By Norman R. Ball

On July 27, 2005, the WilliamBirch Rankine generating sta-tion in Niagara Falls, Ontario,

Canada, reaches a milestone — it willhave generated and delivered hydroelec-tric power to customers for a century.The station sits within the Queen Victo-ria Niagara Falls Park, close to NiagaraFalls. Yet, few of the countless touristswho pass the long, elegant, cut-stonebuilding with the glazed green terracotta tile roof suspect it is a hydro gen-erating station. There are no telltalebanks of insulators, transformers, powerlines, or towers.

But Rankine is no ordinary power sta-tion. The station is named after one ofthe earliest supporters of electricaldevelopment at Niagara Falls and afounder of Canadian Niagara PowerCompany. Its historical significancegoes beyond the fact that, when new, its

five 10,250-horsepower (hp) turbinesand five 7.5-MW generators were thelargest in the world. Above all else,Rankine was created to preserve thebeauty of one of the world’s great natu-ral wonders.

Protests, technology give birthto a powerhouse in a park

The Rankine station is the offspring oftwo developments in the late nineteenthcentury. The first was theinternational outrage overunsightly industrial devel-opment dominating the Ni-agara Falls tourist area. Thisoutrage, expressed mostclearly in the Save NiagaraMovement, led to the cre-ation of parks on both sidesof the Niagara River. TheNew York State Reserva-tion at Niagara and the Queen VictoriaNiagara Falls Park in Ontario wereremarkably different. On the Americanside, the state bought the property forthe park, and funded it generously. Bycontrast, the Canadian park was virtu-ally destitute from the day it wasformed; both major political parties ofthe day vowed that not a penny of publicfunds would go to the park. The com-missioners of the Queen Victoria Nia-gara Falls Park had to issue bonds just tobuy property. Aside from renting outconcession rights, the Queen Victoria

Niagara Falls Park had no real income.That’s where electrical technologycomes into the picture.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, thedetailed shape of the electrical futurewas still unclear, but large-scale electri-cal generation seemed to be the comingthing. And Niagara Falls seemed to haveunlimited hydroelectric power. In 1892,the government of Ontario approved anagreement between the newly formedCanadian Niagara Power and the QueenVictoria Niagara Falls Park commis-sioners. The company received powerdevelopment rights and the park got asignificant source of income, includingtwo years’ rent in advance. Because theuse of hydroelectricity was still verynew, just to be on the safe side, the leg-islation allowed Canadian Niagara toharness and transmit the power of Nia-gara’s mighty waters either electricallyor by compressed air. Nicola Tesla’spioneering alternating current (AC)

patents, which were devel-oped by Westinghouse, se-cured the electrical futureof the site. On both sides ofthe river, electrical powerfrom Niagara Falls wasgenerated primarily for useat a distance. Buffalo, themain target market, wasabout 20 miles away. OnlyAC power could be eco-

nomically transmitted over such dis-tances that today seem pitifully short.

Delayed development at Niagara Falls, Ontario

Canadian Niagara Power was foundedin 1892. Under the terms of the legisla-tion and franchise agreement — whichgave the company the legal right to gen-erate power from the Niagara River,Canadian Niagara was supposed to gen-erate 10,000 hp (7.46 MW) of either elec-tric or pneumatic power by 1897. It is un-likely that the company ever intended to

William Birch Rankine Generating Station:Powerhouse in the Park

Norman Ball, PhD, is director of theCentre for Society, Technology and Val-ues at the University of Waterloo wherehe is also a professor in the Departmentof Systems Design Engineering. Anaward-winning historian of engineeringand technology, Dr. Ball is writing a his-tory of the Canadian Niagara PowerCompany.

The 74.6-MW William Birch Rankine generating station sits on the Niagara Parkway, one of Canada’s most scenic drives,and just a few feet from Niagara Falls. While millions of touristshave passed the site, most have no idea that the beautiful stonebuilding is an electrical generating facility. Rankine, which hasgenerated power continuously for 100 years, is a good exampleof how scenic beauty and electrical technology can co-exist.

H A L L O F F A M E

From Hydro Review, July 2005 - © HCI Publications, www.hcipub.comReproduced with permission

2404_HallofFame.qxp 12/31/2008 3:12 PM Page 1

2 HYDRO REVIEW / JULY 2005

meet that schedule, and it wasn’t untilJanuary 2, 1905, that Canadian and Amer-ican dignitaries officially opened thestill-incomplete Rankine power station.

