It was 2 dial the next morning, when Cobb and Hugh reached Niagara. The
night was beautiful, but the weather cold, and it was with pleasure
that the two men reached the hotel, and ensconced themselves by the
side of a real coal fire, as Cobb called it.
The stillness of the night was a source of surprise to Cobb, as he
heard not that thundering, deafening roar of the mighty cataract which
had always heretofore greeted him upon his arrival at the falls.
The next morning Cobb and Hugh were up early, and, after a hearty
breakfast, proceeded in the direction of the old inclined railways
where Cobb had so often, in former years, made love and talked nonsense
to the pretty girls of Niagara.
A different sight met his eyes as he neared the balcony where formerly
the best view of the grand falls was to be obtained. Niagara was still
a mighty cataract, but not half the volume of water which had passed
over its precipitous edge in former days now flowed over the walls of
rock. Where formerly the great mass of surging, foamy floods rushed out
over the top to a distance of fifty feet, and fell in one unbroken blue
sheet into the boiling torrent below, now was a lighter sheet of white
and broken water.
Two artificial streams, one on either side of the river, below the
falls, the beds for which had been carved out of the precipitous banks
which marked the erosive power of the stream, carried an immense flow
seven miles down the river.
Along the banks, and from one hundred to seventy-five feet below the
canals, were rows of houses of similar construction and color. From
every house, in either line, poured forth a torrent of water which
rushed and leaped down the rocks to the stream below. Electric wires
and huge cables were to be seen in every direction.
[Illustration]
Turning back from the novel scene in front of him, Cobb moved nearer
the edge of the balcony, and looked over towards the base of the falls.
Great masses of ice rose from the depths below, half obscuring his
view; but the field was clear enough for him to ascertain that a new
order of phenomena had taken place since his last advent there. It
seemed as if a hundred gigantic mouths in the face of the cliff were
belching forth mighty torrents of seething, foamy water.
Passing down the stairs to the first landing, which was sixty feet
below the brink of the falls, he and Hugh came to the gate of a tunnel
in the walls under the falls. The gatekeeper, after a few words from
Hugh, touched an electric bell, and a young man who answered the
summons was directed to show them about the works.
Niagara Falls had, indeed, undergone a most remarkable change in a
hundred years. The face of the cliff, from the Canadian, or "Ontario"
side, as it was then termed, clear around to the city, had been pierced
by huge tunnels, ten feet in diameter, extending under the rapids above
for a distance of 1,000 feet. There were two rows of these tunnels;
the first row was 120 feet below the top of the falls, and the tunnels
were twenty feet apart. The next row was cut over the walls between the
lower tunnels, and was ninety feet below the edge of the falls. Again,
above this line, was a row of smaller tunnels, five feet in diameter
and 100 feet apart. From the two rows of large tunnels mighty jets of
water were pouring out, and breaking into foam as they reached the
waters coming from over the cliff.
Cobb and Hugh passed into the tunnel, which was brilliantly lighted by
electricity, dry, and much warmer than the outer air. Moving onward,
they soon came to the great chambers of the cliff.
"Here, Cobb," said Hugh, as they entered the first chamber, "here are
the first dynamos. This whole cliff, from the front to 1,000 feet in
rear, is honeycombed with these chambers. Each chamber has a turbine
wheel and a set of dynamos, and receives its water-supply through
shafts drilled straight up through the roof into the waters of the
rapids above. The water, after working the turbines, is discharged into
the great tunnels which you saw emptying from the face of the rock. Of
the mighty body of water flowing over the falls, only a portion could
be used in this manner, as it was not deemed wise to make more than two
rows of tunnels; but to gain as much power from the water as possible,
the two lines of dynamo houses along the banks, which you saw from
above, were constructed. The little tunnels are for air circulation,
and fans are continually moving the air through the whole labyrinth of
chambers. There are, in the face of this rock, 200 tunnels, in two rows
of one hundred each, and extending back 1,000 feet, or forty miles in
total length. Over each tunnel are chambers, twelve by twenty feet,
with ten-foot walls between, or thirty chambers along the line of each
tunnel.
"Each chamber has a fifteen-inch shaft tapping the water-supply above.
Now, the descent of the water is at the rate of 3,840 feet per minute,
the fall is sixty feet, and the weight of a cubic foot of water 62.5
pounds: thus the horse-power of each shaft is exactly 400, and the
flow-off, in area, one square foot. As there are thirty of these
chambers to each discharge tunnel, then an area of thirty square feet
flows from a seventy-eight-square-foot escape. But the volume of water
from the shafts, owing to its increased velocity, would soon overflow
the discharge tunnels if level; to obviate this, they are inclined
as much as possible. Four hundred horse-power turbines in each chamber,
coupled to dynamos, give 350 electrical horses. As there are 6,000
chambers in the rock, the output, in electricity, is equivalent to
2,100,000 electrical horse-power; this, added to the power generated
by the fourteen miles of dynamos along the river, which have 3,650
wheels, brings the whole power utilized up to three and a quarter
millions of electrical horses. This mighty current is carried by great
copper cables to all parts of eastern United States, and used for every
conceivable purpose where power is required."
"You seem to be pretty well posted in this matter," was all Cobb could
say, as Hugh gave him this array of figures.
"I am. I was on a board of engineer officers in connection with the
water-power of these falls, some years ago," he replied.
"How long have these works been in operation?"
"About fifty years."
"So long?"
"Yes."
"Is it a private concern?" inquired Cobb.
"Oh, bless you, no. It cost too much money to put it into operation.
The government expended over two hundred millions of dollars in
building the works; but they have paid for themselves almost twice
over."
"And this is the source of the great electrical supply--"
"For the Eastern States of the nation," interrupted Hugh; "but it
is only a portion of the power used. The water-power everywhere is
converted into electricity, and sent over the country."
"And steam isn't used any more?" hesitatingly.
"To be sure, it is; in the great timber districts, and where fuel,
which otherwise would go to waste, is plentiful, steam engines are
still used."
[Illustration]
After a thorough inspection of the great center of electrical supply,
the two returned to their hotel, and made preparations to leave Niagara
and visit New England, and especially Boston and Providence, "the
places I love so dearly," said Cobb. "I must once more visit the scenes
of my childhood, and note their advancement."
So away they went to pass a week, intending to be in Washington by the
10th of January.