OTHER EARLY STATIONS--THE METER
WE have now seen the Edison lighting system given a complete, convincing
demonstration in Paris, London, and New York; and have noted steps taken
for its introduction elsewhere on both sides of the Atlantic. The Paris
plant, like that at the Crystal Palace, was a temporary exhibit. The
London plant was less temporary, but not permanent, supplying before
it was torn out no fewer than three thousand lamps in hotels, churches,
stores, and dwellings in the vicinity of Holborn Viaduct. There Messrs.
Johnson and Hammer put into practice many of the ideas now standard in
the art, and secured much useful data for the work in New York, of which
the story has just been told.
As a matter of fact the first Edison commercial station to be operated
in this country was that at Appleton, Wisconsin, but its only serious
claim to notice is that it was the initial one of the system driven by
water-power. It went into service August 15, 1882, about three weeks
before the Pearl Street station. It consisted of one small dynamo of
a capacity of two hundred and eighty lights of 10 c.p. each, and was
housed in an unpretentious wooden shed. The dynamo-electric machine,
though small, was robust, for under all the varying speeds of
water-power, and the vicissitudes of the plant to which it, belonged, it
continued in active use until 1899--seventeen years.
Edison was from the first deeply impressed with the possibilities of
water-power, and, as this incident shows, was prompt to seize such a
very early opportunity. But his attention was in reality concentrated
closely on the supply of great centres of population, a task which
he then felt might well occupy his lifetime; and except in regard to
furnishing isolated plants he did not pursue further the development of
hydro-electric stations. That was left to others, and to the application
of the alternating current, which has enabled engineers to harness
remote powers, and, within thoroughly economical limits, transmit
thousands of horse-power as much as two hundred miles at pressures
of 80,000 and 100,000 volts. Owing to his insistence on low pressure,
direct current for use in densely populated districts, as the only safe
and truly universal, profitable way of delivering electrical energy to
the consumers, Edison has been frequently spoken of as an opponent
of the alternating current. This does him an injustice. At the time
a measure was before the Virginia legislature, in 1890, to limit the
permissible pressures of current so as to render it safe, he said: "You
want to allow high pressure wherever the conditions are such that by
no possible accident could that pressure get into the houses of
the consumers; you want to give them all the latitude you can." In
explaining this he added: "Suppose you want to take the falls down at
Richmond, and want to put up a water-power? Why, if we erect a station
at the falls, it is a great economy to get it up to the city. By digging
a cheap trench and putting in an insulated cable, and connecting such
station with the central part of Richmond, having the end of the cable
come up into the station from the earth and there connected with motors,
the power of the falls would be transmitted to these motors. If now the
motors were made to run dynamos conveying low-pressure currents to the
public, there is no possible way whereby this high-pressure current
could get to the public." In other words, Edison made the sharp
fundamental distinction between high pressure alternating current for
transmission and low pressure direct current for distribution; and this
is exactly the practice that has been adopted in all the great cities
of the country to-day. There seems no good reason for believing that it
will change. It might perhaps have been altogether better for Edison,
from the financial standpoint, if he had not identified himself so
completely with one kind of current, but that made no difference to him,
as it was a matter of conviction; and Edison's convictions are granitic.
Moreover, this controversy over the two currents, alternating and
direct, which has become historical in the field of electricity--and
is something like the "irrepressible conflict" we heard of years ago
in national affairs--illustrates another aspect of Edison's character.
Broad as the prairies and free in thought as the winds that sweep them,
he is idiosyncratically opposed to loose and wasteful methods, to plans
of empire that neglect the poor at the gate. Everything he has done has
been aimed at the conservation of energy, the contraction of space,
the intensification of culture. Burbank and his tribe represent in the
vegetable world, Edison in the mechanical. Not only has he developed
distinctly new species, but he has elucidated the intensive art of
getting $1200 out of an electrical acre instead of $12--a manured
market-garden inside London and a ten-bushel exhausted wheat farm
outside Lawrence, Kansas, being the antipodes of productivity--yet very
far short of exemplifying the difference of electrical yield between an
acre of territory in Edison's "first New York district" and an acre in
some small town.
Edison's lighting work furnished an excellent basis--in fact, the only
one--for the development of the alternating current now so generally
employed in central-station work in America; and in the McGraw
Electrical Directory of April, 1909, no fewer than 4164 stations out of
5780 reported its use. When the alternating current was introduced for
practical purposes it was not needed for arc lighting, the circuit for
which, from a single dynamo, would often be twenty or thirty miles
in length, its current having a pressure of not less than five or six
thousand volts. For some years it was not found feasible to operate
motors on alternating-current circuits, and that reason was often
urged against it seriously. It could not be used for electroplating
or deposition, nor could it charge storage batteries, all of which are
easily within the ability of the direct current. But when it came to be
a question of lighting a scattered suburb, a group of dwellings on the
outskirts, a remote country residence or a farm-house, the alternating
current, in all elements save its danger, was and is ideal. Its thin
wires can be carried cheaply over vast areas, and at each local point
of consumption the transformer of size exactly proportioned to its
local task takes the high-voltage transmission current and lowers its
potential at a ratio of 20 or 40 to 1, for use in distribution and
consumption circuits. This evolution has been quite distinct, with its
own inventors like Gaulard and Gibbs and Stanley, but came subsequent
to the work of supplying small, dense areas of population; the art thus
growing from within, and using each new gain as a means for further
achievement.