The years of delay had eroded popularand political support for the company,and cost it the exclusive right to generatepower on the Canadian side of the Nia-gara River and limited the amount thatcould be generated at the site to 100,000hp (74.6 MW). However, the delays gavethe company and its investors what theyneeded most — time for rapidly chang-ing electrical technology to mature to thepoint at which it made better sense as along-term investment.

Canadian Niagara Power’s parentcompany, the Niagara Falls Power Com-pany, was completing the Adams Gener-

ating Station in Niagara Falls, New York,and learning a great deal in the processthat it hoped to apply at its Canadiangenerating station. When installed, theAdams station’s 5,000-hp turbines and“dynamos” were the largest in the world.On October 26, 1893, the WestinghouseElectric and Manufacturing Companyguaranteed that the dynamos would have“an output of 5,000 electrical horse-power at an effective potential of from2,000 to 2,400 volts when driven at aspeed of 250 revolutions per minute…the total electrical and magnetic losses ineach generator not to exceed 2½ per centof its rated output.”1,2

In many ways, the Adams plant was agiant research and development projectand the Rankine plant the resulting

application for new knowledge as wellas newly developed technology.

Rankine went on-line July 27, 1905.At that time, the plant’s 10,250-hp tur-bines and 8,800-kilovolt-ampere (kVa),7,500-kW generators were the largestin the world. Within a month, Rankinebecame a net power exporter to theUnited States. During its earliest years,the generating station was about halfof its present 600-foot length and hadonly five turbines and generators.Expansion continued until 1924, whenthe eleventh generator brought theoreti-cal installed capacity to 120,500 hp(89.9 MW). However, this figure is bothmisleading and operationally meaning-less, as is that in a 1963 Ontario Hydropublication which lists the Canadian

General InformationLocation: Niagara River, Niagara Falls,

Ontario, approximately 600 feet upstreamfrom the crest of Horseshoe Falls (Cana-dian Falls)

Owner: FortisOntario Inc.Capacity: 74.6 MW, 25-cycleDevelopment Cost: C$5,199,827.78On-Line Date: July 27, 1905 (first unit),

1924 (last unit)

EquipmentTurbines (11 Francis)Units 1, 2, and 3:10,250 horsepower (hp)Vertical double runners250 revolutions per minute (rpm) Operate at 133-foot head and 885 cubic

feet per second (cfs) of flow Spiral wheel caseManufactured by Escher-WyssUnits 4 and 5:10,250 hpVertical double runners250 rpm Operate at 133-foot head and 885 cfs of

flow Spiral wheel caseManufactured by I.P. Morris and Escher-

WyssUnit 6:12,500 hpVertical double runner (single runner sup-

plied)250 rpm Operate at 133-foot head Spiral wheel caseManufactured by Bethlehem Steel Co.Unit 7:12,500 hp

Vertical double runner (double runner sup-plied)

250 rpm Operate at 133-foot head Spiral wheel caseManufactured by Bethlehem Steel Co.Units 8, 9, and 10:12,500 hpVertical single runner 250 rpm Operate at 136-foot head Spiral wheel caseManufactured by Wellman-Seaver Morgan

Co.Unit 11:12,500 hpVertical single runner 250 rpm Operate at 136-foot head Circular section plate steel spiral caseManufactured by Allis-Chalmers Generators (11)Units 1-5:12,000 volts (v)360 amps (nameplate)8,800 kVa7,500 kW 25 cycleManufactured by Canadian General ElectricUnits 6-10:12,000 v500 amps (nameplate)10, 400 kVa9,375 kW, 25 cycleManufactured by Canadian WestinghouseUnit 11:12,000 v550 amps (nameplate)

11,400 kVa10,300 kW25 cycleManufactured by Canadian Westinghouse

ConstructionPenstockRiveted construction steel130 feet long10-foot, 6-inch diameterPowerhouseLimestone buildingGlazed clay tile roof570 feet long2 floorsWheelpit: 171.3 feet below generator floor;

566.84 feet long by 20.5 feet wideTailrace TunnelUndergroundBrick-linedInverted “U” shape25 feet tall18.8 feet at widest point2,164 feet longExits at face of Niagara gorge at side of

