INTRODUCTION OF THE EDISON ELECTRIC LIGHT
IN the previous chapter on the invention of a system, the narrative has
been carried along for several years of activity up to the verge of the
successful and commercial application of Edison's ideas and devices
for incandescent electric lighting. The story of any one year in this
period, if treated chronologically, would branch off in a great many
different directions, some going back to earlier work, others forward to
arts not yet within the general survey; and the effect of such treatment
would be confusing. In like manner the development of the Edison
lighting system followed several concurrent, simultaneous lines of
advance; and an effort was therefore made in the last chapter to give
a rapid glance over the whole movement, embracing a term of nearly five
years, and including in its scope both the Old World and the New. What
is necessary to the completeness of the story at this stage is not to
recapitulate, but to take up some of the loose ends of threads woven
in and follow them through until the clear and comprehensive picture of
events can be seen.
Some things it would be difficult to reproduce in any picture of the art
and the times. One of the greatest delusions of the public in regard
to any notable invention is the belief that the world is waiting for it
with open arms and an eager welcome. The exact contrary is the truth.
There is not a single new art or device the world has ever enjoyed of
which it can be said that it was given an immediate and enthusiastic
reception. The way of the inventor is hard. He can sometimes raise
capital to help him in working out his crude conceptions, but even then
it is frequently done at a distressful cost of personal surrender. When
the result is achieved the invention makes its appeal on the score of
economy of material or of effort; and then "labor" often awaits with
crushing and tyrannical spirit to smash the apparatus or forbid its very
use. Where both capital and labor are agreed that the object is worthy
of encouragement, there is the supreme indifference of the public to
overcome, and the stubborn resistance of pre-existing devices to combat.
The years of hardship and struggle are thus prolonged, the chagrin
of poverty and neglect too frequently embitters the inventor's scanty
bread; and one great spirit after another has succumbed to the defeat
beyond which lay the procrastinated triumph so dearly earned. Even in
America, where the adoption of improvements and innovations is regarded
as so prompt and sure, and where the huge tolls of the Patent Office and
the courts bear witness to the ceaseless efforts of the inventor, it is
impossible to deny the sad truth that unconsciously society discourages
invention rather than invites it. Possibly our national optimism as
revealed in invention--the seeking a higher good--needs some check.
Possibly the leaders would travel too fast and too far on the road
to perfection if conservatism did not also play its salutary part in
insisting that the procession move forward as a whole.
Edison and his electric light were happily more fortunate than other men
and inventions, in the relative cordiality of the reception given them.
The merit was too obvious to remain unrecognized. Nevertheless, it was
through intense hostility and opposition that the young art made its
way, pushed forward by Edison's own strong personality and by his
unbounded, unwavering faith in the ultimate success of his system. It
may seem strange that great effort was required to introduce a light so
manifestly convenient, safe, agreeable, and advantageous, but the
facts are matter of record; and to-day the recollection of some of the
episodes brings a fierce glitter into the eye and keen indignation into
the voice of the man who has come so victoriously through it all.
It was not a fact at any time that the public was opposed to the idea of
the electric light. On the contrary, the conditions for its acceptance
had been ripening fast. Yet the very vogue of the electric arc light
made harder the arrival of the incandescent. As a new illuminant for the
streets, the arc had become familiar, either as a direct substitute
for the low gas lamp along the sidewalk curb, or as a novel form of
moonlight, raised in groups at the top of lofty towers often a hundred
and fifty feet high. Some of these lights were already in use for large
indoor spaces, although the size of the unit, the deadly pressure of
the current, and the sputtering sparks from the carbons made them
highly objectionable for such purposes. A number of parent arc-lighting
companies were in existence, and a great many local companies had
been called into being under franchises for commercial business and to
execute regular city contracts for street lighting. In this manner a
good deal of capital and the energies of many prominent men in politics
and business had been rallied distinctively to the support of arc
lighting. Under the inventive leadership of such brilliant men as Brush,
Thomson, Weston, and Van Depoele--there were scores of others--the
industry had made considerable progress and the art had been firmly
established. Here lurked, however, very vigorous elements of opposition,
for Edison predicted from the start the superiority of the small
electric unit of light, and devoted himself exclusively to its
perfection and introduction. It can be readily seen that this situation
made it all the more difficult for the Edison system to secure the large
sums of money needed for its exploitation, and to obtain new franchises
or city ordinances as a public utility. Thus in a curious manner the
modern art of electric lighting was in a very true sense divided against
itself, with intense rivalries and jealousies which were none the less
real because they were but temporary and occurred in a field where
ultimate union of forces was inevitable. For a long period the arc
was dominant and supreme in the lighting branch of the electrical
industries, in all respects, whether as to investment, employees,
income, and profits, or in respect to the manufacturing side. When
the great National Electric Light Association was formed in 1885, its
organizers were the captains of arc lighting, and not a single Edison
company or licensee could be found in its ranks, or dared to solicit
membership. The Edison companies, soon numbering about three hundred,
formed their own association--still maintained as a separate and useful
body--and the lines were tensely drawn in a way that made it none too
easy for the Edison service to advance, or for an impartial man
to remain friendly with both sides. But the growing popularity of
incandescent lighting, the flexibility and safety of the system, the
ease with which other electric devices for heat, power, etc., could be
put indiscriminately on the same circuits with the lamps, in due course
rendered the old attitude of opposition obviously foolish and untenable.
The United States Census Office statistics of 1902 show that the income
from incandescent lighting by central stations had by that time become
over 52 per cent. of the total, while that from arc lighting was less
than 29; and electric-power service due to the ease with which motors
could be introduced on incandescent circuits brought in 15 per
cent. more. Hence twenty years after the first Edison stations were
established the methods they involved could be fairly credited with no
less than 67 per cent. of all central-station income in the country, and
the proportion has grown since then. It will be readily understood
that under these conditions the modern lighting company supplies to its
customers both incandescent and arc lighting, frequently from the same
dynamo-electric machinery as a source of current; and that the old feud
as between the rival systems has died out. In fact, for some years past
the presidents of the National Electric Light Association have been
chosen almost exclusively from among the managers of the great Edison
lighting companies in the leading cities.