Nor was the effect of such great advances as those made by Edison
limited to the electrical field. Every department of mechanics was
stimulated and benefited to an extraordinary degree. Copper for the
circuits was more highly refined than ever before to secure the best
conductivity, and purity was insisted on in every kind of insulation.
Edison was intolerant of sham and shoddy, and nothing would satisfy him
that could not stand cross-examination by microscope, test-tube, and
galvanometer. It was, perhaps, the steam-engine on which the deepest
imprint for good was made, referred to already in the remarks of Mr.
F. J. Sprague in the preceding chapter, but best illustrated in the
perfection of the modern high-speed engine of the Armington & Sims type.
Unless he could secure an engine of smoother running and more exactly
governed and regulated than those available for his dynamo and lamp,
Edison realized that he would find it almost impossible to give a steady
light. He did not want his customers to count the heart-beats of the
engine in the flicker of the lamp. Not a single engine was even within
gunshot of the standard thus set up, but the emergency called forth its
man in Gardiner C. Sims, a talented draughtsman and designer who
had been engaged in locomotive construction and in the engineering
department of the United States Navy. He may be quoted as to what
happened: "The deep interest, financial and moral, and friendly backing
I received from Mr. Edison, together with valuable suggestions, enabled
me to bring out the engine; as I was quite alone in the world--poor--I
had found a friend who knew what he wanted and explained it clearly. Mr.
Edison was a leader far ahead of the time. He compelled the design of
the successful engine.
"Our first engine compelled the inventing and making of a suitable
engine indicator to indicate it--the Tabor. He obtained the desired
speed and load with a friction brake; also regulator of speed; but
waited for an indicator to verify it. Then again there was no known way
to lubricate an engine for continuous running, and Mr. Edison informed
me that as a marine engine started before the ship left New York and
continued running until it reached its home port, so an engine for his
purposes must produce light at all times. That was a poser to me, for a
five-hours' run was about all that had been required up to that time.
"A day or two later Mr. Edison inquired: 'How far is it from here to
Lawrence; it is a long walk, isn't it?' 'Yes, rather.' He said: 'Of
course you will understand I meant without oil.' To say I was deeply
perplexed does not express my feelings. We were at the machine works,
Goerck Street. I started for the oil-room, when, about entering, I saw a
small funnel lying on the floor. It had been stepped on and flattened. I
took it up, and it had solved the engine-oiling problem--and my walk to
Lawrence like a tramp actor's was off! The eccentric strap had a round
glass oil-cup with a brass base that screwed into the strap. I took it
off, and making a sketch, went to Dave Cunningham, having the funnel
in my hand to illustrate what I wanted made. I requested him to make a
sheet-brass oil-cup and solder it to the base I had. He did so. I then
had a standard made to hold another oil-cup, so as to see and regulate
the drop-feed. On this combination I obtained a patent which is now
universally used."
It is needless to say that in due course the engine builders of
the United States developed a variety of excellent prime movers for
electric-light and power plants, and were grateful to the art from which
such a stimulus came to their industry; but for many years one never saw
an Edison installation without expecting to find one or more Armington
& Sims high-speed engines part of it. Though the type has gone out of
existence, like so many other things that are useful in their day and
generation, it was once a very vital part of the art, and one more
illustration of that intimate manner in which the advances in different
fields of progress interact and co-operate.
Edison had installed his historic first great central-station system
in New York on the multiple arc system covered by his feeder and main
invention, which resulted in a notable saving in the cost of conductors
as against a straight two-wire system throughout of the "tree" kind.
He soon foresaw that still greater economy would be necessary for
commercial success not alone for the larger territory opening, but for
the compact districts of large cities. Being firmly convinced that there
was a way out, he pushed aside a mass of other work, and settled down to
this problem, with the result that on November 20, 1882, only two
months after current had been sent out from Pearl Street, he executed an
application for a patent covering what is now known as the "three-wire
system." It has been universally recognized as one of the most valuable
inventions in the history of the lighting art. [13] Its use resulted in a
saving of over 60 per cent. of copper in conductors, figured on the most
favorable basis previously known, inclusive of those calculated under
his own feeder and main system. Such economy of outlay being effected in
one of the heaviest items of expense in central-station construction,
it was now made possible to establish plants in towns where the large
investment would otherwise have been quite prohibitive. The invention
is in universal use today, alike for direct and for alternating current,
and as well in the equipment of large buildings as in the distribution
system of the most extensive central-station networks. One cannot
imagine the art without it.