Horseshoe Falls

Construction ContractorsTunnels and Shaft: A.C. DouglasWheelpit and Canal: Dawson and RileyForebay and Cofferdam: James BarryIntake to Niagara Falls Park and River Rail-

way Powerhouse: Fraser and EmeryRailway and Highway Bridges over Canal:

Queenston Quarry Company Ltd.Contract for Steelwork for Powerhouse:

Hamilton Bridge Works Co.Contract for Powerhouse: William Grace

Company

Technical Information

William Birch Rankine Generating Station

2404_HallofFame.qxp 12/31/2008 3:12 PM Page 2

Niagara Power Company at 94,700kW.3 Under the legislation and legalagreements governing the Rankinegenerating station, the plant’s owner isnot allowed to generate more than100,000 hp (74.6 MW).

A powerhouse above Niagara Falls

More modern Niagara powerhousessuch as 498-MW Sir Adam Beck No. 1

and 1,483-MW Sir Adam Beck No. 2are miles downriver from Niagara Falls,where the combined heights of the dropover the falls, plus the precipitous dropin the river as it roars through rapids onits way to Lake Ontario, give a muchlarger head that produces more powerper unit of water than a site that usesonly the drop over the falls. However,Canadian Niagara and the TorontoPower Development Company (origi-

nally known as the Electrical Develop-ment Company) built just above the fallsbecause that eliminated the need formore expensive surface and subsurfaceexcavated water channels to deliverwater to the generating site.

For the Rankine station, surface wateris diverted from the Niagara River by anarm-shaped weir about 1,500 feet abovethe falls. It flows under a five-archbridge and directly into the forebay andpowerhouse. There, the water plungesdown 136 feet through penstocks to theturbines in a turbine pit cut into the sedi-mentary rock.

After leaving the turbines, the watertravels for 2,200 feet through a 25-foot-high underground discharge tunnel tothe rock wall of the gorge beside theface of the Canadian, or Horseshoe,Falls. Tourists who board the boat,Maid of the Mist, to be thrilled by themock danger of being close to the baseof the falls also get a good view of thedischarge outlet.

The pit and discharge tunnels weremajor mining tasks — the product ofdynamite, steam power, compressed air,raw horsepower, and plenty of humanmuscle power. The construction wasquite straightforward, but jobs of this sizeusually have some incidents. There was asimultaneous short-lived strike at allthree generating station construction sitesof Canadian Niagara, Ontario PowerDevelopment Company, and ElectricalDevelopment Company. When the liquorran out and the soldiers arrived, thingspetered out. And to this day no oneknows who was behind what the newspa-pers called the “Fiendish Attempt toBlow Up the Canadian Power Tunnel”before it was even finished.4

During construction, engineers waitedto see if horizontal rock slippage, or dis-placement, would push the walls of thepit inward. This happened during con-struction of the Adams station. Notunexpectedly, the same thing happenedat Rankine. Massive cast-iron reinforce-ments placed between the walls stoppedthe walls from moving inward.

As mentioned earlier, in order toreduce initial construction costs, Rank-ine was built upriver from the falls. Thismeant that in order to get a respectableand useful head of water, the companyhad to dig a deep pit to house the tur-bines. How, then, was a turbine to becoupled with its generator? In manyinstallations, the two pieces of equip-ment are close coupled, joined by a shortshaft. At Rankine, this was a theoretical

The Rankine generating station features 11 generator arches made of stone and heavy cast-iron structural elements that span the wheelpit. The generator in the background of the photo isresting on a completed arch. Floor plates between the arches are removable to allow turbinesand other equipment to be raised up from the wheelpit to floor level for maintenance and repairs.

The wheelpit for Rankine had to be excavated to a depth of 171 feet below the generating sta-tion floor, with an opening almost 567 feet long. Unlike conventional open-pit or quarrying oper-ations, the sides had to be close to vertical. Compressed air from a steam-powered compres-sor plant at the surface powered the drilling and cutting equipment.

HYDRO REVIEW / JULY 2005 3

2404_HallofFame.qxp 12/31/2008 3:12 PM Page 3

4 HYDRO REVIEW / JULY 2005

possibility, but a practical impossibility.It would have required a far more mas-sive excavation … and much more ex-pense … to put the 11 generators and allof the associated switches, relays, ex-citers, governors, and other equipmentdown at the turbine level. Moreover, alarger excavation might have been moreat risk from rock slippage, perhaps evencollapse. In addition, engineers also wor-ried about possible operating problems,shorting, and electrical malfunctionswith generators and other equipment inthe damp atmosphere at the bottom ofthe closely confined pit.

