or on the street car.
The first step in the process takes
place some three quarters of a mile
above the falls, where a canal 200 feet
broad and II feet deep leaves the river
and runs inland at almost right an
giles for a quarter of a mile, to where
the power house stands. This is not
a pretentious building, but 1t wears an
air of strength and solidity that Is al
together BETTING. 1t is built of gray
sandstone, and consists of two parts
the main building, which contains the
dynamo machinery, and the transfer
mer house on the opposite side of the
canal, connected with the larger build
ing by graceful bridge. A wing of
the main building stands directly
above the wheel pit, long slit, 40
feet deep, cut into the rock, containing
the turbines. Here it is that the sec
ond step in the transformation is taken
Beneath the platform in front of the
power house and facing the canal, are
several gates. which admit the water
into huge penstocks. These huge tubes
Sft IoT hot
the ground a man can stand upright
inside of them, conduct the water to
the turbines at the bottom of the shafts
The penStOck stands on end in the
wheel pit, and the top Of 1t is curved.
as is the funnel of smokestack some
times. When the gate is raised the
water rusheS a considerable current on
the quiet surface of the canal The
waters hurry on, as they do above the
great fall in the river, seemingly In
haste to take the great leap before
them 1t comes in this case a few
feet after they leave the canalLa sheer
drop of 1876 feet to the bottom of the
wheel pit. All this, of course, is inside
the penstock, and one cannot watch
the great column Of water as it falls
through space with accommodating power
that is to spin the wheels in factories
miles away, but one may descend to
the bottom of the shaft and see what
takes place there.
Inside the power house a winding
stairway. that seems to bore like a
corkscrew into the depths of the earth.
Is pointed out as the way to the wheel
pit. A few turns down, however, the
stairway ends in a landing, and a
guard in a uniform of india rubber in
quires: What's wanted?' He looks
over the bit of paper on which the
superintendent has written Please adj
init Mr. TO the wheel pitt and saws.
This way to the elevator An ele
vator running up and down a wheel
shaft is something unusual. but one
quickly learns not to wonder at in
novations here, and before he reaches
the bottom of this rock cavern he is
thankful for the elevator AS he slips
down into the echoing chasm the guard
becomes more affable.
It's wet weather down here" he
says; you should have brought your
umbrella"
1t does not take long to prove that he
is right One sinks past platforms
built, like the floors Of house. one
above another, and on each platform
are rubber-coated guards who spend
their days down in this dim cavern
where the electric lights struggle half
hopelessly with the underground dark
ness. watching for the slightest evil