ELECTRIC POWER ON THE CANADIAN SIDE.
Col. Albert D. Shaw, formerly U. S. Consul at Montreal, Canada, and later at Manchester, England, is at the head of a company which proposes to produce electricity on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. This company has secured the passage of a bill through the Ontario Parliament permitting the incorporation of a company with a capitalization of $3,000,000, and a privilege of bonding to the extent of $5,000,000, with the object of producing electricity by means of a tunnel upon the Canadian side.
In conversation with a writer for the Philadelphia Press, in April of this year, Col. Shaw said the Canadian company had not been organized to compete with the American company, but rather to supplement and act in concert with it. He explained that as the land on the Canadian side is devoted to park purposes, it cannot be used for the location of manufactories, and therefore the power produced must be transmitted to other points. In this connection he went on to say:
“Such power can certainly be carried to Buffalo. An electrical plant has been established about 16 miles from the city of Rome, N. Y., and the power there furnished is conveyed to Rome with perfectly satisfactory results. Buffalo is only a little more than 20 miles from Niagara, and with the higher voltage which can be obtained there is no doubt that city can be furnished with electric power sufficient to run all the manufactories of New York State were they located there. After our company is organized in harmony with the New York company we shall begin work, and I think can complete it within a year.”
“The water power furnished by the Niagara River above the Falls,” continued Col. Shaw, “is estimated to be equivalent to 3,000,000 horse-power. When we recollect that the Connecticut River at Holyoke only furnishes about 24,000 horse-power, and the river at Minneapolis only 18,000, some idea can be obtained of this enormous power which has hitherto been going to waste. The American company has built a tunnel 8,000 feet long. The entrance to it is a long distance above the Falls, and the exit where the waste water flows into the Niagara River is just below the suspension bridge. This tunnel is capable of furnishing power equivalent to 140,000 horse-power, an amount of power which vastly exceeds anything furnished anywhere else in the world. The Niagara River never runs dry. There never is an appreciable diminution in its body of water. Everywhere else where water power is used manufactories are compelled either to have a steam plant which can be relied upon in dry weather, or else to run the risk of shutting down for lack of power. That can never happen on the banks of the Niagara.”
Col. Shaw went on to speak of the plans of the American company, with which he is familiar. After stating that manufacturers from all parts of the country have been in communication with the American company with a view of locating plants in the city of Buffalo, and that expert engineers estimate that the electric power which can be developed and furnished will be practically illimitable, he said:
“The Canadian company will be able to furnish tremendous voltage whenever wires properly insulated are ready to receive it. The New York capitalists who virtually own the American company, and will be in harmony with the Canadian, are even more enthusiastic than they are in Buffalo. I have talked with a number of them since I have been in the city. They are careful men, not likely to be carried away with false enthusiasm, and who look at such things purely from a commercial point of view. They are of opinion, as I am, and as everybody else is who has made a study of this matter, that the great manufacturing city of the future is to be located upon the bank of the Niagara River, and the time is not far distant when the city of Buffalo will extend from its present site full twenty miles to the north. The number of manufactories which have already decided to move from various other towns, some of them in the far West, to Buffalo, is an indication of what the future will be.
“The power is permanent and is dependent upon no changes of the weather. Moreover, it is cheap power, and will always be sufficient, no matter how greatly any manufacturer may desire to increase his plant. Furthermore, the contiguity of this place to convenient transportation is another temptation to manufacturers. For instance, it has been demonstrated that the grain of the West can be brought there and manufactured into flour at least 10 cents a barrel cheaper than in the great milling cities of the West, and that of itself is a handsome profit.
“Furthermore, transportation charges, such is the relation of Buffalo and its vicinity to water and rail routes, will be cheaper there than at any other manufacturing center in the United States. The raw material can be brought either by the lakes or by rail to the doors of the mill, and the finished product can be sent out by lake, by the Canadian Canal to the St. Lawrence River, by the Erie Canal during the season when water transportation is open, and there are 26 different lines of railway centering there. The manufacturers have been figuring pretty closely. Competition is so great that it is frequently the economies which represent the difference between success and failure, profit and loss. All those of them who have already decided to locate in that vicinity and utilize this great power are of opinion that the saving in expenses will of itself represent a fair profit on the capital invested. Within 20 years it would not be surprising to see a city, or a link of cities practically one, containing 1,000,000 people, and perhaps the largest capital investment in manufacturing in the United States, with perhaps one or two exceptions.
“It is strange that this magnificent power which has been wasted heretofore should not have had earlier development. Several attempts have been made to develop it, but capital has been timid until some of the great financial geniuses of New York City became interested.”