The availability of hydroelectric power, "white coal" as it was often called, was expected to stimulate manufacturing growth in small as well as large centers. At the same time it would free industrial areas of the "smoke nuisance" created by steam-driven factories; a fact often mentioned in press stories about hydro-electric installation. The Hamilton Spectator carried a story on the city's hydro company in its Christmas issue, December 15, 1899, headed: "A Smokeless City in a Coalless Province." The illustration from The Globe, Toronto August 5, 1905, contrasts the city of electricity and that of steam.
