This low-head operating plant is representative of nineteenth-century hydropower-plant practice using many small turbines in contrast to twentieth-century use of few large turbines and generators. Its 40,000 horsepower capacity made it the largest in the country using turbines of American design (McCormick-Francis). The contemporary and larger Niagara installation used turbines of French design (Fourneyron). The entrepreneur of this plant was Francis Clergue, a lawyer, who employed as his chief engineer Hans A.E. von Schon, a German immigrant who had served with the U.S.
McCormick-Francis
![Michigan-Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric Plant](/sites/default/files/styles/landmark_node_/public/landmarks/images/Lake_superior.jpg?itok=q4tLTNYt)
YearAdded:
Image Credit: Courtesy ASMEImage Caption: Michigan-Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric PlantEra_date_from: 1902
1981
Innovations
![Michigan-Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric Plant](/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/landmarks/images/Lake_superior.jpg?itok=Ij20t9Fs)
This low-head operating plant is representative of nineteenth-century hydropower-plant practice using many small turbines in contrast to twentieth-century use of few large turbines and generators. Its 40,000 horsepower capacity made it the largest in the country using turbines of American design…
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