HARNESSING NIAGARA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 147, 18 February 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

HARNESSING NIAGARA.

TO TURN THE FALLS OFF AT NIBHT AND ON BY DAYTIME. A plan to utilise the whole of the vast power of the great cataract, Niagara Falls, has been presented to the world by Mr. Thomas N. Norton, of the United States Department of Commerce. The project contemplates the construction of a dam across the Niagara River, about one mile above tho Falls, and where the average depth is 12 feet. This dam, a little over one mile in length would have a maximum height of 40 feet, and would reach the shore contour at 600 feet above the sea level. A series of gates controlled electrically would divert tho arrested water through rock-hewn tunnels on both sides of tho river to power houses situated below the Falls on the river level. The total cost of the project would be something like four hundred million dollars, or a l.ttle over eighty million pounds sterling. Should this plan ever materialise, the programme of the day would be: — At 8 p.m. the series of gates would {simultaneously close—after a few minutes the American Falls would diminish to a few faltering streams; the deafening roar of the great Horseshoe or Canadian Fall would drop to an agonising groan, a dying murmur, and vanish altogether. With the vanishing tons of falling water, thousands of workshops in Ontario and New York State would begin their daily, or rather n : ghtly, task, and the whole of the possible 5,800,000 horse-power would be devoted to manufacturers, etc. At 10 a.m tho dam ;hoots upwards, and the hum of the factories sinks to a whisper, vanishes, and in another minute the mighty cataract has resumed full activity with a deafening roar of delight. At present, however, under the International Treaty, dated in May, 1910, it is permissible to draw only 36,000 cubic feet of water per second front the Canadian side and 20,000'Trom tho American, and this limit of development has not been attained on either side yet.