USA > New York > Niagara County > Landmarks of Niagara County, New York > Part 20
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Bills to carry out the recommendations of the commissioners were introduced in the Legislature of 1880 and 1881, but they failed to pass. Neither was any legislative action taken in 1882. Finally, a meeting was held at the home of Howard Potter in New York city, December 6, 1882, where steps were taken that led directly towards the founding of the State Reservation. An organization was perfected at a later meeting held in New York January II, 1883. A committee appointed at the first meeting reported that the best means of promot- ing legislation on the subject would be the formation of an association, its object "to promote legislative and other measures for the restoration and improvement of the natural scenery at Niagara Falls," in accord- ance with the report of the commissioners made in 1879. The Niag- ara Falls Association was then organized with the following officers : President, Howard Potter ; vice-presidents, Daniel Huntington, George William Curtis, Cornelius Vanderbilt ; secretary, Robert Lenox Belknap; treasurer, Charles Lanier ; corresponding secretary, J. B. Harrison ; and an executive committee of ten members. This association grew rapidly, especially in New York and Boston, and articles in leading newspapers soon aroused public sentiment in favor of the plan. A bill was drawn by the association and introduced in the Legislature January 30, 1883, by Hon. Jacob F. Miller, of New York city ; it was passed April 30, 1883. William Dorsheimer, Andrew H. Green, J. Hampden Robb, Sherman S. Rogers and Martin B. Anderson were appointed commis- sioners to select the necessary lands, and the reservation was defined
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in a resolution adopted at the first meeting of the commissioners held June 9, 1883, as follows :
Resolved, That in the judgment of this board it is desirable to select and locate as proper and necessary to be reserved for the purpose of preserving the scenery of the Falls of Niagara and of restoring the said scenery to its natural condition, the following lands: Goat Island, Bath Island, the Three Sisters, Bird Island, Luna Island, Chapin Island, and the small islands adjacent to said islands in the Niagara River, and the bed of said river between said islands and the main land of the State of New York, and, also, the bed of said river between Goat Island and the Canadian bound- ary; also a strip of land beginning near Port Day, running along the shore of said river, to and including Prospect Park and the cliff and debris slope, and including also at the east end of said strip sufficient land not exceeding one acre for purposes convenient to said reservation, and also including all lands at the foot of the falls.
Matthew Hale, Luther R. Marsh and Pascal P. Pratt were chosen to act as appraisers of the property, and made awards amounting to $1,- 433,429.50. The Legislature of 1885 passed an act drawn by Deputy Attorney- General Isaac N. Maynard, making the necessary appropria- tion, and on the 30th of April of that year Governor Hill gave his approval to the law and Niagara became forever the property of the people. The State Reservation was opened to the public July 15, 1885, with imposing exercises, in which many of the most eminent men of the State participated, while about 100,000 persons gathered to share in the auspicious event.
Immediately following the dedication of the reservation the toll gates were thrown open and soon about 150 buildings, large and small, which had long disfigured the scenery, were removed. With these changes the number of visitors at once increased and every passing year testi- fies to the wisdom of the measure. The Commissioners of the Reserva- tion pay into the State treasury certain receipts, mainly from the in - clined railway, nearly equal to one half the amount of the annual appropriation made for maintenance, leaving an average net amount expended by the State of about $12,000 a year. By the expenditure of this small sum the State enables about 500,000 persons each year to enjoy the sublime scenery of Niagara without cost.
With the limited annual State appropriations several very important improvements have been made. In 1889 a crib-work was constructed to prevent the southern shore of Goat Island from being washed away. In 1891 a road was constructed around Goat Island, the former imper-
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fect road being reserved for a broad foot path. In 1892 a conduit and lake to supply the inclined railway with water were constructed and the surface canals along the shore were discontinued and filled. In 1893 the high artificial stone wall along the shore, with its piers and tail- races was removed ; the shore was graded down to a natural slope and planted with trees and shrubbery. In 1894 a rustic stone arched bridge was built at Willow Island, and Goat Island and Luna Island were united with a new bridge of beautiful design and safe construction. In 1895-6 a new shelter building was erected on Goat Island, and a ter- minal station built at the foot of the inclined railway. Both of these are stone structures and well adapted to their purpose. The shelter build- ing cost $6,572.94, and the station $9,749.85.
