The canyon of lower Broadway, south from the Woolworth Building--a
glorious miracle of light.]
Not only are New York City’s subways operated by electricity; they were
also built by electricity, a statement which applies to the new subways
as well as the parts of the first system. In digging for the new
Broadway subway, an electric company supplied 25,000 horse-power. The
mammoth new aqueduct system by which water is carried from the Catskills
to the Battery is another example of electricity as a source of power
for large construction work. Still more picturesque is the use of
electricity in building the under-river tubes. Indeed, it is doubtful
whether this particular form of operation could have been carried on
without the aid of electricity.
Loft Manufacturing.
Aside from these special instances of electricity in construction, one
must think of electricity as responsible for nearly all the
manufacturing, large and small, that goes on in the ever-increasing
number of loft-buildings throughout all large cities. For example, New
York City serves as the center of the garment-making industry for the
entire country, there being fully a quarter of a million garment-trade
workers in the Greater City. Along Fifth and Fourth Avenues are found
the large establishments, electrically equipped throughout for cutting,
stitching and pressing, while even in the smallest shops on the East
Side foot-power machines have become almost a thing of the past.
Electric Heating.
The commercial use of electric heating is one of the more recent
electrical developments. For the most part, this also applies to the
garment trade and its closely allied clothing industries. In the
modernly equipped factories one finds electric flat irons, velvet
steamers and coffee urns. In the printing trade, electrically heated
linotype melting pots are being introduced successfully, while glue-pots
and sealing-wax melters can be seen in binderies and banking
institutions. Absence of fire risk accounts for the introduction of
electric heating units of different kinds into the motion-picture film
manufacturing industry, a rapidly growing province. The same element of
safety where inflammable substances are employed has produced the
electric japan oven and similar apparatus.
Electricity and Safety.
The importance of electricity in factory work cannot be over-estimated.
A shop fully equipped with electric machinery is the best possible kind
of shop for employee as well as for the owner. Motor-driven machines are
the safest possible kind, while absence of overhead shafting and
dangerous belts mean health as well as security. In the electric shop,
motor-driven blowers carry fumes and dust away from the worker and bring
fresh air in. Electrically driven machinery is now regarded as the
standard machinery. In the various vocational schools in New York City
at present both boys and girls are taught to operate electrically driven
machines, it being assumed that those will be what the pupils will be
called upon to operate when they leave the school for the shop.
Electricity in Medicine.
Another domain of electric enterprise of the greatest value for the
country at large is the increasing use of electricity in medicine. The
most conspicuous element in this is the wide-spread acceptance of the
X-ray as a necessary tool of the medical profession. Newspapers and
magazines were full of the remarkable X-ray achievements of surgeons in
charge of the various European war hospitals. Those, of course, were
spectacular instances, but it should not be forgotten that every day, in
our great hospitals, the X-ray is proving itself almost indispensable in
the examination of the sick and injured. Besides utilizing X-ray in the
diagnosis of disease, the rays themselves are employed in treatment of
cancer and skin diseases. The oculist, the dentist, indeed medical
specialists of all kinds, are coming to recognize the immense aid that
electricity can give in its various forms and applications.
[Illustration: THE GREAT PRESS ROOM OF “THE NEW YORK TIMES” IS ALL
ELECTRICALLY OPERATED]
Electric Vehicles.
The electric truck has already demonstrated itself as a safer and less
expensive rival of the gasoline delivery truck in many kinds of service.
In the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx alone, in New York City,
there were more than 2,000 such trucks in operation in 1916. Counting
both pleasure and business vehicles, the borough of Manhattan boasted
about 2,500 storage-battery driven wagons in active use. It is rather
interesting to note that Chicago operates many more electric pleasure
cars than New York, while New York does far more of its business by
means of the electric vehicle. Recently, there was established in New
York an electric co-operative garage, the joint enterprise of the
electric passenger car manufacturers and an electric company. It was
believed that by providing proper and adequate facilities for garaging
electric pleasure vehicles the use of passenger-electrics in New York
City would be greatly increased.
Electricity and the Home.
In emphasizing the important part which electricity plays in the
business of a great metropolis, the home should not be forgotten. It is
now possible, by means of electric appliances, practically to eliminate
all drudgery from housework. The use of many of these domestic machines
is familiar to all: vacuum cleaners, washing machines, fans, and the
more usual electric cooking devices. Within the next decade, one looks
to see a remarkable advance in this direction. One anticipates the more
extensive use of electric refrigeration and other electric labor-saving
devices, to the great improvement of city homes, making them pleasanter
and more healthy as toilsome operations are done away with. And it must
not be forgotten that the city home, like the country home, is the
backbone of the well-being of the community. Electricity can have no
greater mission than improving, strengthening and upbuilding good
homes.
[Illustration: ELECTRIC TRAIN CHART AND SWITCH CONTROL]
[Illustration: SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION
In the upper view the electric chart on the wall facing the switch
operator indicates the location of every train in the New York subway
system at all times. The lower view shows typical subway construction
for third rail train and surface cars. The material used is reinforced
concrete.]
[Illustration: ONE TYPE OF ELECTRIC CONSTRUCTION ON RAILROADS
The system shown here is used upon the New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad. It consists of pairs of wire cables supported by bridges
placed about 300 feet apart. Rigid triangles of iron pipe are secured to
these cables and the trolley wire attached to the triangles. The trolley
wire is kept rigid and free from slack in this manner.]
Decreased Cost of Electricity.
Closely akin to this is another electrical development most pleasing to
consider. Years ago, electricity was considered the luxury of the rich.
Now electric light is coming to be shed on rich and poor alike. Little
by little the shops, factories and dwellings of more humble inhabitants
are provided with electricity, so that cleanliness, safety and comfort
are by no means confined even to the well-to-do or the more comfortable
homes.
One great factor in this change has been the decreasing cost of
electricity. Within the last decade, the cost of almost all necessities
of life has ascended with leaps and bounds, so that a dollar now,
expended in ordinary household goods, will purchase hardly more than
what thirty cents would in 1890. But all this while, the cost of
electricity has steadily decreased. With centralized generating plants,
improved machinery and better lamps, one dollar today will buy eighteen
times as much electric light as it would in 1884. With such facts before
us, it is fairly easy to predict the still further electrical
development of all important centers. There will be more and better
light in homes; there will be more and better light in offices and
factories, thus greatly lessening the chances for injury or eye-strain.
In all industry, great and small, laborious hand processes will be
replaced by safely operated electric machinery, while wider use of
electric labor-saving appliances will extend into the home.
Hospitals, by aid of electricity, will be able to increase still more
their splendid work for the relief of suffering, while cleaner and safer
ways of living will serve as a preventive of disease. One can easily say
that with increasing electrical development the country will come to be
still greater, a country where electricity shall provide for the safety
and well-being of all its people.
* * * * *
How is Die-Sinking Done?
Die-sinking is the art of preparing dies for stamping coins, buttons,
medallions, jewelry, fittings, etc. The steel for the manufacture of
dies is carefully selected, forged at a high heat into the rough die,
softened by careful annealing, and then handed over to the engraver.
After the engraver has worked out the design in intaglio the die is put
through the operation of hardening, after which, being cleaned and
polished, it is called a “matrix.” This is not, however, generally
employed in multiplying impressions, but is used for making a “punch” or
steel impression for relief. For this purpose another block of steel of
the same quality is selected, and, being carefully annealed or softened,
is compressed by proper machinery upon the matrix until it receives the
impression. When this process is complete the impression is retouched by
the engraver, and hardened and collared like the matrix. Any number of
dies may now be made from this punch by impressing upon it plugs of soft
steel.