The Lower Raceway was the lowest major level of Paterson’s historic waterpower system and an important part of the engineering network that transformed the Great Falls of the Passaic River into the power source for an industrial city.
While the Upper Raceway brought water into the industrial district and the Middle Raceway distributed it through another elevation, the Lower Raceway carried water farther downward, allowing manufacturers to take advantage of the remaining elevation before the water ultimately returned to the Passaic River.
The development of the Lower Raceway marked another important step in the evolution of Paterson’s industrial power system.
Construction of the Lower Raceway
The Lower Raceway was constructed around 1807, as the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.) expanded the original waterpower system.
The early raceway constructed during the 1790s had demonstrated that water from the Passaic River could be diverted and used to operate machinery.
But industrial development created an increasing demand for power.
The solution was to extend the system and make use of additional elevations.
The Lower Raceway allowed water to continue downward through the industrial district and provided power to factories located at lower elevations.
Making Better Use of the Great Falls
The engineering principle behind the system was relatively simple:
Water at a higher elevation contains potential energy.
As the water descends, that potential energy can be converted into mechanical energy.
Paterson’s engineers therefore attempted to use the water repeatedly rather than allowing it to make one uncontrolled descent.
The developing system could be represented as:
Passaic River
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Dam and Intake
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Upper Raceway
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Waterpower
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Middle Raceway
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Waterpower
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Lower Raceway
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Waterpower
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Tailrace / Passaic River
The Lower Raceway was the final major stage in this cascading waterpower system.
The Industrial Sites Along the Lower Raceway
As Paterson’s industrial district expanded, manufacturers constructed factories near the Lower Raceway.
The availability of waterpower influenced where buildings could be located.
A factory needed to be positioned so that water could enter its power system at a useful elevation.
Water would pass through a gate and into a mill’s power channel, where it could operate a waterwheel or turbine.
After doing its work, the water would leave through a tailrace and continue toward the river.
This arrangement made the raceway an essential part of the factory itself.
The S.U.M. and Waterpower
The Lower Raceway also illustrates the business system developed by the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures.
The S.U.M. increasingly concentrated on controlling and leasing its industrial resources.
Rather than manufacturing every product itself, it provided:
- industrial land
- mill sites
- access to waterpower
- raceway infrastructure
Private manufacturers could then establish factories and operate them using the power supplied by the S.U.M.
The Lower Raceway consequently became part of a privately operated industrial utility system.
Paterson’s Growing Industries
During the nineteenth century, Paterson’s factories became increasingly diverse.
The raceway system supplied power to industries involved in:
- cotton manufacturing
- machinery
- firearms
- locomotives
- wire
- paper
- textiles
- silk
Paterson’s reputation as an industrial center was built upon this concentration of manufacturing.
The Lower Raceway was one of the physical structures that made the concentration of factories possible.
Wheelhouses and Waterpower
The Lower Raceway was associated with numerous wheelhouses and other water-control structures.
A wheelhouse contained the machinery that converted the energy of the moving water into useful mechanical power.
Inside might be found:
- waterwheels
- turbines
- shafts
- gears
- belts
- power transmission equipment
The machinery connected the raceway directly to the factory’s manufacturing equipment.
A raceway without its wheelhouses was simply a channel.
Together, the raceway and wheelhouse formed a power plant.
The Introduction of Turbines
The technology associated with the Lower Raceway changed as industrial engineering advanced.
Traditional waterwheels were gradually supplemented or replaced by more efficient turbines.
Turbines could make better use of the available water pressure and could be connected to increasingly sophisticated factory machinery.
This allowed Paterson’s waterpower system to remain useful even as manufacturing technology changed.
Steam Power Changes Paterson
By the nineteenth century, steam engines began to compete with waterpower.
Steam offered manufacturers greater independence from river conditions.
During periods of drought or low water, steam-powered factories could continue operating.
For a time, many Paterson factories used both waterpower and steam power.
The Lower Raceway therefore did not suddenly become obsolete.
Instead, Paterson gradually transitioned from a water-powered manufacturing economy toward one increasingly dependent upon steam and eventually electricity.
The Decline of the Raceway System
By the twentieth century, electrical power had transformed industrial production.
Factories no longer needed to be located beside a raceway.
Electric motors could be installed almost anywhere, allowing manufacturers much greater flexibility.
As Paterson’s industrial economy changed, many factories closed, relocated or were converted to other uses.
Parts of the raceway system were filled, covered or altered.
Other sections survived.
The surviving sections are particularly valuable because they preserve evidence of how Paterson’s industrial power system actually worked.
The Lower Raceway Today
Today, portions of the Lower Raceway remain as part of the historic industrial landscape surrounding the Great Falls.
The raceway is best understood in combination with the other surviving resources:
Great Falls
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Dam and Intake Structures
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Upper Raceway
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Middle Raceway
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Lower Raceway
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Wheelhouses and Mill Sites
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Tailraces
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Passaic River
Together, these structures tell the story of how water was transformed into mechanical energy.
More Than an Old Canal
The Lower Raceway is sometimes easy to overlook when compared with the dramatic Great Falls.
Yet the Falls alone did not create Paterson’s industrial economy.
The crucial achievement was the engineering system that controlled and distributed the water.
The Lower Raceway represents the final major stage of that system.
It allowed the energy of the Passaic River to be used repeatedly as the water descended through the industrial district.
The Legacy of the Lower Raceway
The Lower Raceway is an important surviving reminder of the technology that powered Paterson for more than a century.
It represents a period when the location of a factory depended upon its relationship to moving water, when enormous waterwheels turned machinery, and when the sound of rushing water was an integral part of everyday industrial life.
The raceway system helped make Paterson a center of American manufacturing.
The Lower Raceway was one of its essential components.
The Great Falls supplied the energy.
The raceways controlled and distributed it.
The Lower Raceway completed the descent through Paterson’s industrial power system.
And the factories turned that power into the products that made Paterson famous.