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Thirty  Years  of  New  York 

1882-1912 


THE  NEW  Vi 


PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


ASTOR.  LENOX  AND 
TILDEN  FOUNDATIONS 


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Thirty  Years  of 
New  York 


1882— 1912 


Being  a 

History  of  Electrical  Development 

in  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx 


Press  of 
The  New  York  Edison  Company 


Till';  NKw  yo:;K  J 

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A  won.  LENOX  AND  I 

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Copyright,  19 13,  by 
The  New  York  Edison  Company 


To  a  city  whose  whole  story  has  been  one  of 
marvelous  changes,  this  partial  account  of  its  last 
thirty  years  is  dedicated.  Not  that  the  volume 
seeks  to  tell  all  the  wonders,  contrasts,  tragedies 
and  triumphs  of  the  towering  stronghold  which 
has  grown  up  on  the  island  Peter  Minuit  bought; 
but  it  will  have  served  its  purpose  if  it  succeeds 
in  describing  the  influence  of  a  modern  magic 
under  the  spell  of  which  the  city  lives  today. 


Acknowledgment  is  gratefully  made  for  assistance  furnished, 
both  through  personal  recollections  and  valuable  documents,  by 
Mr  W  S  Andrews,  Mr  Charles  S  Bradley,  Mr  Charles  L  Clarke, 
Mr  W  J  Hammer,  Mr  Samuel  InsuU,  Mr  E  H  Johnson,  Mr  T 
C  Martin,  Mr  William  H  Meadowcroft,  Mr  A  T  Moore,  Dr 
S  S  Wheeler  and  staff  members  of  The  New  York  Edison  Com- 
pany. 

The  following  books  and  periodicals  have  been  consulted : 

Annual  Reports  of  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating  Company, 

1881-1898. 
Annual  Reports  of  the  Edison  Electric  Light  Company,   1878- 

1883. 

Edisonia.  Compiled  under  the  auspices  of  the  Association  of 
Edison  Illuminating  Companies. 

Edison,  his  Life  and  Inventions.  By  Frank  Lewis  Dyer  and 
Thomas  Commerford  Martin. 

Skeleton   Construction   in  Building.     By  William   H   Birkmire. 

The  Planning  and  Construction  of  High  Office  Buildings.  By 
William  H  Birkmire. 

The  Tenement-House  Problem.  Edited  by  Robert  W  De  Forest 
and  Lawrence  Veiller. 

The  New  York  Electrical  Handbook.  Published  by  the  Amer- 
ican Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers. 

Scribner's  Magazine,  1878-1881. 

Harper's  Magazine,  1880. 

New  York  daily  papers  for  1882  —  the  Sun,  the  Herald,  the 
World,  the  Times  and  the  Tribune. 

Harper's  Weekly,  1880. 

Leslie's  Weekly,  1 880. 

The  Scientific  American,  1882. 


Table  of  Contents 


PAGE 


I  Looking  Backward 3 

II  The  Beginning  of  Edison  Service  ....      23 

III  The  Development  of  the  Skyscraper  .       .       -55 

IV  Three  Decades  of  Industrial  Change  .       .       -71 
V  A  Revolution  In  Housework 87 

VI  Thirty  Years'  Growth  within  the  Company     .    loi 

VII  The  Generating  System 117 

VIII  Technique  of  Distribution 141 

IX  The  Progress  of  Distribution 153 

X  Marketing  Light,  Heat  and  Power     .       .       .175 

XI   Street  Lighting 191 

XII  Concerning  Meters  and  Testing    ....    203 

XIII  The  New  York  Edison  Company  and  its 

Employees 215 

XIV  Statistics 227 

XV  Electricity— a  Poem,  by  W  J  Lampton      .       .    246 

XVI  Looking  Forward 249 

Index  to  Illustrations 259 


IX 


Thirty  Years  of  New  York 

1882-1912 


Looking   Backward 

ANEW  York  without  skyscrapers,  without  a 
great  white  way;  a  New  York  which 
knew  not  the  shrieking  honk  nor  the  de- 
parting whiff  of  an  automobile;  a  New  York  to 
which  the  rattle  of  countless  typewriters  and  the 
imperious  buzz  of  the  telephone  were  all  but 
strangers. 

This  was  the  city  into  which— in  1882— Thomas 
A  Edison  introduced  his  then  recently  perfected  in- 
candescent lights  and  his  first  central  station.  It 
was  the  inventor  himself  who  superintended  the  lay- 
ing of  the  current-bearing  wires  which  were  des- 
tined to  reach  out  farther  and  farther,  to  weave 
themselves  closer  and  closer  until  they  should  be- 
come a  tingling  network  of  nerves  beneath  the  sur- 
face of  the  city,  rendering  it  sensitive,  alert,  respon- 
sive; helping  it  to  carry  on  its  life,  to  fulfil  its  am- 
bitions. And  these  nerves  were  to  be  factors  in  a 
great  physical  transformation.  For  the  New  York 
of  1882  dift'ered  vastly,  in  outward  semblance  at 
least,  from' the  metropolis  of  191 2. 

In  1882  it  was  a  city  of  low  sky-lines.  Buildings, 
for  the  most  part,  went  up  as  high  as  people  found 
it  convenient  to  climb  the  stairs— and  then  stopped. 
Visitors,  who  wanted  a  bird's-eye  view  of  Manhat- 
tan Island,  mounted  to  the  observatory  of  Trinity 

[3] 


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LOOKING  BACKWARD 

Church  or  hied  themselves,  perhaps  seven  stories  up, 
to  the  dome  of  the  Masonic  Temple  at  Twenty-third 
Street  and  Sixth  Avenue,  where  they  would  find  "a 
magnificent  panorama  spread  out  far  below."  The 
spire  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company's 
Building,  at  Fulton  and  Dey  Streets,  was  spoken  of 
then  as  "towering  above  its  surroundings." 

Gothamites,  secretly  swelling  the  while  with  the 
pride  of  vicarious  ownership,  gazed  up  at  the  Equit- 
able Building  and  its  less  than  ten  stories  which, 
today,  would  stand  knee-high  to  surrounding  struc- 
tures. 

On  Printing  House  Square  was  another  "show 
building,"  housing  the  Tribune.  Its  walls,  hav- 
ing no  inner  steel  skeleton,  were  said  to  be  thirteen 
feet  thick  at  the  street  level,  and  from  its  pinnacle 
Whitelaw  Reid,  then  editor-in-chief  of  the  paper, 
took  the  appellation  of  "the  man  in  the  tall  tower." 
In  later  years,  so  dwarfed  did  the  tower  feel  itself 
among  its  recently  arrived  associates  that  it  sub- 
mitted to  a  surgical  operation  and  had  some  ten  or 
a  dozen  new  stories  inserted  between  its  main  struc- 
ture and  its  spire! 

As  for  the  cobblestone  streets  of  that  time,  they 
were  notoriously  dirty  and  ill  kept;  while  the  noise 
of  traffic,  crossing  their  humps  and  bumps,  was  ac- 
cepted stoically  as  an  evil  which  must  be  endured. 
In  1 88 1  the  block  of  Fifth  Avenue  between  Twenty- 
sixth  and  Twenty-seventh  Streets  was  paved  with 
asphalt  as  an  experiment.  Many  people  complained 
that  the  new  covering  was  too  slippery,  but  others 
spoke  gratefully  of  the  lack  of  clatter  due  to  its 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

smooth  surface.  It  was  even  conjectured  that  laying 
streets  with  asphalt  would  reduce  cab  fares!  This 
Utopian  dream,  however,  was  destined  not  to  be  ful- 
filled. 

Since  the  coming  of  this  modern  paving,  the  elec- 


THE   STREETS 

Mother  of  Family:   "  My  dears,  such  is  the  selfishness  of  man  that  some  people 

would  even  make  the  authorities  deprive  us  of  this  luxury  " 

Harper  s  Weekly,  January  74  1880 


tion-night  bonfire,  that  delight  of  the  small  boy  and 
sometimes  of  the  boy  of  larger  growth,  has  fallen 
under  a  ban.  But  in  the  early  eighties  it  absorbed  the 
thoughts  of  youthful  fire-worshipers  for  days  before 
election.  Woe  betide  the  householder  who  had  left 
an  ash-barrel  in  his  front  yard.    In  those  palmy  days 

[6] 


LOOKING  BACKWARD 

no  paternal  board  of  health  or  department  of  street 
cleaning  had  decreed  that  only  metal  ash-cans  might 
be  used.  That  night,  the  foresighted  property  owner 
locked  his  cellar  board  safely  behind  his  basement 
gate,  and  then  walked  out  to  watch  the  destructive 
instinct  of  Young  America  run  wild.  Near  every 
street  corner  the  flames  leaped  high,  fed  principally 
on  barrels  and  yet  more  barrels;  and  on  any  other 
burnable  thing  which  could  be  pried  from  its  moor- 
ings. Around  the  blazing  heaps  stood  countless 
urchins  thrilled  to  their  finger-tips  and  shouting 
with  joy.  No  doubt  it  was  a  very  wanton,  wasteful, 
dangerous  custom  in  spite  of  its  picturesqueness. 

This  was  the  era  of  the  horse-car  with  its  jangling 
bells  and  colored  lights— red,  green,  blue,  yellow, 
white— to  indicate  its  destination.  To  be  sure  such 
a  signal  was  not  very  bright,  being  radiated  by  a 
small  oil  lamp  enclosed  in  a  box  behind  a  grimy  pane 
of  glass  of  the  desired  shade.  But  if  the  light  was 
not  effulgent,  it  was  strong  enough  to  shine  out  in  a 
street  illumined  only  by  a  few  wind-blown  gas-jets. 

And  the  car  horses,  they  struggled  and  slipped  in 
the  winter  storms,  and  during  "hot  waves"  in  the 
summer  they  dropped  dead  in  the  streets.  Every 
time  a  horse  died,  the  traffic  was  blocked  and  crowds 
of  hurried  people,  afraid  of  missing  their  ferries  to 
Brooklyn  or  Jersey  or  their  trains  at  the  Grand 
Central  Station,  jumped  off  the  cars  and  walked. 

The  greater  part  of  these  street  railways  ran  no 
farther  north  than  Fifty-ninth  Street,  though  a  few 
—  the  Third  Avenue  car  with  the  green  light  for  in- 
stance, and  some  cars  of  the  Madison  and  Eighth 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


Avenue  lines— ventured  to  Harlem  Bridge  or  Ma- 
comb's Dam.  A  map  of  New  York,  intended  for  the 

use  of  strangers  in 
1880,  went  only  as 
far  as  Seventieth 
Street.  Turning  it 
over,  the  visitor 
discovered  on  the 
back  of  the  sheet 
a  small  plan  of 
the  rest  of  the 
city,  together  with 
a  little  outline 
of  Brooklyn  and 
Long  Island. 

The  shopping 
district  stretched 
from  A  T  Stew- 
art's at  Broadway 
and  Tenth  Street 
up  to  Twenty- 
third  Street,  and 
this  mile  or  so 
of  great  thorough- 
fare swarmed 
every  afternoon, 
according  to  the 
guide-book,  "with 
the  beauty,  fash- 
ion and  wealth  of 
New  York."  This  was  when  men  dressed  for  busi- 
ness in  cutaways  and  "Prince  Alberts"  braided  at 

[8] 


A   CHAI'IKR   UK    HEADERS 
Scribtier's  Magazine,  February  1880 


LOOKING  BACKWARD 


the    edges,    and    women    wore    bustles    and    polo- 
naises. 

It  was  also  the  period  of  enthusiasm  for  lawn- 
tennis  and  high  bicycles.  Very  popular  were  bicy- 
cle clubs,  and  long  files  of  riders  in  variously  col- 
ored uniforms  wound  their  ways  through  parks  and 
out  into  the  suburbs  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays.  A 
bugler  generally  headed  the  procession,  those  be- 
hind being  compelled  to 
follow  his  orders  so  as  to 
prevent  collisions.  Of  course 
century  runs  were  well-nigh 
impossible  and  remained  to 
be  accomplished .  later  on 
"safetys"  which  were  geared ; 
but  fifty  miles  a  day  was  not 
a  rare  record.  The  wicked 
small  boy,  —  and  envious— on 
beholding  a  cyclist,  shouted, 
"Mister,  your  little  wheel's 
loose!"  instead  of  the  "Get  a 
horse"  which  greets  automo- 
biles today. 

When  people  wanted  to  go  to  the  theatre,  there 
was  "Esmeralda"  at  the  Madison  Square  and  "The 
Lights  o'  London"  at  Niblo's  Garden  Theatre.  Wo- 
men took  a  certain  solid  comfort  in  coming  away 
from  Clara  Morris's  performance  of  "Miss  Mul- 
ton"  with  red  eyes  and  swollen  cheeks.  Then  there 
was  Booth's  handsome  theatre  at  Sixth  Avenue  and 
Twenty-third  Street. 

And  Gilbert  and  Sullivan's  "Patience"  had  just 

1:9: 


"OTHELLO'S  OCCUPATION 
GONE" 

Scrtbiier's  Magazine,  February  1880 


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LOOKING  BACKWARD 

come  to  town,  bringing  with  it  interest  in  the  "es- 
thetic" craze.  To  be  long  and  limp,  graceful,  spine- 
less and  "artistic"  was  the  aim  of  the  esthete.  At 
Daly's  one  might  see  Ada  Rehan  or  perhaps  the  great 
Daly  company  in  a  big  English  melodrama  like 
"Mankind,"  which  played  there  in  the  fall  of  1882. 
Judging  from  the  following  advertisement,  any  one 
who  saw  "Mankind"  got  his  money's  worth  in  sen- 
sations. 

"Scene  of  the  channel  steamer.  .  .  .  The  falling 
fog.  .  .  .  Attempted  murder  of  the  heroine  by  her 
husband  who  tosses  her  overboard.  .  .  .  Open  sea. 
Woman  struggling  in  the  waves.  .  .  .  Her  rescue 
just  as  her  energies  are  about  to  forsake  her." 

In  most  instances  the  footlights  of  these  theatres 
still  burned  gas,  and  enthusiasts  were  wont  to  say 
they  loved  to  go  to  the  theatre  if  only  to  smell  the 
lights. 

"Asides"  in  plays  were  the  fashion.  Characters 
had  the  habit  of  uttering  their  most  secret  thoughts 
in  tones  which  could  scarcely  have  failed  to  be  audi- 
ble to  other  characters  standing  near  them;  but  this 
was  done  with  utmost  safety  because  of  the  conven- 
tion which  ruled  that  it  was  unfair  for  any  one  ex- 
cept the  audience  to  notice  these  little  confidential 
soliloquies.  As  high  an  authority  on  the  drama  as 
Brander  Matthews  states  that  the  credit  for  banish- 
ing the  "aside"  should  be  divided  equally  between 
Ibsen  and  Edison.  For,  says  Mr  Matthews,  when 
incandescent  lamps  accomplished  the  full  and  clear 
lighting  of  the  stage,  it  then  became  possible  to  see 
slight  changes  of  expression  on  the  faces  of  the  act- 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

ors.  After  that  it  was  unnecessary  to  write  speeches 
explaining  what  characters  were  thinking,  because 
their  faces  told. 

The  East  Side  in  1882  was  already  a  densely  pop- 
ulated region  into  which  the  conservative  and  re- 
spectable residents  of  more  favored  localities  rarely 


A   SALOON   IN   BOTTLE  ALLEY 
From  a  sketch  by  C  A  Keetles.     Harper's  Weekly,  February  28  1880 

penetrated.  There  were  many  rear  tenements,  and 
the  building  of  double-deckers  containing  dark,  un- 
ventilated  rooms  was  still  permitted.  Poverty,  un- 
cleanliness,  disease  and  misery  were  taken  for 
granted  in  the  East  Side.  No  settlement  workers 
were  there,  no  vacation  schools,  no  recreation  cen- 
ters. 

To  be  sure,  the  squalid,  revolting  Five  Points  re- 
gion had  been   regenerated   and   on   the  very  spot 

[12] 


LOOKING  BACKWARD 

which  years  before  had  reeked  of  crime,  disease  and 
misfortune,  stood  the  Five  Points  House  of  Indus- 
try. But,  in  1880,  Bottle  Alley,  a  lane  leading  ofif 
Baxter  Street,  was  not  a  pretty  sight.  Writers,  how- 
ever, used  to  go  there  in  search  of  "local  color." 
That  they  found  it  in  abundance  is  made  plain  by  a 
leaf  from  the  experiences  of  a  Harper's  Weekly 
artist.  He  went  into  a  saloon  where  he  found  men 
and  women,  drunk.  As  for  the  room:  "It  had  a 
rotten  board  floor  and  low,  blackened  ceiling.  The 
plastered  walls,  cracked,  broken,  and  grimy,  were 
sickening  to  look  at.  Millions  of  roaches  crawled 
over  walls  and  ceiling  and  gathered  in  black  clusters 
over  the  solitary  smoking  candle  that  dimly  lighted 
the  room."  Who  will  deny  that  better  lighting,  which 
makes  dirt  visible,  combined  with  popular  accep- 
tance of  the  germ  theory,  have  not  lifted  by  the  boot- 
straps the  sanitary  standards  of  New  York  in  the 
space  of  one  generation? 

But  in  the  midst  of  the  busy  life  of  the  community 
thirty  years  ago,  forces  were  already  at  work  which 
were  to  remake  it  into  the  city  of  today. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  annexation  of  the  vil- 
lages of  Kingsbridge,  Morrisania  and  West  Farms. 
This  was  in  1873.  Immediately,  the  town  began  to 
stretch  itself,  to  spread  northward,  glad  of  a  new 
world  to  conquer. 

Then  arose  a  demand  for  rapid  transit,  which  was 
answered  by  the  building  of  the  elevated  railroads 
in  the  later  seventies.  Mechanical  traction  on  sur- 
face lines  was  still  a  thing  of  the  future,  for  it  was 
not  till  1885  that  the  first  cable  cars  were  installed, 

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LOOKING  BACKWARD 

these  being  on  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fifth 
Street  and  Amsterdam  Avenue  lines  of  the  Third 
Avenue  Railroad  Company.  At  the  same  time,  a 
horse  railway  was  preparing  on  Broadway.  And  it 
was  not  until  ten  years  later— in  1895— that  the  un- 
derground trolley  made  its  entrance  into  New  York, 
as  the  result  of  a  successful  experiment  on  the  Lenox 
Avenue  line  in  Harlem. 

In  1876  the  New  York  Elevated  advertised  "forty 
through  trains  per  day— Battery  to  Fifty-ninth 
Street."  But  it  was  Harlem  which  really  needed  the 
elevateds,  and  before  1880  Harlem  got  them,  fare 
on  these  roads  being  ten  cents,  except  during  rush 
hours  when  it  was  reduced  to  five.  This  was  the  be- 
ginning of  real  rapid  transit,  which  was  to  lead  in 
after  years  to  the  present  system  of  subways,  tunnels 
and  bridges;  asystemwhich  is  still  only  in  themaking. 

Oddly  enough,  under  the  feet  of  people  who 
walked  Broadway  in  1882,  there  hid  an  actual  fore- 
shadowing of  the  subway;  for,  beneath  Broadway 
near  Warren  Street  was  a  forgotten  tunnel,  begun  in 
1870  and  abandoned  a  few  years  later,  which  had 
been  part  of  a  projected  underground  railway. 
There  it  lay,  the  crushed  hope  of  its  inventor;  his 
dream,  pronounced  chimerical,  impractical,  a  fail- 
ure. And  today  it  is  being  made  part  of  the  new 
Broadway  subway;  for  it  is  not  only  the  coral  that 
builds  itself  up  on  the  dead  bodies  of  past  genera- 
tions. 

Another  form  of  rapid  transit  development  which 
was  powerfully  to  influence  the  life  and  history  of 
New  York  was  the  Brooklyn  Bridge.  In  1882  it  was 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


NEW  YORK.  FROM  BROOKLYN   HEIGHTS 
Nueva  York  Ilustiada,  1886 

nearing  completion,  promising  before  long  to  re- 
lieve the  over-crowded  ferries,  to  bring  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  closer,  and  eventually  to  join  the  com- 
munities politically.  It  stood  there  with  its  graceful 
towers  and  web-like  cables,  the  wonder  of  its  time, 
an  engineering  feat  of  the  highest  rank.  And  as 
people  watched  it  receive  its  finishing  touches,  only 
the  unimaginative  failed  to  think  of  John  A  Roeb- 
ling,  the  man  who  planned  it  all  and  who  died  be- 
fore a  stone  of  it  was  laid  or  a  cable  spun. 

The  entering  wedge  of  still  another  change  in 
daily  life  had  already  been  driven  into  the  city.  This 
was  the  telephone.  In  1879  the  first  New  York  ex- 
change had  been  opened  at  82  Nassau  Street,  and 
the  list  of  firms  and  individuals  who  had  thus  been 

[:i6] 


LOOKING  BACKWARD 

placed  within  speaking  distance  of  each  other  con- 
tained 252  names!  This  contrasts  quaintly  with  the 
fact  that  today  a  subscriber  to  the  same  institution 
may  be  connected  with  many  million  people;  and 
it  reminds  one  sharply  that  in  the  early  eighties  the 
telephone  was  indeed  an  infant  industry.    But  it  was 


OUR  STREET  COMMISSIONERS 

"  Come,  gentlemen,  wake  up.     It  is  Pay  Day  " 
Drawn  by  Wopsey.     Harper's  Weekly,  January  24  1880 


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LOOKING  BACKWARD 

a  lusty  infant,  already  talking  for  itself  with  consid- 
erable ease  and  assiduity,  and  destined  to  play  an 
important  part  in  the  progress  of  the  metropolis. 

Finally,  there  were  already  at  hand  signs  of  a  new 
era  in  illumination;  and  not  in  illumination  alone, 
but  also  in  an  equally  important,  hitherto  unworked 
field,  the  transmission  of  power.  For  Thomas  A 
Edison  was  laboring  in  the  trenches  in  New  York 
streets,  helping  to  lay  the  wires  of  his  new  electric 
system.  It  is  true  that  some  of  the  principal  arteries 
of  traffic  had  already  been  lighted  with  arc  lamps 
and  that  these  had  been  hailed  as  proof  of  the  prac- 
ticability of  electric  street  illumination ;  but  without 
Edison's  incandescent  lamp,  his  dynamo  for  gene- 
rating current,  and  his  carefully  planned  distributing 
system,  this  new  source  of  light  could  not  have  been 
made  safe,  convenient  and  cheap;  a  universal  un- 
derstudy for  the  sun  wherever  a  substitute  should 
be  needed. 