The total amount of money appropriated by the State for mainten- ance of the Reservation from July 15, 1885, to September 30, 1896, is $205,000 ; for special improvements, $120,000. During that period the commissioners have paid to the State, $77,348.69. Andrew H. Green, of New York city, has been president of the Board of Commis- sioners almost from the first and very much of the satisfactory progress of the general affairs of the Reservation is due to his efforts. The selection of Thomas V. Welch, of Niagara Falls, for superintendent was most fortunate in all respects. He has held this responsible position from the beginning, which fact alone is silent testimony to his efficiency. At every stage of the improvements, of which only the more important are here mentioned, Mr. Welch has been the immediate guiding spirit, and to his unwearied labor and watchfulness must be credited the suc- cessful execution of all the plans for the advancement of the Reserva- tion to its present condition.
The present commissioners, besides Andrew H. Green, are John M. Bowers, William Hamilton, Robert L. Fryer, and George Raines. Henry E. Gregory is treasurer and secretary.
As has already been noted, the water power of Niagara River near the falls, was first utilized more than 150 years ago by the French, who built a saw mill in 1725. It stood near the site of the Pittsburg Reduc- tion Company's upper works. In 1825 Augustus Porter built a saw mill on the rapids, and in 1807 Porter and Barton erected a grist mill on the river. In 1817 John Witmer built a saw mill at Gill Creek. In 1822
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Augustus Porter built a grist mill along the rapids above the falls. From that time to 1855, when the lands along the river were taken for a State Park, a considerable amount of power was developed along the rapids by a canal which took the water out of the river near the head of the rapids and followed along nearly parallel with the bank of the river. Mills were built between this canal and the river and a part of the fifty foot fall between the head of the rapids and the brink of the falls was utilized. A paper mill was also built on Bath Island.
In 1847 Augustus Porter outlined a plan on which the present Hy- draulic Canal is built. In 1852 negotiations were commenced by Mr. Porter with Caleb J. Woodhull and Walter Bryant, and an agreement was finally reached with these gentlemen, by which they were to con- struct a canal, and receive a plot of land at the head of the canal hav- ing a frontage of 425 feet on the river ; a right of way 100 feet wide for the canal along its entire length of 4,400 feet, which is through the most thickly populated part of the city and about seventy-five acres of land near its terminus, having a frontage on the river below the falls of nearly a mile. Ground was broken by them in 1853 and the work was carried on until 1858, when a canal thirty feet wide and six feet deep was finished. The location of the head of this canal was the best that could have been chosen. From the head of the rapids it is but a short distance to an island (Grass Island), which extends a considerable dis- tance along the shore and for a considerable distance from the island the water is very shallow. In this short space, between the head of the rapids and the foot of Grass Island the entrance of the canal was located.
Owing, probably to the disturbed financial conditions occasioned by the war of the Rebellion, and other causes, it happened that no mills were built to use the water from the canal until 1870,1 when Charles B. Gaskill built a small grist mill on the site of the present flouring mill belonging to the Cataract Milling Company. In 1877 the canal and all its appurtenances were purchased by Mr. Jacob F. Schoellkopf of Buffalo and A. Chesbrough of La Salle, who organized the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Schoellkopf
1 In June, 1868; Horace H. Day offered by public announcement to sell his canal and other prop- erty. The newspaper called it an " unsightly canal through the village, put to no practical use, and at present an actual damage to the village."
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is still president. Since that time the building of mills has gone stead- ily forward. The following is a list of mills using water from this canal :
WATER POWER.
H. P.
Central Milling Company (flour)
1,000
N. Wood Paper Company (paper and pulp)
500
Schoellkopf & Mathews (flour mill) 900
Pettebone Cataract Mfg. Co. (paper and pulp)
2,000
Cataract Milling Company (flour)
400
Niagara Falls Waterworks
200
Thos. E. McGarigle (machine shop). 25
Cliff Paper Company (paper and pulp) 2,500
Total 7,525
ELECTRIC POWER.
