When Niagara ran dry

[Goshute]

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/day-Niaga ... dryniagara" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[steveh]

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/day-Niaga ... dryniagara

I had never heard of this being done and when a read the accompanying short story it made me wonder where all of the water would be diverted to and my first Google search turned this straight up, http://www.niagarafrontier.com/dewater.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, if you have 10 minutes it is a great read and there are also other pictures.

[ChrisGreaves]

If you have 10 minutes it is a great read and there are also other pictures.

For a better coverage, turn to "Engineers for the public good" by Nuala Drescher. There is no cataloging data in my copy, but it was published by/on behalf of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District.

Pages 257-264, 1 diagram, 7 photos, one of which is a double-page spread, which is too large for me to scan completely. A reduced-size truncated version is here:

Scan10008 (Small).JPG

P.S. I found a digital copy http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?seq=273&view=image&size=50&id=uc1.b4241852&u=1&num=257

[John Gray]

I went there in 1987, and they told me that Niagara Falls were only turned on during the day, for the tourists! (The explanation was that all the chemical companies in Niagara abstracted huge amounts of water.)

It was also the first time that I had come across the curious construction that "this part of the falls was named for <someone or other>", as opposed to the more logical named after...

[Bowlie]

They do it (almost) every day in Terni, Italy

[ChrisGreaves]

I went there in 1987, and they told me that Niagara Falls were only turned on during the day, for the tourists!

I believe there is an element of truth in that.
I have read that the flow over the falls is curtailed at night time by the diversion of water through the hydroelectric tunnels; the economy of the Canadian side of the border needs water in the daytime to attract the tourist Dollars.

I figure a direct-debit coin-in-the-slot arrangement can't be far away.
("All together now, everybody press SEND!")

The power authorities pump water into reservoirs to draw it off during daylight hours.

A similar scheme is in effect at Kinzua dam, but the tourist brochures at the visitor centre incorrectly state that they perform this feat with absolutely no loss of energy!

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[ChrisGreaves]

They do it (almost) every day in Terni, Italy

They terni the taps on and off?

[Bowlie]

They do it (almost) every day in Terni, Italy

They terni the taps on and off?

Whats the matter you? You no-a read-a my post-a??? (With apologies to all Italians, except that idiot that almost drove me off the road last night).

If you follow the link you see that, in December at least, they turni the taps on only on the weekend, the rest of the week they are turnied off.

[ChrisGreaves]

You no-a read-a my post-a???

Sorry, Bowlie; I was too busy listening to a You Tube Video, bringing back memories of my wonderful childhood in W.A. surrounded by kind Italians, Greeks, Poles etc. all a-workin' ona da railway.

P.S. A quote from anotherforum:
"" 'Shaddap You Face' in its twenty-third year as the most successful song in Australian music history, breaks the twenty-two year record set by Slim Dusty and 'The Pub With No Beer', which was released in 1957, and held the record until 1979, when it was overtaken by Mike Brady and The Two Man Band, with 'Up There Cazaly'" "

[Jezza]

Here is a (very bad) picture I took of the brink on the Canadian side in August this year, note how they also dye the water red to attract gullible tourists

[ChrisGreaves]

... in August this year,

They floodlight the falls in winter too, to fool the tourists who think that the falls don't freeze over.

[Goshute]

I have read that the flow over the falls is curtailed at night time by the diversion of water through the hydroelectric tunnels...

Not exactly related, but in "The secret knowledge of water", author Craig Childs describes small desert streams which flow only at night, because during the day the surrounding plants draw much more water in for respiration than at night, and lower the water table below the stream bed. I would like to see that in my lifetime.

[ChrisGreaves]

Not exactly related, ... surrounding plants

Au Contraire, mon ami.
Just that in the case of Niagara it is a hydro-electric plant!

[Goshute]

Au Contraire, mon ami.

And the diurnal cycle of above ground water is opposite, yes, otherwise completely identical.