The need to put the generators atground level far above the turbine levelled to one of the most dramatic visual

and mechanical components of theRankine generating station: a line of 11vertical steel shafts, each running from aturbine in the deep pit to a generator 130feet above. Babbitt thrust bearings carrythe vertical load, but the tremendousmass of the system puts the bearings atgreat risk whenever a unit is started up orshut down. The trick is to get the waterinto the turbine so quickly that it raisesthe entire unit slightly. In this way, thebearing surfaces are separated by a filmof oil and not rubbing metal on metal.Shutting down must be done equallyquickly to get the speed to drop from250 to 100 revolutions per minute (rpm),the point at which it is safe to activatethe pulsating wooden brakes that grip

the 40-inch-diameter,130-foot-long ro-tating shaft.

The power station that doesn’t look like a power station

Under the terms of the agreement withthe commissioners of the Queen Victo-ria Niagara Falls Park, Canadian Nia-gara had to seek the commissioners’approval for all design and constructionwork. Both parties worked hard to getthe aesthetics right for the powerhousein a park. The company, for example,chose a more expensive green terra cottatile roof, because it looked better thanorange tile, which was cheaper. It was asound decision; the gleaming green roofis striking and the building has been re-roofed only once in its 100 years.

To maintain the scenic integrity of thepark site, there are no above-groundcables or wires to or from the generatingstation. The transformer station outsidethe park is linked to the generating sta-tion by underground cables. Outside theconfines of the park, Canadian Niagarauses conventional poles or towers.

Power destined to flow directly fromRankine to Niagara Falls, New York,also follows an invisible path within thepark boundaries. When the stationopened in 1905, power traveled throughunderground cables beneath NiagaraFalls, Ontario, to the Upper Arch SteelBridge that crossed over the NiagaraFalls, New York. Cables attached to theunderside of the bridge, also known asthe Falls View Bridge or HoneymoonBridge, carried power between the twocountries. In 1938, a massive ice jamtore the bridge down. Its replacement —the Rainbow Bridge — also carriespower transmission cables betweenOntario and New York State.

The Niagara Parkway, one of Can-ada’s most scenic drives, passes be-tween the Rankine generating stationand the river’s edge. In order to keepthe roadway level where it crosses overthe forebay entrance, the company de-signed and built an innovative flatarched bridge. The visible parts of theforebay walls are also covered with thesame locally cut stone as the generatingstation. The cut stone extends belowthe surface of the water, because engi-neers felt it offered better resistance toice scouring.

The Canadian Niagara ‘Navy’

Ice played an important role in thedesign and operation of the Rankine sta-tion. Although the effect of severe

The Rankine generating station looks much the same today as it did in 1913, as shown here.Both Canadian Niagara and the commissioners of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Parkworked hard to get the aesthetics right for the powerhouse in a park. For example, to maintainthe scenic integrity of the park site, there are no above-ground cables or wires running to orfrom the generating station.

This wooden electric tug/icebreaker, commonly referred to as The Canadian Niagara PowerCompany Navy, was vital to combat ice buildup in the forebay of the Rankine generating stationin the early 1990s.

2404_HallofFame.qxp 12/31/2008 3:12 PM Page 4

storms is beyond the scope of this arti-cle, one piece of generating stationequipment should not be passed bywithout comment.

The swiftly moving Niagara Riverdoes not freeze over, but it carries ahuge ice load from Lake Erie. Althoughthere is an ice weir to divert much ofthe ice from the forebay at Rankine anda sluiceway in the forebay to removethe ice, ice buildup in the forebay was asevere problem from the earliest yearsof the station. Under the worst condi-tions, ice completely blocked the pen-stocks, and very little water could getthrough to the turbines. But most of thetime, what some people called the“Canadian Niagara Navy” managed todeal with the ice. The “navy” had onlyone boat, but it was unusual: steel-hulled with a wooden cabin, electri-cally driven by streetcar motors draw-ing power from an overhead trolley. Itwas owned by Canadian Niagara andstayed in the forebay of the Rankinestation.

