CHAPTER XVII
It was 2 dial the next morning, when Cobb and Hugh reached Niagara. Thenight was beautiful, but the weather cold, and it was with pleasurethat the two men reached the hotel, and ensconced themselves by theside of a real coal fire, as Cobb called it.
The stillness of the night was a source of surprise to Cobb, as heheard not that thundering, deafening roar of the mighty cataract whichhad always heretofore greeted him upon his arrival at the falls.
The next morning Cobb and Hugh were up early, and, after a heartybreakfast, proceeded in the direction of the old inclined railwayswhere Cobb had so often, in former years, made love and talked nonsenseto the pretty girls of Niagara.
A different sight met his eyes as he neared the balcony where formerlythe best view of the grand falls was to be obtained. Niagara was stilla mighty cataract, but not half the volume of water which had passedover its precipitous edge in former days now flowed over the walls ofrock. Where formerly the great mass of surging, foamy floods rushed outover the top to a distance of fifty feet, and fell in one unbroken bluesheet into the boiling torrent below, now was a lighter sheet of whiteand broken water.
Two artificial streams, one on either side of the river, below thefalls, the beds for which had been carved out of the precipitous bankswhich marked the erosive power of the stream, carried an immense flowseven miles down the river.
Along the banks, and from one hundred to seventy-five feet below thecanals, were rows of houses of similar construction and color. Fromevery house, in either line, poured forth a torrent of water whichrushed and leaped down the rocks to the stream below. Electric wiresand huge cables were to be seen in every direction.
Turning back from the novel scene in front of him, Cobb moved nearerthe edge of the balcony, and looked over towards the base of the falls.Great masses of ice rose from the depths below, half obscuring hisview; but the field was clear enough for him to ascertain that a neworder of phenomena had taken place since his last advent there. Itseemed as if a hundred gigantic mouths in the face of the cliff werebelching forth mighty torrents of seething, foamy water.
Passing down the stairs to the first landing, which was sixty feetbelow the brink of the falls, he and Hugh came to the gate of a tunnelin the walls under the falls. The gatekeeper, after a few words fromHugh, touched an electric bell, and a young man who answered thesummons was directed to show them about the works.
Niagara Falls had, indeed, undergone a most remarkable change in ahundred years. The face of the cliff, from the Canadian, or "Ontario"side, as it was then termed, clear around to the city, had been piercedby huge tunnels, ten feet in diameter, extending under the rapids abovefor 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 tunnelswere twenty feet apart. The next row was cut over the walls between thelower tunnels, and was ninety feet below the edge of the falls. Again,above this line, was a row of smaller tunnels, five feet in diameterand 100 feet apart. From the two rows of large tunnels mighty jets ofwater were pouring out, and breaking into foam as they reached thewaters coming from over the cliff.
Cobb and Hugh passed into the tunnel, which was brilliantly lighted byelectricity, 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 arethe first dynamos. This whole cliff, from the front to 1,000 feet inrear, is honeycombed with these chambers. Each chamber has a turbinewheel and a set of dynamos, and receives its water-supply throughshafts drilled straight up through the roof into the waters of therapids above. The water, after working the turbines, is discharged intothe great tunnels which you saw emptying from the face of the rock. Ofthe mighty body of water flowing over the falls, only a portion couldbe used in this manner, as it was not deemed wise to make more than tworows 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 fromabove, were constructed. The little tunnels are for air circulation,and fans are continually moving the air through the whole labyrinth ofchambers. There are, in the face of this rock, 200 tunnels, in two rowsof one hundred each, and extending back 1,000 feet, or forty miles intotal length. Over each tunnel are chambers, twelve by twenty feet,with ten-foot walls between, or thirty chambers along the line of eachtunnel.
"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 62.5pounds: thus the horse-power of each shaft is exactly 400, and theflow-off, in area, one square foot. As there are thirty of thesechambers to each discharge tunnel, then an area of thirty square feetflows from a seventy-eight-square-foot escape. But the volume of waterfrom the shafts, owing to its increased velocity, would soon overflowthe discharge tunnels if level; to obviate this, they are inclinedas much as possible. Four hundred horse-power turbines in each chamber,coupled to dynamos, give 350 electrical horses. As there are 6,000chambers in the rock, the output, in electricity, is equivalent to2,100,000 electrical horse-power; this, added to the power generatedby the fourteen miles of dynamos along the river, which have 3,650wheels, brings the whole power utilized up to three and a quartermillions of electrical horses. This mighty current is carried by greatcopper cables to all parts of eastern United States, and used for everyconceivable purpose where power is required."
"You seem to be pretty well posted in this matter," was all Cobb couldsay, as Hugh gave him this array of figures.
"I am. I was on a board of engineer officers in connection with thewater-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 inbuilding the works; but they have paid for themselves almost twiceover."
"And this is the source of the great electrical supply--"
"For the Eastern States of the nation," interrupted Hugh; "but itis only a portion of the power used. The water-power everywhere isconverted 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 arestill used."
After a thorough inspection of the great center of electrical supply,the two returned to their hotel, and made preparations to leave Niagaraand visit New England, and especially Boston and Providence, "theplaces I love so dearly," said Cobb. "I must once more visit the scenesof my childhood, and note their advancement."
So away they went to pass a week, intending to be in Washington by the10th of January.