[Footnote 13: For technical description and illustration of
this invention, see Appendix.]
The strong position held by the Edison system, under the strenuous
competition that was already springing up, was enormously improved by
the introduction of the three-wire system; and it gave an immediate
impetus to incandescent lighting. Desiring to put this new system into
practical use promptly, and receiving applications for licenses from all
over the country, Edison selected Brockton, Massachusetts, and Sunbury,
Pennsylvania, as the two towns for the trial. Of these two Brockton
required the larger plant, but with the conductors placed underground.
It was the first to complete its arrangements and close its contract.
Mr. Henry Villard, it will be remembered, had married the daughter of
Garrison, the famous abolitionist, and it was through his relationship
with the Garrison family that Brockton came to have the honor of
exemplifying so soon the principles of an entirely new art. Sunbury,
however, was a much smaller installation, employed overhead conductors,
and hence was the first to "cross the tape." It was specially suited for
a trial plant also, in the early days when a yield of six or eight lamps
to the horse-power was considered subject for congratulation. The town
being situated in the coal region of Pennsylvania, good coal could then
be obtained there at seventy-five cents a ton.
The Sunbury generating plant consisted of an Armington & Sims engine
driving two small Edison dynamos having a total capacity of about four
hundred lamps of 16 c.p. The indicating instruments were of the crudest
construction, consisting of two voltmeters connected by "pressure wires"
to the centre of electrical distribution. One ammeter, for measuring
the quantity of current output, was interpolated in the "neutral bus" or
third-wire return circuit to indicate when the load on the two machines
was out of balance. The circuits were opened and closed by means of
about half a dozen roughly made plug-switches. [14] The "bus-bars" to
receive the current from the dynamos were made of No. 000 copper line
wire, straightened out and fastened to the wooden sheathing of the
station by iron staples without any presence to insulation. Commenting
upon this Mr. W. S. Andrews, detailed from the central staff, says: "The
interior winding of the Sunbury station, including the running of two
three-wire feeders the entire length of the building from back to
front, the wiring up of the dynamos and switchboard and all instruments,
together with bus-bars, etc.--in fact, all labor and material used
in the electrical wiring installation--amounted to the sum of $90. I
received a rather sharp letter from the New York office expostulating
for this EXTRAVAGANT EXPENDITURE, and stating that great economy must
be observed in future!" The street conductors were of the overhead
pole-line construction, and were installed by the construction company
that had been organized by Edison to build and equip central stations.
A special type of street pole had been devised by him for the three-wire
system.
[Footnote 14: By reason of the experience gained at this
station through the use of these crude plug-switches, Mr.
Edison started a competition among a few of his assistants
to devise something better. The result was the invention of
a "breakdown" switch by Mr. W. S. Andrews, which was
accepted by Mr. Edison as the best of the devices suggested,
and was developed and used for a great many years
afterward.]
Supplementing the story of Mr. Andrews is that of Lieut. F. J. Sprague,
who also gives a curious glimpse of the glorious uncertainties and
vicissitudes of that formative period. Mr. Sprague served on the jury
at the Crystal Palace Exhibition with Darwin's son--the present Sir
Horace--and after the tests were ended left the Navy and entered
Edison's service at the suggestion of Mr. E. H. Johnson, who was
Edison's shrewd recruiting sergeant in those days: "I resigned sooner
than Johnson expected, and he had me on his hands. Meanwhile he had
called upon me to make a report of the three-wire system, known in
England as the Hopkinson, both Dr. John Hopkinson and Mr. Edison being
independent inventors at practically the same time. I reported on that,
left London, and landed in New York on the day of the opening of the
Brooklyn Bridge in 1883--May 24--with a year's leave of absence.
"I reported at the office of Mr. Edison on Fifth Avenue and told him I
had seen Johnson. He looked me over and said: 'What did he promise you?'
I replied: 'Twenty-five hundred dollars a year.' He did not say much,
but looked it. About that time Mr. Andrews and I came together. On July
2d of that year we were ordered to Sunbury, and to be ready to start the
station on the fourth. The electrical work had to be done in forty-eight
hours! Having travelled around the world, I had cultivated an
indifference to any special difficulties of that kind. Mr. Andrews and
I worked in collaboration until the night of the third. I think he was
perhaps more appreciative than I was of the discipline of the Edison
Construction Department, and thought it would be well for us to wait
until the morning of the fourth before we started up. I said we were
sent over to get going, and insisted on starting up on the night of the
third. We had an Armington & Sims engine with sight-feed oiler. I had
never seen one, and did not know how it worked, with the result that we
soon burned up the babbitt metal in the bearings and spent a good part
of the night getting them in order. The next day Mr. Edison, Mr. Insull,
and the chief engineer of the construction department appeared on
the scene and wanted to know what had happened. They found an engine
somewhat loose in the bearings, and there followed remarks which would
not look well in print. Andrews skipped from under; he obeyed orders; I
did not. But the plant ran, and it was the first three-wire station in
this country."
