Mackenzie, who taught Edison telegraphy, spent a great deal of time at
the laboratory. He had a bushy red beard, and was persuaded to give
a few hairs to be carbonized and used for filaments in experimental
lamps. When the lamps were lighted the boys claimed that their
brightness was due to the rich color of the hairs.
The history of the busy years at Menlo Park would make a long story
if told in full, but only a hint can be given here of the gradual
development of many important inventions. These include the innumerable
experiments on the lamp, on different kinds and weights of iron for
field magnets and armatures, on magnetism, on windings and connections
for field magnets and armatures, on distribution circuits, control, and
regulation, and so on through a long list.
All these things were new. There was nothing in the books to serve as a
guide in solving these new problems, but Edison patiently worked them
out, one by one, until a complete system was the result of his labors.
Menlo Park was historic in one other particular. It was the very first
place in the world to see incandescent electric lighting from a central
station.
The newspapers had been so full of the wonderful invention that there
was a great demand to see the new light. Edison decided to give a
public exhibition, and for this purpose put up over four hundred lights
in the streets and houses of Menlo Park, all connected to underground
conductors which ran to the dynamos in one of the shop buildings.
On New Year's Eve, 1879, the Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains,
and over three thousand people availed themselves of the opportunity to
witness the demonstration. It was a great success, and gave rise to a
wide public interest.
Edison's laboratory at Menlo Park had never suffered for lack of
visitors, but now it became a center of attraction for scientific and
business men from all parts of the world. Pages of this book could be
filled with the names of well-known visitors at this period, but it
would be of no practical use to give them; besides we must now pass on
to the time when the light was introduced to the world.
XV
BEGINNING THE ELECTRIC LIGHT BUSINESS
The close of the last two chapters found us attending the birth of an
art that was then absolutely and entirely new--the art of electric
lighting by incandescent lamps. It will now be interesting to take a
brief glance at the way in which it was introduced to the world.
Edison invented not only a lamp and a dynamo, but a complete _system_
of distributing electric light, heat, and power from central stations.
This included a properly devised network of conductors fed with
electricity from several directions and capable of being tapped to
supply current to each building; a lamp that would be cheap, lasting,
take little current, be easy to handle, and each to be independent of
every other lamp; means for measuring electricity by meter; means for
regulating the current so that every lamp, whether near to or far away
from the station, would give an equal light; the designing of new and
efficient dynamos, with means for connecting and disconnecting and
for regulating and equalizing their loads; the providing of devices
that would prevent fires from excessive current, and the providing of
switches, lamp-holders, fixtures, and the like.
This was a large program to fill, for it was all new, and there was
nothing in the world from which to draw ideas, but Edison carried out
his scheme in full, and much more besides. By the end of 1880 he was
ready to launch his electric light system for commercial use, and the
Edison Electric Light Company, that had been organized for the purpose,
rented a mansion at No. 65 Fifth Avenue, New York, to be used for
offices. Edison now moved some of his Menlo Park staff into that city
to pursue the work.
Right at the very beginning a most serious difficulty was met with.
None of the appliances necessary for use in the lighting system could
be purchased anywhere in the world.
They were all new and novel--dynamos, switchboards, regulators,
pressure and current indicators, incandescent lamps, sockets, small
switches, meters, fixtures, underground conductors, junction boxes,
service boxes, manhole boxes, connectors, and even specially made wire.
Not one of these things was in existence; and no outsider knew enough
about such devices to make them on order, except the wire.
Edison himself solved the difficulty by raising some money and
establishing several manufacturing shops in which these articles could
be made. The first of all was a small factory at Menlo Park to make the
lamps, Mr. Upton taking charge of that branch.
For making the dynamos he secured a large works on Goerck Street, New
York, and gave its management to Mr. Batchelor. For the underground
conductors and their parts a building on Washington Street was rented
and the work done under the superintendence of Mr. Kruesi. In still
another factory building there were made the smaller appliances, such
as sockets, switches, fixtures, meters, safety fuses and other details.
This latter plant was at first owned by Mr. Sigmund Bergmann, who had
worked with Edison on telephones and phonographs, but later Mr. Edison
and E. H. Johnson became partners.
Still another difficulty presented itself. There were no men who knew
how to do wiring for electric lights, except those who had been with
Edison at Menlo Park. This problem was solved by opening a night-school
at No. 65 Fifth Avenue in which a large number of men were educated and
trained for the work by Edison's associates. Many of these men have
since become very prominent in electrical circles.
