In 1885, the late Thomas Evershed, of Rochester, New York, devised a plan for wheel-pits a mile and a half above the Falls. The water was to be conducted to these pits by lateral canals, from which it was to be taken to the river below the Falls by means of a tunnel cut through the solid rock. This plan seemed more practicable than any proposed heretofore, and commanded the attention of many leading engineers of the country. The present great developments at the Falls had their inception in the organisation of the Niagara Falls Power Company. This company obtained a charter from the State of New York in 1886, giving them permission to use water sufficient to generate two hundred thousand horse-power. This company could accomplish very little on account of its limited capital. In a short time, however, New York capitalists and bankers, perceiving the practicability of the company's plans, became interested in the project, and furnished the necessary funds. The first earth was turned for this great work in October 1890 and the tunnel was completed in the autumn of 1893. The first main wheel-pit was ready for its machinery by the following March. The device for applying Niagara's power to the turbines is on the same principle of construction, in each of the recently erected plants as in this first one. In the case of the Niagara Falls Power Company, a broad deep inlet leads from the river at a point a mile and a half above the American Falls, two thousand feet back in a north-easterly direction. The canal is protected by a lining of heavy masonry, which is pierced at its upper end by a number of gateways; through these water is admitted by short canals to pits emptying into huge steel pipes or penstocks, as they are called. These penstocks terminate at the bottom in wheel boxes, in which are placed the bronze turbine wheels, connected with the surface by means of steel shafts parallel to the penstocks. From the turbine wheels the water whirls and rushes on through a subterranean passage to the main tunnel. Here it starts on its long journey of over a mile under-ground, beneath the heart of the city, until it emerges again at an opening in the cliff just below what is known as the new suspension bridge. A very ingenious plan was adopted for the application of the power to the turbines. The penstocks are brought down under the wheels and are made to discharge their waters upward into the boxes. This contrivance causes the water to bear up the great weight of the wheels, from the bearings beneath for their support, besides that of the hundred and forty feet of shafting connected with the turbines for transmitting power to the surface.