The other strong opposition to the incandescent light came from the gas
industry. There also the most bitter feeling was shown. The gas manager
did not like the arc light, but it interfered only with his street
service, which was not his largest source of income by any means. What
did arouse his ire and indignation was to find this new opponent, the
little incandescent lamp, pushing boldly into the field of interior
lighting, claiming it on a great variety of grounds of superiority, and
calmly ignoring the question of price, because it was so much better.
Newspaper records and the pages of the technical papers of the day
show to what an extent prejudice and passion were stirred up and the
astounding degree to which the opposition to the new light was carried.
Here again was given a most convincing demonstration of the truth that
such an addition to the resources of mankind always carries with it
unsuspected benefits even for its enemies. In two distinct directions
the gas art was immediately helped by Edison's work. The competition was
most salutary in the stimulus it gave to improvements in processes for
making, distributing, and using gas, so that while vast economies have
been effected at the gas works, the customer has had an infinitely
better light for less money. In the second place, the coming of the
incandescent light raised the standard of illumination in such a manner
that more gas than ever was wanted in order to satisfy the popular
demand for brightness and brilliancy both indoors and on the street. The
result of the operation of these two forces acting upon it wholly from
without, and from a rival it was desired to crush, has been to increase
enormously the production and use of gas in the last twenty-five
years. It is true that the income of the central stations is now over
$300,000,000 a year, and that isolated-plant lighting represents also a
large amount of diverted business; but as just shown, it would obviously
be unfair to regard all this as a loss from the standpoint of gas. It is
in great measure due to new sources of income developed by electricity
for itself.
A retrospective survey shows that had the men in control of the American
gas-lighting art, in 1880, been sufficiently far-sighted, and had they
taken a broader view of the situation, they might easily have remained
dominant in the whole field of artificial lighting by securing the
ownership of the patents and devices of the new industry. Apparently not
a single step of that kind was undertaken, nor probably was there a gas
manager who would have agreed with Edison in the opinion written down
by him at the time in little note-book No. 184, that gas properties were
having conferred on them an enhanced earning capacity. It was doubtless
fortunate and providential for the electric-lighting art that in its
state of immature development it did not fall into the hands of men
who were opposed to its growth, and would not have sought its technical
perfection. It was allowed to carve out its own career, and thus escaped
the fate that is supposed to have attended other great inventions--of
being bought up merely for purposes of suppression. There is a vague
popular notion that this happens to the public loss; but the truth is
that no discovery of any real value is ever entirely lost. It may be
retarded; but that is all. In the case of the gas companies and the
incandescent light, many of them to whom it was in the early days as
great an irritant as a red flag to a bull, emulated the performance of
that animal and spent a great deal of money and energy in bellowing and
throwing up dirt in the effort to destroy the hated enemy. This was not
long nor universally the spirit shown; and to-day in hundreds of cities
the electric and gas properties are united under the one management,
which does not find it impossible to push in a friendly and progressive
way the use of both illuminants. The most conspicuous example of this
identity of interest is given in New York itself.
So much for the early opposition, of which there was plenty. But it may
be questioned whether inertia is not equally to be dreaded with active
ill-will. Nothing is more difficult in the world than to get a good many
hundreds of thousands or millions of people to do something they have
never done before. A very real difficulty in the introduction of his
lamp and lighting system by Edison lay in the absolute ignorance of
the public at large, not only as to its merits, but as to the very
appearance of the light, Some few thousand people had gone out to Menlo
Park, and had there seen the lamps in operation at the laboratory or
on the hillsides, but they were an insignificant proportion of the
inhabitants of the United States. Of course, a great many accounts
were written and read, but while genuine interest was aroused it was
necessarily apathetic. A newspaper description or a magazine article
may be admirably complete in itself, with illustrations, but until some
personal experience is had of the thing described it does not convey
a perfect mental picture, nor can it always make the desire active and
insistent. Generally, people wait to have the new thing brought to them;
and hence, as in the case of the Edison light, an educational campaign
of a practical nature is a fundamental condition of success.
Another serious difficulty confronting Edison and his associates
was that nowhere in the world were there to be purchased any of the
appliances necessary for the use of the lighting system. Edison had
resolved from the very first that the initial central station embodying
his various ideas should be installed in New York City, where he could
superintend the installation personally, and then watch the operation.
Plans to that end were now rapidly maturing; but there would be needed
among many other things--every one of them new and novel--dynamos,
switchboards, regulators, pressure and current indicators, fixtures
in great variety, incandescent lamps, meters, sockets, small switches,
underground conductors, junction-boxes, service-boxes, manhole-boxes,
connectors, and even specially made wire. Now, not one of these
miscellaneous things was in existence; not an outsider was sufficiently
informed about such devices to make them on order, except perhaps the
special wire. Edison therefore started first of all a lamp factory in
one of the buildings at Menlo Park, equipped it with novel machinery and
apparatus, and began to instruct men, boys, and girls, as they could be
enlisted, in the absolutely new art, putting Mr. Upton in charge.
With regard to the conditions attendant upon the manufacture of the
lamps, Edison says: "When we first started the electric light we had to
have a factory for manufacturing lamps. As the Edison Light Company
did not seem disposed to go into manufacturing, we started a small
lamp factory at Menlo Park with what money I could raise from my other
inventions and royalties, and some assistance. The lamps at that time
were costing about $1.25 each to make, so I said to the company: 'If you
will give me a contract during the life of the patents, I will make all
the lamps required by the company and deliver them for forty cents.' The
company jumped at the chance of this offer, and a contract was drawn
up. We then bought at a receiver's sale at Harrison, New Jersey, a very
large brick factory building which had been used as an oil-cloth works.
