[Footnote: "Under a treaty between the
United States and the British Government only about 25 per cent of the
theoretical horsepower of Niagara Falls can be developed. The estimate of
the minimum amount of power that can be developed on the Niagara River
above and including the Falls is 5,800,000 h.p., and the assumed maximum
is 6,500,000 h.p. The treaty, therefore, limits present possible minimum
development on both sides of the Falls to 1,450,000 h.p. Under the treaty
only five-fourteenths of the power made available thereby belongs to the
United States, its share being reduced by the diversion of water from Lake
Michigan into the Drainage Canal at Chicago. There is thus left at Niagara
Falls only about 518,000 h.p. that can at present be developed on the
American side." About one-half of this total is now developed.--United
States Commissioner of Corporations. Report on water-power development in
the United States. 1912.]
What the conversion of the strength of this Titan (for ages entirely
wasted and for a century after Hennepin only a scenic wonder) means, or
may mean, to industry in the future is intimated in some statistics,
furnished by a recent writer on the Great Lakes, showing the relative cost
per month of a certain unit of power in a number of representative
American cities.
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