Evening journal., 1913-04-23
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Engineer Who First
Proposed to Harness
Niagara
By Holland.

When in 1897 the late Lord Kelvin,
in his day the foremost man OF sci
once in Great Britain. possibly in tho
world, visited the United States,
partly for the purpose Of inspe@ing
the wonderful engineering and me-
chanical work at Niagara Falla
by means Of which some Of the energy
Of the Niagara River is converted
into electrical force. he spoke of the
daring and magnificent conception OF
the late william Rankine, which had
materialicd into these colossal
works.
Lord Kelvin shared the view taken
by many persons that to Mr.. Rankine
was due the credit for having planned
and actually promoted the construc.
ton OF this greatest electrical plant
in the world In the spring Of 1892
group consisting of men OF science
and business men met al Niagara
Falls The beginning OF this great
work was at that time under way
and these able men assembled on the
brink Of tho Niagara River to view
the work at It's very start Al
time Mr.. Rankine was congratulated
because he, a young lawyer OF the
city of Niagara Falls. should have
pictured forth in his imagination the
capture OF the Niagara River aud
should have been permitted 10 see thu
manner in which science had made
that capture.
Recently Mr.. Robert M Myers. s.
prominent citizen of Rochester, n. y,
informed mo that although Mr.. Ran
kline was well worthy OF recognition
in his share of this great work, never
thcloss the inception of the idea, 10
far as the recognition Of II is con.
ccrncd, is due to another man.
Mr.. Myers told me that the plan of
harnessine some portion of the great
waterfalls at Niagara was first con
ceived by civil engineer at Roches
ter, N. ". whose name was Thomas
Evcrshed
II was while making a survey OF
the Niagara Falls for the State
New York, some years before the
organization of the company for the
exploiting oi The Niagara river
watcrpower thae Mr. Evershed's at
tenton was called to the opportunity
for utilizing, through the use of elec
tricity, some portion of the stupen-
dous energy of the Niagara river.
"Mr Evershed was so greatly inn
pressed with the feasibility of this
plan" said Mr.. Myers, that he pre-
pared an article for publication, in
which he called attention Ito the
waste power at Niagara and In which
he showed how this power could be
captured and that, too, without
noticeable diminution of the amount
of water that poured over the Nj
agara precipice.
Some of the leading citizens of
Niagara Falls" My Myers continued
arranged for meeting with Mr.
Evershed He appeared and set forth
his plan in great detail Thcreupon
it was decided to organize a company
and Mr. EVershed was employed to
draw up plans So greatly impressed
we're some of the men of capital that
they sent a representative to Eng
land to secure tlse needed capita
with which to begin the work
"This man spent nearly two years
In England and was compelled t
return TO the United States without
having accomplished anything The
British capitalists did not pay tn,
slightest heed to the proposition.
MIR Rankine was the son of Al
Episcopal clergyman OF Geneva. New
York. who was studying law In tho
Office of Augustus Porter, of Magyar;
Falls, He was tremendously i'm
pressed with the plan advocated By
Mr. Evorshed lie thcrcupon starte'
out TO secure options upon the prop
erty adjacent to the Niagara Falls
That was very important step
With these options he was able to Sc
cure the interest of Mr. j. r. Morgan
and others. and they agreed 4
finance tho building of the tunnel
This tunnel was constructed upon tn
original plans of Mr.. Evershed
Mr. Evershed however. did not liv
long enough 70 see the completed tun
nell He was the man who conceive
the Niagara Falls proposition. MI
Rankine was the man who was abl
to secure the interest of capital. T
these two men belongs the honol
which is associated with the creatio
of the gigantic power plant at NJ
aeara Falls"
Copyright 1913, by e.. J. Edward
All rights reseryed)
Tomorrow Mr. Edwards will tell {
"The Lost Secret Coveted by Con
n1odorp Van CaufVoord -