Evening star., 1917-10-21
Mighty Falls of Niagara Are Fighting for Uncle Sam

tcopyright. 1917. by Frank G. carpeuter.l
NIAGARA FALLS
q HAVE come here to tell you how
Niagara Falls is fighting for US in
our great war in Europe. 1t is one
q of the most important of the in
dustrfal assets of the nation. and its
products affect every soldier that goes
to the field and every sailor that mans
our vessels of war 1t has to do with
every gun that is fired and every pro-
1sctile that scatters its deadly missiles
ovor the trenches. 1t aids in making
the armor plate for our battleships and
In creating the fine machinery of the de-
stroyers which chase the submarine
sneaking along under the sea 1t has to
do with the fighting aieplanes that fly
the skies and with the gas which mis-
the dirigibIe balloons that patrol the
waters along our coasts. 1t enters into
every workshop which is producing
material to be sent across the ocean
and, ] might say, into almost every
thing that has to do with making US
equal to our part in this, the greatest
struggle Of history.
Before I describe the war industries
of Niagara 1 want to tell you some
thing Of the mighty force that moves
them Niagara Falls is the greatest
water power on the face of the globe
J have seen the Falls of the Zambesi in
Africa and have travelled up the
parana below the Falls of Iguazu in
south America Neither compares with
NiaRare In the force which 1t exerts
from one years end to the other. The
Falls Of the Zambesi are twice as high
as those Of Niagara. They are twice
nd yuh a
drop with a thunder equal to that of
one of the great battles in France into
q PIT four hundred feet deep, sending
MP pillars of mist which are visible
for forty miles around. 1t has been
s,imated that those falls at their flood
exert a horsepower of tens of millions,
but the most of this disappears when
the Zambesi is low.
on the other hand, the Niagara river
has an almost even flow the year
round Only thirty-four miles long and
less than a mile wide for the greater
part of its course. It is the downspout
Of all the Great Lakes. excepting On
tario. 1t begins at Lake Erie and
flows from there for distance of
about twenty-five miles to the foot Of
the falls. dropping the water from a
height about two-fifths of that of the
Washington Monument A part of this
drop is in the rapids above the falls
but more than 100 feet of it is in the
falls themselves The force is SO great
that some engineers have estimated IL
as equal to that of 100000 horses all
pulling at once.
despair of making you see what this
mighty force is. Where the waters pour
in from Lake Erie they rush on at the
= rate of 100000 cubic feet second, and
thA fal1 1s . 10 GStir tod hat
of water a mile square and mile high
drops down every week. The amount is
millions of tons every hour, and Sc
much every minute that il it were pu,
upon wagons one million horses could
not haul the load. The force has been
variously estimated at from three mil
lion TO seven million horsepower. Take
the lowest estimate and see what il
means In the coal we use to produce II
Every horsepower which comes from
water is said to annually save at least
ten tons of coal. ii this is so. the force
Of Niagara is equal TO thirty million
tons of coal every year. or about one
fifteenth of all the coal we are now
using for fuel and power.
OF that vast force we now con
suminK not more than one-sixth. The
more than three-hfths are developed or
the Canadian side of the falls. Accord
ing to our treaty. we have the right
to use only twenty thousand cubic feet
OF the water that goes over the falIs
every second. and Canada has the right L
$4,000 cubic feet. BY the Burton Law
our Congress has restricted the Amer
lean use to less than $4,000 feet. JUS
now all the factories are short of power
and their work for the war is being
cut down by the lack of cheap water
power Some of our Industrial estab
,nenfs have been getting their power
from Canada. but this has been cut of
since the war began. in order to make
war supplies for the Canadian troops
end there Is now a strong demand or
the part of the manufacturers at Mag
ara Falls for more water.
Z I do not want TO argue to the ad
Visibility of taking more water in sucl
y 2 way AS 70 tnjure the beauty of Mag
- 1IDR Sha1 ayo tho 0Teetest shou