Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company

Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company

Westinghouse Generators at Niagara Falls
Industry	Hydroelectric Utilities
Founded	1835
Founder	Caleb Smith Woodhull
Defunct	1918 (merger with Niagara Falls Power Company)
Headquarters	Niagara Falls, New York, United States
Key people	Caleb Smith Woodhull Jacob F. Schoellkopf Arthur Schoellkopf Jacob F. Schoellkopf Jr.

Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company was an American company, based in Niagara Falls, New York that was the first company to generate hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls in 1882. The company built upon several predecessor companies efforts to construct a canal used for hydraulic mill power. In 1918, the company merged with Niagara Falls Power Company, which later became Niagara Mohawk and in 2002 was acquired by National Grid plc.

In 1805, "Porter, Barton & Company," which comprised Augustus Porter, Peter Porter, Benjamin Barton, and Joseph Anim, purchased the Niagara River and the American Falls from New York at a public auction. The purchase also included the water rights from above the upper rapids to below the Falls. The company portaged goods by land from Lake Erie to Lewiston on the Niagara River, then shipped them east on Lake Ontario. When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it made the portage obsolete and plans to develop Niagara Falls suffered. Augustus proposed a hydraulic mill canal in 1847 and offered the right of way for the canal to any person ready to build it, but the Porter brothers died before interest in the project led to construction.