The "head" of falling water from which hydroelectricity is derived can be tapped in various ways. At the plant of the Ontario Power Company, one of the American-owned companies at Niagara, water was taken from a point upriver of the Falls and carried through enormous underground conduits to the base of the Falls. The entire head from the top to the bottom of the Falls is thus utilized. The intake is in the far distance to the left and the conduit passes the Electrical Development Company in the middle distance and the American-owned Canadian Niagara Power Company in the foreground.
Hamilton Generating Plant. This picture dates from the 1930s and shows the generating plant owned by the Cataract Power Company, later named Dominion Power and Transmission. Originally there was only one penstock but the company built a small canal that drew water, under federal agreement, from the Welland Canal and carried it to this point near DeCew Falls on the Niagara Escarpment. The water then dropped 265 feet and rotated Italian-made turbines. A comparison of the plant of the Cataract Power Company with that of the Ontario Power Company suggests the magnitude of the resource at Niagara and explains public concern and excitement over its development.