Seen from yet another angle, the worries of this early work were not
merely those of the men on the "firing line." Mr. Insull, in speaking
of this period, says: "When it was found difficult to push the
central-station business owing to the lack of confidence in its
financial success, Edison decided to go into the business of promoting
and constructing central-station plants, and he formed what was known as
the Thomas A. Edison Construction Department, which he put me in charge
of. The organization was crude, the steam-engineering talent poor,
and owing to the impossibility of getting any considerable capital
subscribed, the plants were put in as cheaply as possible. I believe
that this construction department was unkindly named the 'Destruction
Department.' It served its purpose; never made any money; and I had the
unpleasant task of presiding at its obsequies."
On July 4th the Sunbury plant was put into commercial operation by
Edison, and he remained a week studying its conditions and watching for
any unforeseen difficulty that might arise. Nothing happened, however,
to interfere with the successful running of the station, and for twenty
years thereafter the same two dynamos continued to furnish light in
Sunbury. They were later used as reserve machines, and finally, with the
engine, retired from service as part of the "Collection of Edisonia";
but they remain in practically as good condition as when installed in
1883.
Sunbury was also provided with the first electro-chemical meters used
in the United States outside New York City, so that it served also to
accentuate electrical practice in a most vital respect--namely, the
measurement of the electrical energy supplied to customers. At this time
and long after, all arc lighting was done on a "flat rate" basis. The
arc lamp installed outside a customer's premises, or in a circuit for
public street lighting, burned so many hours nightly, so many nights in
the month; and was paid for at that rate, subject to rebate for hours
when the lamp might be out through accident. The early arc lamps were
rated to require 9 to 10 amperes of current, at 45 volts pressure each,
receiving which they were estimated to give 2000 c.p., which was arrived
at by adding together the light found at four different positions, so
that in reality the actual light was about 500 c.p. Few of these data
were ever actually used, however; and it was all more or less a matter
of guesswork, although the central-station manager, aiming to give good
service, would naturally see that the dynamos were so operated as to
maintain as steadily as possible the normal potential and current. The
same loose methods applied to the early attempts to use electric motors
on arc-lighting circuits, and contracts were made based on the size of
the motor, the width of the connecting belt, or the amount of power the
customer thought he used--never on the measurement of the electrical
energy furnished him.
Here again Edison laid the foundation of standard practice. It is true
that even down to the present time the flat rate is applied to a great
deal of incandescent lighting, each lamp being charged for individually
according to its probable consumption during each month. This may
answer, perhaps, in a small place where the manager can gauge pretty
closely from actual observation what each customer does; but even then
there are elements of risk and waste; and obviously in a large city such
a method would soon be likely to result in financial disaster to the
plant. Edison held that the electricity sold must be measured just like
gas or water, and he proceeded to develop a meter. There was infinite
scepticism around him on the subject, and while other inventors were
also giving the subject their thought, the public took it for granted
that anything so utterly intangible as electricity, that could not be
seen or weighed, and only gave secondary evidence of itself at the exact
point of use, could not be brought to accurate registration. The general
attitude of doubt was exemplified by the incident in Mr. J. P. Morgan's
office, noted in the last chapter. Edison, however, had satisfied
himself that there were various ways of accomplishing the task, and had
determined that the current should be measured on the premises of
every consumer. His electrolytic meter was very successful, and was
of widespread use in America and in Europe until the perfection of
mechanical meters by Elihu Thomson and others brought that type into
general acceptance. Hence the Edison electrolytic meter is no longer
used, despite its excellent qualities. Houston & Kennelly in their
Electricity in Everyday Life sum the matter up as follows: "The Edison
chemical meter is capable of giving fair measurements of the amount of
current passing. By reason, however, of dissatisfaction caused from the
inability of customers to read the indications of the meter, it has in
later years, to a great extent, been replaced by registering meters that
can be read by the customer."
The principle employed in the Edison electrolytic meter is that which
exemplifies the power of electricity to decompose a chemical substance.
In other words it is a deposition bath, consisting of a glass cell in
which two plates of chemically pure zinc are dipped in a solution of
zinc sulphate. When the lights or motors in the circuit are turned on,
and a certain definite small portion of the current is diverted to flow
through the meter, from the positive plate to the negative plate, the
latter increases in weight by receiving a deposit of metallic zinc; the
positive plate meantime losing in weight by the metal thus carried
away from it. This difference in weight is a very exact measure of the
quantity of electricity, or number of ampere-hours, that have, so to
speak, passed through the cell, and hence of the whole consumption in
the circuit. The amount thus due from the customer is ascertained by
removing the cell, washing and drying the plates, and weighing them in
a chemical balance. Associated with this simple form of apparatus
were various ingenious details and refinements to secure regularity of
operation, freedom from inaccuracy, and immunity from such tampering
as would permit theft of current or damage. As the freezing of the zinc
sulphate solution in cold weather would check its operation, Edison
introduced, for example, into the meter an incandescent lamp and a
thermostat so arranged that when the temperature fell to a certain
point, or rose above another point, it was cut in or out; and in this
manner the meter could be kept from freezing. The standard Edison meter
practice was to remove the cells once a month to the meter-room of the
central-station company for examination, another set being substituted.
