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John Harper was born on September 21, 1873, at Harpersfield, New York, United States, a town founded by his forefathers before the Revolution. His emigrant ancestor was James Harper of County Derry, Ireland, who settled in Maine about 1720. The son of Joseph and Quintilla Keturah (Hendry) Harper, John Lyell Harper spent his boyhood on his father’s farm.
John attended the district school and the Stamford Seminary (Delaware County), from which he was graduated at the age of twenty after having won the New York state scholarship to Cornell University. He completed four years at Cornell, graduating in 1897 with the degree of M. E. and mention on his diploma that he had made a special study of electrical engineering.
John Harper's first position after graduation was at Seattle, Washington, with the Oregon Improvement Company. At the end of four months he became electrician for the Union Electric Company of the same city. In June 1898 he was made operating and constructing engineer of the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, Minneapolis, in which position he was in charge of all their testing of 1200-volt and other underground systems, the designing and erecting of switchboards, and general operation. In the fall of the following year he was in charge, for Floy & Carpenter, a New York firm of consulting engineers, of the construction of the St. Croix Power Company’s Apple River hydroelectric plant.
The experience which Harper thus gained in hydroelectric work obtained for him in 1902 a position as assistant to Wallace C. Johnson, chief engineer of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company. From this time until his death, Harper was actively interested in Niagara power. After two years as assistant he became chief engineer having responsible charge of all of the constructing and operating work of the company. In 1918, when the various power interests on the American side of Niagara Falls formed the Niagara Falls Power Company, a corporation under government direction, Harper was appointed its chief engineer.
In addition to these interests, Harper developed and patented several electric furnaces, one of which is known as the Harper Electric Furnace for commercial firing of porcelain and other ceramic materials. His study of the Niagara River led him to publish a pamphlet, The Suicide of the Horseshoe Fall (1916), in which he set forth a plan for preserving the beauty of the famous Horseshoe Falls by the construction of remedial works to distribute the flow of water and thus prevent uneven erosion. He died at Niagara Falls.
John Harper was considered one of the greatest hydroelectric engineers of his time. His most important achievement was the design and construction of the wartime hydroelectric power plant of the Niagara Falls Power Company in the gorge below the Falls. Under his leadership the plant had grown from one of 14, 000 horsepower to one containing nearly 500, 000 horsepower under one roof, the largest installed capacity in any power plant in the world at that time, a remarkable engineering feat from the standpoint of both power and size. After this accomplishment he became vice-president of the Company.
Harper was a member of several of the leading national and local engineering societies, and in recognition of his work of high standards was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Harper married Linda E. Wheeler of Ithaca, New York, on September 12, 1898.
