Historians of technology have recognized the significance of the polyphase Central Station system of universal distribution introduced in 1895 by the Niagara Falls Power Company. This study explores the subsequent history to 1935 of the "Niagara system" by tracing the comparative evolution in New York State and Ontario of electrical energy technology based at the international site of Niagara Falls. Methodologically, the study draws concepts primarily from two disciplines: the History of Technology, and Transnational Corporations and Technology Transfer.
Between 1880-1906, the Niagara Co. invented, developed, and transferred to Niagara Falls, Ontario its universal electric power system. The success of the innovation resulted in the diffusion of project conceptions and designs to competing private firms at the Ontario site. This inter-firm approximate standardization of both generation and transmission technology forced competitors to focus upon high voltage transmission to reach distant markets. This standardization also structured the evolution in Ontario of a political movement for public power, a movement which resulted in 1906 in the formation of a quasi-autonomous institution, Ontario Hydro. Niagara engineers steered Hydro into a specialization in transmission, and thus designed Hydro into its competitive niche--based on technology standardized at Niagara.
The history between 1906-1925 of both Hydro and New York utilities was shaped by international legislation which specified ceilings upon both Niagara water diversions and power export from Ontario. Export limits increased competition in Ontario, and Hydro responded by adopting and designing advanced, non-standard technology to achieve a competitive edge, and by moving into rural and domestic electrification programs--which increased Hydro's popularity. Hydro's markets and political strength grew together. Eventually, Hydro acquired competing private plans at Niagara Falls, Ontario, and designed Queenston-Chippawa, the world's largest generating station. The costs of Hydro policies resulted in a massive, official investigation, but the Ontario government approved in 1924 Hydro's evolution and plans--thus legitimating technocratic institution in Ontario's political culture.
The international legislation ensured power supply shortages in New York, a situation worsened by Hydro's threats of export curtailment. Consequently, utilities vertically integrated into generation. During the war, Ontario Hydro's threats of export curtailment resulted in intervention by the Secretary of War who established a regional, interconnected ('Superpower') system--later institutionalized in 1925 as the Buffalo Niagara & Eastern Power Corporation. Both Hydro and Buffalo Niagara reached by 1925 their technological limits to growth at Niagara. The system momentum of Hydro (based on ideal designs regardless of cost), and that of the New York utilities (based on regional supply shortages), then converged as both looked to the St. Lawrence as a substitute 'new Niagara'.
Between 1925-1935, the diffusion of Hydro as a model to New York State resulted in indefinite St. Lawrence delays. In 1929, the Niagara Hudson Power Corporation absorbed Buffalo Niagara and formed America's "Exhibit A of Superpower". Niagara Hudson planned a private St. Lawrence development in association with interconnection with the New York City market--but only the interconnection occurred. Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt effectively declared war on the Niagara Hudson monopoly and instead established on the Hydro model of public power and rural and domestic electrification programs the Power Authority of the State of New York. As President, Roosevelt continued to support PASNY and drew upon its reports in establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority. While American technology was transferred originally to Ontario, the Ontario Hydro experience, or model, was thus transferred back to America--to the South.