Thus  another  step  in  man's  toilsome  climb  up 
from  primeval  darkness— the  darkness  of  ignorance 
as  well  as  of  night— was  about  to  be  accomplished. 
These,  then,  were  the  factors,  already  beginning  to 
be  felt,  which  would  remold  New  York  in  the  next 
three  decades.  They  may  be  summed  up  roughly 
under  three  heads:  expansion;  rapid  transit;  and 
the  use  of  electricity  as  a  new  weapon  with  which 
man  might  combat  his  age-long  enemies— time,  dis- 
tance and  darkness. 

If  the  questions  of  expansion  and  rapid  transit  are 
looked  into  a  little  more  closely,  it  will  be  seen  that 
they,    too,    hark   back    to    electricity;    for    further 


''*"M» /ek^  f«HiS  BfR^v, 


HOW   HORSES   ARE   ABUSED 

From  a  sketch  by  Thomas  Worth.     Harper  s  Weekly  March  27  1880 


C2O] 


LOOKING  BACKWARD 

growth  of  the  city  was  to  be  dependent  on  still  better 
transit  facilities  and  these,  in  turn,  could  only  be 
obtained  by  the  use  of  electric  current.  When  it  is 
recalled  that  every  tunnel  and  subway  in  Greater 
New  York  has  been  bored  with  the  help  of  current 
from  the  Edison  central  station;  that  elevated  roads 
and  trolleys  are  now  being  run  by  methods  similar 
to  those  perfected  by  Edison,  but  which  he  was  un- 
able to  induce  the  city  to  put  into  practice;  that  Edi- 
son was  the  inventor  of  multiple  telegraphy;  that  his 
carbon  button  was  of  the  highest  importance  in  the 
practical  success  of  the  telephone;  that  streets,  of- 
fices, show-windows,  theatres  and  factories  are  lit 
by  his  lights;  that  countless  motors  are  driven  with 
power  coming  over  his  wires;  that  he  is  the  founder 
of  the  motion  picture,  and  the  deviser  of  the  phono- 
graph, then,  indeed,  it  becomes  undeniably  apparent 
that  every  phase  of  life  in  our  great  city  is  touched 
by  his  genius,  and  we  realize  something  of  the  debt 
which  New  York  owes  to  the  man  who,  in  1882,  was 
spoken  of  as  "the  wizard  of  Menlo  Park." 


1:20 


THE  NEW  YORK 
PUliLIC  LIBRARY 


^OB.  L««OX  AND 
B 


The  Beginning  of  Edison  Service 

ON  September  4  1882,  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  current  was  turned  on  at  the  first 
Edison  central  station  in  New  York  City, 
257  Pearl  Street.  Next  day  the  papers  were  full  of 
accounts  of  the  new  incandescent  lights. 

The  Tribune's  headline  read:  "Electricity  In- 
stead of  Gas.  In  place  of  the  usual  gas  fixtures," 
the  report  stated,  "were  those  of  the  Edison  Electric 
Illuminating  Company,  each  lamp  shedding  its 
light  from  a  small  blazing  horseshoe  that  glowed 
within  a  pear-shaped  globe,  pendant  beneath  a  por- 
celain shade." 

The  Sun  story  contained  a  delightful  glimpse 
of  the  inventor  of  the  new  system,  as  well  as  testi- 
mony to  the  difiiculties  of  electrical  work  at  that 
time.  "Mr.  Edison  was  seen  by  a  reporter,"  read 
the  Sun.  "He  wore  a  white,  high  crowned  derby 
hat  and  coUarless  shirt.  'I  have  accomplished  all  I 
promised,'  he  said.  .  .  .  We  have  a  greater  de- 
mand for  light  than  we  can  supply  at  present  owing 
to  insufficiency  of  men  to  put  down  the  wires.  We 
have  to  educate  the  men  to  the  use  and  management 
of  our  machinery.  We  have  only  one  experienced 
engineer  here  now.  A  man  came  down  from  our 
machine-shop  in  Goerck  Street  the  other  day  and 
put  his  oil  can  between  two  conductors.     He  was  a 

1:23] 


I 

72      u 


D 
O 
X 


a. 
n 

u 
o 

1—1     5 
(-     2 


n24] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

badly  frightened  man  a  second  later,  for  the  can 
melted  away  as  quickly  as  the  oil  it  contained.  An- 
other workman,  while  employed  at  a  wire  in  Fulton 
Street,  used  a  screw-driver.  He  was  surprised  to  see 
his  screw-driver  burn  away,  and  returned  to  the  sta- 
tion in  great  haste  to  know  what  was  the  matter.'  " 
Later  in  the  same  article  was  information  regarding 
the  equipment  of  the  central  station  and  the  build- 
ings it  supplied.  "Two  engines  were  started  last 
evening.  The  Drexel  Building  containing  one  hun- 
dred lights,  the  'Times'  office,  the  Park  Bank,  and 
the  'Herald'  office  were  among  the  places  lighted 
last  night  by  currents  from  the  station  in  Pearl 
Street." 

The  Herald  told  of  "the  dim  flicker  of  gas  sup- 
planted by  a  steady  glare,  bright  and  mellow,  — Mr. 
Edison  stood  in  the  workshop  at  257  Pearl  Street, 
in  his  shirt-sleeves  superintending  the  work.  Mr. 
Edison  said  that  care  would  be  taken  to  watch  all 
influences  that  would  offset  the  light,  and  doubt- 
less new  information  tending  to  make  it  even  more 
perfect  would  be  gleaned."  A  bit  of  unconscious 
humor  is  dropped  in  by  the  somewhat  condescend- 
ing statement:  "Last  night  it  was  fairly  demon- 
strated that  the  Edison  light  had  a  very  fair  degree 
of  success." 

The  Times  Building  was  outside  the  district 
supplied  by  the  Pearl  Street  station.  Accordingly, 
Edison  had  fitted  up  this  ofiice  with  a  separate  plant, 
and  the  Times  described  the  lights  thus  installed 
with  what  seems  today  to  be  a  delectably  rustic  sim- 
plicity.   "The  whole  lamp  looks  so  much  like  a  gas 

1:25:] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


EDISON'S  HOME,  MENLO  PARK,  NEW  JERSEY 
From  a  sketch  by  Theodore  R  Davis.     Harper's  Weekly,  January  3  1880 


burner  surmounted  by  a  shade  that  nine  people  out 
of  ten  would  not  have  known  the  rooms  were  lighted 
by  electricity  except  that  the  light  was  more  bril- 
liant than  gas  and  a  hundred  times  steadier.  To  turn 
on  the  light  nothing  is  required  but  to  turn  the 
thumb-screw,  no  matches  are  needed,  no  patent  ap- 
pliances. As  soon  as  it  is  dark  enough  to  need  arti- 
ficial light,  you  turn  the  thumb-screw  and  the  light 
is  there;  no  nauseous  smell,  no  flicker,  no  glare." 

In  the  same  article  is  an  almost  pathetic  expres- 
sion of  the  gratitude  of  old  newspaper  men  for  the 
new  method  of  illumination.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  in  those  days  work  on  a  morning  paper 
had  been  the  ruin  of  many  a  pair  of  eyes.  "It  seemed 
almost  like  writing  by  daylight  to  have  a  light  with- 

1:26] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

out  a  particle  of  flicker  and  with  scarcely  any  heat 
to  make  the  head  ache.  The  lights  in  the  Times 
Building  were  tested  by  men  who  have  battered 
their  eyes  sufficiently  by  years  of  night  work  to  know 
the  good  and  bad  points  of  a  lamp ;  and  the  decision 
was  unanimously  in  favor  of  the  Edison  electric 
lamp  as  against  gas." 

About  two  dozen  men  were  present  at  257  Pearl 
Street  on  the  afternoon  of  September  4  1882,  when 
the  current  was  turned  on.  As  nearly  as  can  be 
learned  this  group  included,  besides  Edison  him- 
self: Mr  E  H  Johnson;  Mr  Charles  L  Clarke,  the 
engineer  of  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating  Com- 
pany; Dr  S  S  Wheeler;  Mr  Charles  S  Bradley; 
Mr  Samuel  InsuU;  Mr  J  W  Lieb,  Jr;  Mr  Francis 
Jehl;  Mr  Charles  Batchelor;  Mr  Calvin  Goddard; 
Mr  W  H  Meadowcroft;  Mr  Julius  Hornig,  engi- 
neer in  local  charge  of  the  station  construction,  and 
his  assistant  Mr  H  M  Byllesby ;  Mr  W  A  Anderson 
of  the  Board  of  Fire  Underwriters;  Mr  Charles 
Dean  of  the  Goerck  Street  shops;  Mr  Wetzlerof  the 
Electrical  World;  Mr  John  Kruesi ;  Mr  S  Berg- 
mann;  Mr  H  A  Campbell;  Mr  F  R  Upton;  Mr 
John  Langton  who  worked  with  Kruesi;  and  Mr 
"Jack"  Hood,  the  old  Scotch  engineer  from  Menlo 
Park. 

A  little  later  in  the  same  afternoon,  Edison  joined 
Mr  J  Pierpont  Morgan  at  the  latter's  office.  Mr 
E  H  Johnson  and  Mr  Charles  S  Bradley  were  there 
also. 

Nowadays,  the  number  of  people  who  assert  that 
their  buildings  were  among  those  lighted  by  the 

1:27] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

original  Edison  Service  is  almost  as  great  as  the  mul- 
titudinous descendants  of  Mayflower  progenitors. 
The  earliest  list  of  Edison  customers  comprises  many 
whose  offices  had  not  been  connected  by  the  night  of 
September  4,  but  who  became  patrons  of  the  incan- 
descent lamp  shortly  afterward.  According  to  the 
newspapers  of  1882,  the  edifices  "among  those  pres- 
ent" at  the  opening  of  Edison  Service,  were  the  Pol- 
hemus  Building,  the  Barnes  Building,  Greene  Sons, 
Washburne  and  Moen,  the  Herald  office,  and  the 
great  Drexel  Building,  headquarters  of  Drexel, 
Morgan  &  Company.  This  last  structure  was  then 
one  of  New  York's  show  places,  and  every  one  knew 
it  had  cost  $700,000.  The  lighting  of  it  was  consid- 
ered an  achievement  because  of  its  great  size!  It 
was  equipped  with  106  lamps,  —  a  small  enough  out- 
fit as  compared  w^ith  installations  running  up  into 
the  thousands  in  large  office  buildings  today. 

The  rest  of  the  places  where  Edison  lights 
glowed  that  first  night  were  grouped  in  the  news- 
paper accounts  under  that  convenient,  inglorious 
phrase  "and  others."  The  JVorld,  however,  said: 
"Most  of  the  principal  stores  in  Fulton  Street  from 
Nassau  Street  to  East  River  were  last  evening  for 
the  first  time  lighted  by  the  Edison  electric  light." 

The  Pearl  Street  central  station  was  a  double 
brick  building,  255  and  257,  of  the  warehouse  type 
and  four  stories  high,  with  a  fire  wall  separating 
its  two  parts.  One  of  these  was  used  as  a  store- 
house for  underground  tubes  and  other  supplies,  and 
the  other  had  been  converted  into  the  station  itself. 
Since   the   old   walls    and    floors   were    not   strong 

[28] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

enough  to  stand  the  strain  of  the  machinery  to  be 
arranged  there,  the  entire  interior  of  257  had  been 
torn  out  and  rebuilt  on  a  foundation  of  steel  gir- 
ders and  columns,  reinforced  by  concrete  flooring, 
and  this  was  so  constructed  as  to  be  independent 
of  the  original  walls.  Thus  revamped,  the  old  ware- 
house, purchased  in  May  1881,  was  ready  for  the 
installation  of  steam-boilers  in  the  basement  and  of 
six  generators  on  the  second  floor.  These  historic 
six,  nicknamed  "Jumbos,"  were  the  marvels  of  their 
day;  so  that  even  people  who  knew  little  or  nothing 
about  electricity,  mentioned  with  awe  the  fact  that 
each  one  of  Edison's  new  dynamo-electric  machines 
had  a  capacity  of  125  horse-power,  and  that  its 
armature  alone — they  used  the  word  "armature" 
glibly  enough  though  they  were  a  little  hazy  as  to 
its  meaning— weighed  six  tons. 


BROADWAY  NEAR  ST  PAUL'S  CHURCH 

Nueva  York  Ilustradct,  1886 


[29] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

These  six  generators,  then,  were  the  pulses  of  the 
first  Edison  Service.  In  them  and  in  the  magic  little 
incandescent  lamps  which  the}^  fed  with  light-giving 
"juice,"  was  centered  the  interest  of  the  general  pub- 
lic. 

But  to  bring  them  into  being,  to  make  possible 


■IHK  D\-\A.Mu  KUO.M 

First  Edison  Electric  Lighting  Station  in  New  York 
Scientific  American,  August  26  1882 

their  use  as  the  beginning  and  end  of  a  successful 
system  of  illumination  in  New  York  City,  had  taken 
the  time  and  patience,  the  enthusiasm  and  faith  of 
many  men,  spurred  on  always  by  the  genius  and  un- 
flagging resourcefulness  of  Edison  himself. 

In  the  fall  of  1878,  the  inventor  had  mapped  out 
a  program  of  research  and  experimentation  which 
was  to  result  in  the  apparently-so-easily-accom- 
plished turning  on  of  lights  from  the  Pearl  Street 

[30] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

station  on  the  memorable  fourth  of  September,  four 
years  later.  This  program  included  the  inven- 
tion and  perfection  of  the  lamp  itself;  the  planning 
of  a  distributing  system  which  should  be  commer- 
cially practical;  the  providing  for  underground 
conductors  which  could  be  tapped  at  convenient  in- 
tervals to  supply  consumers;  the  arrangement  of  de- 
vices to  make  lamps  give  an  even  and  equal  supply 
of  light,  regardless  of  their  relative  distance  from 
the  central  station;  the  working  out  of  a  meter  to 
measure  the  current  consumed  by  each  customer; 
the  designing  of  an  adequate  dynamo  with  which  to 
convert  steam-power  into  electrical  energy;  and  last, 
but  very  important,  the  planning  of  safety  appli- 
ances so  that  persons  and  property  might  not  be  in- 
jured by  the  use  of  the  new  illuminating  method. 

Without  tracing  one  by  one  the  accomplishment 
of  each  of  these  undertakings,  it  is  perhaps  best  to 
recognize  the  fact  that,  when  the  Edison  Electric 
Illuminating  Company  of  New  York  was  organized 
in  1880,  the  greatest  difficulty  which  faced  it  was 
that  of  carrying  out  an  underground  system.  High 
authorities  on  electrical  matters— and  at  that  period 
this  meant  chiefly  people  interested  in  telegraphy — 
were  of  the  opinion  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
build  an  underground  network  of  mains  and  feeders 
which  would  supply  current  at  what  was  then  con- 
sidered a  very  high  potential,  without  danger  of 
great  loss  through  leakage.  These  experts  doubted 
whether  such  a  system  could  be  made  sufficiently 
convenient  and  cheap  to  be  a  commercial  success. 

Much  credit,   then,  should  go  to  the  financiers 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

who,  farther  sighted  and  fuller  of  faith  than  their 
contemporaries,  subscribed  to  the  stock  of  the  Il- 
luminating Company,  thereby  materially  helping 
Edison  to  demonstrate  the  eflectiveness  of  his  plans 
in  the  face  of  unbelief. 

The  incorporators  of  the  company  were:  Mr 
Tracy  R  Edson;  Mr  James  H  Banker;  Mr  Robert 
L  Cutting,  Jr;  Mr  E  P  Fabbri,  who  was  J  Pier- 
pont  Morgan's  partner;  Mr  J  F  Navarro,  also  con- 
nected with  Drexel,  Morgan  &  Company;  Mr 
Grosvenor  P  Lowry;  and  Mr  Nathan  G  Miller. 
The  first  meeting  for  the  election  of  officers  was 
held  on  December  20  1880,  the  following  directors 
being  present:  Mr  Tracy  R  Edson,  Mr  Henry  Vil- 
lard.  Major  S  B  Eaton,  Mr  E  P  Fabbri,  Mr  R  M 
Gallaway,  Dr  James  O  Green,  Mr  Nathan  G 
Miller  and  Mr  Robert  L  Cutting,  Jr.  Dr  Norvin 
Green,  afterward  president  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company,  was  chosen  for  president  of 
the  Illuminating  Company,  with  Mr  Calvin  God- 
dard  as  secretary  and  Mr  E  P  Fabbri  as  treasurer. 

On  March  23  1881,  Major  S  B  Eaton  was  elected 
vice-president  of  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating 
Company,  and  at  the  directors'  meeting,  held  on 
December  16  of  that  year,  Thomas  A  Edison  was 
"appointed  engineer." 

The  board  of  directors  responsible  for  the  pur- 
chase of  the  original  Pearl  Street  property,  in- 
cluded: Dr  Norvin  Green,  Major  S  B  Eaton,  Mr 
J  F  Navarro,  Mr  Grosvenor  P  Lowry,  Mr  Nathan 
G  Miller,  Mr  Thomas  A  Edison,  Mr  E  P  Fabbri, 
Mr   Henry  Villard,  Mr  Robert  L  Cutting,  Jr,  Mr 

[:32:] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

James  H  Banker,  Mr  Calvin  Goddard  and  Mr 
William  H  Meadowcroft. 

The  streets  of  New  York  in  the  early  eighties 
were  disfigured  by  rows  of  poles  from  which  were 
strung  telegraph  and  telephone  wires,  besides  those 
of  various  burglar,  fire-alarm  and  stock-ticker  com- 
panies. In  many  instances,  these  wires  were  so 
numerous  as  to  darken  the  streets  and  were  often  so 
poorly  insulated  as  to  become  dangerous  when  they 
broke  or  sagged. 

In  spite  of  this,  Edison's  scheme  of  underground 
transmission  was  considerably  ridiculed.  But,  un- 
disturbed by  opposition  and  ignorance  on  the  part 
of  people  in  general,  he  continued  to  insist  that  the 
only  safe  place  for  electric  wires  in  a  large  city  was 
under  the  streets.  "Why,  you  don't  lift  water-pipes 
and  gas-pipes  up  on  stilts,"  he  used  to  exclaim. 

His  way  of  looking  at  the  question  proved  itself 
when  the  city  finally  compelled  the  removal  of  tele- 
graph poles,  with  all  their  accompanying  wires,  and 
the  building  of  underground  conduits  which  are 
now  used  not  only  by  the  Edison  Company,  but  also 
by  telephone,  telegraph  and  ticker  concerns.  In 
fact,  so  firmly  did  the  once  scoffing  public  come  to 
believe  in  the  superiority  of  underground  wires,  that 
when  electric  street  railways  were  first  suggested  for 
New  York,  citizens  refused  to  have  the  overhead 
trolley  introduced.  As  late  as  1893  they  preferred 
the  Broadway  cable  line  with  its  "dead  man's  curve" 
to  the  anathematized  overhanging  wires.  It  was 
only  the  conduit  system  for  electric  cars — combin- 
ing the  slot  arrangement  of  the  cable  with  the  flexi- 

C33] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


bility  of  electric  traction— which  finally  brought 
about  the  passing  of  the  dangerous  crossing  at  Union 
Square. 

In  the  summer  of  1881,  the  process  of  laying  street 
mains  in  the  First  District  was  begun.  This  sec- 
tion had  an  area  of  about  one  square  mile  and 
was  bounded  by  Wall,  Spruce,  Nassau  and  Ferry 
Streets,  and  the  East  River.  The  region  had  been  se- 
lected particularly  because  it  was  New  York's  busi- 
ness center  and  because  the  successful  lighting  of 
such  a  district  could  not  fail  to  attract  wide  atten- 
tion. There  was  also  a  secondary  reason,  one  which 
reveals  Edison's 
Scotch  canniness. 
Many  office  build- 
ings in  this  neigh- 
borhood were  de- 
serted at  night,  and 
this  made  it  possi- 
ble to  test  the  lights 
without  attracting 
attention.  This  re- 
gion was  canvassed 
to  see  how  many 
lights  and  how 
much  power  were 
then  being  used. 
The  load  was  rep- 
resented by  a  se- 
ries of  resistances 
placed  upon  an  en- 
larged map  of  the 


\JhcynaL»CX^^iCttn\ 


EDISON   IN  1882 

From  a  photoKraph  in  the  possession  of 

Mr  W  H  Mcadowcroft 


1:343 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

district,  and  this  diagram  was  set  up  in  Edisons'  la- 
boratory at  Menlo  Park.  These  resistances  were  con- 
nected to  an  imaginary  system  of  mains  and  feeders. 

A  German,  Dr  Claudius,  worked  up  the  data 
by  which  the  two-wire  underground  conductors 
for  the  First  District  were  originally  made,  the 
conductors,  themselves,  being  manufactured  in  a 
building  at  65  Washington  Street.  The  workshop 
was  just  six  inches  narrower  than  the  standard  length 
of  conductors,  so  that  the  tubes,  to  be  turned  around, 
had  to  be  taken  out  through  a  window. 

Of  course  conduits  of  the  present  style  beneath  the 
streets  had  not  been  thought  of  in  1882.  Instead, 
trenches  were  dug,  and  in  these  twenty-foot  length 
pipes  were  laid.  Through  these  pipes  were  then 
drawn  the  conductors,  — two  half-round  copper 
wires,  kept  in  place  first  by  heavy  cardboard,  but 
afterward  by  rope— and  then  a  preparation  of 
asphaltum  and  linseed  oil  was  forced  into  the  piping 
for  insulation. 

Mr  John  Kruesi  had  been  entrusted  with  much  of 
the  work  of  laying  the  pipes,  but  Edison  himself 
often  climbed  down  into  the  ditches  to  help  in  vari- 
ous difficulties  and  to  solve  knotty  problems.  In 
fact,  during  the  summers  of  1881  and  1882,  he  often 
spent  as  many  as  four  nights  a  week  in  the  trenches 
with  Kruesi. 