H. P.
Pittsburg Reduction Company (aluminum)
3,500
Niagara Falls & Lewiston R. R. Co. 400
Cliff Paper Company (paper and pulp) 300
Lewiston and Youngstown R. R. Co. 200
Buffalo & Niagara Falls Electric Light & Power Co. 350 I
Niagara Falls Brewing Company 150
Rodwell Mfg. Co. (silver plating, etc.) 75
Sundry small customers in the city 100
Francis Manufacturing Co. (hooks and eyes) 15
Kelly & McBean Aluminum Co.
15
Total 5,105
MECHANICAL POWER FURNISHED ON SHAFT.
H. P.
Oneida Community, L't'd (silver plated ware and chains)
300
Carter-Crume Co. (check book manufacturers) 60
Total. 360
Total Hydraulic Power sold
7,525
Total Electric Power sold. 5,105
Total Mechanical Power sold 360
Grand total 12,990
Mr. Porter's contract with Woodhull & Bryant only conveyed the lands to the edge of the high bank of the Niagara River, and did not include the talus or slope between the edge of the high bank and the
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river, and only granted the right to excavate down the face of the bank one hundred feet. At that time it was not considered that any higher head could ever be utilized, because it was not thought that wheels could be built to stand the pressure of a higher head, in fact none of the mills attempted to use more than fifty or sixty feet head. For this reason it happened that although the capacity of the canals at first con- structed was sufficient for some fifteen thousand horse-power, its capac- ity was exhausted and only about seven thousand horse- power pro- duced.
The flouring mills of Schoellkopf & Mathews, Cataract Milling Com- pany, Central Milling Company, the Pettebone-Cataract Paper Com- pany, the City Water Works, and the factory of the Niagara Wood Paper Company, leased the right to draw certain quantities of water from the canal and constructed their own wheel pits, and put in their own water wheels.
Two different methods were adopted for constructing the pits for these various mills. In some cases a shaft was sunk in the rock at some little distance back from the edge of the bank, in which the wheels were placed, and a tunnel driven from the bottom of the shaft to the face of the bank for the discharge of the water after it had passed the wheels. In other cases a notch was cut into the face of the bank and the wheels placed in it. In all cases turbine wheels of different makes, running on vertical axes were used.
In 1881 the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Com- pany put in a power plant for the purpose of supplying water to cus- tomers, delivering it to their mills. The method adopted was as follows : A shaft 20 by 40 feet was sunk to a depth of about eighty feet, and about two hundred feet back from the face of the high bank ; from the bottom of this shaft a tunnel was driven to the face of the bank for a tail race. The water was conducted to the bottom of this shaft in iron tubes, and used on different turbines running on vertical axes. The power developed by these wheels (about fifteen hundred horse- power) was transmitted by shaft, belting or rope drive to various cus- tomers, all located within three hundred feet of the wheel pit.
In 1886 the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Com- pany secured a deed of portions of the slope between the high bank
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and the river, and have since secured other portions, so that they are now at liberty to use this slope for mills and power houses.
The advance in water wheel construction, and especially the develop- ment of the possibility of transmitting power by electricity has made this one of the most valuable parts of their holdings. In the spring of 1892 the Cliff Paper Company, being desirous of increasing their plant by adding a wood pulp mill to use about twenty-five hundred horse- power, leased sufficient water from the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company, agreeing to take it from the tunnel through which the water was discharged from the outlet of the wheel pit just described.
