Hydroelectric Power at Niagara Falls

Contents: About the Collection | About the About Page | Tech

About the Collection

The relationship Niagara Falls has with hydroelectricity originates from 19th century thought, an era of the Industrial Revolution and new scientific innovations that shape the way we live today. Producing electricity was the forefront of being successful in industry, as power means production in an ever-capitalising society. The notion of hydroelectric power utilises the specific location of Niagara Falls and has shaped the way this society functions. It has become so widely known to this day and age of the use of hydroelectricity at waterfalls, but also how this renewable form of power has a much less contribution to pollution. C. Sellers (1891) described in the Engineering Magazine of the huge potential that Niagara Falls had to be a cost-effective method of generating electrical power compared to other more finite resources, like coal, that were commonly being used during the Industrial Revolution. Sellers details how Switzerland has installed a hydroelectric power plant prior to the 1891 article, which fuelled thriving factory businesses. This perspective entails the way access to electrical power drives success in a capitalist-run world.

The images in this exhibition aim to tell the story of the construction of the Niagara Parks Power Station and how the infrastructure looks today. Multiple images show the meticulous planning of the developments and the processes by which these are carried out, whether it be installing a cofferdam – a watertight arena to allow construction underwater – or the manufacturing of turbines and generators in the plant itself. One of the images displays the blueprint plans for the dynamos - that convert the mechanical energy of the water moving the turbine into electrical energy - designed by Nikola Tesla, a world-renowned physician and engineer. This links into the 19th century development of the cyanotype photographic process by Sir J. Herschel, that was widely used for architectural planning in the form of blueprints, furthering the ability of plans to be reproduced and distributed. Photography and photojournalism made it possible to document and distribute the achievements of the Ontario Power Company. In the images taken from Hyde’s (1909) article, hand-colouring is visible as colour photography was not yet a developed and practiced process yet, however this process artistically objective and was understood as not ‘accurate’ per say. Maps and diagrams made available to the public after the opening of the plant feature in the exhibition, and bird’s eye view photographs bring new practices of looking to the public eye.

There were several concerns associated with building the hydroelectric plant, such as those of H.M. Hyde (1909) who expressed discontent over who had control over the natural resource of water. Hyde’s article discusses the ability that wealthy men have to exploit water resources to benefit themselves financially by privatising public lands and waters, and by using rivers as waste disposal sites, polluting the water. Wealthy men profiting from capitalism govern the production and distribution of generated power and water usage. Gender normative roles dictate the involvement women could have with the scientific industry as men held the position of privilege. Women were only employed in lower paid, customer-facing roles, to deal with phone calls the company may receive, or conduct household appliance demonstrations, or by operating switchboards in the plant. With limited access to higher education, women were unable to enter the higher pay, male dominated workforce of managerial roles and the field of science.

Some environmental concerns for impact that intense human activity would have on the falls are addressed by A.D. Adams in 1906. Adams (1906) suggests extensive human activity could risk the falls running dry – shown by the images comparing Niagara in full flow and then impacted by an ice blockage. His concern was the wreckage of one of the natural wonders of the world – how it would no longer be natural under human impact. In the Niagara Parks Power Station, the displays provided information on Indigenous people’s connection to the water as part of their life and spirituality, providing life-giving energy and healing properties. The Elliot Page and Ian Daniels’ film ‘There’s Something in The Water’ (2019) describes the institutionalised environmental racism that government and corporations perpetuate against Indigenous and racialised communities when it comes to ownership, land usage, and controlling water resources. This documentary echoes concerns of water being controlled by government with the consideration of the impact on marginalised communities in the Canadian neo-colonial context.

References:

1. Nunn, P. N. (1906). Hydro-Electric Enterprise in Canada. The Canadian Engineer, Toronto. http://hdl.handle.net/10464/13152
2. Sellers, C. (1891). How Niagara’s Power Will be Utilized. Engineering Magazine, September 1891, pp. 803-816. http://hdl.handle.net/10464/13172
3. The Electrical World Magazine (1897). The Electrical Features of Niagara. The Electrical World, Vol. XXIX No. 23, 719-734. http://hdl.handle.net/10464/13181
4. Alton, A. D. (1906). Niagara Falls Already Ruined. The Technical World Magazine, pp. 115-124. http://hdl.handle.net/10464/13183
5. Hyde, H. M. (1909). Who Owns the Earth and How Did They Get it? The Technical World Magazine, Volume X no. 6, pp. 553-562. http://hdl.handle.net/10464/13187
6. Page, E., & Daniel, I. (2019). There’s Something in The Water. Place of publication not identified: Two Weeks’ Notice LLC. https://ocul-bu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01OCUL_BU/3kjbnu/alma991009191493405152