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MR. PEW’S POWER SCHEME
Commended By Practical Engineers
[Welland Tribune, 22 March 1895]
Mr. E.A.C. Pew’s proposition to furnish power for Hamilton and other points west, by way of Niagara and Welland rivers, with a cutting to the river Jordan, is meeting with the hearty recommendation of experienced, practical men; men who know just what they are talking about. Mr. H.C. Symmes of Niagara Falls South was in Toronto last week, and looked carefully into Mr. Pew’s plans. Mr. Symmes, we might say in advance, was not favorably impressed with Mr. Pew’s enterprise. After minutely examining the whole scheme, however, and verifying the figures produced, Mr. Symmes was compelled to admit that it was one of the finest and most feasible power schemes in Canada today.
Briefly the plan is to run the water of the Welland river west instead of east, and that is not as stiff a problem as some might think. Measurement taken on the ice shows a drop of about only two inches for the entire distance proposal to be used-almost a dead level.
The river Jordan is to be the “tail-race” of the power canal, and on its banks the power house is to be erected. The cutting from the Welland to the Jordan river is only a little over six miles in length, and at its deepest part the excavation is only twenty-seven and one-half feet. This will cost, it is estimated, less than half a million dollars, and will bring the power house twenty odd miles nearer Hamilton than the power furnished at Niagara Falls. This is an invaluable advantage. It will also form a very central station for the generation of power to operate an electric railway between Hamilton and Niagara Falls. The water supply is as boundless as Lake Erie and its feeders-the water passing from the lake into Niagara river, along Welland river to a point beyond Wellandport, and through the cutting to Jordan river, where the power house will be situated.
If the enterprise is carried out, and such a promising scheme surely will, it will be a grand thing for the towns on the Welland river, as the latter will be converted from a body of sluggish muddy water into a fresh and beautiful stream of Lake Erie water.
The city of Hamilton will, no doubt, receive the greatest benefit from the new power scheme, as it is estimated that power can be furnished at the ambitious city at $10 per horse power and still leave a handsome dividend on the money invested in the power canal.
Mr. Pew has many good solid men with him in this latest venture, and those best informed say that his company have struck it rich.
Wellanders hope that Mr. Pew’s brightest dreams may be realized.
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