For the purpose of getting the machinery requiring the largest power near the wheels it was decided to build a mill on the lower bank near the water's edge, and to place the pulp making machinery in it, prepar- ing the wood on the top of the bank, lowering it down ready for grind- ing and elevating the product. To divert the stream of water flowing through the tunnel and confine it for use in the new mill, a short tunnel was driven into the face of the bank at a point about twenty feet to the left of the mouth of the old tunnel. From the mouth of the new tunnel, an iron pipe eight feet in diameter was laid along the slope of the bank connecting with the tube ten feet in diameter, in the basement of the lower mill. From this tube the water is brought to the wheels on the first floor. Provision is made for the discharge of water into the tunnel direct from the canal in case the discharge from the mills does not fur- nish a sufficient supply. It was decided to use two wheels to develop the required twenty-five hundred horse power and to couple the shaft of the water wheel to the shafts carrying the stones used for grind- ing the wood. It was therefore necessary that the wheels should be run at a speed of two hundred and twenty-five revolutions per minute. This requirement as well as the requirements of strength, precluded the use of any of stock wheels in the market and made a special design necessary. Under the plans and specifications of W. C. Johnson, engi- neer for the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company, who was also engineer for the Cliff Paper Company, the wheels were built by James Leffel & Company, of Springfield, Ohio.
In 1892 the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Com-
-
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pany commenced an enlargement and improvement of its canal. The plan adopted was to widen the original channel to seventy feet and to make the new part fourteen feet deep. The canal is cut entirely through rock below the water line. The power for driving the drills on this work was obtained from an air compresser run by water power from the power station and transmitted along the line of the canal in pipes. The excavation was done by dredges and the flow of water through the canal was not interfered with. This improvement is now completed and the canal has a capacity of about 3,000 cubic feet per second, giving a surplus power after supplying the old leases, of about 40,000 horse power.
Work is still being carried on enlarging the canal to fourteen feet deep and one hundred feet wide. When this improvement is com- pleted the canal will have a capacity of more than 100,000 horse power. Since this improvement has been completed a new power house has been built for the purpose of supplying power tenants. For this new plant water is taken in an open canal from this hydraulic basin to a forebay thirty feet wide and twenty-two feet deep, built near the edge of the high bank. From this forebay, penstock pipes built of flange steele eight feet in diameter, conduct the water down over the high bank two hundred and ten feet to the site of the power house on the sloping bank at the edge of the water in the river below the falls.
The site of the power house was covered with broken and disinte- grated rock, which had fallen from the bank during ages past, which covered the bed rock to a depth of from ten to seventy feet. For the re- moval of this loose material a Giant or Monitor, as it is termed, was used. This is a machine throwing a stream of water from four to six inches in diameter, according to the size of the nozzle used, under pres- sure. It is very largely used in the western part of the United States for mining purposes, but has never been used in the east. This partic- ular machine was purchased in San Francisco, Cal. The water to supply this machine was taken from the canal and the pressure of two hundred and ten feet head was sufficient to give a force which readily washed down all the loose material into the river, uncovering a bed of sandstone upon which the power house is built, and from which the ma- terial of which it is built was quarried.
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The power house building will be 180 feet long by 100 feet wide and will contain sixteen wheels of about 2,000 horse-power each. One- third of the length of the building is now constructed and the second third is under construction. The wheels in this power house work under a head of 210 feet, which is the highest head under which water has ever been used for power in the quantity used in this plant. It was decided that water for the wheels should be supplied by a penstock leading from the forebay aboved described, vertically about 135 feet to the top of the sloping bank, thence down the slope to the side of the station next to the bank, eight feet in diameter, connecting with a sup- ply pipe ten feet in diameter, running horizontally along the center of the tailrace from which the wheels would draw their water, by connec- tions from the bottom of the wheel case to the top of the supply pipe. In this connection, which is five feet in diameter, valves are placed so that any wheel can be shut down independently of the others. The wheels standing directly over this trunk discharge the water through draft tubes running down on either side of the supply pipe.