The meter was cheap to manufacture and install, and not at all liable to
get out of order.
In December, 1888, Mr. W. J. Jenks read an interesting paper before the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers on the six years of practical
experience had up to that time with the meter, then more generally in
use than any other. It appears from the paper that twenty-three Edison
stations were then equipped with 5187 meters, which were relied upon for
billing the monthly current consumption of 87,856 lamps and 350 motors
of 1000 horse-power total. This represented about 75 per cent. of the
entire lamp capacity of the stations. There was an average cost per lamp
for meter operation of twenty-two cents a year, and each meter took
care of an average of seventeen lamps. It is worthy of note, as to the
promptness with which the Edison stations became paying properties,
that four of the metered stations were earning upward of 15 per cent.
on their capital stock; three others between 8 and 10 per cent.; eight
between 5 and 8 per cent.; the others having been in operation too short
a time to show definite results, although they also went quickly to
a dividend basis. Reports made in the discussion at the meeting by
engineers showed the simplicity and success of the meter. Mr. C. L.
Edgar, of the Boston Edison system, stated that he had 800 of the meters
in service cared for by two men and three boys, the latter employed in
collecting the meter cells; the total cost being perhaps $2500 a year.
Mr. J. W. Lieb wrote from Milan, Italy, that he had in use on the Edison
system there 360 meters ranging from 350 ampere-hours per month up to
30,000.
In this connection it should be mentioned that the Association of Edison
Illuminating Companies in the same year adopted resolutions unanimously
to the effect that the Edison meter was accurate, and that its use was
not expensive for stations above one thousand lights; and that the best
financial results were invariably secured in a station selling current
by meter. Before the same association, at its meeting in September,
1898, at Sault Ste. Marie, Mr. C. S. Shepard read a paper on the meter
practice of the New York Edison Company, giving data as to the large
number of Edison meters in use and the transition to other types, of
which to-day the company has several on its circuits: "Until October,
1896, the New York Edison Company metered its current in consumer's
premises exclusively by the old-style chemical meters, of which there
were connected on that date 8109. It was then determined to purchase
no more." Mr. Shepard went on to state that the chemical meters were
gradually displaced, and that on September 1, 1898, there were on the
system 5619 mechanical and 4874 chemical. The meter continued in general
service during 1899, and probably up to the close of the century.
Mr. Andrews relates a rather humorous meter story of those early days:
"The meter man at Sunbury was a firm and enthusiastic believer in the
correctness of the Edison meter, having personally verified its reading
many times by actual comparison of lamp-hours. One day, on making out a
customer's bill, his confidence received a severe shock, for the meter
reading showed a consumption calling for a charge of over $200,
whereas he knew that the light actually used should not cost more than
one-quarter of that amount. He weighed and reweighed the meter plates,
and pursued every line of investigation imaginable, but all in vain. He
felt he was up against it, and that perhaps another kind of a job would
suit him better. Once again he went to the customer's meter to look
around, when a small piece of thick wire on the floor caught his eye.
The problem was solved. He suddenly remembered that after weighing
the plates he went and put them in the customer's meter; but the wire
attached to one of the plates was too long to go in the meter, and he
had cut it off. He picked up the piece of wire, took it to the station,
weighed it carefully, and found that it accounted for about $150 worth
of electricity, which was the amount of the difference."
Edison himself is, however, the best repertory of stories when it comes
to the difficulties of that early period, in connection with metering
the current and charging for it. He may be quoted at length as follows:
"When we started the station at Pearl Street, in September, 1882, we
were not very commercial. We put many customers on, but did not make out
many bills. We were more interested in the technical condition of the
station than in the commercial part. We had meters in which there were
two bottles of liquid. To prevent these electrolytes from freezing we
had in each meter a strip of metal. When it got very cold the metal
would contract and close a circuit, and throw a lamp into circuit
inside the meter. The heat from this lamp would prevent the liquid from
freezing, so that the meter could go on doing its duty. The first cold
day after starting the station, people began to come in from their
offices, especially down in Front Street and Water Street, saying the
meter was on fire. We received numerous telephone messages about it.
Some had poured water on it, and others said: 'Send a man right up to
put it out.'
"After the station had been running several months and was technically
a success, we began to look after the financial part. We started to
collect some bills; but we found that our books were kept badly, and
that the person in charge, who was no business man, had neglected that
part of it. In fact, he did not know anything about the station, anyway.
So I got the directors to permit me to hire a man to run the station.