We got it at a great bargain, and only paid a small sum down, and
the balance on mortgage. We moved the lamp works from Menlo Park to
Harrison. The first year the lamps cost us about $1.10 each. We sold
them for forty cents; but there were only about twenty or thirty
thousand of them. The next year they cost us about seventy cents, and we
sold them for forty. There were a good many, and we lost more money the
second year than the first. The third year I succeeded in getting up
machinery and in changing the processes, until it got down so that they
cost somewhere around fifty cents. I still sold them for forty cents,
and lost more money that year than any other, because the sales were
increasing rapidly. The fourth year I got it down to thirty-seven cents,
and I made all the money up in one year that I had lost previously. I
finally got it down to twenty-two cents, and sold them for forty cents;
and they were made by the million. Whereupon the Wall Street people
thought it was a very lucrative business, so they concluded they would
like to have it, and bought us out.
"One of the incidents which caused a very great cheapening was that,
when we started, one of the important processes had to be done by
experts. This was the sealing on of the part carrying the filament into
the globe, which was rather a delicate operation in those days, and
required several months of training before any one could seal in a fair
number of parts in a day. When we got to the point where we employed
eighty of these experts they formed a union; and knowing it was
impossible to manufacture lamps without them, they became very insolent.
One instance was that the son of one of these experts was employed in
the office, and when he was told to do anything would not do it, or
would give an insolent reply. He was discharged, whereupon the union
notified us that unless the boy was taken back the whole body would go
out. It got so bad that the manager came to me and said he could not
stand it any longer; something had got to be done. They were not only
more surly; they were diminishing the output, and it became impossible
to manage the works. He got me enthused on the subject, so I started in
to see if it were not possible to do that operation by machinery. After
feeling around for some days I got a clew how to do it. I then put men
on it I could trust, and made the preliminary machinery. That seemed to
work pretty well. I then made another machine which did the work nicely.
I then made a third machine, and would bring in yard men, ordinary
laborers, etc., and when I could get these men to put the parts together
as well as the trained experts, in an hour, I considered the machine
complete. I then went secretly to work and made thirty of the machines.
Up in the top loft of the factory we stored those machines, and at night
we put up the benches and got everything all ready. Then we discharged
the office-boy. Then the union went out. It has been out ever since.
"When we formed the works at Harrison we divided the interests into one
hundred shares or parts at $100 par. One of the boys was hard up after
a time, and sold two shares to Bob Cutting. Up to that time we had never
paid anything; but we got around to the point where the board declared
a dividend every Saturday night. We had never declared a dividend when
Cutting bought his shares, and after getting his dividends for three
weeks in succession, he called up on the telephone and wanted to know
what kind of a concern this was that paid a weekly dividend. The works
sold for $1,085,000."
Incidentally it may be noted, as illustrative of the problems brought
to Edison, that while he had the factory at Harrison an importer in the
Chinese trade went to him and wanted a dynamo to be run by hand power.
The importer explained that in China human labor was cheaper than steam
power. Edison devised a machine to answer the purpose, and put long
spokes on it, fitted it up, and shipped it to China. He has not,
however, heard of it since.
For making the dynamos Edison secured, as noted in the preceding
chapter, the Roach Iron Works on Goerck Street, New York, and this
was also equipped. A building was rented on Washington Street, where
machinery and tools were put in specially designed for making the
underground tube conductors and their various paraphernalia; and the
faithful John Kruesi was given charge of that branch of production. To
Sigmund Bergmann, who had worked previously with Edison on telephone
apparatus and phonographs, and was already making Edison specialties in
a small way in a loft on Wooster Street, New York, was assigned the task
of constructing sockets, fixtures, meters, safety fuses, and numerous
other details.
Thus, broadly, the manufacturing end of the problem of introduction was
cared for. In the early part of 1881 the Edison Electric Light Company
leased the old Bishop mansion at 65 Fifth Avenue, close to Fourteenth
Street, for its headquarters and show-rooms. This was one of the finest
homes in the city of that period, and its acquisition was a premonitory
sign of the surrender of the famous residential avenue to commerce. The
company needed not only offices, but, even more, such an interior as
would display to advantage the new light in everyday use; and this house
with its liberal lines, spacious halls, lofty ceilings, wide parlors,
and graceful, winding stairway was ideal for the purpose. In fact, in
undergoing this violent change, it did not cease to be a home in the
real sense, for to this day many an Edison veteran's pulse is quickened
by some chance reference to "65," where through many years the work of
development by a loyal and devoted band of workers was centred. Here
Edison and a few of his assistants from Menlo Park installed immediately
in the basement a small generating plant, at first with a gas-engine
which was not successful, and then with a Hampson high-speed engine and
boiler, constituting a complete isolated plant. The building was wired
from top to bottom, and equipped with all the appliances of the art. The
experience with the little gas-engine was rather startling. "At an early
period at '65' we decided," says Edison, "to light it up with the Edison
system, and put a gas-engine in the cellar, using city gas. One day it
was not going very well, and I went down to the man in charge and got
exploring around. Finally I opened the pedestal--a storehouse for tools,
etc. We had an open lamp, and when we opened the pedestal, it blew the
doors off, and blew out the windows, and knocked me down, and the other
man."