In  those  days  "graft"  — the  word  unknown  but  the 
fact  most  familiar— was  not  in  especially  bad  odor. 
One  day,  during  the  laying  of  these  underground 
tubes,  Edison  received  word  that  he  must  appear  at 
the  office  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Works.  At 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


PRIMITIVE  REGULATING  APPARATUS  USED  AT  THE 
PEARL  STREET  STATION  IN  1882 

the  appointed  time  he  went,  and  this  is  his  story  of 
what  happened  as  it  is  told  in  the  Edison  biography: 
"The  commissioner  said  to  me,  'You  are  putting 
down  these  tubes.  The  Department  of  Public 
Works  requires  that  you  should  have  five  inspectors 
to  look  after  this  work,  and  their  salary  shall  be 
$5  per  day,  payable  at  the  end  of  each  week.  Good 
morning.'  I  went  out  very  much  crestfallen,  think- 
ing I  would  be  delayed  and  harassed  in  the  work 
which  I  was  anxious  to  finish,  and  was  doing  night 
and  day.  We  watched  patiently  for  those  inspec- 
tors to  appear.  The  only  appearance  they  made 
was  to  draw  their  pay  Saturday  afternoon." 

1:36] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 


The  manufacturing  of  conductors  brings  up  still 
another  phase  in  the  process  of  introducing  an  en- 
tirely new  lighting  system,  the  question  of  making 
and  providing  supplies.  On  this  point  no  one  is 
better  able  to  speak  than  Mr  Samuel  Insull,  who 
was  at  that  time  Edison's  secretary  and  right-hand 
man,  as  well  as  secretary  of  the  Electric  Tube  Com- 
pany. Recently,  in  talking  over  the  days  when  Edi- 
son Service  was  preparing,  he  remarked : 

"It  should  be  remembered  that  at  the  time  the 
construction  of  the  first  Pearl  Street  station  started, 
there  were  no  manufacturing  establishments  on 
either  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  produce  the  electrical 
machinery  required.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  scarcely 
any  of  the  apparatus  needed  in  the  operation  of  the 
station  was  even  invented,  to  say  nothing  of  being 

designed.  There 
was  no  shop 
where  you  could 
get  dynamo  ma- 
chines for  gener- 
ating current  of 
such  large  ca- 
pacities as  those 
needed;  there 
was  no  place 
where  the  under- 
ground conduc- 
tors required 
could  be  pro- 
cured; there  was 
nothing  but  a  lit- 


BATTERY   OF   A   THOUSAND    LAMPS    ON   AN 
UPPER  FLOOR  AT  257  PEARL  STREET 


l37'2 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

tie  building  where  incandescent  lamps  were  being 
made  at  iMenlo  Park,  to  supply  the  lamps  necessary 
for  the  service.  All  that  existed  was  the  station  at 
Menlo  Park,  which,  while  being  a  working  practi- 
cal example  of  what  could  be  done,  was,  after  all, 
nothing  but  an  experimental  plant.  When  Mr  Edi- 
son started  to  build  the  Pearl  Street  station  and  the 
First  District  system,  he  was  on  the  threshold  of  a 
new  art,  of  a  new  industty,  which  had  to  be  created 
in  all  its  component  parts,  before  it  was  possible  to 
operate  the  First  District  station  successfully. 

"Then  followed  in  rapid  succession  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Electric  Tube  Works  at  65  Wash- 
ington Street,  for  the  manufacture  of  underground 
conductors;  the  establishment  of  the  Edison  Ma- 
chine Works,  on  Goerck  Street,  New  York,  for  the 
manufacture  of  large  electric  generators;  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Lamp  Works  at  East  Newark,  for 
the  manufacture  of  incandescent  lamps,  and  the  re- 
modeling of  the  business  of  Bergman  &  Co,  for  the 
manufacture  of  small  electrical  sundries  and  elec- 
troliers. 

"Whilst  the  gentlemen  who  had  supplied  the  cap- 
ital for  Mr  Edison's  experiments,  through  the  me- 
dium of  the  Edison  Electric  Light  Company,  sub- 
scribed the  original  million  dollars,  the  capital  of 
the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating  Company  of  New 
York,  the  money  that  was  put  into  the  manufactur- 
ing establishments  which  had  to  be  created  in  order 
to  produce  the  plant,  was  supplied  out  of  the  per- 
sonal resources  of  Mr  Thomas  A  Edison.  Later 
on,  when  the  original  capital  of  the  Edison  Elec- 

C38: 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

trie  Illuminating  Company  of  New  York  was  ex- 
hausted, he  really  financed  that  company  through 
his  electrical  manufacturing  concerns,  until  the  busi- 
ness of  electricity  supply  was  demonstrated  to  be  a 
commercial  proposition." 

Before  leaving  the  realm  of  personal  reminis- 
cence, the  statements  of  two  other  men  who  took 
part  in  preparing  the  First  District  system  will 
prove  interesting.  Mr  J  W  Lieb,  Jr,  first  electri- 
cian of  the  Pearl  Street  station  and  now  third  vice- 
president  of  The  New  York  Edison  Company, 
realizes  keenly  the  contrasts  between  the  yesterday 
and  the  today  of  the  electric  industry. 

"Owing  to  the  wonderful  progress"  —  he  says  — 
"made  toward  perfecting  every  detail  connected 
with  central  station  construction,  equipment  and 
operation,  from  the  boilers  through  the  many  de- 
vices necessary  for  generating  current  and  for  its 
transmission,  distribution  and  delivery  to  customers' 
premises,  we  are  apt  to  overlook  the  enormous  diffi- 
culties with  which  pioneers  in  the  art  had  to  con- 
tend. 

"Without  a  clear  idea  of  what  was  required  and 
without  any  engineering  precedents  to  follow,  cen- 
tral station  pioneering  was  largely  a  groping  in  the 
dark,  an  endeavor  to  meet  intuitively  or  by  unlim- 
ited expenditure  of  personal  energy  and  resource- 
fulness, the  unexpected  problems  which  daily  pre- 
sented themselves,  and  which  often  needed  instant 
solution. 

"The  Jumbo  dynamo  as  finally  installed  in  the 
Pearl  Street  station  had  eight  upper  and  four  lower 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

magnets.  A  very  curious  discussion  arose  among 
scientists  of  the  time  as  to  why  the  field  had  been 
designed  to  be  so  unsymmetrical,  some  authorities 
going  so  far  as  to  explain  that  it  was  a  beautiful  ap- 
plication of  scientific  principles  and  practical  inge- 
nuity; for  it  was  said  that  the  idea  was  to  produce  a 
stronger  upward  field  pull  in  order  to  counteract 
the  enormous  weight  of  the  armature,  and,  by  off- 
setting it,  to  reduce  friction  on  the  bearings!  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  very  first  large,  connected  dy- 
namo had  a  perfectly  symmetrical  field  but  it  was 
found  necessary  subsequently  to  add  to  the  magnetic 
field  circuit.  It  was  increased  by  adding  field  cores 
to  the  upper  side,  so  as  to  give  the  larger  number  of 
ampere  terms  required  for  the  increased  voltage 
which  it  was  necessary  to  demand  of  the  dynamo, 
this  being  r  lo  to  115  volts  instead  of  100  to  105  volts 
for  which  the  first  machines  were  built.  These  mag- 
nets were  immense  pieces  of  wrought  iron  with  cores 
nine  inches  in  diameter  and  fifty-seven  inches  long. 
The  field  magnets  were  really  so  long  that  a  conse- 
quent pole  developed  at  about  three  quarters  of  the 
length  of  the  core,  indicating  an  undesirable  length 
of  the  magnetic  circuit. 

"While  experiments  and  tests  were  under  way  at 
Pearl  Street,  preparatory  to  starting  up,  there  was 
considerable  talk  in  newspapers  and  popular  maga- 
zines concerning  hypnotism,  mesmerism  and  kin- 
dred subjects,  together  with  the  effects  of  magnetism 
on  human  beings.  The  colossal  fields  of  the  'Jum- 
bos'—the largest  electro-magnets  that  had  ever  been 
constructed  —  afforded  excellent  opportunity  for  a 

[40] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

test.  When  the  armature  was  removed,  the  big  cy- 
lindrical gap  that  was  left  gave  plenty  of  room  to 
accommodate  a  mattress  as  a  bed.  To  make  a  trial, 
I  slept  all  night  in  the  'air  gap'  with  the  field  fully 
excited.  On  waking  after  a  nap  of  four  or  five  hours 
—  for  that  was  all  the  sleep  any  one  ever  got  in  those 
trying  days — my  sensations  were  not  unusual;  nei- 
ther was  my  'big  head'  feeling  changed  for  it  was  a 
sort  of  chronic  state  with  most  of  us  at  the  time! 

"The  commutation  of  the  current  on  the  dynamos 
was  a  matter  of  grave  concern,  in  fact  the  sparking 
was  so  serious  that  it  was  impossible  to  operate  the 
dynamos  at  full  load  without  the  use  of  mercury  on 
the  commutators.  After  the  first  coat,  which  was 
applied  by  amalgamating  the  surface  of  the  copper 
segments,  the  metallic  mercury  was  allowed  to  drop 
from  a  chamois  bag  held  over  the  commutator  while 
the  dvnamos  were  in  motion,  spreading  a  thin  film 
over  the  commutator.  During  the  operation,  spark- 
ing was  so  intense  that  a  thin  haze  of  mercury 
vapor  ascended  like  a  cloud.  Many  of  those  en- 
gaged in  the  earlier  tests  and  experiments  with  these 
machines  had  their  teeth  seriously  affected  by  sali- 
vation from  the  mercury  fumes.  Numerous  forms 
of  brushes  were  devised  to  reduce  the  sparking.  One 
form  divided  the  brush  into  four  or  five  layers,  each 
insulated  from  the  other,  thus  giving  a  resistance 
path  through  the  brush,  where  in  multiple  with  the 
armature  winding  at  the  point  of  commutation. 

"It  was  not  until  some  time  after  the  station 
opened  that  a  very  primitive  form  of  ampere-meter, 
designed  by  Mr  Edison,  was  installed.    It  consisted 

[40 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

of  a  very  small  diamond  shape  armature  with  a 
pointer,  held  in  the  field  of  a  large  permanent  horse- 
shoe magnet.  This  simple  ampere-meter  was  fast- 
ened to  the  main  bus-bars  of  the  station,  the  perma- 
nent magnet  providing  the  fixed  field,  the  current 
in  the  bar  deviating  the  armature  so  that  the  pointer 
on  the  properly  graduated  scale  read  ofif  the  current 
flowing  through  the  bus-bar. 

"As  we  look  back  upon  those  early  stages  of  the 
art  we  must  perforce  marvel  at  the  rugged  practical 
sense,  the  sound  engineering  judgment  and  the  keen 
commercial  grasp  exhibited  by  the  master  mind  of 
Thomas  Alva  Edison,  in  working  out  every  feature 
of  what  was  a  marvelously  complete  and  perfect 
lighting  system." 

Dr  S  S  Wheeler,  another  member  of  Edison's 
forces  in  the  old  days,  and  now  president  of  the 
Crocker-Wheeler  Company,  is  equally  enthusiastic 
in  his  admiration  for  the  inventor  under  whom  he 
had  his  early  training,  for  he  said  recently: 

"I  have  always  regarded  my  experience  as  a  mem- 
ber of  Mr  Edison's  stafif  as  having  been  of  the  great- 
est value  to  me,  and  I  attribute  to  it  whatever  engi- 
neering ability  I  now  possess.  For  previous  to  that 
time,  electrical  work  was  carried  on  by  rule  of 
thumb  and  was  done  by  so-called  practical  men, 
whose  skill  was  generally  that  of  linemen. 

"When  I  joined  the  Edison  forces,  however,  I 
found  that  correct  application  of  theory  was  the  pre- 
ferred method  of  dealing  with  each  subject;  that 
those  who  looked  at  problems  from  this  viewpoint 
were  sought  after  and  appreciated.     This  different 

U2] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

atmosphere,  which  tended  to  bring  about  a  scientific 
basis  of  station  operation,  awakened  all  my  enthusi- 
asm and  made  an  impression  on  me  that  I  shall 
never  forget. 

"Opening  the  first  Edison  station  with  all  its  tre- 
mendous new  possibilities  and  unsolved  engineer- 


6  s  d?^^  _>J^««« 


^,.  S/^  O^  ^OM    -/^^. 


T 


(M^^jyi 


<^>Cw./\— 


A  MEMENTO  OF  THE  DAYS  PREVIOUS  TO  THE 
PEARL  STREET  STATION  OPENING 

Edison,  in  need  of  a  relay  for  testing,  obtained  one  from  the  Western  Union 

From  the  Scrap  Book  of  Dr  S  S  Wheeler 


[43  3 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

ing  problems,  was  like  riding  to  a  new  country  on 
the  cow-catcher  of  the  first  locomotive  ever  built,  or 
like  taking  possession  of  a  fully  equipped  laboratory 
that  was  to  be  devoted  to  some  entirely  new  science, 
in  which  no  work  had  been  done  except  to  recognize 
the  existence  of  that  science. 

"To  any  one  who  wants  to  know  whether  Edison 
was  present  at  the  starting  of  the  station  or  was  else- 
where, 1  can  answer  very  definitely  that  he  was  there 
'on  the  job,'  and  that  he  stayed  there  a  week.  When 
time  had  elapsed  even  beyond  Edison's  limit  of  en- 
durance, some  one  was  sent  out  to  get  him  a  cot  on 
which  he  slept  close  beside  the  running  engines. 
The  rest  of  the  crew  crawled  in  on  the  lower  row  of 
field-magnet  coils  of  the  dynamos,  which  was  con- 
sidered a  nice,  warm  place,  though  a  little  bumpy. 
I  went  to  sleep  standing  up  leaning  against  a  door 
frame,  after  forty-eight  hours." 

Among  the  difficulties  to  be  met  and  overcome 
before  the  First  District  station  could  be  put  into 
operation,  was  the  scarcity  of  experienced  workmen. 
A  night  school  had  to  be  established  at  65  Fifth 
Avenue — that  hive  of  industry  and  interest  in  all 
electric  lighting  questions— and  Mr  E  H  Johnson, 
fresh  from  his  successes  in  England,  was  made  head 
of  the  school  with  Mr  C  L  Clarke  as  instructor  on 
engineering  problems.  Wiremen,  who  had  already 
done  work  on  telephone,  burglar-alarm  and  mes- 
senger-call systems,  were  the  most  hopeful  material 
out  of  which  to  make  electric-light  men.  Accord- 
ingly they,  together  with  students  from  technical 
schools,  were  instructed  in  the  A  B  C's  of  the  new 

[44] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

industry;  and  what  they  lacked  in  full  scientific 
knowledge  of  their  subject,  they  made  up  in  enthu- 
siasm and  ambition.  As  their  skill  increased,  the 
actual  work  of  installation  in  the  downtown  district 
progressed  rapidly.  The  workers  were  sometimes 
able  to  lay  a  thousand  feet  of  iron  piping  in  a  day; 
while  in  the  month  of  May  1882,  7923  feet  were 
put  into  place. 

Education  of  the  general  public  was  being  carried 
on  at  the  same  time,  in  the  same  Fifth  Avenue  build- 
ing. Every  evening  the  incandescent  lamps  were 
turned  on  at  "65"  and  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  peo- 
ple were  shown  through  the  house  until  midnight 
under  the  guidance  of  Edison's  friends  and  associ- 
ates. Many  were  the  questions  put  by  amazed  be- 
holders of  the  new  light.  "Won't  it  explode?" 
Don't  you  use  any  matches?"  "Can  you  put  in  an- 
other bulb  if  that  one  gets  broken?"  "Is  it  safe  in  a 
thunder-storm?"  These,  and  many  more  inquiries 
were  patiently  answered  by  the  missionaries  of  the 
new  gospel  of  light,  anxious  to  convert  the  ultimate 
consumer. 

Thus,  step  by  step,  the  beginning  of  the  Edison 
system  in  New  York  City  was  accomplished,  and  on 
September  4  1882,  the  turning  on  of  400  lamps  from 
the  Pearl  Street  station  was  a  triumph ;  a  triumph 
not  only  for  the  inventor  himself,  not  only  for  his 
co-laborers,  not  only  for  the  men  who  believing  in 
him  had  opened  their  purses,  but  also  for  the  city 
which  was  to  reap  the  benefit  of  their  efforts  and 
their  faith. 

The  first  Edison  central  station  which  entered 


a 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

upon  its  career  that  day  supplied  current  continu- 
ously day  and  night,  with  but  two  interruptions  until 
1895,  when  the  building  was  given  up  because  it  had 
been  outgrown.  Of  the  two  breaks  in  its  service  one 
happened  in  1883  and  lasted  three  hours,  while  the 


tij^aiSi^-^ 


RUSH  HOURS,  1882 
Drawing  by  Thomas  Nast,  Harper's  Bazaar 


Other,  occasioned  by  the  serious  fire  of  January  2 
1890,  lasted  less  than  half  a  day.  That  a  fire  which 
destroyed  the  central  station  should  have  occasioned 
so  short  a  delay  was  due  both  to  the  presence  of  an 
auxiliary  plant  which  had  been  opened  on  Liberty 
Street;  and  to  the  prompt  action  of  Mr  Samuel  In- 

[46: 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

sull,  who,  as  vice-president  of  the  Edison  General 
Electric  Company  at  Schenectady,  had  new  dyna- 
mos on  the  way  before  the  fire  had  been  extinguished. 

In  the  blaze,  five  "jumbos"  were  destroyed  while 
No  9,  the  sole  survivor,  was  only  saved  because  it 
stood  near  a  front  window  and  the  firemen  were  able 
to  play  a  hose  behind  it,  thereby  cutting  it  off  from 
the  flames.  A  few  years  later  No  9— a  giant  in  its 
day,  but  long  since  superseded  by  the  "Big  Engine" 
and  "Big  Harry"— was  given  honorable  dismissal 
and  furnished  with  a  home  at  Shadyside.  Now 
"Jumbo"  makes  his  appearance  only  on  state  occa- 
sions as  an  exhibit  of  the  first  days  of  the  electric 
lighting  industry. 

But  though  Edison's  original  dynamos  have  been 
succeeded  by  larger  machines,  the  tremendous  Edi- 
son system  of  today  in  New  York  City  is  conducted 
according  to  principles  which  he  developed  and  put 
into  practice  in  1882.  It  was  he  who  planned  the 
placing  of  wires  beneath  the  ground  ;  the  direct  con- 
nected unit;  the  feeder  system— without  which  com- 
mercial electric  lighting  would  be  impossible;  the 
use  of  safety  fuses  and  of  meters ;  and,  the  reason-for- 
being  of  the  entire  system,  the  high  resistance  incan- 
descent lamp.  That  Edison's  was  the  master  hand, 
the  guiding  and  forming  spirit  of  all  the  work  that 
went  on  in  the  seventies  and  early  eighties,  at  Menlo 
Park  and  in  New  York,  is  told  in  the  phrase  of  an 
old  Edison  man  who  said,  "It  was  just  as  if  he  had 
the  whole  New  York  electric  lighting  system  in  his 
pocket." 

More  than  a  word  of  praise  and  gratitude,  how- 

C47: 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

ever,  is  surely  due  to  all  the  men  who,  by  adding 
their  energy  and  patience  to  his,  helped  him  to  ac- 
complish his  dream.  That  many  of  these  fellow- 
workers  of  his  figure  largely  in  electrical  afifairs  in 
this  country  today,  only  proves  Edison's  gift  of 
drawing  around  him  people  of  uncommon  ability. 

Among  the  men  now  living  who  worked  in  vari- 
ous ways,  prior  to  1884,  to  bring  about  the  Edison 
system,  either  in  its  experimental  stages  or  in  its  in- 
troduction and  early  development,  were:  E  H  John- 
son, one  of  Edison's  lieutenants,  who  also  had  much 
to  do  with  the  introduction  of  the  Edison  system  into 
England;  Charles  L  Clarke,  who  had  charge  of  the 
engineering  affairs  of  the  Edison  Electric  Light 
Company  and  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating 
Company,  and  who  is  now  with  the  General  Elec- 
tric Company;  S  Bergmann,  now  influential  in 
electric  work  in  Berlin;  Francis  R  Upton,  for  many 
years  manager  of  the  Edison  Lamp  Factory;  Major 
S  B  Eaton,  once  president  of  the  Edison  Electric 
Light  Company  and  of  the  Edison  Illuminating 
Company;  Samuel  InsuU,  Edison's  secretary  in  1881 
and  manager  of  his  business  affairs  for  many  years, 
now  president  of  the  Chicago  Edison  Company; 
John  W  Lieb,  Jr,  now  vice-president  of  The 
New  York  Edison  Company;  W  J  Hammer,  who 
is  interesting  himself  in  aviation;  W  S  Andrews, 
now  of  the  General  Electric  Company;  T  C  Mar- 
tin, secretary  of  the  National  Electric  Light  Asso- 
ciation; F  J  Sprague,  of  motor  and  street  railway 
fame;  John  W  Howell,  now  technical  engineer 
of  the  Lamp  Works  at  Harrison;  W  S  Howell,  of 

[148] 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

the  Electrical  Testing  Laboratories;  J  H  Vail,  now 
in  the  electric  automobile  business;  H  S  Campbell, 
superintendent  of  the  second  district  of  The  New 
York  Edison  Company ;  Robert  T  Lozier  of  Kountz 
Brothers;  Charles  L  Edgar,  president  of  the  Boston 
Edison    Company;    Charles    S    Bradley;    Charles 


DRAWING  OF  A  PROPOSED  EDISON  CENTRAL  STATION 

Scribner's  Magazine,  February  1880 

Wirt,  at  present  engaged  in  electrical  manufacture; 
Charles  L  Eidlitz;  C  E  Chinnock,  who  is  still  busy 
in  electrical  work;  W  J  Jenks  of  the  General 
Electric  Company;  F  S  Hastings,  one  time  secre- 
tary of  the  Edison  Electric  Light  Company;  H  M 
Byllesby,  who  in  1881  was  in  the  engineering  de- 
partment of  the  Edison  Electric  Light  Company, 
now  of  the  H  M  Byllesby  Company;  Ernest  J  Berg- 
gren,  at  the  Edison  Laboratories  in  Orange;  A  S 

1:49] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Huey,  vice-president  of  the  H  M  Byllesby  Com- 
pany; Dr  E  G  Acheson,  the  inventor  of  Carbo- 
rundum, whose  factories  are  at  Niagara  Falls;  Jo- 
seph Hutchinson,  now  interested  in  advancing  the 
use  of  storage  batteries  in  Canada;  George  Foster 
Peabody;  James  C  Hippie,  manager  of  the  Lamp 
Works  at  Fort  Wayne;  Sydney  B  Payne,  with 
the  General  Electric  Company  at  Boston;  M  A 
Brock,  now  manager  of  the  electric  station  at  Pater- 
son,  New  Jersey;  Henry  M  Doubleday;  William 
H  Meadowcroft,  assistant  to  Edison  at  the  Edi- 
son Laboratories  in  Orange;  W  H  Francis,  now 
of  the  Boston  Electric  Company;  John  I  Beggs; 
W  E  Freeman,  assistant  treasurer  of  The  New  York 
Edison  Company;  John  F  Ott,  who  has  been  with 
Edison  forty-two  years;  Fred  Ott,  who  has  a  record 
of  only  four  years  less;  Peter  Weber,  formerly  with 
Bergmann,  now  at  the  laboratories  in  Orange;  Fred 
A  Scheffler  of  the  Babcock  &  Wilcox  Company; 
J  C  Walker,  the  electrical  engineer;  John  W  Law- 
son;  S  D  Mott;  N  K  Iwadari,  who  took  the  first 
Edison  lights  to  Japan;  George  G  Grower;  Mont- 
gomery Waddell;  C  F  Hanington;  Richard  N 
Dyer,  who  for  many  years  acted  for  Edison  in  patent 
matters;  and  Francis  Jehl,  who  did  much  of  the 
testing  of  early  meters,  now  of  the  General  Electric 
Company  of  Budapest. 