Thus, in planning these matters, and in guiding the operations in
these four shops in New York, and with all the work he was doing on
new experiments and inventions there and at Menlo Park, and in making
preparations for the first central station in New York City, Edison was
a prodigiously busy man. He worked incessantly, and it is safe to say
that he did not average more than four hours' sleep a day.
He was the center and the guiding spirit of those intensely busy times.
The aid of his faithful associates was invaluable in the building up of
the business, but he was the great central storehouse of ideas, and it
is owing to his undaunted courage, energy, perseverance, knowledge and
foresight, that the foundations of so great an art have been so well
laid.
As has been well said by Major S. B. Eaton, who was president and
general manager of the Edison Electric Light Company in its earliest
years: "In looking back on those days and scrutinizing them through
the years, I am impressed by the greatness, the solitary greatness, I
may say, of Mr. Edison. We all felt then that we were of importance,
and that our contribution of effort and zeal was vital. I can see now,
however, that the best of us was nothing but the fly on the wheel.
Suppose anything had happened to Edison? All would have been chaos and
ruin. To him, therefore, be the glory, if not the profit."
Early in 1881 comparatively few people had seen the incandescent light.
In order to make the public familiar with it, the Edison company
equipped its office building with fixtures and lamps, the latter
being lighted by current from a dynamo in the cellar. In the evenings
the house was thrown open to visitors until ten or eleven o'clock.
Thousands of people flocked to see the new light, which in those days
was regarded as wonderful and mysterious, for while the lamps gave a
soft, steady illumination, there was no open flame, practically no
heat, no danger of fire, and no vitiation of air. For the most part of
four years the writer spent his evenings receiving these visitors if no
important business was in progress at the moment.
Mr. Edison and his shops had scarcely time to get well on their feet
before a rush of business set in. How this business rapidly developed
and grew until it became of very great magnitude is a matter of
history, which we shall not attempt to relate here.
Some idea of this wonderful development, as it has gone on through the
years that have passed since 1880, may be formed when it is stated that
at this time there are more than one hundred millions of incandescent
lamps in daily use in the United States alone. Every one of these lamps
and the fundamental principles upon which they are operated rest upon
the foundations which Edison laid so well.
One of Mr. Edison's interesting stories of the early days relates to
the making of the lamps. He 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 one
dollar and twenty-five cents 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 one
dollar and ten cents 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 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.
"When we formed the works at Harrison we divided the interests into
one hundred shares or parts at one hundred dollars 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."
We have been obliged to confine ourselves to a very brief and general
description of the beginnings of the art of electric lighting, but this
chapter would not be complete without reference to Edison's design and
construction of the greatest dynamo that had ever been made up to that
time.
The earliest dynamos he made would furnish current only for sixty lamps
of sixteen candle-power each. These machines were belted up to an
engine or countershaft. He realized that much larger dynamos would be
needed for central stations, and in 1880 constructed one in Menlo Park,
but it was not entirely successful.
In the spring of 1881, however, he designed a still larger one, to be
connected direct to its own engine and operated without belting. Its
capacity was to be twelve hundred lamps, instead of sixty.
At that time such a project was not dreamed of outside the Edison
laboratory, and once more he was the subject of much ridicule and
criticism by those who were considered as experts. They said the thing
was impossible and absolutely impracticable.
Such opinions, however, have never caused a moment's hesitation to
Edison when he has made up his mind that a thing can be done. He calmly
went ahead with his plans, and although he found many difficulties,
he overcame them all. He worked the shops night and day, until he had
built this great machine and operated it successfully.
The dynamo was finished in the summer of 1881. At that time there was
in progress an international Electrical Exposition in Paris, at which
Edison was exhibiting his system of electric lighting. He had promised
to send this great dynamo over to Paris.
When the dynamo was finished and tested there were only four hours
to take it and the engine apart and get all the parts on board the
steamer. Edison had foreseen all this, and had arranged to have sixty
men get to work all at once to take it apart. Each man had written
instructions just what to do, and when the machine was stopped every
man did his own particular work and the job was quickly accomplished.
