A NEW NIAGARA FALLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1917, Page 2

A NEW NIAGARA FALLS.

The creation of ft "new Niagara Falls," for additional power development by building a great dam in the gorge between the present falls and Lake Ontario, is proposed by T. Kennard 'Wornson, a consulting engineer of St'W York City. Such a construction, Mr. Thomson asserts, would develop some two million Jiorse-power that now aoea to waste, expending itself uselessly in plunging foam. The "new Niagara" would be the fall, 100 ft high, due to the water running over the new dam—when there would be any unused water to run. The fact that the scheme would obliterate, the famous Whirlpool Rapids, thought by some authorities to exceed in grandeur and interest the great cataract itself, is not regarded by Thomson its of' fcufilcient importance to merit attenion. This bold scheme is thus outlined by its, projector: "Almost everyone remembers the lower Niagara River as running through a narrow gorge, which is about 500 ft wide al the water-line and about 1000 ft between the tops of the banks standing from 300 ft to 350 ft a,bout tjie water; and all realise the naturally great difficulty of a dam in such a location. They do not notice, or else forget, the place called Foster's Flats, a beautiful spot on the Canadian side, where there is quite a low shelf with easy slopo to the top of the baiik. There is a 102 ft drop in the Niagara River from the base of the old falls to Lewiston, with a minimum flow of '200,000 cubic feet per second. Now, this total head and volume should be developed as a unit—in one large dam. Otherwise the public would have to pay for a number of disconnected power plants, which could not develop anything like the full value of the river, and would result ultimately in the destruction of all the power .plants below the falls by ice. The most economical method in developing the river, of course, is to use as much water at the falls as the dovernments will allow, afterward returning the water to the river directly below the falls so that it can be used over again at the proposed new falls made by the dam at Foster's Flats, about 4jV miles beloSv. As to the dftpj and power-houses, the masonry structure will be about l2ooft long and laOft high, and it will raise the downstream level of the river about 100 ft. * The power-houses would extend down-stream from the dam on both the Canadian and American sides, considerable distances being required to accommodate the many turbines necessary."