When ramming and riding up on theice didn’t work, Canadian Niagaraemployees tried dynamite. Sometimesthe dynamite moved the ice and some-times it seemed to do little more thanheave the boat up. During bad weather,working on the boat was every bit asexhausting as being a lineman.

Two important developments reducedthe severity of the ice problem. On Sep-tember 28, 1957, the opening of theInternational Control Dam allowedwater and ice to be more carefully con-trolled and directed, but did nothing toreduce the total volume of ice in theriver. The most significant developmentcame in 1964 with a joint project byOntario Hydro and the New York PowerAuthority. The project started as anexperiment and quickly graduated tobecome an annual event. Every year, thetwo utilities stretch an ice boom acrossthe Niagara River where Lake Eriedrains into the river. The boom holdsback much of the heavy winter ice loadsuntil the ice that has not melted can be

over to the Niagara Parks Commissionon May 1, 2009. Under a separate agree-ment, water rights go to OPG.

Celebrating a century of achievement

On July 27, 2005, FortisOntario, thecurrent owners of the Canadian NiagaraPower Company and the Rankine gen-erating station celebrate 100 years ofgenerating and supplying electric powerto customers. But there is more to the100 years than supplying electricity.The celebration commemorates a cen-tury of co-existence of a scenic parkand a hydroelectric generating station.Rankine is the oldest operating generat-ing station on the Niagara River. It waspart of the great pioneering efforts thatharnessed the power of Niagara andushered in “The Electrical Age” thatdramatically altered almost every facetof modern life. ■

Dr. Ball may be contacted at RavenResearch and Communications Inc., 29Hammersmith Avenue, Toronto, OntarioM4E 2W3 Canada; (1) 416-686-5818;E-mail: nrball@istar.ca.

Notes1Adams, Edward Dean, Niagara Power

History of the Niagara Falls PowerCompany 1886-1918, Evolution ofits Central Power Station and Alter-nating Current System, Volumes 1and 2, The Niagara Falls PowerCompany, Niagara Falls, New York,1927.

2Irwin, William, The New Niagara:Tourism, Technology, and the Land-scape of Niagara Falls, 1776-1917,Pennsylvania State University Press,University Park, Pennsylvania, 1996.

3Power From Niagara: Generating Sta-tions of Ontario Hydro on the Nia-gara River, Ontario Hydro, Toronto,Ontario, 1963, page 5.

4“Fiendish Attempt to Blow Up theCanadian Power Tunnel,” NiagaraFalls Gazette, Niagara Falls, NewYork, April 26, 1902, page 1.

HYDRO REVIEW / JULY 2005 5

safely released in the spring, at whichtime the boom is taken in for the year.The ice boom has so dramaticallyreduced the ice problem at the Rankinegenerating station that the “navy” hasbeen phased out.

Improving efficiency:share the water

Unlike many older generating plants,the Rankine station still features its orig-inal turbines and 25-cycle generators.The main modernization efforts haveaimed at reducing the manpower re-quirements in the station. As part of thiseffort, North American Hydro installedautomation equipment, including inno-vative oilless governors.

During the 1950s, the provincial gov-ernment encouraged a massive Ontario-wide conversion from 25-cycle power to60-cycle power. Canadian Niagara con-verted much of its transmission and dis-tribution to 60 cycle in 1957-58. How-ever, it continued to generate at 25-cycle,exporting some power to the U.S. andselling the rest to Ontario Hydro as partof an arrangement that gave CanadianNiagara the 60-cycle power it needed.This is still the situation today.

At the same time, Canadian Niagarastarted allowing Ontario Hydro to usesome of its water allotment. This meantthat Ontario Hydro with its generatingfacilities further downstream could gen-erate more power than Rankine couldwith the same amount of water. Continu-ing today, Canadian Niagara and OntarioHydro (now Ontario Power Generation,OPG) have a flexible water exchangeagreement. The agreement provides forOPG to get more water when it is mutu-ally convenient, but still leaves Rankineas an active generating station.

What will the future hold?

Canadian Niagara Power, wholly ownedby FortisOntario since 2002, does nothold water rights in perpetuity. Underthe terms of the recently signed NiagaraExchange Agreement, FortisOntario willhand the Rankine Generating Station

2404_HallofFame.qxp 12/31/2008 3:12 PM Page 5