Many  other  people  have  been  associated  with 
Edison,  but  they  perhaps  began  their  connection 
with  him  after  work  on  the  incandescent  light  had 
been  completed,  or  left  him  before  it  was  under- 
taken.    Others,  too,  have  died,  chief  among  them 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

Charles  Batchelor  and  John  Kruesi,  two  of  Edison's 
most  trusted  assistants. 

The  above  list,  for  which  completeness  is  not 
claimed,  may  serve  as  a  citation  of  many  of  the  men 
who  had  a  hand  in  the  beginning  of  Edison  Service. 

In  connection  with  pioneer  days  of  electric  light- 
ing, it  is  worth  while  to  look  for  a  moment  at  the 
keen  interest  in  this  new  method  of  illumination, 
taken  by  people  all  over  the  world,  and  emphati- 
cally by  Americans,  even  before  the  day  of  Edison's 
invention.  For  proof  of  this,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
go  through  the  files  of  any  good  periodical  pub- 
lished between  1878  and  1882. 

The  reader  of  today  will  perhaps  be  astonished 
to  find  there  many  articles  on  electric  lighting.  In 
Scribners  Magazine  for  November  1878,  is  the 
statement:  "Many  students  of  its  phenomena,  have 
predicted  that  light  from  electricity  would  replace 
gas  and  oil." 

This  was  not  the  first  prophecy  of  its  kind,  of 
course,  for  in  1834  Professor  Dumas  of  Paris  fore- 
told the  ultimate  success  of  the  electric  light.  But 
by  1878  the  average  reader  was  so  a-tip-toe  for  news 
of  progress  in  this  direction  that  scarcely  a  single 
number  of  a  magazine  went  to  press  without  some 
account  of  discovery  or  experiment  in  electric  il- 
lumination. This  eager  desire  was  undoubtedly  due 
to  the  successful  use  of  the  Jablochkofif  "candles"  in 
Paris.  But  people  seemed  to  understand  that  no 
form  of  the  arc  lamp  would  be  suitable  for  house 
lighting;  and  in  America,  at  least,  they  turned  to 
Edison  to  find  a  way  out  of  the  difficulty.     Papers 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


and  books  were  full  of  stories  of  Edison,  of  his  in- 
ventions, and  of  the  fact  that  he  was  working  on  the 
electric  light. 

In  Scribners  of  March  1879,  is  this  note:  "At- 
tention has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  a  strip  of 

metal  or  carbon  enclosed  in  a 
glass  jar  charged  with  nitrogen 
and  brought  to  incandescence  by 
electric  current  will  give  a  good 
light." 

Then,  late  in  1879,  all  the 
world  knew  that  Edison  had  per- 
fected his  incandescent  lamp. 
But  two  years  and  more  passed 
before  it  furnished  actual  proof 
of  its  practicability.  This  came 
with  the  opening  of  the  Pearl 
Street  central  station  and  the 
use,  shortly  afterward,  of  5000 
incandescent  bulbs  in  the  Wall 
Street  district. 

Thus,  Edison  Service  entered 
New  York.  That  its  welcome 
was  skeptical,  at  first,  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  current  was 
supplied  free  to  customers  for 
nearly  five  months.  But  before 
that  time  was  over  it  had  become  so  indispensable 
that  it  has  ever  since  grown  with  the  metropolis  and 
helped  it  to  grow.  And  into  every  place  this  service 
has  penetrated,  it  has  brought  the  power  to  accom- 
plish tasks  more  quickly,  in  better  air,  in  cleaner 

[52:] 


A  CLUMbY  PREDECESSOR 

OF  THE  MODERN 

DROP-l.IGHT 

Drawing  of  an  Arc  Lamp 
for  a  Table 

Scribucrs  ATagazinc,  Novem- 
ber 1878 


BEGINNING  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 

surroundings  and  with  less  danger.  It  has  dug 
into  the  earth  for  subways,  and  helped  to  raise  the 
huge  arms  which  build  skyscrapers ;  it  has  lessened 
the  burden  of  sweatshop  workers  by  providing  them 
with  a  substitute  for  foot-power;  it  has  lifted  eleva- 
tors; it  has  made  streets  safer  and  cleaner  by  reason 
of  its  light.  Today,  it  is  a  basic  element  in  the  life 
of  New  York  City,  woven  into  the  very  fiber  of  the 
town's  existence,  so  that  people  depend  on  it  to  help 
them  carry  on  their  business,  their  pleasures,  their 
duties. 


L'53] 


The  Development  of  the  Skyscraper 

IN  less  than  the  lifetime  of  one  generation,  New 
York  has  been  witness  to  a  rare  and  wonderful 
thing— the  birth  and  growth  of  a  new  architec- 
tural style.  This  is  the  skyscraper.  Today  it  stands 
a  huge  and  mighty  symbol  of  the  city  whose  de- 
mands brought  it  into  being.  That  it  is  impressive, 
the  most  bitter  of  its  opponents  admit;  that  it  is  pic- 
turesque in  its  directness  and  force,  artists  wnth  a 
vision  of  the  future  have  already  seen;  for  it  typi- 
fies the  limitless  ambition,  the  unquenchable  energy, 
the  resourceful  daring  and  the  vast  new  wealth  of 
a  people. 

It  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  most  radically  new 
form  of  architecture  brought  into  existence  since  the 
Gothic;  for  Renaissance  was  but  a  reworking  of 
classic  ideas.  As  the  Gothic  was  the  flowering  of 
the  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages,  so  today,  skyscrapers 
are  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  life  of  a  city,  of  the 
aims  and  occupations  of  its  people,  of  conditions 
under  which  they  work. 

An  inciting  reason  for  the  tall  steel  and  stone 
structures  of  today,  was,  of  course,  the  rise  in  value 
of  land  in  lower  Manhattan.  And  this,  in  turn,  as 
every  one  knows,  was  due  to  narrowness  of  the  island 
itself,  which  prevented  the  business  center  from 
spreading  in  any  other  direction  than  northward. 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  Edison,  in  building 
the  Pearl  Street  central  station,  was  obliged  to 
reckon  with  this  question  of  limited  ground-room. 
He  says : 

"While  planning  for  my  first  New  York  station  — 
of  course  I  had  no  real  estate  and,  from  lack  of  ex- 
perience, had  very  little  knowledge  of  its  cost  in 
New  York;  so  I  assumed  a  rather  large,  liberal 
amount  of  it  to  plan  my  station  on.  ...  In  my 
original  plan  I  had  200  by  200  feet.  I  thought  that 
by  going  down  on  a  slum  street  near  the  water-front 
I  would  get  some  pretty  cheap  property.  So  I 
picked  out  the  worst  dilapidated  street  there  was, 
and  I  found  that  I  could  only  get  two  buildings, 
each  twenty-five  feet  front,  one  one  hundred  feet 
deep  and  the  other  eighty-five  feet  deep.  I  thought 
about  $10,000  each  would  cover  it,  but  when  I  got 
the  price  I  found  that  they  wanted  $75,000  for  one 
and  $80,000  for  the  other.  Then  I  was  compelled 
to  change  my  plans  and  go  upward  in  the  air  where 
real  estate  was  cheap.  I  cleared  out  the  building 
entirely  to  the  walls  and  built  my  station  of  struc- 
tural ironwork,  running  it  up  high." 

What  Edison  thus  did  in  a  small  way  in  1882,  the 
city  began  to  carry  out  in  good  earnest  a  few  years 
later;  for  the  first  real  skyscraper  went  up  in  1888. 
This  was  the  Tower  Building  at  50  Broadway.  It 
was  only  eight  stories  high,  but  it  possessed  at  least 
two  indispensable  characteristics,  — skeleton  con- 
struction and  passenger  elevators,— which  made  it 
the  forerunner  of  the  Metropolitan  Tower,  the 
Singer  Building  and  the  Woolworth  Building. 

[56] 


THE   FIRST   SKYSCRAPER   AND    ITS   TALLER   NEIGHBORS 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


[sj: 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


MANHATTAN  BRIDGE  IN  COURSE  OF  CONSTRUCTION 
Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 

Without  skeleton  construction,  which  implies 
technically,  the  use  of  a  steel,  wrought  iron  or  cast 
iron  framework,  the  erection  of  tall  buildings  could 
never  have  been  made  commercially  advantageous; 
for  a  structure  without  such  a  frame  would  have 
walls  of  so  great  a  thickness  as  to  be  prohibitive, 
owing  to  the  amount  of  valuable  ground-space  lost. 
This  is  easily  seen  when  it  is  realized  that  in  the 
eighties,  the  New  York  building  code  required  a 
wall  to  be  not  less  than  twelve  inches  thick  for  the 
highest  fifty  feet  of  the  building,  with  an  increase  of 
several  inches  for  each  fifty  feet  between  there  and 
the  ground.  Of  course  the  most  serious  loss  of  office 
room,  under  this  system,  would  be  on  the  lower 
floors,  which  command  the  highest  rentals. 

C58] 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SKYSCRAPER 

Forces,  then,  which  have  made  the  building  of 
skyscrapers  both  possible  and  practical,  may  be  set 
down  as:  skeleton  construction;  the  passenger  ele- 
vator and  plate-glass;  the  use  of  electric  power  and 
light;  and  it  may  be  interesting  to  touch  somewhat 
on  the  development  of  each  of  these  factors. 

In  1880  the  world  had  already  passed  through  a 
period  of  great  progress  in  bridge  building  of  which 
the  Brooklyn  Bridge — then  under  way— was  per- 
haps the  crowning  achievement.  Engineers  had  had 
wide  experience  in  dealing  with  structural  iron,  and 
the  Bessemer  process,  followed  by  the  Siemens- 
Martin  method,  had  given  them  steel.  This  new 
metal  had  been  found  highly  satisfactory,  because  of 
the  fact  that  it  is  equally  strong  in  tension  and  com- 
pression and  also  has  no  "grain."  Its  toughness  and 
cheapness  were  in  its  favor,  too,  steel  being  little 
more  expensive  than  cast  iron;  and,  moreover,  it  is 
peculiarly  adapted  to  beams  and  columns. 

The  principles  which  men  had  learned  through 
work  on  bridges,  they  were  ready  to  put  to  use  in 
buildings.  But  one  difficulty  stood  in  the  way;  cast 
iron,  wrought  iron  and  steel  are  all  affected  by  in- 
tense heat,  and  a  building  so  constructed  would 
warp  under  the  influence  of  flames.  In  looking  for 
a  cure  of  this  evil,  the  ordinary  kitchen  range  was 
found  to  solve  the  problem.  Made  of  iron,  it  is  able 
to  withstand  a  high  temperature  because  its  metal 
work  is  separated  from  the  white  hot  coals  by  a  brick 
lining. 

Once  grasped,  the  idea  of  surrounding  the  steel 
framework  of  a  building  with  heat-resisting  bricks 

[59] 


THE   TERMINAL   BUILDING 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Peiinell 


c6o: 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SKYSCRAPER 

or  tiles,  was  found  to  work  perfectly;  and,  there- 
after, it  was  possible  to  erect  a  structure  at  once  tall, 
strong  and  fireproof,  the  walls  of  which  need  not 
exceed  twenty  inches  in  thickness. 

It  would  have  been  of  little  avail,  however,  to  put 
up  such  a  building  if  human  beings  had  been  forced 
to  climb  numberless  flights  of  stairs;  but  here  eleva- 
tors came  to  the  rescue.  The  present-day  swift  pas- 
senger elevator  is  the  direct  descendant  of  an  inven- 
tion which  Elisha  G  Otis  exhibited  in  1853,  during 
the  World's  Fair  at  the  Crystal  Palace  in  New 
York.  It  was  the  first  lifting  arrangement  in  which 
provision  was  made  for  stopping  the  car  if  the  cables 
should  break.  Then,  in  1859,  Otis  introduced  an 
independent  reversible  engine  directly  connected 
with  the  hoisting  machinery;  and  in  1871  came  the 
hydraulic  elevator. 

Now,  hydraulic  lifts  and  those  run  by  steam  power 
could  answer  the  needs  of  buildings  of  moderate 
height,  but  both  these  types  are  ordinarily  inade- 
quate for  making  a  rapid  ascent  of  hundreds  of  feet. 
Consequently,  the  swift  passenger  service,  which  is 
so  necessary  in  an  extremely  tall  modern  office  build- 
ing, remained,  in  general,  to  be  accomplished  by  the 
electric  elevator.  Curiously  enough,  it  was  invented 
in  the  very  same  year  which  saw  the  erection  of  the 
first  skyscraper.  After  that,  though  buildings  grew 
and  grew  with  an  Alice-in-Wonderland  rapidity, 
means  were  already  at  hand  for  making  the  trip  to 
the  fortieth  floor  quick  as  well  as  safe.  This,  in  a 
city  whose  people  are  jealous  of  lost  minutes,  has 
done  much  to  make  "going  up  in  the  air"  popular. 

[:6o 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

The  extensive  manufacture  of  plate-glass  in  this 
country,  is  another  though  less  vital  part  of  the  suc- 
cess of  high  buildings.  Such  window  glass  as  was 
used  ordinarily  in  1880,  would  scarcely  have  resisted 
the  winds  which  whistle  around  the  crests  of  Man- 
hattan's brick  and  steel  mountain  peaks.  At  that 
time,  however,  there  were  in  the  United  States  only 
three  plate-glass  factories  in  operation,  and  their 
product,  or  its  imported  rival,  was  expensive.  But 
in  the  following  year,  James  B  Ford  opened  his 
plate-glass  works  at  Creighton,  Pennsylvania,  and 
thus  began  an  era  of  prosperity  and  productiveness 
in  that  industry.  In  turn,  plentifulness  of  plate-glass 
tended  to  raise  the  quality  of  ordinary  window- 
panes  partly  by  competition,  partly  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  natural  gas  methods  of  manufacture  in  both 
instances.  Thus  designers  of  towering  structures 
were  not  hindered  by  having  to  search  for  a  strong, 
clear  substance  with  which  to  fill  their  windows. 
The  introduction  of  wired  glass,  which  will  not 
splinter  in  case  of  fire  and  which  admits  more  light 
to  hallways  and  elevator  shafts,  is  the  latest  improve- 
ment in  this  direction. 

Finally,  we  come  to  another  factor  of  prime  im- 
portance in  the  making  of  skyscrapers:  the  use  of 
electric  light  and  power.  By  1888,  the  year  in  which 
the  Tower  Building  was  erected,  the  New  York 
public  had  become  so  converted  to  the  incandescent 
lamp  as  to  expect  new  buildings  to  be  lit  by  it.  For 
this  reason  the  question  of  lighting  a  very  high 
building  with  gas  has  never  been  seriously  entered 
into.     It  could  be  done,  undoubtedly,  though  gas 

1:62] 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SKYSCRAPER 

would  prove  a  little  more  unwieldy  in  piping;  but 
the  demand  of  tenants  has  always  been  for  electric 
light. 

The  connection  of  electricity  with  the  skyscraper 
goes  far  deeper  than  the  matter  of  light.  Need  for 
electric  power  to  run  passenger  elevators  if  the  ser- 
vice is  to  be  swift  and  the  height  of  the  building 
is  great,  has  already  been  mentioned.  But  the  most 
fundamental  help,  literally  speaking,  which  electric 
current  gives  the  modern  building  is  in  the  construc- 
tion itself.  It  drives  machines  which  bore  for  foun- 
dations ;  it  moves  hoists  which  lift  girders  into  place ; 
it  operates  concrete  mixers ;  it  supplies  motive  power 
for  riveting.  In  short,  the  structure  as  it  goes  up  is 
an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  electricity  at  work. 

Leaving  for  a  moment  the  question  of  what 
"juice"  accomplishes  in  these  ways,  to  take  up  the 
description  later  on,  it  is  best,  at  this  point,  to  trace  in 
outline  the  progress  of  the  skyscraper  from  the  year 
1888  up  to  the  present. 

In  1889-90  the  New  York  World  Building  was 
erected  and  for  a  number  of  years  it  bore  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  tallest  office  structure  known. 
Its  sixteen  stories  were  regarded  as  marvelous.  In 
fact,  in  1893,  there  was  a  very  general  belief  that  no 
architect  would  dare  plan  anything  higher. 

The  number  of  stories  began  to  increase,  however, 
and  with  them,  a  sort  of  superstitious  terror  of  sky- 
scrapers. This  is  illustrated  by  a  bit  of  gossip  which 
went  the  rounds  of  New  York  in  1897.  It  was  said 
that  the  American  Tract  Society  Building  swayed 
in  the  wind  and  that  once— supposedly  from  this 

[63] 


WORK    AT   NIGHT   ON    A    SKYSCRAPER 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


1:64: 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SKYSCRAPER 

cause— a  clock  on  the  top  floor  had  stopped!  One 
is  led  strongly  to  suspect  that  somebody  forgot  to 
wind  that  clock.  The  report,  however,  was  seri- 
ously denied  in  a  magazine  article;  and  an  experi- 
ment afterward  proved  that  in  an  eighty-mile-an- 
hour  gale  a  skyscraper  swayed  about  one  quarter  of 
an  inch. 

In  1898,  some  of  the  tallest  edifices  in  New  York 
were  the  Ivins  Syndicate  Building,  twenty-eight 
stories  high;  the  St  Paul,  with  twenty-six  stories; 
the  Commercial  Cable,  of  twenty;  and  the  Manhat- 
tan Life,  two  stories  shorter  than  the  latter. 

The  "Singerhorn,"  as  it  has  been  picturesquely 
nicknamed,  and  the  Metropolitan  Tower,  with  their 
forty-odd  floors,  marked  the  next  stages  of  the  sky- 
scraper's growth,  while  today  Manhattan  Island 
contains  about  seven  hundred  tall  buildings.  Of 
these,  the  present  leader  in  height  is  the  new  fifty- 
five  story  Woolworth  Building. 

In  the  rise  of  this  man-made  mountain  range, 
which  has  transformed  New  York  into  a  commercial 
citadel,  Edison  Service  has  played  a  conspicuous 
part;  for  it  furnishes  the  giant  strength  which  goes 
to  put  together  an  enormous  building  with  speed 
and  accuracy. 

The  combined  force  of  motors  used  for  work  on 
a  single  building  sometimes  amounts  to  a  thousand 
horse- power  or  more. 

Some  of  this  energy  goes  to  operate  derricks  for 
raising  girders,  the  work  being  done  by  eighty  and 
forty  horse-power  motors.  Then,  millions  of  bricks 
must  be  lifted  to  the  floors  where  they  are  needed. 

1:65] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Forty  and  fifty  horse-power  motors  run  these  hoists 
which  resemble  freight  elevators.  At  the  same 
time,  the  deafening  process  of  riveting  must  go 
on.  For  this,  motors  drive  the  air-compressors 
which  do  the  work.  Often  the  labor  goes  on  night 
and  day,  and  the  rapidly  rising  structure  has  to  be 
wired  for  temporary  lights,  keeping  several  electri- 
cians busy.  Cement  and  concrete  mixing-machines, 
run  by  more  motors,  are  installed  in  the  basement, 
while  electrically  driven  compressed-air  chisels  are 
used  for  carving  the  ornamental  stonework. 

This  heavy  equipment  has  its  result  in  incredibly 
rapid  work,  so  that  today  it  is  possible  to  erect  a 
twenty-five-story  building  in  twelve  or  fourteen 
months. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  great  European  ca- 
thedrals grew  to  completion  in  forty  to  a  hundred 
years,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  steel  and  electricity  have 
made  short-cuts  for  the  architect. 

The  process  of  erecting  a  skyscraper  begins  with 
tearing  down  the  old  building.  This  contract 
usually  covers  shoring,  sheath-piling  and  the  laying 
of  a  temporary  sidewalk.  The  owner  of  the  build- 
ing is  insured  against  all  liability  for  damage  to 
passers-by.  Drilling  for  foundations  is  the  next  step 
and  electricity  enters  into  it. 

The  rolling  mills  have  perhaps  half  the  work 
of  building  done  by  the  time  the  substructure  is 
completed.  This,  by  the  way,  takes  from  four  to 
six  months.  But  the  putting  of  the  steel  in  place 
goes  on  quickly. 

As  soon  as  four  or  five  stories  of  the  framework 

[66] 


WEST  STREET 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


[67] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

are  in  place,  the  masonry  is  begun  on  the  ground 
floor.  When  the  roof  is  reached,  plumbers  are  work- 
ing in  the  basement  and  leaders  have  been  set  to 
carry  off  water  from  the  roof,  while  an  electrically 
driven  pump  is  drawing  away  surface  moisture 
from  the  cellar. 

Next,  the  steel  workers  prepare  elevator  shafts 
and  stairways,  while  plumbers  and  marble  contrac- 
tors are  at  work.  The  steam  up-and-down  pipes  are 
placed  and  electricians  lay  tubing  through  the 
building,  preparatory  to  wiring.  Then  come  the 
plasterers,  and,  after  that,  the  finishing  strokes: 
painting,  adjusting  of  elevators  and  the  placing  of 
electric  fixtures. 

