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OTWITHSTANDING the fact that the Niagara Falls region is chiefly celebrated by reason of its natural wonders, intelligent people are gradually coming to understand that here are to be found engineering works in the form of electrical-power development plants which are unrivaled anywhere in the world, and electrochemical industries which are likely to grow of greater importance with increasing knowledge of the electrochemical art.

When ground was broken in 1890 for the installation of the first great power plant at Niagara Falls, the engineers in charge of the project regarded the development of even fifteen thousand horse-power of electrical current with grave concern because at that time economical transmission of electricity over long distances was deemed hardly practicable and because the possibilities in the field of electro-chemistry had been to only a slight extent foreseen. Except in the minds of a few, therefore, the utilization of any large amount of water from the Niagara River for the generation of power was held to be an undertaking of doubtful wisdom at best.

However, within a comparatively short time after the determination