For the next four or five years "65" was a veritable beehive, day and
night. The routine was very much the same as that at the laboratory, in
its utter neglect of the clock. The evenings were not only devoted to
the continuance of regular business, but the house was thrown open to
the public until late at night, never closing before ten o'clock, so as
to give everybody who wished an opportunity to see that great novelty
of the time--the incandescent light--whose fame had meanwhile been
spreading all over the globe. The first year, 1881, was naturally that
which witnessed the greatest rush of visitors; and the building hardly
ever closed its doors till midnight. During the day business was carried
on under great stress, and Mr. Insull has described how Edison was to
be found there trying to lead the life of a man of affairs in the
conventional garb of polite society, instead of pursuing inventions and
researches in his laboratory. But the disagreeable ordeal could not be
dodged. After the experience Edison could never again be tempted to quit
his laboratory and work for any length of time; but in this instance
there were some advantages attached to the sacrifice, for the crowds of
lion-hunters and people seeking business arrangements would only have
gone out to Menlo Park; while, on the other hand, the great plans for
lighting New York demanded very close personal attention on the spot.
As it was, not only Edison, but all the company's directors, officers,
and employees, were kept busy exhibiting and explaining the light. To
the public of that day, when the highest known form of house illuminant
was gas, the incandescent lamp, with its ability to burn in any
position, its lack of heat so that you could put your hand on the
brilliant glass globe; the absence of any vitiating effect on the
atmosphere, the obvious safety from fire; the curious fact that you
needed no matches to light it, and that it was under absolute control
from a distance--these and many other features came as a distinct
revelation and marvel, while promising so much additional comfort,
convenience, and beauty in the home, that inspection was almost
invariably followed by a request for installation.
The camaraderie that existed at this time was very democratic, for all
were workers in a common cause; all were enthusiastic believers in the
doctrine they proclaimed, and hoped to profit by the opening up of
the new art. Often at night, in the small hours, all would adjourn for
refreshments to a famous resort nearby, to discuss the events of to-day
and to-morrow, full of incident and excitement. The easy relationship of
the time is neatly sketched by Edison in a humorous complaint as to his
inability to keep his own cigars: "When at '65' I used to have in my
desk a box of cigars. I would go to the box four or five times to get a
cigar, but after it got circulated about the building, everybody would
come to get my cigars, so that the box would only last about a day and
a half. I was telling a gentleman one day that I could not keep a
cigar. Even if I locked them up in my desk they would break it open. He
suggested to me that he had a friend over on Eighth Avenue who made a
superior grade of cigars, and who would show them a trick. He said he
would have some of them made up with hair and old paper, and I could put
them in without a word and see the result. I thought no more about the
matter. He came in two or three months after, and said: 'How did that
cigar business work?' I didn't remember anything about it. On coming to
investigate, it appeared that the box of cigars had been delivered and
had been put in my desk, and I had smoked them all! I was too busy on
other things to notice."
It was no uncommon sight to see in the parlors in the evening John
Pierpont Morgan, Norvin Green, Grosvenor P. Lowrey, Henry Villard,
Robert L. Cutting, Edward D. Adams, J. Hood Wright, E. G. Fabbri, R.
M. Galloway, and other men prominent in city life, many of them
stock-holders and directors; all interested in doing this educational
work. Thousands of persons thus came--bankers, brokers, lawyers,
editors, and reporters, prominent business men, electricians, insurance
experts, under whose searching and intelligent inquiries the facts were
elicited, and general admiration was soon won for the system, which in
advance had solved so many new problems. Edison himself was in universal
request and the subject of much adulation, but altogether too busy and
modest to be spoiled by it. Once in a while he felt it his duty to go
over the ground with scientific visitors, many of whom were from abroad,
and discuss questions which were not simply those of technique, but
related to newer phenomena, such as the action of carbon, the nature
and effects of high vacua; the principles of electrical subdivision; the
value of insulation, and many others which, unfortunate to say, remain
as esoteric now as they were then, ever fruitful themes of controversy.
Speaking of those days or nights, Edison says: "Years ago one of the
great violinists was Remenyi. After his performances were over he used
to come down to '65' and talk economics, philosophy, moral science, and
everything else. He was highly educated and had great mental capacity.
He would talk with me, but I never asked him to bring his violin. One
night he came with his violin, about twelve o'clock. I had a library
at the top of the house, and Remenyi came up there. He was in a genial
humor, and played the violin for me for about two hours--$2000 worth.
The front doors were closed, and he walked up and down the room as he
played. After that, every time he came to New York he used to call at
'65' late at night with his violin. If we were not there, he could come
down to the slums at Goerck Street, and would play for an hour or two
and talk philosophy. I would talk for the benefit of his music. Henry E.
Dixey, then at the height of his 'Adonis' popularity, would come in
in those days, after theatre hours, and would entertain us with
stories--1882-84. Another visitor who used to give us a good deal of
amusement and pleasure was Captain Shaw, the head of the London Fire
Brigade. He was good company. He would go out among the fire-laddies
and have a great time. One time Robert Lincoln and Anson Stager, of the
Western Union, interested in the electric light, came on to make some
arrangement with Major Eaton, President of the Edison Electric Light
Company. They came to '65' in the afternoon, and Lincoln commenced
telling stories--like his father. They told stories all the afternoon,
and that night they left for Chicago. When they got to Cleveland, it
dawned upon them that they had not done any business, so they had
to come back on the next train to New York to transact it. They were
interested in the Chicago Edison Company, now one of the largest of the
systems in the world. Speaking of telling stories, I once got telling
a man stories at the Harrison lamp factory, in the yard, as he was
leaving. It was winter, and he was all in furs. I had nothing on to
protect me against the cold. I told him one story after the other--six
of them. Then I got pleurisy, and had to be shipped to Florida for
cure."
The organization of the Edison Electric Light Company went back to 1878;
but up to the time of leasing 65 Fifth Avenue it had not been engaged
in actual business. It had merely enjoyed the delights of anxious
anticipation, and the perilous pleasure of backing Edison's experiments.