Arrangements had been made with the police for rapid passage through
the streets from the shops to the steamship. The trucks made quick time
of it, being preceded by a wagon with a clanging bell. Street traffic
was held up for them, just as it is for engines and hose-carts going to
a fire. The dynamo and engine got safely down to the dock without delay
and were loaded on the steamer an hour before she sailed.
This dynamo and engine weighed twenty-seven tons, and was then, and
for a long time after, the eighth wonder of the scientific world. Its
arrival and installation in Paris were eagerly watched by the most
famous scientists and electricians in Europe.
XVI
THE FIRST EDISON CENTRAL STATION
From the beginning of his experiments on the electric light Edison had
one idea ever in mind, and that was to develop a system of lighting
cities from central stations. His plan was to supply electric light and
power in much the same way that gas is furnished.
He never forsook this idea for a moment. Indeed, it formed the basis of
all his plans, although the scientific experts of the time predicted
utter failure. While the experiments were going on at Menlo Park he had
Mr. Upton and others at work making calculations and plans for city
systems.
Soon after he had invented the incandescent lamp he began to take
definite steps toward preparing for the first central station in
the city of New York. After some consideration, he decided upon the
district included between Wall, Nassau, Spruce and Ferry Streets, Peck
Slip and the East River, covering nearly a square mile in extent.
He sent into this district a number of men, who visited every building,
counted every gas-jet and found out how many hours per day or night
they were burned.
These men also ascertained the number of business houses using power
and how much they consumed. All this information was marked in colored
inks on large maps, so that Edison could study the question with all
the details before him.
All this work had taken several months, but, with this information
to guide him, the main conductors to be laid in the streets of this
district were figured, block by block, and the results were marked upon
the maps. It was found, however, that the quantity of copper required
for these conductors would be exceedingly large and costly, and, if
ever, Edison was somewhat dismayed.
This difficulty only spurred him on to still greater effort. Before
long he solved the problem by inventing the "feeder and main" system,
for which he signed an application for patent on August 4, 1880.
By this invention he saved seven-eighths of the amount of copper
previously required. So the main conductors were figured again, at only
one-eighth the size they were before, and the results were marked upon
enormous new maps which were now prepared for the actual installation.
It should be remembered that from the very start Edison had determined
that his conductors should be placed underground. He knew that this was
the only method for permanent and satisfactory service to the public.
Our young readers can scarcely imagine the condition of New York
streets at that time. They were filled with lines of ugly wooden
poles carrying great masses of telegraph, telephone, stock ticker,
burglar alarm and other wires, in all conditions of sag and decay. The
introduction of the arc-lamp added another series of wires which with
their high potentials carried a menace to life. Edison was the first to
put conductors underground, and the wisdom of so doing became so clear
that a few years later laws were made compelling others to do likewise.
But to return to our story. Just before Christmas in 1880 the Edison
Electric Illuminating Company of New York was organized, and a license
was issued to it for the use of the Edison patents on Manhattan Island.
The work for the new station now commenced in real earnest. A double
building at 255 and 257 Pearl Street was purchased, and the inside of
one half was taken out and a strong steel structure was erected inside
the walls.
Work on the maps and plans for the underground network of conductors
was continued at Menlo Park. Mr. Edison started his factories for
making dynamos, lamps, underground conductors, sockets, switches,
meters, and other details. Thus, the wheels of industry were humming
merrily in preparation for the installation of the system. Every detail
received Edison's personal care and consideration. He had plenty of
competent men, but he deemed nothing too small or insignificant for his
attention in this important undertaking.
In the fall of 1881 the laying of the underground conductors was begun
and pushed forward with frantic energy. Here again Edison left nothing
to chance. Although he had a thousand things to occupy his mind he also
superintended this work. He did not stand around and give orders, but
worked with the men in the trenches day and night helping to lay tubes,
filling up junction boxes, and taking part in all the infinite detail.
He would work till he felt the need of a little rest. Then he would go
off to the station building in Pearl Street, throw an overcoat on a
pile of iron tubes, lie down and sleep a few hours, rising to resume
work with the first gang.
It is worth pausing just a moment to glance at this man taking a fitful
rest on a pile of iron pipe in a dingy building. His name is on the
tip of the world's tongue. Distinguished scientists from every part
of Europe seek him eagerly. He has just been decorated and awarded
high honors by the French government. He is the inventor of wonderful
new apparatus and the exploiter of novel and successful arts. The
magic of his achievements and the rumors of what is being done have
caused a wild drop in gas securities and a sensational rise in his
own electric-light stock from one hundred dollars to thirty-five
hundred a share. Yet these things do not at all affect his slumber or
his democratic simplicity, for in that, as in everything else, he is
attending strictly to business, "doing the thing that is next to him."