Under general plans and specifications of the engineer, a contract was let to James Leffel & Co., of Springfield, O., for supplying the wheels now in use. The description of the wheels is as follows : The wheel runners, in case of three wheels which run the generators of the Pitts- burg Reduction Company and which run at a speed of 250 revolutions per minute, are seventy-eight inches in diameter ; in case of the other wheels which run at 300 revolutions per minute, sixty-five inches in diameter. The rim of the runner is the bucket ring and is cast solid from gun metal bronze. On this rim are two sets of buckets taking water on face and discharging it at each side of the rim. The bucket ring is bolted to the spokes of cast iron center, the tub of which is keyed to the shaft of hammered iron twenty feet in length. Surround- ing the outside of the runner is a cylinder in which the gates are fitted. The gates are about twenty per cent. less in number than the buckets. They are hung on steel pins and open by lifting one edge so that the direction in which the water enters the wheel is nearly tangential to the runner. Each gate has two arms which are connected to the rings by means of which they are opened and closed. This work is enclosed in a cylindrical case eleven feet in diameter and four feet long, which is
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connected to the penstock by a supply pipe five feet in diameter. On the side of this case elbows are fitted to which the draft tubes are con- nected. The shaft passes out through these elbows through stuffing boxes. On the inside of the boxes lignum vitae steps are fastened, against which rings on the shaft work to prevent any motion in the shaft. Each end of the water wheel shaft is rigidly coupled to a direct current generator, capable of developing 560 kilowatts of electrical energy.
The officers of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company are : Jacob F. Schoellkopf, president; W. D. Olmstead, vice-president ; Arthur Schoellkopf, secretary and treasurer. W. C. Johnson is the engineer.
An enterprise of still greater magnitude has been inaugurated in recent years, the conception and execution of which has astonished the world and promoted the advancement and growth of Niagara Falls to a remarkable degree. The project of making use of the enormous water power inherent in the descent of Niagara River from above the rapids to the water level below the falls and applying it to industrial purposes through electricity, is now familiar to all. Its history, though extend- ing over a period of only about ten years, presents details and exhibits results that are a little less than marvelous, while the enterprise itself is the principal cause of the recent rapid growth of the city and the found- ation of its bright future prospects.
The subject of using the enormous water power of the great cataract has received more or less attention from engineers and others in many past years ; but until recently those who made their speculations and advanced their theories were generally considered enthusiasts and vis- ionaries. From the old Hydraulic Canal in the year 1885 about 10,000 horse power was derived. At that time Thomas Evershed was at the falls, where he had often been before, in his capacity of engineer on the western section of the Erie Canal. It was, therefore, natural that he should be consulted regarding the practical solution of the problem of controlling and applying such a part as seemed available of the im- mense water power represented in the great river as it rushes down the rapids and plunges over the precipice. After preliminary consultation with Mr. Evershed, Charles B. Gaskill and other citizens of Niagara
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Falls, secured a legislative charter under date of March 31, 1886, which has since been extended and amended as indicated in the State laws. On July I, of that year, Mr. Evershed issued his first formal plan and estimate. Its features were discussed in many prominent scientific me- chanical, and other journals, as well as by eminent engineers and gen- erally with unfavorable comment. The corporation organized for the prosecution of the undertaking took the name of the Niagara Falls Power Company, It required three years of earnest and persistent effort on the part of the originators of the project to convince the capi- talists and any considerable part of the public, that the plans, if carried out, would prove commercially profitable.
Briefly, the plans contemplated the construction of a tunnel leading from a point in the gorge of the river below the falls near the upper Suspension Bridge, westward directly under the city a distance of about 7,000 feet, to a point above the city and near the river bank. There a shaft, or wheel pit, was to be built with an ultimate length of 400 feet and a width of twenty feet, into which great steel penstocks seven and one-half feet in diameter would convey the water led to them from the river through a short surface canal. In this wheel pit were to be placed turbine water wheels of great capacity, hung upon upright shafts and at such a depth from the surface as to give a fall of 136 feet. It was estimated that by the use of this tuunel there would be developed 100,000 horse power,
As the subject was further discussed and proofs were submitted, upon theory at least, that the power could be thus produced and supplied to consumers at a considerable less cost than it could be created by any other means, capitalists were found who were willing to invest in the undertaking. In 1889, after many preliminaries had been settled and wide spread interest awakened, the then existing interests in the devel- opment of the Niagara Falls power were combined in a corporation called the Cataract Construction Company whose acceptance of the construction contract rested upon two propositions, viz. First, that with proper organization and development the whole project would be valuable solely as a hydraulic installation. Second, that it gave promise of becoming in the near future vastly more valuable as a source of power for transmission. The last named company was the out-
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