Now active exploitation was required. Dr. Norvin Green, the well-known
President of the Western Union Telegraph Company, was president also of
the Edison Company, but the pressing nature of his regular duties
left him no leisure for such close responsible management as was now
required. Early in 1881 Mr. Grosvenor P. Lowrey, after consultation with
Mr. Edison, prevailed upon Major S. B. Eaton, the leading member of
a very prominent law firm in New York, to accept the position of
vice-president and general manager of the company, in which, as also in
some of the subsidiary Edison companies, and as president, he continued
actively and energetically for nearly four years, a critical, formative
period in which the solidity of the foundation laid is attested by the
magnitude and splendor of the superstructure.
The fact that Edison conferred at this point with Mr. Lowrey should,
perhaps, be explained in justice to the distinguished lawyer, who for so
many years was the close friend of the inventor, and the chief counsel
in all the tremendous litigation that followed the effort to enforce and
validate the Edison patents. As in England Mr. Edison was fortunate in
securing the legal assistance of Sir Richard Webster, afterward Lord
Chief Justice of England, so in America it counted greatly in his favor
to enjoy the advocacy of such a man as Lowrey, prominent among the
famous leaders of the New York bar. Born in Massachusetts, Mr. Lowrey,
in his earlier days of straitened circumstances, was accustomed to
defray some portion of his educational expenses by teaching music in the
Berkshire villages, and by a curious coincidence one of his pupils
was F. L. Pope, later Edison's partner for a time. Lowrey went West to
"Bleeding Kansas" with the first Governor, Reeder, and both were active
participants in the exciting scenes of the "Free State" war until driven
away in 1856, like many other free-soilers, by the acts of the "Border
Ruffian" legislature. Returning East, Mr. Lowrey took up practice in New
York, soon becoming eminent in his profession, and upon the accession of
William Orton to the presidency of the Western Union Telegraph Company
in 1866, he was appointed its general counsel, the duties of which post
he discharged for fifteen years. One of the great cases in which he
thus took a leading and distinguished part was that of the quadruplex
telegraph; and later he acted as legal adviser to Henry Villard in his
numerous grandiose enterprises. Lowrey thus came to know Edison, to
conceive an intense admiration for him, and to believe in his ability
at a time when others could not detect the fire of genius smouldering
beneath the modest exterior of a gaunt young operator slowly
"finding himself." It will be seen that Mr Lowrey was in a peculiarly
advantageous position to make his convictions about Edison felt, so
that it was he and his friends who rallied quickly to the new banner
of discovery, and lent to the inventor the aid that came at a critical
period. In this connection it may be well to quote an article that
appeared at the time of Mr. Lowrey's death, in 1893: "One of the most
important services which Mr. Lowrey has ever performed was in furnishing
and procuring the necessary financial backing for Thomas A. Edison in
bringing out and perfecting his system of incandescent lighting. With
characteristic pertinacity, Mr. Lowrey stood by the inventor through
thick and thin, in spite of doubt, discouragement, and ridicule, until
at last success crowned his efforts. In all the litigation which has
resulted from the wide-spread infringements of the Edison patents, Mr.
Lowrey has ever borne the burden and heat of the day, and perhaps in
no other field has he so personally distinguished himself as in the
successful advocacy of the claims of Edison to the invention of the
incandescent lamp and everything 'hereunto pertaining.'"
This was the man of whom Edison had necessarily to make a confidant and
adviser, and who supplied other things besides the legal direction and
financial alliance, by his knowledge of the world and of affairs. There
were many vital things to be done in the exploitation of the system that
Edison simply could not and would not do; but in Lowrey's savoir faire,
ready wit and humor, chivalry of devotion, graceful eloquence, and
admirable equipoise of judgment were all the qualities that the occasion
demanded and that met the exigencies.
We are indebted to Mr. Insull for a graphic sketch of Edison at this
period, and of the conditions under which work was done and progress was
made: "I do not think I had any understanding with Edison when I first
went with him as to my duties. I did whatever he told me, and looked
after all kinds of affairs, from buying his clothes to financing his
business. I used to open the correspondence and answer it all, sometimes
signing Edison's name with my initial, and sometimes signing my own
name. If the latter course was pursued, and I was addressing a stranger,
I would sign as Edison's private secretary. I held his power of
attorney, and signed his checks. It was seldom that Edison signed
a letter or check at this time. If he wanted personally to send a
communication to anybody, if it was one of his close associates, it
would probably be a pencil memorandum signed 'Edison.' I was a shorthand
writer, but seldom took down from Edison's dictation, unless it was on
some technical subject that I did not understand. I would go over
the correspondence with Edison, sometimes making a marginal note in
shorthand, and sometimes Edison would make his own notes on letters, and
I would be expected to clean up the correspondence with Edison's laconic
comments as a guide as to the character of answer to make. It was a very
common thing for Edison to write the words 'Yes' or 'No,' and this would
be all I had on which to base my answer. Edison marginalized documents
extensively. He had a wonderful ability in pointing out the weak points
of an agreement or a balance-sheet, all the while protesting he was no
lawyer or accountant; and his views were expressed in very few words,
but in a characteristic and emphatic manner.
"The first few months I was with Edison he spent most of the time in the
office at 65 Fifth Avenue. Then there was a great deal of trouble with
the life of the lamps there, and he disappeared from the office and
spent his time largely at Menlo Park. At another time there was a great
deal of trouble with some of the details of construction of the dynamos,
and Edison spent a lot of time at Goerck Street, which had been rapidly
equipped with the idea of turning out bi-polar dynamo-electric machines,
direct-connected to the engine, the first of which went to Paris and
London, while the next were installed in the old Pearl Street station
of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, just south of
Fulton Street, on the west side of the street. Edison devoted a great
deal of his time to the engineering work in connection with the laying
out of the first incandescent electric-lighting system in New York.