This was Mr. Chinnock, who was then superintendent of the Metropolitan
Telephone Company of New York. I knew Chinnock to be square and of
good business ability, and induced him to leave his job. I made him a
personal guarantee, that if he would take hold of the station and put it
on a commercial basis, and pay 5 per cent. on $600,000, I would give him
$10,000 out of my own pocket. He took hold, performed the feat, and
I paid him the $10,000. I might remark in this connection that years
afterward I applied to the Edison Electric Light Company asking them
if they would not like to pay me this money, as it was spent when I was
very hard up and made the company a success, and was the foundation of
their present prosperity. They said they 'were sorry'--that is, 'Wall
Street sorry'--and refused to pay it. This shows what a nice, genial,
generous lot of people they have over in Wall Street.
"Chinnock had a great deal of trouble getting the customers straightened
out. I remember one man who had a saloon on Nassau Street. He had had
his lights burning for two or three months. It was in June, and Chinnock
put in a bill for $20; July for $20; August about $28; September about
$35. Of course the nights were getting longer. October about $40;
November about $45. Then the man called Chinnock up. He said: 'I want to
see you about my electric-light bill.' Chinnock went up to see him. He
said: 'Are you the manager of this electric-light plant?' Chinnock said:
'I have the honor.' 'Well,' he said, my bill has gone from $20 up to
$28, $35, $45. I want you to understand, young fellow, that my limit is
$60.'
"After Chinnock had had all this trouble due to the incompetency of the
previous superintendent, a man came in and said to him: 'Did Mr. Blank
have charge of this station?' 'Yes.' 'Did he know anything about running
a station like this?' Chinnock said: 'Does he KNOW anything about
running a station like this? No, sir. He doesn't even suspect anything.'
"One day Chinnock came to me and said: 'I have a new customer.' I said:
'What is it?' He said: 'I have a fellow who is going to take two hundred
and fifty lights.' I said: 'What for?' 'He has a place down here in a
top loft, and has got two hundred and fifty barrels of "rotgut" whiskey.
He puts a light down in the barrel and lights it up, and it ages the
whiskey.' I met Chinnock several weeks after, and said: 'How is the
whiskey man getting along?' 'It's all right; he is paying his bill. It
fixes the whiskey and takes the shudder right out of it.' Somebody went
and took out a patent on this idea later.
"In the second year we put the Stock Exchange on the circuits of the
station, but were very fearful that there would be a combination of
heavy demand and a dark day, and that there would be an overloaded
station. We had an index like a steam-gauge, called an ampere-meter, to
indicate the amount of current going out. I was up at 65 Fifth Avenue
one afternoon. A sudden black cloud came up, and I telephoned to
Chinnock and asked him about the load. He said: 'We are up to the
muzzle, and everything is running all right.' By-and-by it became so
thick we could not see across the street. I telephoned again, and felt
something would happen, but fortunately it did not. I said to
Chinnock: 'How is it now?' He replied: 'Everything is red-hot, and the
ampere-meter has made seventeen revolutions.'"
In 1883 no such fittings as "fixture insulators" were known. It was
the common practice to twine the electric wires around the disused
gas-fixtures, fasten them with tape or string, and connect them to
lamp-sockets screwed into attachments under the gas-burners--elaborated
later into what was known as the "combination fixture." As a result
it was no uncommon thing to see bright sparks snapping between the
chandelier and the lighting wires during a sharp thunder-storm. A
startling manifestation of this kind happened at Sunbury, when the vivid
display drove nervous guests of the hotel out into the street, and the
providential storm led Mr. Luther Stieringer to invent the "insulating
joint." This separated the two lighting systems thoroughly, went into
immediate service, and is universally used to-day.
Returning to the more specific subject of pioneer plants of importance,
that at Brockton must be considered for a moment, chiefly for the reason
that the city was the first in the world to possess an Edison station
distributing current through an underground three-wire network of
conductors--the essentially modern contemporaneous practice,
standard twenty-five years later. It was proposed to employ pole-line
construction with overhead wires, and a party of Edison engineers drove
about the town in an open barouche with a blue-print of the circuits and
streets spread out on their knees, to determine how much tree-trimming
would be necessary. When they came to some heavily shaded spots, the
fine trees were marked "T" to indicate that the work in getting through
them would be "tough." Where the trees were sparse and the foliage was
thin, the same cheerful band of vandals marked the spots "E" to indicate
that there it would be "easy" to run the wires. In those days public
opinion was not so alive as now to the desirability of preserving
shade-trees, and of enhancing the beauty of a city instead of destroying
it. Brockton had a good deal of pride in its fine trees, and a strong
sentiment was very soon aroused against the mutilation proposed so
thoughtlessly. The investors in the enterprise were ready and anxious
to meet the extra cost of putting the wires underground. Edison's own
wishes were altogether for the use of the methods he had so carefully
devised; and hence that bustling home of shoe manufacture was spared
this infliction of more overhead wires.