When  a  skyscraper  is  completed  and  ready  for 
occupancy,  Edison  Service  begins  its  next  undertak- 
ing, the  making  of  this  great  structure  a  comforta- 
ble place  in  which  to  live.  It  lights  offices  and  show- 
rooms; it  runs  elevators;  it  drives  pumps  to  lift  the 
water  supply  to  the  topmost  story;  it  draws  in  fresh 
air  from  out-of-doors;  it  seals  documents;  it  adds 
columns  of  figures;  it  copies  plans  for  architects;  it 
supplies  added  oxygen  to  crowded  rooms;  it  drives 
apparatus  for  the  special  work  of  the  doctor,  the 
dentist,  the  chemist;  in  fact,  it  performs  whatever 
tasks  man's  ingenuity  has  taught  it,  for  the  greater 
comfort  of  the  skyscraper's  inhabitants. 


[68] 


THE   SINGER   BUILDING    FROM    BROOKLYN    HEIGHTS 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


[69: 


ALONG    THE   NEW    YORK   WATERFRONT 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


lio-} 


Three  Decades  of  Industrial  Change 

IN  1882  the  use  of  electricity  as  motive  power  in 
factories  and  workshops  was  a  dream  of  the  fu- 
ture. Today  it  is  an  accomplished  fact,  tending 
steadily  toward  the  increase  and  improvement  of 
production,  and  toward  the  greater  comfort  and 
safety  of  workers.  Its  influence  in  this  department 
of  modern  life  is  summed  up  in  a  recent  article  from 
the  Scientific  American  Supplement:  "Electric- 
ity," it  states,  "has  become  a  mighty  ruler  in  the 
realm  of  industry  and  trade.  The  concentration  in 
the  production  of  energy,  simplicity  of  power  trans- 
mission, and  possibility  of  power  distribution  down 
to  the  smallest  units  have  made  possible  this  victori- 
ous career.  .  .  .  The  present  tendencies  of  speciali- 
zation and  production  on  a  large  scale  in  a  series  of 
successive  stages  have  been  promoted  by  electricity, 
while  the  reduction  in  the  cost  of  operation,  elimina- 
tion of  manual  labor,  improvement  in  the  social  and 
hygienic  condition  of  all  branches  of  industry  have 
brought  about  more  powerful  developments  than 
have  ever  been  witnessed  in  so  short  a  time  in  any 
field  of  human  activity." 

That  Edison  realized  the  efficacy  of  electricity  as 
a  power  for  driving  machinery,  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  he  invented  a  motor  before  he  had  perfected  the 
incandescent  lamp.    This  was  in  1879  while  he  was 

:7i: 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


EAST  RIVER 
From  an  etching  by  H  Farber.     Harper's  Weekly,  March  13  1880 


working  out  his  electric  system.  He  had  already 
designed  his  dynamo,  and  the  motor  was  an  adapta- 
tion of  the  same  machine.  Thus,  when  the  Pearl 
Street  central  station  began  to  supply  with  current 
its  network  of  mains  and  feeders  in  1882,  the  seed  of 
industrial  change  was  planted  in  New  York  soil. 

About  1869  or  1870  Edison  had  perhaps  his  first 
dealings  with  a  motor.  It  was  not  his,  but  the  sup- 
posed invention  of  a  man  named  Payne,  as  the  story 
is  told  in  the  Edison  biography.  Payne  alleged  that 
he  had  perfected  a  device  by  which  sawing  could  be 
done  by  electricity.  He  arranged  for  an  exhibition 
of  the  machine  at  his  Newark  shop  to  Professor 
Morse,  of  telegraph  fame,  and  General  Lefferts,  of 
the  Gold  and  Stock  Telegraph  Company,  who  was 
anxious  to  invest  money  in  this  new  marvel. 

[72: 


THREE  DECADES  OF  CHANGE 

Fortunately,  as  it  afterward  turned  out,  General 
Lefferts  decided  to  take  along  with  him  his  young 
employee,  Thomas  A  Edison,  to  look  over  the  mo- 
tor. This  machine,  weighing  perhaps  six  hundred 
pounds,  was  of  circular  form  and  stood  with  the 
ends  of  several  small  magnets  projecting  through 
the  floor.  A  belt  connected  it  with  a  large  circular 
saw.  At  the  proper  moment,  Payne  started  his  mo- 
tor and  the  sawing  began,  the  power  generated 
astounding  beholders  because  its  source  was  two 
small  cell  batteries.  But  Edison  had  suspicions  of 
something  wrong.  Putting  his  hand  on  the  frame- 
work of  the  motor,  he  noticed  that  the  latter  shook 
slightly,  in  time  to  the  puffing  of  a  steam-engine 
across  an  alley.  This  explained  the  wonder  of  the 
machine,  for  it  was  really  worked  by  the  engine  by 
means  of  a  belt  under  the  floor,  one  of  the  magnets 
being  used  to  shift  the  power  on  and  off,  the  others 
being  purely  ornamental !  It  was  a  dozen  or  so  years 
after  this,  that  genuine  electric  propulsion  became 
practical. 

In  glancing  back  at  industrial  conditions  in  New 
York  City  in  1882,  three  facts  stand  out  as  funda- 
mentally connected  with  the  changes  which  were  to 
follow.  One  of  these  has  been  mentioned— the 
absence  of  all  electrical  processes  in  manufacture. 
But  the  first  step  toward  their  introduction  had 
already  been  taken  in  the  beginning  of  Edison  Ser- 
vice. 

Another  state  of  afifairs  which  has  a  bearing  on 
the  electrification  of  workshops,  is  the  fact  that  in 
1882  no  attention  was  paid  by  the  general  public  to 

1:73:]" 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

factory  conditions,  the  first  law  of  this  kind  having 
been  passed  in  1886. 

Lastly  the  immigration  question,  for  New  York 
City  at  least,  had  begun  to  assume  its  present  pro- 
portions, for  in  1880  the  great  annual  influx  from 
Europe  had  suddenly  nearly  tripled  and  had  taken 


s^PfiJ7^-^'^>i;^a!»'Ss^p^aw»i 


IHE  NEW  FARMERS'  MARKET  IN  NEW   VORK 
From  a  sketch  by  C  A  Keetles.     Harper  s  Weekly,  January  lo  1880 

on  a  new  character.  Instead  of  being  composed 
largely  of  Northern  European  races,  it  now  had  its 
source  in  Italy,  Russia,  Roumania  and  Austria- 
Hungary. 

It  is  an  interesting  study  to  notice  how  the  over- 
crowding of  the  city  with  strange  peoples,  and  the 
lack  of  restraints  as  to  their  employment,  brought 
about  industrial  conditions  which  today  electricity 
is  helping  to  remedy. 

To  begin  at  the  beginning— if  such  a  thing  is  pos- 

1:74: 


THREE  DECADES  OF  CHANGE 

sible  in  so  complex  a  cosmopolis— the  East  Side  had 
been  a  teeming,  ill-supervised  region  long  before 
the  eighties.  In  1817  and  again  in  1828  sudden  rises 
in  the  number  of  immigrants  had  filled  its  old 
dwelling  houses  to  overflowing.  The  practice  of  a 
whole  family  living  in  one  or  two  rooms  and  some- 
times taking  boarders  is  not  a  recent  one,  it  seems, 
for  in  1834  Garritt  Forbes,  then  city  inspector  of  the 
Board  of  Health,  called  attention  for  the  first  time 
to  the  high  death  rate  in  this  region.  He  blamed 
"mercenary  landlords  who  only  contrive  in  what 
manner  they  can  stow  the  greatest  number  of  human 
beings  in  the  smallest  space."  New  York  had  a  pop- 
ulation of  270,000  at  that  time. 

In  1842  Dr  John  H  Griscom  made  an  inspection 
of  the  city,  and  he  found  that  1459  cellars  were  be- 
ing used  as  residences  by  7196  persons.  After  the 
publication  of  his  report,  citizens  awoke  to  the  need 
for  some  sort  of  supervision  of  tenement  districts 
and  efforts  were  made  to  better  their  condition.  But 
the  problem,  large  when  first  undertaken,  kept 
growing,  and  the  enforcement  of  regulations  was  a 
difficult  matter. 

In  1882  the  laws  of  the  city  required  that  a  cellar, 
to  be  rented  as  a  residence,  must  have  at  least  one 
foot  of  its  height  above  ground  and  must  be  pro- 
vided with  one  window.  This  would  not  seem  to 
have  been  too  stringent  a  demand,  but  it  was  some- 
what modified  by  the  agreement  that  if  such  a  cellar 
had  a  windowless  back  room,  leased  in  conjunction 
with  the  front  room,  the  former  apartment  might  be 
considered  to  be  properly  ventilated  if  it  had  a  tran- 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

som.  The  New  York  which  possessed  this  now  ob- 
solete law  prided  itself  on  having  come  a  good  way 
on  the  road  to  housing  its  poor  properly. 

Into  the  East  Side,  already  thus  overburdened 
with  population,  were  swarming  in  the  early  eigh- 
ties, hordes  of  aliens,  mainly  agricultural  people, 
ignorant  of  our  customs,  separated  from  us  by  the 
barrier  of  strange  speech.  Small  wonder  that,  afraid 
to  push  out  into  the  open  country  of  which  they  knew 
nothing,  they  preferred  to  huddle  together  in  the 
maelstrom  of  a  community  busy  with  its  own  affairs. 

Once  settled  in  New  York,  they  had  to  get  work, 
and  being  mostly  unskilled  they  could  not  command 
good  wages.  In  this  way,  the  factories  and  work- 
rooms of  the  city  found  themselves  always  supplied 
with  "hands"  glad  to  get  positions  for  small  pay. 

At  the  same  time  there  was  no  law  regulating 
hours  of  work,  lighting,  ventilation  or  the  safe- 
guarding of  dangerous  machinery.  Any  such  legis- 
lation was  looked  upon  as  violating  the  citizen's 
right  of  contract,  without  taking  into  consideration 
the  fact  that  these  newly  arrived  Americans,  poorly 
sheltered  in  their  own  dwellings  and  pressed  by  ne- 
cessity, were  in  no  position  to  judge  or  to  speak  for 
themselves  in  industrial  matters. 

Before  long,  however,  people  began  to  realize 
that  the  unrestricted  work  of  women  and  children 
was  not  a  question  of  individual  willingness,  but  one 
of  possible  menace  to  the  whole  community.  The 
first  factory  law  in  New  York  State  was  passed,  ac- 
cordingly, in  1886.  It  was  called,  "An  act  to  regu- 
late the  employment  of  women  and  children  in  man- 

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THE  GOAL  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT 

Lighted  for  the  Hudson- Fulton  Celebration 


THREE  DECADES  OF  CHANGE 

Lifacturing  establishments  and  to  provide  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  inspectors  to  enforce  the  same." 

Following  this,  came  demands  for  the  adoption  of 
safer  machinery,  for  proper  ventilation  and  sanita- 
tion, and  for  suitable  adjustment  of  hours  of  labor. 
Men  were  beginning  to  see  that  ill-health,  over- 
work and  disaster  affect  not  only  the  worker,  but 
through  him  the  whole  body  politic. 

Just  here  electric  power,  which  had  all  the  while 
been  quietly  extending  its  usefulness,  stepped  in, 
promising  to  provide  safety,  accuracy,  speed  and 
comfort.  Nor  has  it  fallen  short  of  this  prediction, 
for  wherever  it  has  been  tried  it  has  been  found  to 
increase  production  as  well  as  to  lessen  danger  and 
disease. 

It  will  be  necessary  now  to  go  back  a  little  and 
trace  the  growth  of  Edison  Service  in  this  direction. 
When  the  first  central  station  opened,  it  supplied 
current  for  lighting  only ;  but'  in  the  summer  of  1 884 
electrically  driven  fans  were  introduced  into  a  few 
downtown  offices.  It  is  said  that  those  first  motors 
lay  unused  on  the  shelves  of  the  Pearl  Street  head- 
quarters for  several  months  before  they  were  put 
into  commission.  So  great  was  the  success  of  the 
fans,  however,  that  in  the  following  summer  there 
was  a  very  considerable  demand  for  them. 

In  1888  several  Pearl  Street  printing-offices  ar- 
ranged to  have  their  presses  run  by  electricity.  This 
innovation  was  found  most  satisfactory,  and  from 
that  time  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating  Com- 
pany took  up  the  supply  of  power  as  an  important 
part  of  its  business.    A  motor  set  up  in  the  Hartfield 


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[78: 


THREE  DECADES  OF  CHANGE 

Telegraphic  Code  Publishing  Company  at  73  Pearl 
Street  in  1889  is  still  running,  and  its  owner  says  it 
has  cost  him  only  $25  in  repair  bills  during  more 
than  twenty-two  years. 

In  1889  ^h^  Illuminating  Company  supplied  mo- 
tors on  its  lines  with  current  amounting  to  470 
horse-power.  That  was  the  first  year  that  the  motor 
load  was  sufficiently  important  to  be  included  in  the 
report  of  the  board  of  trustees.  The  next  year  it  was 
697  horse-power  and  in  1891  there  was  a  gain  of  188 
per  cent,  the  record  standing  at  2000  horse-power. 

In  1 89 1,  when  the  new  station  at  Pearl  and  Elm 
Streets  was  building,  the  supplying  of  current  to 
workrooms  had  become  a  question  worthy  of  con- 
sideration; for  the  company's  report  in  January  of 
that  year  said :  "The  site  in  Pearl  and  Duane  Streets 
near  Elm  ...  is  central  to  the  most  important 
lighting  districts  of  the  city,  being  between  the  bank- 
ing and  general  business  districts  to  the  south,  the 
dry-goods  district  to  the  west,  the  important  small 
factory  district  to  the  north,  and  the  Bowery  and 
Grand  Street  shop  district  to  the  east." 

In  1890  a  motor  inspection  bureau  was  organized 
to  encourage  the  use  of  electric  power  by  keeping 
such  equipment  in  good  order.  Later— in  1897— 
this  work  was  taken  over  by  an  outside  firm. 

The  growth  of  power  supply  in  1895  ^'^^s  marked. 
Forty-seven  types  of  motors  were  installed,  many  of 
them  being  for  the  operation  of  ventilating  fans,  but 
even  more  for  lifting  elevators.  Every  year  since 
then  has  seen  a  steady  rise  in  the  power  load  until  now 
it  is  about  six  hundred  times  what  is  was  in  1889. 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

These  figures,  of  course,  do  not  represent  indus- 
trial development  alone,  since  they  include  the  sup- 
plying of  current  for  elevators  and  also  its  consump- 
tion for  electric  attachments  in  homes  and  offices; 
but  they  may  serve  to  show  how  great  has  become 
the  demand  for  power. 

That  Edison  Service  contributes  much  to  indus- 
tries in  New  York  at  present  is  evidenced  by  the 
number  and  variety  of  trades  which  call  upon  it.  As 
printing  establishments  were  pioneers  in  the  use  of 
nK)tor-driven  machinery,  so  today,  newspaper  of- 
fices are  among  the  largest  consumers  of  power. 
These  buildings  may  not  be  looked  upon  as  factories 
by  the  outsider,  yet  their  enormous  presses  and 
their  bustling  composing-rooms  entitle  them  to 
be  so  ranked.  Besides  setting  presses  in  motion, 
electricity  operates  the  melting-pots  of  linotype  ma- 
chines, burns  away  superfluous  felting  in  the 
"forms,"  lights  composing-rooms,  stereotyping  de- 
partments and  city  rooms.  Central  station  service 
supplies  the  JVorld,  the  Times,  the  Sun,  the  Amer- 
ican and  Journal,  the  Press,  the  Evening  Post,  the 
Globe  and  the  Morning  Telegraph,  thus  doing 
much  to  hand  New  Yorkers  their  matutinal  news- 
sheets.  It  is  perhaps  equally  useful  in  the  realms  of 
magazine  and  book  publishing. 

It  also  turns  wheels  and  drives  implements  for 
machine-shops,  clothing  makers  and  confectioners, 
while  it  kneads  bread  for  bakers  and  cuts  stone. 
Besides  this,  it  grinds  spices  and  is  used  in  box  fac- 
tories, textile  works  and  refrigerating  plants. 

The  feasibility  of  connecting  single  tools  or  ma- 

[Ho] 


Vftf*:.. 


A   NEWSPAPER    PRESS-ROOM 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


[8.] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

chines  directly  with  their  source  of  power,  has  had 
much  to  do  with  the  growing  use  of  the  motor  drive. 
This  principle  of  the  direct-connected  unit,  first  put 
into  practice  in  traveling  cranes,  was  seen  to  be  so 
effective  that  it  has  since  been  adapted  to  all  kinds 
of  implements,  large  and  small,  reducing  serious 
delays  in  case  of  breakdown  and  economizing  cur- 
rent. 

Loft  buildings,  which  are  going  up  on  the  lo- 
cations of  many  old  factories,  are  practically  all 
wired  for  Edison  current,  and  this  holds  true  for 
new  manufactories  of  every  sort.  The  convenience 
of  central  station  service,  together  with  its  added 
safety  and  comfort,  are  some  of  the  reasons  for  its 
wide-spread  popularity.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that 
it  is  peculiarly  needed  in  a  city  where  land  values 
are  so  high  that  each  owner  cannot  spare  room  for 
a  generating  plant,  and  it  becomes  clear  that  such  a 
system  is  an  economic  necessity. 

Moreover,  electric  motive  power  is  in  demand 
by  the  producers  themselves.  When  the  striking 
New  York  garment  workers  went  back  to  their 
shops,  one  of  their  stipulations  was  that  all  the  ma- 
chinery they  used  should  be  run  by  electricity. 
Their  reasons  were  that  engines  are  noisy,  that  over- 
head belting  is  a  collector  of  dust  and  a  danger, 
that  the  use  of  foot  power  is  exhausting  and  some- 
times crippling.  This  feeling  among  garment 
workers  is  rapidly  bringing  central  station  supply 
into  the  various  small  factory  districts  of  the  city, 
where  its  presence  is  improving  conditions  in  that 
industry  as  well  as  in  others. 

C82: 


K 


SHAFTS   AND    BELTING    IN    A    FACTORY 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


C833 


t//5?^- 


BUILDING  THE  SKYSCRAPER 

Drawn  by  E  Horter 


[84] 


THREE  DECADES  OF  CHANGE 

Another  recognition  of  the  advantages  of  electric 
power  in  trades  is  its  very  general  use  in  Manhattan 
vocational  schools  and  courses.  Not  long  ago  an 
educator  stated  that  all  students  in  these  classes 
should  be  taught  the  management  of  electrically 
driven  implements,  because  only  in  this  way  could 
they  be  prepared  for  the  more  desirable  positions 
and  work  in  the  most  favorable  environments.  Be- 
sides, this  teacher  urged,  as  electricity  is  coming  to 
be  more  and  more  generally  relied  upon  in  manu- 
facturing processes,  it  is  the  duty  of  schools  to  grad- 
uate pupils  experienced  in  the  new  methods.  The 
New  York  Vocational  School  for  Boys,  it  may  be 
added,  has  its  entire  mechanical  equipment  sup- 
plied with  current. 

Thus,  electricity  is  lightening  drudgery  in  the 
great  task  of  furnishing  the  world  with  goods,  and 
it  is  accomplishing  this  to  the  advantage  of  the  mer- 
chant, the  worker  and  the  consumer. 

As  to  the  further  possibilities  of  this  transforma- 
tion, they  cannot  be  better  stated  than  by  quoting 
again  from  Dr  Siegel's  review  of  the  question  in 
the  Scientific  American  Supplement:  "Wherever 
electricity  has  been  adopted  there  has  been  increased 
safety  and  efficiency,  with  ...  a  substitution  of 
mechanical  labor  for  human  and  animal  muscular 
work.  There  is  thus  an  increasing  spiritualization 
of  labor  which,  commenced  by  the  steam-engine,  has 
been  promoted  more  and  more  by  electricity,  and  we 
must  expect  this  tendency  to  extend  even  farther  in 
the  future." 

mi 


j       THE  NEW  YORK 
I  PUBLIC  LIT^KAUY 

^lOTOB    LkNOV  APT" 
B 


A  Revolution  in  Housework 

THE  same  thirty  years  which  have  seen  the 
rising  tide  of  change  sweep  over  commer- 
cial and  industrial  New  York,  have  been 
marked  by  a  quiet,  but  none  the  less  steady,  altera- 
tion in  the  mechanism  of  the  home.  For  the  spirit 
of  an  age  works  in  every  direction  and  all  depart- 
ments of  living  move  in  parallels,  interacting,  more 
or  less,  upon  each  other.  As  an  instance  of  this,  it 
may  be  observed  that  while  the  skyscraper  has 
been  springing  up  in  the  lower  half  of  Manhattan, 
its  mate,  the  apartment-house,  has  gained  ascend- 
ancy over  the  northern  part  of  the  island  and  the 
Bronx.  The  coming  of  this  multiple  domicile  is,  in 
itself,  an  interesting  leaf  from  the  history  of  New 
York,  and  serves,  besides,  as  a  commentary  on  vari- 
ous stages  of  home  life  in  the  city. 

In  1882  "flats"  were  already  numerous  and  popu- 
lar, while  the  handsome  elevator  apartment-house 
had  been  accepted  as  a  suitable  residence  for  fash- 
ionable folk. 

In  the  Sun  of  September  4  that  year,  the  very 
day  on  which  the  Pearl  Street  station  was  opened, 
appeared  an  editorial  entitled:  A  Great  Change 
in  New  York.  "The  work  of  changing  New  York 
from  a  city  of  private,  individual  dwelling  houses 
into  one  of  tenements,  each  inhabited  by  a  large 

C87] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

number  of  families,  is  now  going  on  more  rapidly 
than  ever.  It  will  not  take  many  years  to  make  this 
city  resemble  Paris  in  that  respect.  A  comparatively 
small  number  of  people  will  have  houses  to  them- 
selves. .  .  .  The  great  mass  of  the  population,  poor 
and  well-to-do,  will  be  crowded  in  tenements." 

The  article  went  on  to  hail  this  innovation  as  an 
improvement  on  the  conditions  of  living  then  prev- 
alent. For  land  had  become  so  valuable  that  it 
was  impossible  for  a  man  of  moderate  or  small 
means  to  own  or  rent  a  private  house  in  a  good 
residence  district,  and  this  had  forced  many  people 
to  take  up  a  boarding-house  existence.  But  the  ad- 
vent of  buildings  subdivided  into  independent 
groups  of  rooms,  held  out  an  opportunity  for  the 
resumption  of  family  life,  without  which  no  com- 
munity is  happy  or  prosperous. 