Apparently at that time--between the end of 1881 and spring of 1882--the
most serious work was the manufacture and installation of underground
conductors in this territory. These conductors were manufactured by
the Electric Tube Company, which Edison controlled in a shop at 65
Washington Street, run by John Kruesi. Half-round copper conductors were
used, kept in place relatively to each other and in the tube, first of
all by a heavy piece of cardboard, and later on by a rope; and then put
in a twenty-foot iron pipe; and a combination of asphaltum and linseed
oil was forced into the pipe for the insulation. I remember as a
coincidence that the building was only twenty feet wide. These lengths
of conductors were twenty feet six inches long, as the half-round
coppers extended three inches beyond the drag-ends of the lengths of
pipe; and in one of the operations we used to take the length of tubing
out of the window in order to turn it around. I was elected secretary of
the Electric Tube Company, and was expected to look after its finance;
and it was in this position that my long intimacy with John Kruesi
started."
At this juncture a large part of the correspondence referred very
naturally to electric lighting, embodying requests for all kinds of
information, catalogues, prices, terms, etc.; and all these letters were
turned over to the lighting company by Edison for attention. The company
was soon swamped with propositions for sale of territorial rights and
with other negotiations, and some of these were accompanied by the offer
of very large sums of money. It was the beginning of the electric-light
furor which soon rose to sensational heights. Had the company accepted
the cash offers from various localities, it could have gathered several
millions of dollars at once into its treasury; but this was not at
all in accord with Mr. Edison's idea, which was to prove by actual
experience the commercial value of the system, and then to license
central-station companies in large cities and towns, the parent company
taking a percentage of their capital for the license under the Edison
patents, and contracting also for the supply of apparatus, lamps, etc.
This left the remainder of the country open for the cash sale of plants
wherever requested. His counsels prevailed, and the wisdom of the policy
adopted was seen in the swift establishment of Edison companies in
centres of population both great and small, whose business has ever been
a constant and growing source of income for the parent manufacturing
interests.
From first to last Edison has been an exponent and advocate of the
central-station idea of distribution now so familiar to the public mind,
but still very far from being carried out to its logical conclusion.
In this instance, demands for isolated plants for lighting factories,
mills, mines, hotels, etc., began to pour in, and something had to be
done with them. This was a class of plant which the inquirers desired to
purchase outright and operate themselves, usually because of remoteness
from any possible source of general supply of current. It had not been
Edison's intention to cater to this class of customer until his broad
central-station plan had been worked out, and he has always discouraged
the isolated plant within the limits of urban circuits; but this demand
was so insistent it could not be denied, and it was deemed desirable to
comply with it at once, especially as it was seen that the steady call
for supplies and renewals would benefit the new Edison manufacturing
plants. After a very short trial, it was found necessary to create
a separate organization for this branch of the industry, leaving the
Edison Electric Light Company to continue under the original plan of
operation as a parent, patent-holding and licensing company. Accordingly
a new and distinct corporation was formed called the Edison Company for
Isolated Lighting, to which was issued a special license to sell and
operate plants of a self-contained character. As a matter of fact such
work began in advance of almost every other kind. A small plant using
the paper-carbon filament lamps was furnished by Edison at the earnest
solicitation of Mr. Henry Villard for the steamship Columbia, in 1879,
and it is amusing to note that Mr. Upton carried the lamps himself
to the ship, very tenderly and jealously, like fresh eggs, in a
market-garden basket. The installation was most successful. Another
pioneer plant was that equipped and started in January, 1881, for Hinds
& Ketcham, a New York firm of lithographers and color printers, who
had previously been able to work only by day, owing to difficulties in
color-printing by artificial light. A year later they said: "It is the
best substitute for daylight we have ever known, and almost as cheap."
Mr. Edison himself describes various instances in which the demand for
isolated plants had to be met: "One night at '65,'" he says, "James
Gordon Bennett came in. We were very anxious to get into a printing
establishment. I had caused a printer's composing case to be set up with
the idea that if we could get editors and publishers in to see it, we
should show them the advantages of the electric light. So ultimately
Mr. Bennett came, and after seeing the whole operation of everything,
he ordered Mr. Howland, general manager of the Herald, to light the
newspaper offices up at once with electricity."
Another instance of the same kind deals with the introduction of the
light for purely social purposes: "While at 65 Fifth Avenue," remarks
Mr. Edison, "I got to know Christian Herter, then the largest decorator
in the United States. He was a highly intellectual man, and I loved to
talk to him. He was always railing against the rich people, for whom
he did work, for their poor taste. One day Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt came
to '65,' saw the light, and decided that he would have his new house
lighted with it. This was one of the big 'box houses' on upper Fifth
Avenue. He put the whole matter in the hands of his son-in-law, Mr. H.
McK. Twombly, who was then in charge of the telephone department of
the Western Union. Twombly closed the contract with us for a plant. Mr.
Herter was doing the decoration, and it was extraordinarily fine. After
a while we got the engines and boilers and wires all done, and the
lights in position, before the house was quite finished, and thought we
would have an exhibit of the light. About eight o'clock in the evening
we lit up, and it was very good. Mr. Vanderbilt and his wife and some
of his daughters came in, and were there a few minutes when a fire
occurred. The large picture-gallery was lined with silk cloth interwoven
with fine metallic thread. In some manner two wires had got crossed with
this tinsel, which became red-hot, and the whole mass was soon afire. I
knew what was the matter, and ordered them to run down and shut off.
It had not burst into flame, and died out immediately. Mrs. Vanderbilt
became hysterical, and wanted to know where it came from. We told her we
had the plant in the cellar, and when she learned we had a boiler there
she said she would not occupy the house. She would not live over a
boiler. We had to take the whole installation out. The houses afterward
went onto the New York Edison system."
The art was, however, very crude and raw, and as there were no artisans
in existence as mechanics or electricians who had any knowledge of the
practice, there was inconceivable difficulty in getting such isolated
plants installed, as well as wiring the buildings in the district to be
covered by the first central station in New York. A night school was,
therefore, founded at Fifth Avenue, and was put in charge of Mr. E. H.