The laying of the underground conductors was interrupted by frost in
the winter of 1881, but in the following spring the work was renewed
with great energy until there had been laid over eighty thousand feet.
In the mean time the buildings of the district were being wired for
lamps, and the machine-works had been busy on the building of three of
the "Jumbo" dynamos for the station. These were larger than the great
dynamo that had been sent to Paris.
These three dynamos were installed in the station, and the other parts
of the system were completed. A bank of one thousand lamps was placed
in one of the buildings; and in the summer a whole month was spent in
making tests of the working of the system, using this bank of lamps
instead of sending current out to customers' premises. Edison and his
assistants made the station their home during this busy month. They
even slept there on cots that he had sent to the station for this
purpose.
The system tested out satisfactorily, and finally, on September 4,
1882, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the station was started by
sending out current from one of the big dynamos through the conductors
laid in the streets, and electric light was supplied for the first time
to a number of customers in the district.
The station was now started and everything went well. New customers
were added daily, and very soon it became necessary to supply more
current. This called for the operation of two dynamos at one time.
As this involved new problems, Edison chose a Sunday to try it, when
business places would be closed. We will let him tell the story. He
says: "My heart was in my mouth at first, but everything worked all
right.... Then we started another engine and threw the dynamos in
parallel. Of all the circuses since Adam was born, we had the worst
then! One engine would stop, and the other would run up to about a
thousand revolutions, and then they would see-saw. The trouble was with
the governors. When the circus commenced the gang that was standing
around ran out precipitately, and I guess some of them kept running
for a block or two. I grabbed the throttle of one engine, and E. H.
Johnson, who was the only one present to keep his wits, caught hold of
the other, and we shut them off."
One of the gang that ran, but, in this case, only to the end of the
room, afterward said: "At the time it was a terrifying experience, as
I didn't know what was going to happen. The engines and dynamos made a
horrible racket, from loud and deep groans to a hideous shriek, and the
place seemed to be filled with sparks and flames of all colors. It was
as if the gates of the infernal regions had been suddenly opened."
Edison attacked this problem in his strenuous way. Although it was
Sunday, he sent out and gathered his men and opened the machine-works
to make new appliances to overcome this trouble.
Space will not permit of telling all the methods he applied until the
difficulty was entirely conquered. It was only a short time, however,
before he was able to operate two or any number of dynamos all together
as one, in parallel, without the least trouble.
This early station grew and prospered, and continued in successful
operation for more than seven years, until January 2, 1890, when
it was partially destroyed by fire. This occurrence caused a short
interruption of service, but in a few days current was again supplied
to customers as before, and the service has never since ceased.
Increasing demands for service soon afterward led to the construction
of other stations on Manhattan Island, until at the present time
the New York Edison Company (the successor to the Edison Electric
Illuminating Company of New York) is operating over forty stations and
sub-stations. These supply current for about 800,000 customers, wired
for 17,000,000 incandescent lamps and for about 1,300,000 horse-power
in electric motors.
The early success of the first central station in New York led to the
formation of new companies in other cities, and the installation of
many similar plants. The business has grown by leaps and bounds, until
at the present time there are many thousands of central stations spread
all over the United States, furnishing electric light, heat, and power,
chiefly by use of the principles elaborated so many years ago by Mr.
Edison.
We ought to mention that this tremendous growth has also been largely
due to another invention made by him in 1882, called the "three-wire
system." Its value consists in the fact that it allowed a further
saving of sixty-two and one-half per cent, of copper required for
conductors. This invention is in universal use all over the world.
It may be mentioned here that at the opening ceremonies of the
Electrical Exposition in New York, on October 11, 1911, the leading
producers and consumers of copper presented Mr. Edison with an
inscribed cubic foot of that metal in recognition of the stimulus
of his inventions to the industry. The inscription shows that the
yearly output of copper was 377,644,000 pounds at the time of Edison's
first invention in 1868, and in October, 1911, the yearly output had
increased to 1,910,608,000 pounds.
XVII
EDISON'S ELECTRIC RAILWAY