The Niagara River

by Archer Butler Hulbert

The representative of the American Civic Association has properly described the effect upon the sightseer of the view toward the side of the canyon to be that of looking into the back yard of a house negligently kept. For the purpose of aiding me in determining what ought to be done to remove this eyesore, including the appearance of the buildings at the top, I shall appoint a committee consisting of Charles F. McKim, Frank D. Millet, and F. L. Olmsted to advise me what changes, at an expense not out of proportion to the extent of the investment, can be made which will put the side of the canyon at this point from bottom to top in natural harmony with the Falls and the other surroundings, and will conceal, as far as possible, the raw commercial aspect that now offends the eye. This consideration has been in view in the construction of works on the Canadian side and in the buildings of the Niagara Falls Power Company, above the Falls. There is no reason why similar care should not be enforced here.

Water is being withdrawn from the Erie Canal at the lake level for water-power purposes, and applications have been made for permits authorising this. Not more than four hundred cubic feet are thus used in the original draft of water that is not returned to the canal in such a way as not to lower the level of the lake. The water is used over and over again. It seems to me that the permit might very well be granted to the first user. As the water is taken from the canal, which is state property, and the interest and jurisdiction of the federal government grow out of the direct effect upon the level of the lake, the permit should recite that this does not confer any right upon a consumer of the water to take the water from the canal without authority and subject to the conditions imposed by the canal authorities, but that it is intended to operate and its operation is limited to confer, so far as the federal government is concerned and the Secretary of War is authorised, the right to take the water and to claim immunity from any prosecution or legal objection under the fifth section of the Burton Act.

When Sir Hiram S. Maxim, the distinguished inventor and scientist, made his recent announcement to Peter Cooper Hewitt that the next great achievement of science would be the harnessing of the whole energy of Niagara and the sending of a message to Mars, he hit the nail, in the opinion of Nikola Tesla, squarely on the head.

Mr. Tesla announces that with the co-operation of power-producing companies at Niagara Falls he is preparing to hail Mars with Niagara's voice. A way has been found at last for transmitting a wireless message across the gulf, varying from 40,000,000 to 100,000,000 miles, which separates this earth from Mars. Once that has been accomplished and Mars, which is considerably older and supposedly more advanced in science than we, has acknowledged the receipt of our signal and sent back flash for flash, it will remain to devise an interplanetary code through the medium of which the scientists of this world and of Mars will be able to understand what each is saying to the other.

Mr. Tesla has been quietly working for several years on a wireless power plant capable of transmitting 10,000 horse-power to any part of the world, or to any of our neighbouring planets, for that matter. The mere matter of distance between despatching and receiving points is absolutely no object whatever. Wireless power, Mr. Tesla says may be sent one million or more miles just as easily as one mile.

Several of the electric power companies with immense generating plants at Niagara Falls, it is reported, have agreed to co-operate with Mr. Tesla in an effort to reach Mars by wireless.

The development of the hydraulic power of Niagara on the Canadian side is leading to some interesting sequences.

A tribunal called the hydro-electric power commission has been created [says a writer in a recent issue of Cassier's Magazine], and in the hands of this body has been placed the entire domestic regulation of the power product of stations coming within government control.

In addition there has been given to the various municipalities the right to undertake the distribution of electrical energy within their respective limits.