Johnson, fresh from his successes in England. The most available men for
the purpose were, of course, those who had been accustomed to wiring
for the simpler electrical systems then in vogue--telephones,
district-messenger calls, burglar alarms, house annunciators, etc., and
a number of these "wiremen" were engaged and instructed patiently in
the rudiments of the new art by means of a blackboard and oral lessons.
Students from the technical schools and colleges were also eager
recruits, for here was something that promised a career, and one that
was especially alluring to youth because of its novelty. These beginners
were also instructed in general engineering problems under the guidance
of Mr. C. L. Clarke, who was brought in from the Menlo Park laboratory
to assume charge of the engineering part of the company's affairs.
Many of these pioneer students and workmen became afterward large and
successful contractors, or have filled positions of distinction
as managers and superintendents of central stations. Possibly the
electrical industry may not now attract as much adventurous genius as it
did then, for automobiles, aeronautics, and other new arts have come
to the front in a quarter of a century to enlist the enthusiasm of a
younger generation of mercurial spirits; but it is certain that at the
period of which we write, Edison himself, still under thirty-five, was
the centre of an extraordinary group of men, full of effervescing and
aspiring talent, to which he gave glorious opportunity.
A very novel literary feature of the work was the issuance of a bulletin
devoted entirely to the Edison lighting propaganda. Nowadays the
"house organ," as it is called, has become a very hackneyed feature
of industrial development, confusing in its variety and volume, and
a somewhat doubtful adjunct to a highly perfected, widely circulating
periodical technical press. But at that time, 1882, the Bulletin of
the Edison Electric Light Company, published in ordinary 12mo form, was
distinctly new in advertising and possibly unique, as it is difficult
to find anything that compared with it. The Bulletin was carried on for
some years, until its necessity was removed by the development of other
opportunities for reaching the public; and its pages serve now as a
vivid and lively picture of the period to which its record applies. The
first issue, of January 12, 1882, was only four pages, but it dealt
with the question of insurance; plants at Santiago, Chili, and Rio de
Janeiro; the European Company with 3,500,000 francs subscribed; the work
in Paris, London, Strasburg, and Moscow; the laying of over six miles of
street mains in New York; a patent decision in favor of Edison; and the
size of safety catch wire. By April of 1882, the Bulletin had attained
the respectable size of sixteen pages; and in December it was a portly
magazine of forty-eight. Every item bears testimony to the rapid
progress being made; and by the end of 1882 it is seen that no fewer
than 153 isolated Edison plants had been installed in the United States
alone, with a capacity of 29,192 lamps. Moreover, the New York central
station had gone into operation, starting at 3 P.M. on September 4, and
at the close of 1882 it was lighting 225 houses wired for about 5000
lamps. This epochal story will be told in the next chapter. Most
interesting are the Bulletin notes from England, especially in regard
to the brilliant exhibition given by Mr. E. H. Johnson at the Crystal
Palace, Sydenham, visited by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, twice by
the Dukes of Westminster and Sutherland, by three hundred members of
the Gas Institute, and by innumerable delegations from cities, boroughs,
etc. Describing this before the Royal Society of Arts, Sir W. H. Preece,
F.R.S., remarked: "Many unkind things have been said of Mr. Edison and
his promises; perhaps no one has been severer in this direction than
myself. It is some gratification for me to announce my belief that he
has at last solved the problem he set himself to solve, and to be able
to describe to the Society the way in which he has solved it." Before
the exhibition closed it was visited by the Prince and Princess of
Wales--now the deceased Edward VII. and the Dowager Queen Alexandra--and
the Princess received from Mr. Johnson as a souvenir a tiny electric
chandelier fashioned like a bouquet of fern leaves and flowers, the buds
being some of the first miniature incandescent lamps ever made.
The first item in the first Bulletin dealt with the "Fire Question," and
all through the successive issues runs a series of significant items on
the same subject. Many of them are aimed at gas, and there are several
grim summaries of death and fires due to gas-leaks or explosions. A
tendency existed at the time to assume that electricity was altogether
safe, while its opponents, predicating their attacks on arc-lighting
casualties, insisted it was most dangerous. Edison's problem in
educating the public was rather difficult, for while his low-pressure,
direct-current system has always been absolutely without danger to life,
there has also been the undeniable fact that escaping electricity might
cause a fire just as a leaky water-pipe can flood a house. The important
question had arisen, therefore, of satisfying the fire underwriters
as to the safety of the system. He had foreseen that there would be an
absolute necessity for special devices to prevent fires from occurring
by reason of any excess of current flowing in any circuit; and several
of his earliest detail lighting inventions deal with this subject. The
insurance underwriters of New York and other parts of the country gave
a great deal of time and study to the question through their most
expert representatives, with the aid of Edison and his associates, other
electric-light companies cooperating; and the knowledge thus gained
was embodied in insurance rules to govern wiring for electric lights,
formulated during the latter part of 1881, adopted by the New York Board
of Fire Underwriters, January 12, 1882, and subsequently endorsed
by other boards in the various insurance districts. Under temporary
rulings, however, a vast amount of work had already been done, but
it was obvious that as the industry grew there would be less and less
possibility of supervision except through such regulations, insisting
upon the use of the best devices and methods. Indeed, the direct
superintendence soon became unnecessary, owing to the increasing
knowledge and greater skill acquired by the installing staff; and this
system of education was notably improved by a manual written by Mr.