The  first  apartments  in  New  York  were  opened  in 
1865,  having  been  arranged  in  a  remodeled  club- 
house at  Fifteenth  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue.  Al- 
though they  were  small  and  very  expensive,  they  had 
all  been  leased  before  work  on  them  was  completed. 
Within  a  few  years,  several  other  buildings  of  the 
same  sort  were  begun,  and  during  the  twelve  months 
of  1873  about  two  hundred  apartment-houses  were 
built. 

Before  this  period,  men  who  did  not  want  to  move 
their  families  into  boarding-houses  and  who  would 
not  bring  up  their  children  in  tenements,  had  re- 
sorted to  the  practice  of  leasing  substantial  "brown- 
stone  fronts"  at  rentals  far  beyond  what  they  could 
afiford.  Then,   to   recoup,   they  sublet  portions  of 

CSS] 


'  jW'^ .. 


^^^  -i 


^l^ll 


:    . ■  ;-*V 


--tb;:- 


'-     U      \ 


RIVERSIDE    DRIVE 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 

[893 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

their  homes,  or  perhaps  their  wives  took  table- 
boarders.  There  was,  of  course,  in  this  arrangement 
the  uncertainty  of  finding  tenants  and  the  constant 
worry  of  making  ends  meet;  but  it  enabled  a  man  to 
live  in  a  good  street  and  to  keep  up  that  sine  qua  non 
of  New  York  existence— "appearances." 

For  these  people,  the  apartment-house  looked  like 
a  haven  of  refuge.  However,  before  long,  the  very 
demand  for  such  accommodations  had  raised  their 
price,  and  owners  began  to  say  that  land  values  were 
so  high  as  to  make  low  rents  out  of  the  question. 
Still,  the  problem  of  how  to  live  was  ameliorated  if 
not  solved,  for  a  degree  of  privacy  and  unity  had 
been  secured  to  the  family,  and  a  great  step  had  been 
taken  toward  the  simplification  of  housework.  Run- 
ning expenses  in  the  home  were  lessened,  and  the  ser- 
vant question  was  made  to  assume  smaller  propor- 
tions by  reducing  the  necessary  drudgery.  That  the 
new  domesticity  had  some  drawbacks  no  one  denied, 
but  it  was  the  only  practical  compromise  with  the 
exigencies  of  living  in  New  York  City.  Today, 
after  thirty  years  of  development,  its  only  rival  is 
the  great  suburban  exodus.  And  that  has  been  made 
possible  largely  by  electric  traction;  but— as  Kip- 
ling says  — "That  is  another  story." 

In  1882,  then,  the  average  New  York  home— out- 
side of  the  tenements— was  either  a  three-story-and- 
basement  house,  twenty  feet  or  so  wide  and  exactly 
like  its  neighbors,  or  an  apartment  whose  size,  deco- 
rations and  comforts  depended  on  the  purse  of  its 
temporary  possessor.  It  might  have  windowless 
bedrooms  and  be  perched  at  the  top  of  four  flights 

C90] 


THE  MALL,  CENTRAL  PARK 

Nuevci  York  Ilustrada,  1886 


CqO 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


A  SKATING  PARTY  ON  CENTRAL  PARK  LAKK 
Drawn  by  A  B  Frost.     Harper  s  Weekly,  February  28  1880 


of  stairs,  or  it  might  command  the  services  of  a  much- 
buttoned  elevator  boy  and  a  view  of  Central  Park. 

As  to  general  internal  aspect,  the  home  varied  ac- 
cording to  taste.  But,  though  the  era  of  crocheted 
antimacassars  on  chairs  and  conch-shells  on  mantel- 
pieces was  waning,  mid-Victorian  black  walnut  fur- 
niture was  much  in  use.  This  horror  of  unnecessary 
bulges,  being  too  substantial  to  wear  out  and  too  ex- 
pensive deliberately  to  be  thrown  away,  continued 
to  protrude  bunches  of  grapes  into  the  backs  of  un- 
wary callers  and  to  offer  the  marble  tops  of  its  tables 
for  the  repose  of  the  ubiquitous  photograph  album. 

The  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia  a  few 
years  earlier,  however,  had  already  awakened  better 
and  simpler  taste  in  interior  decoration.  There, 
thousands  of  Americans  had  beheld  the  Eastlake 

[92] 


A  REVOLUTION  IN  HOUSEWORK 

house  from  England.  They  had  seen  the  beauty  and 
straightforwardness  of  William  Morris's  furniture, 
to  which  we  owe  the  present  "Mission"  styles.  They 
had  had  arranged  for  them  good  examples  of  Eliza- 
bethan work,  of  colonial  mahogany,  of  Italian 
renaissance,  of  sturdy  Queen  Anne  tendencies.  They 
had  been  able,  even,  to  compare  genuine  Louis  XV 
lightness  with  the  perverted  rococo  carvings  and  jig- 
saw work  which  it  had  inspired.  And  many  a  wo- 
man had  gone  away  from  the  exhibition  secretly  de- 
termined to  carry  out  in  her  own  rooms  the  effects 
she  had  noticed. 

Her  efforts  in  this  direction  were  not  always  suc- 
cessful and  often  resulted  in  a  conglomeration  of 
plush  parlor  sets,  easels,  spinning-wheels,  and  dried 
cat-tails.  Who  shall  write  of  the  agony  of  soul  of 
the  woman  who,  having  learned  better,  was  obliged 
to  go  on  living  for  years  with  the  red  velvet  sofa  and 
chairs  which  she  had  purchased  in  the  days  of  her 
ignorance?  But,  through  mistakes  and  disappoint- 
ments, she  was  discovering — it  was  generally  "she" 
because  "he"  was  ingrossed  in  business— the  value 
of  simplicity  and  sincerity  in  surroundings. 

This,  in  the  eighties,  was  the  leaven  already 
working,  which  would  result  in  the  present  taste 
for  dignified,  well-made  furniture,  reposeful  col- 
ors and  intelligent  treatment  of  line  and  mass  in 
household  decoration.  It  had  much  still  to  accom- 
plish, for  the  curse  of  grooves  and  twists  was  upon 
even  the  woodwork  and  cornices  of  every  house;  so 
that  thirty  years  have  scarcely  sufficed  to  induce 
lumber  mills  to  turn  out  smooth,  plain  moldings, 

[93] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

while  preposterous  carvings  still  adorn  certain 
grades  of  furniture.  Reverting  to  the  year  1882,  and 
ceasing  to  look  upon  the  home  from  an  esthetic 
standpoint,  the  work  of  making  it  attractive,  clean 
and  comfortable,  of  cooking  meals  and  washing 
dishes,  was  then  a  laborious  hand  process. 

Spring-cleaning,  for  instance,  raged  in  varying 
degrees  in  every  household.  In  some,  where  fore- 
sight was  aided  by  the  presence  of  many  workers,  it 
was  merely  a  period  of  some  little  discomfort  and 
interruption ;  but  for  others  it  was  a  yearly  horror, 
to  be  conducted  by  the  conscientious,  hardworking 
housewife  and  to  be  shared  by  every  member  of 
the  family.  Taking  up  the  carpets  began  it,  or 
rather,  preparations  for  taking  them  up;  and,  hard- 
wood floors  being  little  used,  this  meant  the  upheaval 
of  almost  every  room  in  the  house  one  after  another. 
Bookcases  were  emptied  of  their  contents  and  the 
books,  carefully  dusted,  were  placed  in  clothes-bas- 
kets to  await  the  restoration  of  the  room,  while  all 


AT  MANHAITAX   HEACH 
Niievii  }'t>rA-  Jliisiraiia,  iS86 


[94] 


CHARMS    OF   BRIGHTON    BEACH    IN   THE    EIGHTIES 

Nueva  York  Iltistmda,  1886 


[95] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

other  heavy  furniture  was  removed.  Carpets  were 
next  rolled  up  and  carried  into  the  back  yard  for 
beating,  or,  if  their  owner  lived  in  a  flat,  sent  away 
to  be  cleaned.  Closets  and  cupboards  having  been 
overhauled,  pictures  were  taken  down  from  all  the 
walls,  wiped  and  stored  temporarily  in  other  rooms. 
About  this  time  a  terrible  odor  of  soap  and  wet  floors 
pervaded  the  establishment.  Then  came  the  night 
when  a  cold  dinner  was  served  in  the  kitchen  to  save 
trouble.  An  unpleasant  effort  to  maintain  a  pleasant 
atmosphere  during  the  meal  generally  accompanied 
this  ceremony.  After  that,  little  by  little,  things  be- 
gan to  go  back  into  their  places  and  within  a  few 
days,  members  of  the  family  were  able  to  resume 
their  routine  of  life,  to  rest  and  rub  their  strained 
muscles  with  arnica. 

Housecleaning  brings  us  naturally  to  the  item  of 
the  rubbish  barrel.  At  that  time  it  might  be  made 
the  receptacle  of  anything— ashes,  cats  or  discarded 
lace  curtains.  Nor  was  it  required  that  fire-prevent- 
ing, metal  ash-cans  be  used,  or  that  a  cover  be  placed 
on  the  garbage  pail.  Municipal  housekeeping,  in 
its  relation  both  to  the  household  and  to  public 
health,  has  made  a  decided  advance  since  then.  At 
present,  ashes,  rubbish  and  garbage  must  be  care- 
fully separated  and  placed  in  prescribed  containers, 
this  doing  much  to  facilitate  their  safe  and  economi- 
cal disposal. 

To  go  back  to  housework  itself,  few  if  any  modern 
aids  to  cooking  were  in  use  at  that  time,  though  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  word  "modern"  is 
relative,  and  that  the  coal  range,  with  its  connected 

[96] 


A  REVOLUTION  IN  HOUSEWORK 

hot-water  supply,  had  been  accepted  as  a  wonder- 
fully up-to-date  labor-saving  device  not  very  many 
years  before.  But  the  idea  of  making  toast  at  the 
breakfast  table  or  of  keeping  the  meal  hot  and  ready 
overnight  in  a  fireless  cooker,  would  have  been  re- 
garded as  fantastic. 

The  washing  by  hand  of  clothes  and  dishes  were 
heavy  monotonous  tasks,  far  from  inviting,  even 
when  the  worker  was  provided  with  plenty  of  hot 
water  and  stationary  tubs.  And  ironing  day,  in  hot 
weather,  rounded  out  this  nineteenth  century  ordeal 
by  fire  and  water.  A  roaring  blaze  had  to  be  kept 
up,  the  use  even  of  gas  for  this  purpose  being  still  a 
thing  of  the  future ;  and  the  whole  house  sweltered. 

In  the  early  eighties,  then,  household  duties  were 
performed  by  hand,  at  the  expense  of  strength,  en- 


CHRISTMAS  AT  THE  FIVE  POINTS  HOUSE  OF  INDUSTRY 
Drawn  by  W  T  Sraedley.     Harper  s  Weekly,  January  lo  1880 


[97] 


THE   PASSING   OF   THE    BROWNSTONE   FRONT 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


1:98] 


A  REVOLUTION  IN  HOUSEWORK 

ergy  and  patience ;  but  this  doing  them  was  accepted 
as  a  matter  of  course,  for  no  other  way  had  yet  been 
discovered. 

The  year  1882,  however,  marks  the  beginning  of 
a  new  era  in  housework,  for  Edison's  electric  light 
and  power  system,  put  into  effect  that  September, 
had  been  planned  by  its  inventor  to  meet  the  needs 
not  only  of  the  office  but  also  of  the  home.  It  was 
destined  to  play  as  great  a  part  in  the  revolution  of 
home  industries  as  in  the  change  of  business  and  fac- 
tory conditions,  but  its  application  here  has  not  been 
a  sudden  affair;  rather  a  matter  of  slow,  steady, 
quiet  growth. 

To  realize  the  far-reaching  influence  which  elec- 
tricity is  having  on  domestic  affairs  today,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  look  into  the  life  of  a  New  York  house- 
hold. This  typical  family  probably  lives  in  an 
apartment.  If  it  is  lucky,  it  does  not  approach  its 
Lares  and  Penates  afoot  but  is  lifted  thither  by  an 
electrically  driven  elevator. 

In  the  suite  which  makes  this  family's  home,  Edi- 
son Service  supplies  light,  thereby  doing  away  with 
smoked  ceilings  and  the  scattering  of  burnt  matches. 
And  to  electric  lighting  is  due  the  now  commonly 
accepted  luxury  of  snapping  a  switch  as  one  enters 
a  room,  instead  of  fumbling  in  the  dark  to  find  the 
light. 

The  annual  housecleaning  volcano  is  quiescent  if 
not  extinct,  for  electric  power  stands  always  ready 
to  operate  the  vacuum  cleaner.  Walls  and  floors  can 
be  kept  immaculate,  cleaner  than  the  most  exacting 
housekeeper  of  a  few  years  ago  demanded;  while 

[99] 


824yB 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

the  same  instrument  draws  dust  out  of  upholstered 
furniture,  mattresses  and  heavy  hangings. 

By  the  help  of  electric  current,  the  weekly  iron- 
ing is  made  quicker  and  simpler.  Moreover,  this 
aid  is  always  available  for  the  pressing  which  ac- 
companies the  dressmaker's  invasion,  while  the  same 
current  runs  the  sewing-machine. 

Then,  in  the  dining-room,  the  electric  chafing- 
dish  and  tea-kettle  invite  an  impromptu  after-thea- 
tre supper.  In  the  morning,  the  late-comer  to  break- 
fast may  prepare  his  own  fresh  toast  in  a  jiflfy,  with- 
out rumpling  the  feelings  of  the  cook.  But  even 
should  the  latter  leave,  the  housewife  might  perhaps 
put  roast,  vegetables  and  pudding  for  the  night's 
dinner  into  an  electric  automatic  cooker,  turn  on 
the  current  for  a  few  minutes,  turn  it  off  again, 
and  go  out  for  the  day.  And  the  contingency  of 
having  to  do  the  family  washing  need  not  disturb 
her,  for  current,  by  turning  a  crank,  can  simplify 
this  also. 

Thus  central  station  service  enters  into  household 
life,  but  the  limits  of  its  possibilities  have  not  yet 
been  reached.  Every  year  sees  the  perfection  of 
new  electrical  devices  for  making  home  pleasant; 
a  better  place  for  the  servant;  a  better  place  for 
the  woman  who  does  her  own  work;  an  organism 
which  responds  more  quickly  to  the  needs  of  all 
who  live  within  its  walls.  And  this  is  only  another 
way  of  saying  that  Edison  Service  is  bringing  to  the 
home,  no  less  than  to  the  skyscraper  and  the  work- 
shop, greater  comfort  in  living,  greater  ease  in 
working,  cleaner  and  more  healthful  surroundings. 

[lOO] 


ft  t» 


J 


THE  METROPOLITAN  TOWER 

The  twenty  minutes'  exposure  necessary  for  taking  this  picture  is 
recorded  in  the  movement  of  the  lighted  clock  hand 


Thirty  Years'  Growth  within 
the  Company 

IN  tracing  the  development  of  a  large  organiza- 
tion it  is  simplest  to  begin  with  the  more  general 
facts  and  work  from  them  to  ways,  means 
and  details.  Accordingly,  an  outline  of  the  growth 
of  the  Edison  central  station  system  in  New  York 
City  will  be  followed  by  somewhat  more  particular 
descriptions  of  equipment,  methods  and  manage- 
ment. In  this  treatment.  The  New  York  Edison 
Company  and  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating 
Company,  of  which  it  is  the  successor,  will  be  con- 
sidered as  practically  one  body,  since  the  service 
which  they  have  fostered  has  been  continuous  and 
unchanged  in  guiding  principles. 

As  a  fitting  opening  to  this  story  of  growth  in  elec- 
tricity supply,  it  may  be  interesting  to  make  a  few 
surface  comparisons.  When  the  Pearl  Street  central 
station  opened  in  1882  it  had  fifty-nine  customers, 
while  today  it  supplies  159,000  meters.  Then,  its 
mains  and  feeders  measured  less  than  fifteen  miles. 
Now  the  underground  system  which  it  inaugurated 
amounts  to  1350  miles.  At  first,  the  territory  served 
was  a  single  square  mile  in  lower  Manhattan,  but 
thirty  years  have  seen  it  extend  until  it  covers  all  the 
island— nearly  twenty-two  times  the  original  area— 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

besides  the  Bronx  with  its  more  than  forty  square 
miles. 

A  still  greater  rate  of  increase  has  taken  place  in 
the  load  sustained  and  in  the  generating  system 
which  furnishes  the  necessary  current.  In  September 
1882,  1284  lamps  had  been  installed  for  customers, 
only  400  of  these  being  actually  lit  on  the  fourth  of 
that  month,  while  the  name  "Jumbo"  was  given  in 
marveling  admiration  to  the  dynamos  in  the  Pearl 
Street  station  because  each  of  them  could  feed  1750 
sixteen  candle-power  lights.  Today  5,215,000  in- 
candescent lamps  derive  their  glow  from  Edison 
current,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  this  central 
station  system  at  present  supplies  an  aggregate  in- 
stallation of  10,704,900  fifty-watt  equivalents.  In 
191 1,  a  single  steam  turbine  capable  of  developing 
30,000  horse-power  commenced  its  career  at  the 
Waterside  station,  being  the  rightful  heir  to  the  125 
horse-power  generating  units  so  much  talked  of 
twenty-nine  years  earlier. 

Having  cited  these  few  instances  as  barometers  of 
progress,  it  will  be  best  to  return  to  the  early  days 
of  Edison  Service  and  to  follow  its  advancement 
year  by  year. 

The  report  of  the  Edison  Electric  Light  Com- 
pany for  1 88 1  tells  of  the  organization  of  the  Edison 
Electric  Illuminating  Company.  Itshould  be  remem- 
bered that  the  former  body  was  the  holder  of  all 
Edison's  patents  on  the  subject  of  electric  lighting. 
"New  York  City  was  selected  as  the  place  where  the 
light  should  be  first  introduced  on  a  large  scale," 
read  the  report,    "Originally  your  Board  intended 

[102] 


IN   NEW   YORK'S   OLD    BUSINESS   DISTRICT 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


DO33 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

to  have  this  Company  itself  light  up  an  initial  or 
model  station  in  this  city.  That  plan  was  changed 
because  it  was  found  that  under  the  laws  of  the  State 
the  use  of  the  streets  could  be  obtained  only  by  a 
Company  organized  under  the  Gas  Statutes.  Con- 
sequently a  new  Company,  known  as  the  Edison 
Electric  Illuminating  Company  for  New  York,  was 
formed  to  install  the  first  model  station.  Accord- 
ingly a  contract  between  that  Company  and  the 
Light  Company  was  executed  under  date  of  March 
23  1881." 

It  is,  perhaps,  worth  while  to  speak  here  of  other 
central  station  plants  which  had  their  inception  at 
nearly  the  same  time.  On  April  25  1 882,  the  Western 
Edison  Light  Company  was  licensed  for  the  states 
of  Illinois,  Iowa  and  Wisconsin,  as  well  as  a  similar 
company  for  California  and  Nevada.  That  same 
year  a  central  station  system  was  preparing  in  Santi- 
ago, Chile,  though  it  was  meeting  with  some  little 
difficulty  in  obtaining  a  right  of  way  through  that 
city's  streets.  Central  stations  were  being  planned 
for  Lawrence  and  Fall  River,  Massachusetts;  Co- 
vington, Kentucky;  and  Williamsport,  Pennsyl- 
vania. There  was  also  the  probability  of  licensing 
a  company  to  light  Jersey  City,  Hoboken,  Ruther- 
ford Park,  Passaic  and  Paterson,  while  a  small 
plant  was  already  in  operation  at  Appleton,  Wis- 
consin. This,  indeed,  preceded  the  Pearl  Street 
opening  by  a  few  weeks,  having  begun  its  service  on 
August  15  as  the  first  commercial  station  in  the 
United  States.  It  was,  however,  small  in  capac- 
ity, for  its  one  dynamo  could  supply  only  280  ten 


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THIRTY  YEARS'  GROWTH 

candle-power  lamps.  The  Holborn  Viaduct  system 
in  London  was  really  the  first  demonstration  of  in- 
candescent illumination  in  a  large  city.  It  began  its 
work  on  January  12  1882  and  furnished  current  for 
3000  lights.  Unfortunately,  the  Electric  Lighting 
Act  of  that  year  so  restricted  the  new  industry  in 
England  as  to  discourage  its  further  development. 

At  the  First  District  station  in  New  York,  the  last 
few  months  of  1882  were  spent  in  making  various 
minor  changes  and  improvements— these,  however, 
not  being  allowed  to  interfere-with  the  current— and 
in  wiring  for  more  lamps.  The  service  to  all  cus- 
tomers was  free,  for  Edison  wished  to  make  thor- 
ough observations  before  entering  into  contracts  to 
supply  light.  On  October  i  1882  the  company  had 
fifty-nine  customers.  A  month  later  it  had  ninety- 
four,  and  on  the  first  of  December,  203  ;  while  it  had 
installed  5328  lamps  of  which  3144  were  in  use.  At 
the  commencement  of  1883  there  were  231  patrons 
of  central  station  service,  and  in  February  the  com- 
pany began  to  charge  for  current.  It  was  a  month 
or  two  later  before  the  system  of  regular  monthly 
meter  records  and  bill  collection  was  in  full  force. 

