By: Bob Adner

It has been almost sixty years since the Niagara Power Project was completed. I was one of the lucky ones that was working on it from start to finish as a blaster. With nearly twelve thousand workers employed at one time or another there were a lot of human-interest stories that came from their experiences. This is one of them.

Let me begin with a little background. With the tremendous amount of concrete poured, the aggregate (gravel, sand, etc.) mixed with it had to come from somewhere. The powers that be decided to use the rock excavated from the tunnels and forebay to produce that aggregate. And so, they needed rock crushers of all types to process the rock. Two of the biggest crushers in the world were designed and assembled on site. They consisted of steel boxes approximately thirty feet long by twenty-five feet high by eight feet wide. The walls were about one foot thick and solid steel. Inside were two rollers or impellers that weighed three tons each. Each impeller had three huge breaker bars that were part of the impeller itself. They spun at a speed of eighteen hundred rpms. Each one was turned by a hundred horsepower electric motor. The rock was dumped into the crusher via a chute about twenty feet long and wide enough to accept a rock five feet wide, five feet thick and eleven feet long. And the operators tried to get bigger ones through. This caused a problem. There was no way to get a rock back out once it was down the chute.

I was working in the forebay or as we called it “the hole” one afternoon when the crusher super showed up in his pickup and had a short talk with my boss, John Saunders. John was one of the best rock men I ever knew and was highly respected by his men and his bosses. John came over to me and said, “they’ve got a rock stuck in the crusher and can’t get it out. Wanta take a little powder (dynamite) and see what you can do for them? “ Anything to get away from the tedious job of loading holes, I put a piece of powder in one pocket and a cap with a forty-foot lead in another pocket. I got in the super’s pickup and he got out the other side. He said he wasn’t driving any pickup any place with me and that dynamite inside. So, we decided I would ride up with him (minus the dynamite) and John would send the powder truck up so I could get what I needed. When we got to the crusher I was surprised. I hadn’t ever seen one like that. I asked the super, “Where’s the rock?”  “Inside the crusher”. Next question; “How do I get inside the crusher?” Next answer “Same way the rock did-through the top”. He pointed out a ladder welded to the side of the crusher. I climbed it and found myself on top of the beast. I laid down on my stomach and tried to look down the chute. What I saw was two sets of heavy chains hung across the chute to keep the impellers from throwing pieces of rock back out of the crusher.  I climbed down the chute, threaded my way through the curtains and at last was standing on the offending rock. The impellers were shut down so I got a better look. It wasn’t a big rock-about three feet thick but really wide. It had turned sideways and its own weight jammed it against the side of the chute. A corner had to be blasted off.  Easy job!! I climbed back out and there was John who ridden up in the powder truck. “Whatta we got”? “Really simple — piece of cake”, I told him, and described the situation. He took my word for it and left to set up safety precautions while I got a pail of mud (to hold the charge in place), and got my powder and cap off the truck. John came back,” Looks like we have an audience.” All the big shots were gathered around to see if I was going to ruin their million-dollar invention, or just kill myself. Back down through the chains and with the charge in place I carefully threaded the wire up the chute and out onto the top of the crusher. I signaled to John I was ready and he signaled the operator to start the crusher. Everyone ran for cover. A big Payhauler truck had been brought up for them to hide under.  John had a pickup waiting and blew three short blasts on the horn the signaling to clear the area. Exactly one minute later I gave the time worn yell “Fire in the Hole” and touched the wires to a flashlight battery. A loud bang and then I felt the thud of the impact where I was standing on top of the crusher. And then the rock slid into the impellers, was pulverized and dumped out the bottom where a belt took it out to the stockpile. John sounded one long blast on the horn, the all-clear signal and the show was over. And the crusher still stood and I was still alive. Actually, I could’ve broken the corner off with a sledge hammer but that would mean I had to ride the rock through the crusher which would have been detrimental to my health.

My name is Bob Adner. I live at 230 Newell in Tonawanda, New York. I am 94 years old and enjoy remembering the power project!