The Great Lakes: The Vessels That Plough Them: Their Owners, Their Sailors, and Their Cargoes, Together with a Brief History of Our Inland SeasCurwood, James Oliver
History
The Great Lakes: The Vessels That Plough Them: Their Owners, Their Sailors, and Their Cargoes, Together with a Brief History of Our Inland Seas
Curwood, James Oliver
Great Lakes (North America); Inland navigation -- United States; Shipping -- Great Lakes (North America)
What this would mean to Buffalo it is almost impossible to estimate,
especially in regard to the steel industry. Buffalo now has an
advantage over Pittsburg in the cost of ore, limestone, and several
other matters incident to the manufacture of iron and steel,
Pittsburg’s sole remaining advantage being its proximity to coking
coal. This will be obliterated. A large percentage of the vast steel
and allied industries centring at Pittsburg will, of their own
volition, move within the boundaries of the State of New York and
locate along the Niagara frontier. This industrial migration has
already begun. It will continue, naturally, ceaselessly. The ore will
meet the coke at Buffalo, and the manufactured product will be floated
down the Erie Canal instead of being hauled across the Alleghanies.
This is inevitable.
And just as inevitable is the migration of other industries to
Buffalo from other cities. Not only does the cheap lake and canal
transportation call to them, but also the cheap and unlimited power of
Niagara. A few years ago George Westinghouse said: “I expect to live to
see the day when a city that will astonish the world will stretch along
the entire Niagara frontier--and this city will be Buffalo.” Those
who investigate this frontier to-day cannot fail to see the strength
of his prediction. Tesla said that Niagara power would revolutionise
manufacturing in the United States. It is already revolutionising it in
and about Buffalo, and the power of the world’s greatest fall has only
been tapped. On the American side the Niagara Falls Power Company is
developing one hundred and five thousand horse-power, and the Niagara
Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company fifty thousand, while
on the Canadian side the Canadian Niagara Falls Company is developing
fifty thousand horse-power and the Electrical Development Company
and the Ontario Power Company sixty-two thousand each. Less than
four per cent. of the total flow of water over Niagara Falls has been
diverted by the companies now in operation. The total fall of water
is theoretically capable of producing over seven million horse-power,
which would run virtually all of the manufacturing plants in the United
States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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