A  partial  list  of  some  of  the  more  prominent  users 
of  the  lights  in  April  1 883,  includes : 

Peabody  &  Co ;  Fisk  &  Hatch ;  Continental  Bank ; 
Vermilye  &  Co;  Third  National  Bank;  Winslow, 
Lanier  &  Co;  John  H  Meeker;  James  Leach; 
Union  Building;  Max  Jacoby;  Alexander  Agar;  A 

5  Barnes  &  Co;  Samuel  Raynor&  Co;  William  Tate 

6  Co;  Lehn  &  Fink;  Morris  Tasker  &  Co;  Wash- 
burne  &  Moen  Co;  Ansonia  Brass  &  Copper  Co; 

D05] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Creque,  Reynolds  &  Co;  Richard  Koll;  Wads- 
worth,  Martinez  &  Longman;  P  W  Engs  &  Sons; 
McCoy  &  Labrie;  Drexel,  Morgan  &  Co;  Com- 
mercial Union  Assurance  Co;  United  States  Assay 
Office;  Great  Western  Insurance  Co;  H  &  C  L 
Despard;  National  Fire  Insurance  Co;  Knicker- 
bocker Insurance  Co;  Howard  Insurance  Co; 
New  York  Insurance  Co;  Chase  &  Higginson; 
Post,  Martin  &  Co;  Sondheim,  Alsberg  &  Co; 
Parke,  Davis  &  Co;  Shannon  Miller  &  Crane; 
Motley  &  Sterling;  W  C  Duyckinck;  Edward 
Barr;  Moore  &  Warren;  Dingfelder  &  Libko; 
Hanlon  &  Goodman;  H  B  Kirk  &  Co;  Silleck  & 
Co;  Mark  Mayer;  E  Goldbacher;  D  Jacobs;  S 
Bowman;  F  W  Devoe  &  Co;  Kueffel  &  Esser; 
Marshall  Lefiferts;  New  York  News  Co;  Mc- 
Gowan  &  Slipper;  New  York  Times;  Truth;  F  N 
Burke  &  Co;  Seabury  &  Johnson;  Pancoast  & 
Rogers;  New  Haven  Steamboat  Co;  D  H  Hough- 
taling  &  Co;  Manhattan  Railroad  Co;  E  Black- 
ford. 

The  popularity  of  the  new  light  continued  to 
grow  so  that  on  the  first  of  the  following  September 
—  about  a  year  after  the  opening  of  the  district  sta- 
tion—there were  455  consumers  of  its  current  and 
11,192  lamps  had  been  installed,  though  only  8218 
of  these  were  in  actual  use.  But  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  incandescent  lighting  was  steadily  gaining 
ground,  the  company  discovered  at  the  end  of  the 
year  that  it  had  lost  $4457.50.  In  1884,  however, 
it  found  itself  with  a  profit  of  $35,554.49. 

It  was  during  the  summer  of  that  year  that  motor- 


OLD  GREENWICH  VILLAGE 
Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


Do?] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

driven  fans  were  first  introduced,  and  at  the  same 
time  another  step  forward  was  taken.  Owing  to 
imperfect  electrical  determinations  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  district,  lamp  breakages  had  at  first  been 
numerous.  But  the  inequality  of  pressure  having 
been  for  the  most  part  corrected,  and  the  lamps 
themselves  having  been  improved,  their  hours  of  life 
had  begun  to  lengthen.  The  average  of  400  hours 
in  January  1884  had  been  increased  to  914  hours 
by  November,  and  by  December  of  the  next  year 
this  had  risen  to  1347  hours.  It  is  curious  to  notice 
how  important  in  the  beginning  was  this  question, 
for  the  durability  of  the  lamps  seemed  to  measure 
the  success  which  the  new  lighting  system  was 
achieving. 

In  1884  two  more  dynamos  were  added  to  the 
Pearl  Street  equipment,  and  the  superintendent  of 
the  station  reported  that  there  were  over  one  hun- 
dred applications  on  file  which  could  not  be  accepted 
because  the  plant  was  already  taxed  to  its  utmost 
capacity. 

The  following  year,  and  the  first  of  Mr  Spencer 
Trask's  presidency,  the  company  found  itself  in 
excellent  financial  condition,  without  debts  of  any 
kind  except  a  mortgage  of  $30,000  on  the  station 
buildings.  Accordingly,  dividends  at  the  rate  of  4 
per  cent  per  year  were  declared,  and  the  first  quar- 
terly payment  was  made  in  August.  The  possibility 
of  opening  another  district  to  extend  from  Twenty- 
third  Street  to  Central  Park  and  from  Eighth  Ave- 
nue to  Madison  was  much  talked  of.  It  was  urged 
that   this   uptown    region,    including   most   of   the 

C1083 


THIRTY  YEARS'  GROWTH 

theatres,  hotels  and  clubs  of  the  city,  would  burn 
lights  for  longer  hours  than  the  business  district, 
where  many  of  the  buildings  closed  at  six  in  the 
evening.  Moreover,  Edison's  then  recent  "three- 
wire"  patent  would  materially  reduce  the  initial 
cost  of  such  a  system. 

An  annex  station  for  the  First  District  was  insti- 
tuted in  1886,  a  plant  of  2000  lights'  capacity  being 
set  up  in  the  cellar  at  60  Liberty  Street.  This  was 
done  in  order  to  answer  a  pressing  demand  for  ser- 
vice. Meanwhile  a  constant  endeavor  had  been 
made  still  further  to  prolong  the  life  of  lamps, 
thereby  cutting  down  expenses  for  renewals.  By  the 
end  of  the  year,  lamps  were  being  made  to  give  an 
average  of  1462  hours'  use. 

The  plans  for  a  new  district  were  held  back  at  this 
time  because  it  was  impossible  to  secure  permits  to 
open  the  streets.  Mr  Spencer  Trask,  as  president  of 
the  board  of  directors,  alluded  to  the  difficulty  in  his 
annual  report: 

"All  attempts  in  this  direction  have  been  blocked 
by  an  Electrical  Subway  Commission,  so-called, 
created  by  the  New  York  Legislature  for  the  osten- 
sible purpose  of  putting  existing  overhead  telegraph 
and  other  wires  underground.  ...  So  far  as  all 
other  electric  lighting  companies  were  concerned, 
this  did  not  work  any  great  hardship,  as  they  neither 
had  nor  have  any  underground  system  of  their  own, 
and  are  therefore  more  than  satisfied  to  continue 
their  existing  pole-lines.  But  with  us  the  case  is 
different;  we  have  never  stretched  a  foot  of  wire 
above   ground;   we   possess   a   practical   system   of 

C109;] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


"NEW  YORK  IN  A  FEW  YEARS  FROM  NOW:  VIEW  FROM  THE  BAY" 

A  cartoon  by  Thomas  Nast 
Harper's  Weekly,  August  27  1881 

underground  conductors  which  has  successfully 
stood  five  years'  uninterrupted  use,  and  all  that  we 
ask  is  that  we  be  allowed  to  use  this  same  under- 
ground system  up-town.  One  would  think  that  a 
commission  created  to  place  wires  underground 
w^ould  readily  grant  such  a  request;  but  no,  the 
answer  has  been  substantially  that  we  must  wait  till 
the  trench  is  built,  and  then  come  into  it  and  submit 
to  tribute  I" 

[no] 


THIRTY  YEARS'  GROWTH 

Late  in  the  summer  of  1887  permits  were  obtained 
for  opening  a  few  streets  in  the  new  second  and 
third  districts  which  were  to  extend  from  Eigh- 
teenth Street  to  Forty-fifth  Street,  and  other  permits 
followed.  Accordingly,  on  Thanksgiving  Day  1888, 
the  Thirty-ninth  Street  station  began  to  supply 
current,  and  on  Christmas  the  one  at  Twenty-sixth 
Street  was  put  into  commission.  These  two  build- 
ings were  fully  equipped  fireproof  generating  plants. 
There  were  twenty-eight  dynamos  in  the  Twenty- 
sixth  Street  station,  each  having  a  capacity  of  600 
amperes.  All  of  the  underground  system  in  the  two 
new  districts  was  laid  according  to  the  new  three- 
wire  patent,  and  it  was  announced  that  customers 
would  be  supplied  with  motive  power  as  well  as 
with  light.  In  the  spring  of  1889  the  first  low-ten- 
sion arc  lamps  were  connected  with  the  uptown 
system. 

On  the  morning  of  January  2  1890,  came  the  fire 
which  destroyed  the  original  Pearl  Street  station 
and  which  has  been  described  in  more  detail  else- 
where. The  company  did  not  lose  a  single  customer 
through  the  short  impairment  of  service  which  this 
disaster  occasioned. 

Six  months  later  the  site  of  the  present  Duane- 
Pearl  Street  building  was  purchased  from  the  estate 
of  A  T  Stewart,  and  plans  were  commenced  which 
were  to  lead  eventually  to  the  new  building's  becom- 
ing the  source  of  current  for  the  entire  First  Dis- 
trict. Work  was  rushed  on  the  new  plant,  the  struc- 
ture being  carried  up  only  to  the  top  of  the  second 
story  where  a  tile  flooring  formed  a  secure  tem- 

Cm] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

porary  roof.  In  this  way,  it  was  not  long  before 
machinery  could  be  installed,  and  current  was 
turned  on  May  i  1891. 

Previous  to  the  first  of  October  1890,  current  had 
been  furnished  at  a  cheaper  rate  uptown  than  down- 
town, the  price  in  the  former  district  being  i.i  cents 
per  sixteen  candle-power  lamp-hour,  while  it  was 
1.2  cents  in  the  latter.  Thereafter,  however,  the 
price  was  fixed  at  one  cent  per  sixteen  candle-power 
lamp-hour  all  over  the  city. 

During  1891  much  of  the  old  two-wire  system  in 
the  First  District  was  converted  into  the  three-wire 
type,  and  the  several  districts  were  interconnected  so 
that  the  entire  Edison  system  from  Bowling  Green 
to  Fifty-ninth  Street  was  continuous.  It  was  at  this 
time  also,  that,  a  water  famine  threatening  New 
York,  the  company  drove  several  deep  wells  to  in- 
sure an  uninterrupted  supply,  thereby  discovering 
that  the  Duane  Street  building  was  in  the  best  spot 
in  the  city  for  obtaining  artesian  water. 

In  the  summer  of  1892  the  wiring  department  was 
given  up  and  its  business  transferred  to  the  New 
York  Electric  Equipment  Company,  Limited.  This 
was  in  accordance  with  the  policy  of  the  company  to 
devote  itself  to  the  question  of  supplying  current 
without  conducting  auxiliary  business  enterprises. 
Early  that  fall  the  company  was  asked  by  the  city 
to  arrange  for  lighting  Fifth  Avenue  during  the 
Columbus  celebration.  All  overhead  wires  were 
banished  from  that  street  by  municipal  decree,  and 
the  company  was  faced  with  the  problem  of  provid- 
ing street  arc-lights  under  these  conditions.    A  new 


LIGHT  AND  SHADE  ON  THE  EAST  RIVER 


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THIRTY  YEARS'  GROWTH 

twin-arc  system  was  evolved  and,  by  the  first  of 
October,  Fifth  Avenue  was  ready  for  illumination 
by  a  method  only  thought  of  a  few  weeks  before. 

The  Edison  Company,  having  now  been  ten  years 
in  existence,  found  itself  the  largest  local  electric 
illuminating  organization  in  the  world,  supplying  a 
total  installation  50  per  cent  larger  than  that  in  the 
city  of  Berlin,  its  nearest  rival.  Its  net  earnings  for 
that  year  were  $475,137.61  and  its  customers  num- 
bered 4344;  while  it  supplied  current  to  142,492 
incandescent  lamps,  1637  arc-lights,  and  had  a  power 
load  of  3807  horse-power.  Its  underground  mains 
and  feeders  amounted  to  165.22  miles  of  three-wire 
system  and  6.57  miles  of  the  old  two-wire.  That  year 
the  Fifty-third  Street  station  was  opened  though  its 
structure  was  not  completed.  A  part  of  its  equip- 
ment was  a  Crompton-Howell  (English)  storage 
battery,  the  first  application  in  this  country  of  a 
storage  battery  in  a  low-tension  generating  station. 

"Hard  times"  in  1893  reduced  the  amount  of 
current  consumed  by  each  customer,  but  the  large 
number  of  new  installations  more  than  counterbal- 
anced this.  The  Duane-Pearl  Street  building  was 
nearly  finished  that  year  and  in  its  designing,  just  as 
in  the  company's  other  stations,  electrical  forms  were 
adhered  to,  giving  individuality  to  the  structure. 

In  1895  th^  original  Pearl  Street  central  station 
was  dismantled  and  sold,  while  a  new  building 
was  erected  at  115-117-119  East  Twelfth  Street. 
Two  300  horse-power  De  Laval  turbo-generators 
were  ordered  from  France,  after  careful  study  of 
the  advantages  of  turbines.     These  steam  turbines 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

were  the  first  to  be  operated  in  an  electric  lighting 
station  in  this  country. 

The  following  year  the  Produce  Exchange  gener- 
ating plant  was  replaced  by  a  storage  battery  annex 
in  the  Bowling  Green  building  and  an  experimental 
station  was  opened  at  Seventy-second  Street  and 
Fifth  Avenue.  Here,  high-tension  current  received 
from  the  Manhattan  Electric  Lighting  Company, 
Limited— in  which  Edison  stock-holders  now  had 
an  interest — was  transformed  by  motor  generators 
into  low-tension  continuous  current  for  distribution. 
That  the  experiment  was  successful,  the  after  history 
of  the  company  shows.  During  the  spring  of  the 
same  year  an  electrical  exposition  was  held  in  the 
city,  at  which  the  company's  exhibits  attracted  wide 
attention,  especially  in  the  matter  of  cooking  and 
heating  possibilities.  As  a  result,  an  electric  kitchen 
was  put  into  operation  at  the  Duane  Street  office  for 
the  inspection  of  the  general  public. 

Large  increase  of  business  marked  the  next  two 
years.  In  1898  an  alternating-current  equipment 
was  introduced  at  the  Duane  Street  plant,  and  high- 
tension  transmission  to  the  Thirty-ninth  Street  sta- 
tion was  begun  on  November  3.  Four  rotary  con- 
verters and  six  static  transformers  had  been  placed 
in  the  latter  building  and  current  at  high  tension 
could  be  sent  in  either  direction,  this  being  one  of 
the  pioneer  applications  of  rotary  converters  in 
connection  with  a  high-tension  transmission  system. 
At  about  the  same  time  a  distributing  annex  was 
built  at  200  Elm  Street,  and  the  temporary  Seventy- 
second  Street  converting  and  distributing  plant  was 

[114] 


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THIRTY  YEARS'  GROWTH 

replaced  by  a  permanent  one  at  123  East  Eighty- 
third  Street. 

That  year  the  company's  wires  ran  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  city  in  a  continuous  chain  through  the 
central  part  of  Manhattan  up  to  Ninety-sixth  Street. 
There  were  239.7  miles  of  this  underground  system, 
supplying  9990  customers. 

For  some  time  there  had  been  talk  of  building:  a 
waterside  generating  plant.  Land  had  been  pur- 
chased and  tentative  plans  had  been  made,  but  it  was 
thought  best  to  make  investigations  abroad  before 
launching  the  project.  Accordingly,  in  the  summer 
of  1898,  an  engineering  commission  consisting  of 
Mr  John  W  Lieb,  Jr,  then  general  manager  of  the 
company,  Mr  John  Van  Vleck  then  its  engineer  of 
construction,  and  Mr  Arthur  Williams  the  general 
inspector,  visited  the  chief  electrical  stations  of  Eu- 
rope and  consulted  experts.  In  1901  these  plans 
were  modified  and  finally  completed  under  charge 
of  Mr  Thomas  E  Murray,  and,  early  in  1902,  the 
first  Waterside  station  was  opened,  occupying  the 
block  bounded  by  First  Avenue,  Thirty-eighth  and 
Thirty-ninth  Streets,  and  the  East  River.  The  oper- 
ating room  contained  sixteen  vertical  engines,  each 
with  a  capacity  of  5200-5500  horse-power,  at  most 
economical  rating,  from  which  current  at  6600 
volts,  three-phase,  twenty-five  cycle  was  generated 
by  3500  kilowatt  generators  and  sent  out  to  numer- 
ous distributing  centers. 

At  the  beginning  of  1902  the  company  had  420 
miles  of  underground  system  supplying  installations 
amounting  to  1,928,090  fifty-watt  equivalents.    The 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Bronx  district— after  two  years  of  existence— was 
developing  rapidly. 

In  1904  four  steam  generating  plants  were  in  use 
besides  the  big  Waterside  station.  These  auxiliaries 
were  at  Duane  Street,  Twelfth  Street,  Twenty-sixth 
Street  and  One  Hundred  and  Fortieth  Street  at 
Rider  Avenue,  while  current  was  supplied  to  more 
than  a  dozen  substations. 

In  1906  "Waterside  No  2"  was  built,  with  its 
capacity  of  103,000  kilowatts.  It  occupied  the  block 
just  north  of  the  first  structure  and  was  so  arranged 
that,  while  independent  of  its  neighbor,  the  two 
plants  could  be  operated  jointly,  thereby  dividing 
the  load  at  any  time  or  working  together,  as  might 
seem  most  desirable. 

The  establishment  of  these  two  stations  marks  at 
present  the  last  important  step  in  the  company's 
history,  since  by  them  concentration  of  the  generat- 
ing process  is  accomplished.  Production  of  electri- 
cal energy  is  now  confined  to  the  Waterside  plants 
except  for  infrequent  assistance  from  Duane  Street 
or  from  the  Bronx  station  at  hours  of  greatest  de- 
mand during  the  winter  months.  Accordingly,  this 
realization  of  the  plan  conceived  more  than  a  dozen 
years  ago,  closes  a  review  of  the  stages  through 
which  New  York's  great  central  station  system  has 
developed,  until  today  it  supplies  more  than  half 
the  current  used  in  Manhattan  Island,  and  employs 
more  than  5000  people. 


D16: 


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AfflDS    L«NUX  aNU 
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The  Generating  System 

IN  considering  the  manufacture  of  electric  cur- 
rent for  Edison  Service  during  the  thirty  years 
of  its  existence,  this  work  will  be  seen  to  have 
gone  through  four  successive  stages.  In  the  first  of 
these,  direct  current  at  low  voltage  was  supplied  to 
one  district  only  and  was  generated  at  the  original 
Pearl  Street  station.  Though  an  auxiliary  plant  was 
established  during  this  period  in  the  cellar  of  60 
Liberty  Street,  it  was  not  a  complete  generating 
station,  and  therefore  need  not  demand  serious 
attention.  The  second  stage  may  be  said  to  cover 
the  years  when  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating 
Company  maintained  several  distinct  and  complete 
steam  generating  plants,  furnishing  low-tension 
current  throughout  a  much  more  extended  region. 
The  beginning  of  high-tension  transmission  ushered 
in  a  third  period  of  development,  during  which  both 
high-tension  and  low-tension  current  were  pro- 
duced, according  to  needs,  at  a  few  district  stations. 
The  fourth  and  present  stage  has  seen  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  manufacturing  process  at  Waterside  and 
the  complete  adoption  of  high-tension  transmission 
combined  with  low-tension  distribution.  These 
phases  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  order  of  their 
growth. 

257  Pearl  Street— the  first  Edison  central  station 

[117] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

in  New  York  City — had  been  purchased,  together 
with  255,  in  May  1881,  by  the  Edison  Electric 
Illuminating  Company.  Of  the  iron  substructures 
originally  planned  for  both  buildings,  only  the  one 
for  257  was  ever  put  in  place,  since  its  neighbor 
was  converted  into  a  storage  and  repair-shop.  The 
girders  ordered  for  the  latter  half  of  the  property 
remained  to  the  credit  of  the  company  for  years  and 
were  finally  used  in  the  Pearl-Duane  Street  station. 
Since  the  buildings  had  been  erected  for  commercial 
purposes,  they  could  not  have  sustained  the  weight 
of  engines  and  dynamos.  Accordingly,  the  heavy 
skeleton  construction,  introduced  into  257,  was 
erected  so  as  to  be  independent  of  the  outside  walls. 
It  occupied  the  full  width  of  the  building  and  about 
three  quarters  of  its  depth,  but  did  not  in  the  least 
afifect  its  external  appearance. 

The  vault  under  the  sidewalk  and  the  basement 
in  the  front  of  the  building  were  fitted  out  with 
machines  for  the  receipt  of  coal  and  the  removal  of 
ashes.  An  engine  of  twenty  horse-power,  by  means 
of  countershafting,  drove  the  screw  conveyor  for 
carrying  the  coal  up  over  the  boilers,  whence  it  was 
dropped  by  gravity  to  the  stoke-hole  on  the  base- 
ment level  between  the  boilers,  and  also  the  screw 
conveyor  for  taking  ashes  from  beneath  the  grates 
and  discharging  them  into  a  barrel  under  the  side- 
walk. These  screw  conveyors  were  forerunners  of 
present  elaborate  arrangements  for  mechanical  coal- 
handling,  by  which  this  process  is  made  practically 
automatic.  The  engine  also  operated  a  fan  blower, 
delivering  forced  draft  to  the  furnace  and  supplying 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

air  for  ventilating  the  stoke-hole.  A  system  of  blast- 
pipes  was  also  provided  for  blowing  air  to  the  arma- 
tures of  the  dynamos. 

Four  Babcock  &  Wilcox  boilers,  with  a  rating  of 
240  horse-power  each,  discharged  their  products  of 
combustion  into  two  steel  stacks,  one  at  each  end  of 
the  building,  and  they  supplied  steam  to  the  engines 
through  an  8-inch  header  with  5-inch  vertical 
branches.  These  boilers  had  cast-iron  headers,  and 
as  an  evidence  of  the  life  of  this  class  of  apparatus 
it  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  from  the  time  this 
station  was  put  into  service,  September  4  1882,  until 
March  31  1894,  ^hey  were  in  constant  service  under 
very  severe  conditions.  They  were  then  removed 
and  placed  in  the  Fifty-third  Street  station,  where 
they  continued  their  usefulness  until  May  22  1902, 
having  seen  nearly  twenty  years  of  hard  service. 

A  gallery  extended  over  the  boilers  and  gave 
access  to  the  stoke-hole  and  the  basement  in  the 
rear  of  the  building,  where  a  "Z"  dynamo  of  sixty- 
light  capacity  was  installed,  which  furnished  light 
during  construction,  and  from  which  current  was 
taken  for  the  first  tests  of  the  underground  sys- 
tem. 

The  boilers  were  provided  with  injectors,  supple- 
mented by  a  steam-pump  with  connections  to  each 
boiler,  the  water  being  previously  passed  through 
exhaust  heaters  located  in  the  rear  of  the  building. 

