4. Clergue And Carbide

  The water power reemerged, thanks primarily to the arrival in 1896 to Sault Sainte Marie, Canada of Philadelphia backed promoter Francis H. Clergue who began working to develop what were widely perceived as industrial wonders in the remote, sparsely populated areas of Northern Ontario. Clergue's backers would eventually invest in mines, railroads, iron manufacture and other interlocking concerns. Clergue's big Ontario ambitions focused on the uses of Canadian water power as the center of a singularly controlled scheme of industrialized growth drawing almost exclusively on locally available resources. Clergue's concerns restarted the water power project across the river in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. Union Carbide, a Chicago based company organized in 1898 to monopolize the manufacture of calcium carbide in North America, agreed to become a major, long term consumer of the new water power.

  Calcium carbide would be produced in much greater quantities in Sault Sainte Marie by the Union Carbide Company than had been previously by the Lake Superior Carbide Company, which was absorbed into Union Carbide. Calcium carbide is used to easily generate acetylene gas by placing water in contact with the carbide. Acetylene held broad potential as bright, clean, and economical light source.

5. The Draw Of Limestone      3. Osborn And The Soo