Edison himself. Copies of this brochure are as scarce to-day as First
Folio Shakespeares, and command prices equal to those of other American
first editions. The little book is the only known incursion of its
author into literature, if we except the brief articles he has written
for technical papers and for the magazines. It contained what was at
once a full, elaborate, and terse explanation of a complete isolated
plant, with diagrams of various methods of connection and operation, and
a carefully detailed description of every individual part, its functions
and its characteristics. The remarkable success of those early years was
indeed only achieved by following up with Chinese exactness the minute
and intimate methods insisted upon by Edison as to the use of the
apparatus and devices employed. It was a curious example of establishing
standard practice while changing with kaleidoscopic rapidity all the
elements involved. He was true to an ideal as to the pole-star, but was
incessantly making improvements in every direction. With an iconoclasm
that has often seemed ruthless and brutal he did not hesitate to
sacrifice older devices the moment a new one came in sight that embodied
a real advance in securing effective results. The process is heroic but
costly. Nobody ever had a bigger scrap-heap than Edison; but who dare
proclaim the process intrinsically wasteful if the losses occur in the
initial stages, and the economies in all the later ones?
With Edison in this introduction of his lighting system the method
was ruthless, but not reckless. At an early stage of the commercial
development a standardizing committee was formed, consisting of the
heads of all the departments, and to this body was intrusted the task of
testing and criticising all existing and proposed devices, as well as of
considering the suggestions and complaints of workmen offered from
time to time. This procedure was fruitful in two principal results--the
education of the whole executive force in the technical details of
the system; and a constant improvement in the quality of the Edison
installations; both contributing to the rapid growth of the industry.
For many years Goerck Street played an important part in Edison's
affairs, being the centre of all his manufacture of heavy machinery. But
it was not in a desirable neighborhood, and owing to the rapid growth of
the business soon became disadvantageous for other reasons. Edison tells
of his frequent visits to the shops at night, with the escort of "Jim"
Russell, a well-known detective, who knew all the denizens of the
place: "We used to go out at night to a little, low place, an all-night
house--eight feet wide and twenty-two feet long--where we got a lunch
at two or three o'clock in the morning. It was the toughest kind of
restaurant ever seen. For the clam chowder they used the same four clams
during the whole season, and the average number of flies per pie was
seven. This was by actual count."
As to the shops and the locality: "The street was lined with rather old
buildings and poor tenements. We had not much frontage. As our business
increased enormously, our quarters became too small, so we saw the
district Tammany leader and asked him if we could not store castings
and other things on the sidewalk. He gave us permission--told us to go
ahead, and he would see it was all right. The only thing he required for
this was that when a man was sent with a note from him asking us to
give him a job, he was to be put on. We had a hand-laborer foreman--'Big
Jim'--a very powerful Irishman, who could lift above half a ton. When
one of the Tammany aspirants appeared, he was told to go right to work
at $1.50 per day. The next day he was told off to lift a certain piece,
and if the man could not lift it he was discharged. That made the
Tammany man all safe. Jim could pick the piece up easily. The other man
could not, and so we let him out. Finally the Tammany leader called a
halt, as we were running big engine lathes out on the sidewalk, and he
was afraid we were carrying it a little too far. The lathes were worked
right out in the street, and belted through the windows of the shop."
At last it became necessary to move from Goerck Street, and Mr. Edison
gives a very interesting account of the incidents in connection with
the transfer of the plant to Schenectady, New York: "After our works at
Goerck Street got too small, we had labor troubles also. It seems I had
rather a socialistic strain in me, and I raised the pay of the workmen
twenty-five cents an hour above the prevailing rate of wages, whereupon
Hoe & Company, our near neighbors, complained at our doing this. I said
I thought it was all right. But the men, having got a little more
wages, thought they would try coercion and get a little more, as we
were considered soft marks. Whereupon they struck at a time that
was critical. However, we were short of money for pay-rolls; and we
concluded it might not be so bad after all, as it would give us a
couple of weeks to catch up. So when the men went out they appointed a
committee to meet us; but for two weeks they could not find us, so they
became somewhat more anxious than we were. Finally they said they would
like to go back. We said all right, and back they went. It was quite a
novelty to the men not to be able to find us when they wanted to; and
they didn't relish it at all.
"What with these troubles and the lack of room, we decided to find
a factory elsewhere, and decided to try the locomotive works up at
Schenectady. It seems that the people there had had a falling out among
themselves, and one of the directors had started opposition works; but
before he had completed all the buildings and put in machinery some
compromise was made, and the works were for sale. We bought them very
reasonably and moved everything there. These works were owned by me and
my assistants until sold to the Edison General Electric Company. At one
time we employed several thousand men; and since then the works have
been greatly expanded.
"At these new works our orders were far in excess of our capital to
handle the business, and both Mr. Insull and I were afraid we might get
into trouble for lack of money. Mr. Insull was then my business manager,
running the whole thing; and, therefore, when Mr. Henry Villard and his
syndicate offered to buy us out, we concluded it was better to be
sure than be sorry; so we sold out for a large sum. Villard was a very
aggressive man with big ideas, but I could never quite understand him.
He had no sense of humor. I remember one time we were going up on the
Hudson River boat to inspect the works, and with us was Mr. Henderson,
our chief engineer, who was certainly the best raconteur of funny
stories I ever knew. We sat at the tail-end of the boat, and he started
in to tell funny stories. Villard could not see a single point, and
scarcely laughed at all; and Henderson became so disconcerted he had to
give it up. It was the same way with Gould. In the early telegraph days
I remember going with him to see Mackay in 'The Impecunious Country
Editor.' It was very funny, full of amusing and absurd situations; but
Gould never smiled once."
The formation of the Edison General Electric Company involved the
consolidation of the immediate Edison manufacturing interests in
electric light and power, with a capitalization of $12,000,000, now a
relatively modest sum; but in those days the amount was large, and
the combination caused a great deal of newspaper comment as to such
a coinage of brain power. The next step came with the creation of the
great General Electric Company of to-day, a combination of the Edison,
Thomson-Houston, and Brush lighting interests in manufacture, which
to this day maintains the ever-growing plants at Harrison, Lynn, and
Schenectady, and there employs from twenty to twenty-five thousand
people.