The station equipment at Brockton consisted at first of three dynamos,
one of which was so arranged as to supply both sides of the system
during light loads by a breakdown switch connection. This arrangement
interfered with correct meter registration, as the meters on one side of
the system registered backward during the hours in which the combination
was employed. Hence, after supplying an all-night customer whose lamps
were on one side of the circuits, the company might be found to owe him
some thing substantial in the morning. Soon after the station went into
operation this ingenious plan was changed, and the third dynamo was
replaced by two others. The Edison construction department took entire
charge of the installation of the plant, and the formal opening was
attended on October 1, 1883, by Mr. Edison, who then remained a week in
ceaseless study and consultation over the conditions developed by
this initial three-wire underground plant. Some idea of the confidence
inspired by the fame of Edison at this period is shown by the fact that
the first theatre ever lighted from a central station by incandescent
lamps was designed this year, and opened in 1884 at Brockton with an
equipment of three hundred lamps. The theatre was never piped for gas!
It was also from the Brockton central station that current was first
supplied to a fire-engine house--another display of remarkably early
belief in the trustworthiness of the service, under conditions where
continuity of lighting was vital. The building was equipped in such a
manner that the striking of the fire-alarm would light every lamp in
the house automatically and liberate the horses. It was at this central
station that Lieutenant Sprague began his historic work on the electric
motor; and here that another distinguished engineer and inventor, Mr. H.
Ward Leonard, installed the meters and became meter man, in order that
he might study in every intimate detail the improvements and refinements
necessary in that branch of the industry.
The authors are indebted for these facts and some other data embodied in
this book to Mr. W. J. Jenks, who as manager of this plant here made his
debut in the Edison ranks. He had been connected with local telephone
interests, but resigned to take active charge of this plant, imbibing
quickly the traditional Edison spirit, working hard all day and sleeping
in the station at night on a cot brought there for that purpose. It
was a time of uninterrupted watchfulness. The difficulty of obtaining
engineers in those days to run the high-speed engines (three hundred and
fifty revolutions per minute) is well illustrated by an amusing incident
in the very early history of the station. A locomotive engineer had
been engaged, as it was supposed he would not be afraid of anything. One
evening there came a sudden flash of fire and a spluttering, sizzling
noise. There had been a short-circuit on the copper mains in the
station. The fireman hid behind the boiler and the engineer jumped out
of the window. Mr. Sprague realized the trouble, quickly threw off the
current and stopped the engine.
Mr. Jenks relates another humorous incident in connection with this
plant: "One night I heard a knock at the office door, and on opening it
saw two well-dressed ladies, who asked if they might be shown through.
I invited them in, taking them first to the boiler-room, where I showed
them the coal-pile, explaining that this was used to generate steam in
the boiler. We then went to the dynamo-room, where I pointed out the
machines converting the steam-power into electricity, appearing later in
the form of light in the lamps. After that they were shown the meters
by which the consumption of current was measured. They appeared to be
interested, and I proceeded to enter upon a comparison of coal made
into gas or burned under a boiler to be converted into electricity. The
ladies thanked me effusively and brought their visit to a close. As they
were about to go through the door, one of them turned to me and said:
'We have enjoyed this visit very much, but there is one question we
would like to ask: What is it that you make here?'"
The Brockton station was for a long time a show plant of the Edison
company, and had many distinguished visitors, among them being Prof.
Elihu Thomson, who was present at the opening, and Sir W. H. Preece,
of London. The engineering methods pursued formed the basis of similar
installations in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in November, 1883; in Fall
River, Massachusetts, in December, 1883; and in Newburgh, New York, the
following spring.
Another important plant of this period deserves special mention, as it
was the pioneer in the lighting of large spaces by incandescent lamps.
This installation of five thousand lamps on the three-wire system was
made to illuminate the buildings at the Louisville, Kentucky,
Exposition in 1883, and, owing to the careful surveys, calculations,
and preparations of H. M. Byllesby and the late Luther Stieringer, was
completed and in operation within six weeks after the placing of the
order. The Jury of Awards, in presenting four medals to the Edison
company, took occasion to pay a high compliment to the efficiency of the
system. It has been thought by many that the magnificent success of
this plant did more to stimulate the growth of the incandescent lighting
business than any other event in the history of the Edison company. It
was literally the beginning of the electrical illumination of American
Expositions, carried later to such splendid displays as those of the
Chicago World's Fair in 1893, Buffalo in 1901, and St. Louis in 1904.
Thus the art was set going in the United States under many difficulties,
but with every sign of coming triumph. Reference has already been made
to the work abroad in Paris and London. The first permanent Edison
station in Europe was that at Milan, Italy, for which the order was
given as early as May, 1882, by an enterprising syndicate. Less than
a year later, March 3, 1883, the installation was ready and was put in
operation, the Theatre Santa Radegonda having been pulled down and a
new central-station building erected in its place--probably the first
edifice constructed in Europe for the specific purpose of incandescent
lighting. Here "Jumbos" were installed from time to time, until at
last there were no fewer than ten of them; and current was furnished
to customers with a total of nearly ten thousand lamps connected to the
mains. This pioneer system was operated continuously until February
9, 1900, or for a period of about seventeen years, when the sturdy old
machines, still in excellent condition, were put out of service, so that
a larger plant could be installed to meet the demand. This new plant
takes high-tension polyphase current from a water-power thirty or forty
miles away at Paderno, on the river Adda, flowing from the Apennines;
but delivers low-tension direct current for distribution to the regular
Edison three-wire system throughout Milan.
About the same time that southern Europe was thus opened up to the
new system, South America came into line, and the first Edison central
station there was installed at Santiago, Chile, in the summer of 1883,
under the supervision of Mr. W. N. Stewart. This was the result of the
success obtained with small isolated plants, leading to the formation of
an Edison company. It can readily be conceived that at such an extreme
distance from the source of supply of apparatus the plant was subject to
many peculiar difficulties from the outset, of which Mr. Stewart speaks
as follows: "I made an exhibition of the 'Jumbo' in the theatre
at Santiago, and on the first evening, when it was filled with the
aristocracy of the city, I discovered to my horror that the binding wire
around the armature was slowly stripping off and going to pieces. We had
no means of boring out the field magnets, and we cut grooves in them.
I think the machine is still running (1907). The station went into
operation soon after with an equipment of eight Edison 'K' dynamos with
certain conditions inimical to efficiency, but which have not hindered
the splendid expansion of the local system. With those eight dynamos we
had four belts between each engine and the dynamo. The steam pressure
was limited to seventy-five pounds per square inch. We had two-wire
underground feeders, sent without any plans or specifications for their
installation. The station had neither voltmeter nor ammeter. The current
pressure was regulated by a galvanometer. We were using coal costing $12
a ton, and were paid for our light in currency worth fifty cents on the
dollar. The only thing I can be proud of in connection with the plant is
the fact that I did not design it, that once in a while we made out to
pay its operating expenses, and that occasionally we could run it for
three months without a total breakdown."
It was not until 1885 that the first Edison station in Germany was
established; but the art was still very young, and the plant represented
pioneer lighting practice in the Empire. The station at Berlin comprised
five boilers, and six vertical steam-engines driving by belts twelve
Edison dynamos, each of about fifty-five horse-power capacity. A model
of this station is preserved in the Deutschen Museum at Munich. In the
bulletin of the Berlin Electricity Works for May, 1908, it is said with
regard to the events that led up to the creation of the system, as noted
already at the Rathenau celebration: "The year 1881 was a mile-stone
in the history of the Allgemeine Elektricitaets Gesellschaft. The
International Electrical Exposition at Paris was intended to place
before the eyes of the civilized world the achievements of the
century. Among the exhibits of that Exposition was the Edison system
of incandescent lighting. IT BECAME THE BASIS OF MODERN HEAVY
CURRENT TECHNICS." The last phrase is italicized as being a happy and
authoritative description, as well as a tribute.
This chapter would not be complete if it failed to include some
reference to a few of the earlier isolated plants of a historic
character. Note has already been made of the first Edison plants afloat
on the Jeannette and Columbia, and the first commercial plant in the New
York lithographic establishment. The first mill plant was placed in the
woollen factory of James Harrison at Newburgh, New York, about September
15, 1881. A year later, Mr. Harrison wrote with some pride: "I believe
my mill was the first lighted with your electric light, and therefore
may be called No. 1. Besides being job No. 1 it is a No. 1 job, and a
No. 1 light, being better and cheaper than gas and absolutely safe as
to fire." The first steam-yacht lighted by incandescent lamps was James
Gordon Bennett's Namouna, equipped early in 1882 with a plant for one
hundred and twenty lamps of eight candlepower, which remained in use
there many years afterward.
The first Edison plant in a hotel was started in October, 1881, at the
Blue Mountain House in the Adirondacks, and consisted of two "Z" dynamos
with a complement of eight and sixteen candle lamps. The hotel is
situated at an elevation of thirty-five hundred feet above the sea, and
was at that time forty miles from the railroad. The machinery was taken
up in pieces on the backs of mules from the foot of the mountain. The
boilers were fired by wood, as the economical transportation of coal was
a physical impossibility. For a six-hour run of the plant one-quarter of
a cord of wood was required, at a cost of twenty-five cents per cord.
The first theatre in the United States to be lighted by an Edison
isolated plant was the Bijou Theatre, Boston. The installation of
boilers, engines, dynamos, wiring, switches, fixtures, three stage
regulators, and six hundred and fifty lamps, was completed in eleven
days after receipt of the order, and the plant was successfully operated
at the opening of the theatre, on December 12, 1882.
The first plant to be placed on a United States steamship was the
one consisting of an Edison "Z" dynamo and one hundred and twenty
eight-candle lamps installed on the Fish Commission's steamer Albatross
in 1883. The most interesting feature of this installation was the
employment of special deep-sea lamps, supplied with current through a
cable nine hundred and forty feet in length, for the purpose of alluring
fish. By means of the brilliancy of the lamps marine animals in the
lower depths were attracted and then easily ensnared.