The  original  engineequipmentconsisted  of  sixPor- 
ter-Allen  engines,  each  of  125  horse-power  (nomi- 
nal) with  cylinders  1 1 /4g  by  16  inches,  steam  pressure 
120  pounds,  350  revolutions  per  minute,  giving  a 


WATERSIDE 

From  a  painting  by  Guy  C  Wiggins 


[I20] 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

piston  speed  of  933  feet  per  minute.  These  engines 
weighed  approximately  6450  pounds  each,  or  with 
dynamo  and  base-plate  a  total  of  61,550  pounds 
each,  and  were  subsequently  replaced  by  an  equal 
number  of  Armington  &  Sims  engines,  14^  by  13 
inches,  at  350  revolutions  per  minute. 

The  six  dynamos  were  of  the  Edison  "Jumbo" 
type.  Here  it  might  be  mentioned  that  Edison's 
first  "Jumbo"  was  sent  to  the  Paris  International 
Exposition  in  1881.  The  next  two  were  installed 
in  the  Holborn  Viaduct  station  at  London  in  Janu- 
ary and  April  1882. 

The  style  of  "Jumbo"  used  in  the  Pearl  Street  sta- 
tion was  described  by  Mr  C  L  Dean,  superinten- 
dent of  the  Edison  machine  works,  as  follows: 

"Attached  to  each  dynamo  and  mounted  on  the 
same  bed-plate,  so  that  it  forms  an  integral  part  of  the 
steam  dynamo,  is  a  steam-engine  of  125  horse-power 
and  capable  of  being  driven  up  to  200  horse-power. 
Each  of  these  dynamos  has  already  developed  by 
actual  test  1750  lamps  of  sixteen  candle-power  each. 

"Weight  of  the  various  parts: 

Bed-plates io,337 

Zinc  bases 677 

Fields 16,372 

Cores 6,044 

Keepers .  6,300 

Pillow  blocks 671 

Rocker  arms 125 

Armature i3-3io 

Engine 6,500 

Total  weight 60,336  pounds" 

[121:] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

The  field-magnet  had  twelve  cores,  57  inches 
long,  of  which  the  four  in  the  top  row  were  8  inches 
and  the  other  eight  were  9  inches.  They  were  wound 
with  four  layers  of  No  12  BWG  copper  wire. 
The  resistance  of  the  coil  on  each  of  the  8-inch  cores 
was  about  2.8  ohms,  and  on  the  9-inch  cores  3.1 
ohms.  The  field  poles  were  49  inches  long  and  28^ 
inches  inside  diameter.  The  armature,  mounted  on 
a  7^-inch  shaft,  had  a  core  12^/2  inches  inside 
diameter,  26710  outside  diameter,  and  46J/2  inches 
long.  The  armature  winding  consisted  of  ninety- 
eight  copper  bars  on  the  armature-face,  and  the  same 
number  of  connecting  copper  end-disks.  The  bars 
had  an  average  length  of  55^4  inches,  and  were 
0.721  inch  wide  on  their  top  face,  0.69  inch  wide 
on  their  bottom  face,  and  0.484  inch  deep.  The 
end-disks  were  0.102  inch  thick.  The  capacity  of 
the  machine  when  cooled  with  air-blast  was  about 
850  amperes  under  about  115  to  120  volts  electro- 
motive force  at  the  machine  terminals,  or  practically 
a  capacity  to  operate  1200  103-volt  lamps,  with 
extra  voltage  capacity  to  compensate  for  drop  of 
electro-motive  force  in  the  conductors  between  the 
machine  and  lamps. 

The  tenth  Bulletin  of  the  company,  published 
June  5  1882,  contained  the  following  statement  re- 
garding one  of  the  generating  units: 

"The  magnetic  field  of  this  machine  is  produced 
by  sixteen  electro-magnet  arms  joined  to  two  pole 
pieces,  and  their  coils  are  traversed  by  a  current 
derived  from  the  main  circuit.  The  dimensions  of 
this  machine  as  it  is  now  constructed,  are  as  follows : 

D22] 


THE    METROPOLITAN    AND    MADISON    SQUARE   TOWERS 

Drawn  by  Louis  Fancher 


C123;] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Resistance  of  armature  circuit  is  0.0037  ohm,  and 
that  of  the  electro-magnet  circuit  is  6.7  ohms.  The 
armature  has  106  copper  bars  and  its  core  has  2200 
thin  sheet-iron  disks;  125  horse-power  is  used  in 
driving  the  armature  which  makes  350  rotations  per 
minute.  The  current  has  1 10  volts  tension  and  can 
supply  1200  sixteen  candle-power  Edison  lamps. 
The  weight  of  the  machine  is  thirty  tons." 

The  dynamo  room  was  provided  with  a  traveling 
crane  and  hoists,  running  the  entire  length  of  the 
building  to  facilitate  installation  and  repairs.  The 
engines  WTre  non-condensing  and  exhausted  into  the 
atmosphere  through  exhaust  feed-water  heaters.  The 
engine  dynamo  units  were  arranged  in  lines  parallel 
to  the  sides  of  the  building,  three  units  on  each  side. 
The  main  bus-bars  of  the  station,  made  up  of  double 
half-round  copper  bars  from  No  i  two-wire  Edison 
tubes,  were  attached  to  the  wall  along  the  sides  of 
the  building,  with  a  connection  between  them  across 
the  ceiling.  The  dynamos  were  connected  to  them 
by  flexible  cables  spanning  the  distance  between  the 
upright  copper  rods  attached  to  the  dynamo  brush- 
holder  arms  and  the  wall.  One  of  the  copper  up- 
rights was  provided  with  safety-catch  holders,  but 
solid  copper  links  supplied  the  other  connection. 

The  Edison  tube  feeders  entered  the  Pearl  Street 
end  of  the  building,  and  were  connected  to  the  bus- 
bars by  copper  arms  carrying  safety-catches. 

There  was  a  set  of  auxiliary  bus-bars  above  the 
main  bus,  leading  to  the  lamp  bank  on  an  upper 
floor,  and  connected  to  one  pole  of  the  dynamo 
ahead  of  the  switch;  and  on  the  other  pole  to  the 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

corresponding  pole  of  the  main  bus.  This  enabled 
the  dynamo  to  be  operated  on  the  lamp  bank  for  test- 
ing, or  for  giving  the  engine  a  load  before  closing  the 
main  switch  connecting  the  dynamos  in  parallel  on 
the  main  bus.  This  main  switch,  or  circuit-breaker 
as  it  was  called,  was  one  of  the  earliest  types  of  knife 
switches  with  contact  in  series,  and  had  a  previously 
unheard  of  capacity.  It  was  operated  by  throwing 
the  weight  of  the  body  on  a  long  handle  pivoted  at 
one  end,  and  released  by  heavy  steel  springs  held  by 
a  trip  pawl. 

In  front  of  the  main  contacts,  and  carried  by  the 
switch  handle,  was  an  auxiliary  blade— the  field  cir- 
cuit contact — making  contact  before  the  main  line 
contacts  engaged,  and  breaking  after  the  main  cir- 
cuit was  broken.  This  field  switch  was  supple- 
mented by  a  plug  switch  attached  to  the  wall  and 
connected  to  a  field  circuit  bus-bar  running  the 
length  of  the  station,  with  an  auxiliary  break 
through  a  lamp  resistance  to  furnish  a  by-path  for 
the  field  discharge. 

The  dynamo  fields  were  controlled  on  an  upper 
floor  by  moving  simultaneously,  through  a  horizon- 
tal shaft  and  bevel  gearing,  a  number  of  horizontal 
contact  arms  over  contacts  connected  with  copper 
wire  resistances  wound  on  wooden  frames. 

It  may  now  be  interesting  to  state  that  when  this 
pioneer  station  was  started,  and  in  fact  for  some  little 
time  afterward,  there  was  not  a  single  electrical  in- 
strument in  the  whole  station— not  a  single  volt- 
meter or  ammeter!  There  was  also  a  total  absence 
of  a  central  switchboard,  as  each  dynamo  had  its 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


WATERSIDE 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 

control  switches  located  at  the  dynamo.  The  feeder 
connections  were  concentrated  at  the  front  of  the 
building,  and  the  voltage  control  was  on  the  floor 
above.  The  pressure  was  regulated  from  an  auto- 
matic indicator,  consisting  of  an  electro-magnet 
connected  across  the  main  circuit,  and  whose  pull 
was  opposed  by  a  heavy  spring.  The  armature  of 
the  magnet  carried  a  contact  which  engaged  two 
relay  contacts,  on  the  high  side  connecting  with  a 
relay  circuit  to  a  red  lamp,  and  on  the  low  side, 
with  a  circuit  to  a  blue  lamp.  At  normal  pres- 
sure neither  lamp  was  lighted,  but  if  the  electro- 

[:.26: 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

motive  force  rose  one  to  two  volts  above  a  predeter- 
mined amount  the  red  lamp  was  lighted,  and  the 
attendant  at  the  hand-wheel  of  the  field  regulator 
inserted  resistance  in  the  field  circuit.  If  the  blue 
lamp  was  lighted,  resistance  was  cut  out  until  the 
pressure  was  raised  to  normal.  The  station  was 
equipped  with  several  of  these  indicators  which 
were  carried  every  few  days  to  the  Edison  machine 
works  at  Goerck  Street  to  be  adjusted  by  compari- 
son with  a  Thompson  reflecting  galvanometer  and 
battery  of  standard  Daniell's  cells.  Later  on,  this 
primitive  indicator  was  supplanted  by  the  "Bradley 
bridge" — a  crude  form  of  the  Howell  pressure  indi- 
cators in  use  for  many  years  in  Edison  stations. 

On  one  of  the  upper  floors  of  the  station  building 
was  the  meter  room,  where  plates  of  the  Edison 
chemical  meter  were  prepared  and  weighed. 

An  article  written  some  months  before  the  station 
was  started  concluded  with  the  verdict:  "This  elec- 
tric lighting  station  is  very  complete  in  all  its  ap- 
pointments. Every  imaginable  emergency  has  been 
provided  for:  coal-bunkers  in  the  top  of  the  build- 
ing to  hold  a  reserve  of  coal;  water-tanks  to  supply 
water,  in  case  of  any  deficiency  or  cessation  of 
supply;  thorough  protection  against  fire,  and  thor- 
ough workmanship  everywhere." 

It  is  interesting,  however,  to  turn  away  for  a  mo- 
ment from  a  consideration  of  the  mechanical  equip- 
ment, to  glance  at  the  human  side  of  conditions  in 
this  first  plant.  An  old  Edison  man  laughingly  re- 
marked the  other  day,  "That  old  station  was  no 
dream!" 

1:1273 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

While  there  was  neither  jack-shaft  nor  belt  to 
keep  the  air  humming  there  were  the  sobbing  and 
heaving  of  the  pumps,  the  rush  and  clatter  of  the 
high  speed  engines  within,  and  the  puffing  of  loco- 
motives on  the  elevated  structure  in  the  narrow 
street  without.  Clouds  of  steam,  smoke  and  hot 
cinders  blew  through  the  open  windows  to  increase, 
if  possible,  an  all-pervading,  ever-present  heat — 
grease  and  vapor-laden  —  that  was  more  enervat- 
ing than  the  tropics.  Everything  was  hot.  Heat 
radiated  from  the  smoke-stacks,  and  from  the  steam- 
pipes;  from  the  engine  cylinders;  from  all  the 
bearing  boxes,  upon  which  ice  had  to  be  kept  con- 
stantly to  prevent  the  babbitt  from  running;  from 
the  armatures  and  the  field  coils  of  the  over-loaded 
dynamos;  even  from  the  brushes  which  had  to  be 
set  in  a  trough  of  mercury  on  the  brush-holder 
studs  to  increase  their  conductivity;  from  the  con- 
ductors from  machines  to  bus-bars;  and  from  the 
primitive  switching  lever  by  which  one  pole  of 
the  feeders  was  connected  to  the  bus-bars.  Heat 
rolled  in  great  waves  from  the  ill-ventilated  boiler 
room  and  spread  along  the  passage  that  led  to  the 
inadequate,  hand-to-mouth  coal  storage  pocket  with 
its  bare  one  day's  capacity,  and,  rising,  penetrated 
to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  station.  Those  men 
who  operated  the  old  Pearl  Street  station  from 
the  beginning  to  the  very  end  — August  28  1894— 
fairly  earned  all  the  glory  that  will  ever  be  given 
them. 

"Jumbo"  No  9,  which  stood  nearest  the  Pearl 
Street  front  of  the  building,  was  the  one  which  sup- 

[1283 


( t 


'IS; 


A    MISTY    MORNING 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


D29I] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

plied  current  on  September  4  1882.  On  a  cer- 
tain Sunday  not  long  after  that,  owing  to  the  grow- 
ing demand  for  current,  Edison  decided  to  put  a 
second  dynamo  into  commission.  Immediately  the 
two  machines  began  to  "hunt."  Much  thought  had 
been  given  to  the  need  of  close  regulation,  with  a 
view  to  maintaining  steady  pressure  on  lamps;  but 
it  was  found  that  the  governor  on  the  type  of  engine 
selected  was  so  extremely  sensitive  that  each  engine 
connected  to  the  bus-bars  made  the  most  frantic 
efiforts  to  take  all  the  load.  Daily,  the  engine  room 
was  the  scene  of  greatest  confusion  in  the  efiforts  of 
the  engineer  to  curb  the  would-be  runaways  and 
bring  them  into  unison.  That  is,  the  device  that  was 
purposely  selected  to  secure  the  conditions  desired, 
was  in  itself  the  cause  of  variations  that  were  too 
great  to  be  long  tolerated.  Three  of  the  engines 
were  finally  rejected,  being  replaced  by  those  of  the 
Armington  &  Sims  make,  whose  governors  were  of 
a  sluggish  type  which  "stayed  put"  on  all  ordinary 
occasions. 

Before  leaving  the  discussion  of  the  original  New 
York  central  station  it  should  be  added  that  its  use 
of  direct-connected  units  was  unique,  the  practice 
being  neglected  after  that  for  some  ten  years,  though 
it  has  since  become  the  standard  equipment  for  all 
important  power  stations.  Besides  this  fact,  one 
other  should  be  mentioned.  The  cellar  annex 
opened  at  60  Liberty  Street  in  1886  did  not  manu- 
facture its  own  steam,  but  contracted  for  it  from  the 
New  York  Steam  Heating  Company. 

A  second  period  in  the  history  of  the   Edison 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

generating  system  began  with  the  opening  of  sta- 
tions at  117-119  West  Thirty-ninth  Street  and  at 
47-49-51  West  Twenty-sixth  Street  in  1888.  These 
—the  first  buildings  erected  by  the  Illuminating 
Company  for  its  purposes— were  carefully  planned 
to  meet  requirements  of  the  new  industry,  and  an 
accurate  description  of  them  appeared  in  the  Elec- 
trical World  for  January  15  1889.  Since  they  were 
twins,  exactly  alike  in  detail,  the  following  extracts 
from  this  article  apply  to  them  both: 

"Engines:  — On  each  side  of  the  building  are  lo- 
cated seven  engines,  making  a  total  of  2800  horse- 
power when  working  under  normal  conditions. 
These  engines  are  of  the  Armington  &  Sims  type. 
They  are  built  in  accordance  with  special  specifica- 
tions furnished  by  the  chief  engineer,  and  are  extra 
heavy,  and  very  substantial  in  all  the  details  of  their 
construction.  The  cylinder  of  each  engine  is  18^ 
inches  diameter  by  18  inches  stroke  of  piston,  and 
the  speed  is  200  revolutions  per  minute.  There  are 
two  driving-wheels,  each  of  which  is  86  inches  in 
diameter  by  16  inches  face.  The  weight  of  each 
wheel  is  not  less  than  4500  pounds.  Each  engine  is 
provided  with  an  Armington  &  Sims  automatic 
regulator,  and  develops  200  horse-power,  cut  ofi  at 
one  quarter  stroke,  under  pressure  of  90  pounds,  at 
the  throttle.  Each  engine  is  fitted  with  a  large  auto- 
matic sight-feed  cylinder  oiler,  which,  for  extra 
security,  is  reinforced  by  an  oil-pump  that  can  be 
used  in  case  of  emergency.  The  guides,  and  all  other 
working  parts,  are  provided  with  drop  sight-feed 
oilers  of  ample  capacity.    A  system  of  oil  channels 

C130 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

has  been  carefully  laid  out,  which  drains  all  the  oil 
from  each  engine  into  a  channel  from  which  it  is  led 
ofif  to  be  filtered  for  future  service.  Each  engine  is 
mounted  on  a  cast-iron  foundation  box  filled  in  with 
concrete.  .  .  . 

"Dynamos :— On  the  first  floor  of  the  building  are 
located  the  dynamos.  These  are  twenty-eight  in 
number,  of  an  entirely  new  type  and  construction, 
and  are  of  larger  capacity  than  anything  heretofore 
built,  with  the  exception  of  the  celebrated  'steam 
dynamo,'  which  was  constructed  early  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Edison  business.  Each  of  these  dy- 
namos has  a  capacity  of  600  amperes  and  an  initial 
electro-motive  force  of  140  volts.  They  weigh  about 
15,000  pounds  each.  The  speed  of  the  armature  is 
650  revolutions  per  minute.  Two  dynamos  are 
driven  by  each  engine.  Fourteen  of  these  dynamos 
are,  as  already  intimated,  to  be  located  in  a  double 
row  on  each  side  of  the  building. 

"The  central  space  of  the  dynamo  room  is  equipped 
with  the  necessary  electrical  appliances  in  the  way 
of  automatic  feeder  equalizers,  individual  ampere- 
meters for  each  dynamo,  main  ampere-meters  for 
different  divisions  of  the  underground  system,  volt- 
meters for  indicating  the  electrical  pressure  through- 
out the  different  portions  of  the  district,  and  such 
other  minor  appliances  as  are  required  for  the 
proper  operation  and  control  of  the  system.  These 
are  all  conveniently  arranged  for  rapid  manipulation 
and  economy  in  time  and  labor,  and  give  absolute 
control  of  the  electrical  pressure  and  quantity  of 
current.      All    the   electrical    apparatus,    excepting 

[132:1 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

pressure  indicators,  was  manufactured  by  Bergman 
&  Co,  and  is  the  finest  outfit  in  material  and  work- 
manship ever  placed  in  an  electric  light  station. 

"An  important  feature  of  all  Edison  central  sta- 
tions is  the  margin  above  their  rated  capacity.  That 
is  seen  in  the  present  instance.  Although  these  sta- 
tions are  each  rated  at  a  nominal  capacity  of  35,000 
lamps,  as  stated  above,  great  care  has  been  taken  to 
have  ample  reserve  in  all  the  generating  apparatus. 
Any  one  of  these  stations  can  be  called  upon  for  an 
excess  of  25  per  cent  above  its  rated  capacity,  and 
would  respond  so  generously  that  not  a  single  part 
would  be  subjected  to  undue  straining." 

These  two  stations  were  of  the  vertical  type,  every 
effort  being  made  to  save  floor  space. 

The  Duane-Pearl  Street  building  was  the  next 
generating  plant  opened.  It  began  to  supply  cur- 
rent in  May  1891,  and  was  planned  to  contain  ten 
2500  horse-power  engines,  each  with  a  pair  of  800 
kilowatt  dynamos;  two  1250  horse-power  engines, 
each  with  a  pair  of  400  kilowatt  dynamos;  and  two 
600  horse-power  engines,  each  with  a  pair  of  200 
kilowatt  dynamos.  The  engines  were  of  the  multi- 
expansion,  inverted  cylinder,  marine  type  developed 
by  Mr  John  Van  Vleck,  chief  electrician  and  con- 
sulting engineer  of  the  company,  and  were  known 
as  Van  Vleck  Disconnective  Engines.  By  placing 
the  steam  chests  on  the  front  instead  of  between  the 
cylinders,  the  engines  were  made  30  per  cent  shorter 
than  previous  styles,  and  by  coupling  them  with 
direct-driven  dynamos,  these  units  were  made  to 
occupy  only  about  one  tenth  the  floor  space  required 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

for  electric  generating  under  former  conditions. 
The  dynamos  just  mentioned  were  of  the  then  new 
multipolar  type,  built  by  the  Edison  works  at  Schen- 
ectady. 

In  1892  arrangements  were  made  with  the 
Crompton-Howell  Storage  Battery  Company,  Lim- 
ited, of  London,  to  install  a  storage  battery  in  the 
new  Fifty-third  Street  station.  It  was  to  have  a 
capacity  of  2000  ampere  hours  and  a  guarantee  of 
85  per  cent  efficiency  in  this  output.  The  success 
of  this  experiment  has  had  a  far-reaching  effect 
upon  the  Edison  system. 

During  this  stage  of  the  company's  development  it 
built,  besides  the  Duane  Street  plant  and  the  Fifty- 
third  Street  building  already  mentioned,  the  one  in 
West  Twelfth  Street.  This  last  was  known  as  a 
horizontal  station  since  great  economy  of  floor  space 
had  not  been  sought  after  in  its  arrangement. 

In  1892  the  downtown  district  reached  its  maxi- 
mum load  on  December  15.  This  amounted  to 
21,000  amperes  or  45,000  sixteen  candle-power 
equivalents.  On  December  14  the  uptown  district 
had  its  maximum  load,  an  output  of  20,320  amperes 
or  44,000  sixteen  candle-power  equivalents.  The 
heaviest  load  on  the  entire  system  that  year  was  40,- 
755  amperes  on  December  15. 

In  1896  the  opening  of  an  experimental  station  at 
Seventy-second  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue  ushered  in 
the  practice  of  high-tension  transmission,  and  so 
marks  an  important  point  in  the  history  of  the  Edi- 
son generating  process.  This  led  in  November 
1898,  to  the  adoption  of  high-tension  transmission 

D34!] 


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PUBLIC  IIBRARY 


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THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

between  the  Duane  Street  and  the  Thirty-ninth 
Street  stations.  They  were  connected  by  a  high- 
tension  cable  through  existing  ducts  under  Broad- 
way, and  converting  apparatus  was  installed  at  both 
ends.  Direct  current,  taken  from  the  Edison  bus- 
bars at  the  usual  voltage,  might  be  converted  from 
direct  current  to  three-phase  current  at  eighty  volts 
by  rotary  converters,  raised  to  high  tension  by  static 
transformers,  and  transmitted  through  the  cable  to 
static  transformers  at  the  receiving  end. 

This  stage  of  progress  in  the  generating  system 
was  really  a  transition  period,  for,  by  1898,  tentative 
plans  were  already  under  way  for  building  a  great 
Waterside  plant.  These  plans,  with  certain  modifi- 
cations, were  finally  developed  under  the  direction 
of  Mr  Thomas  E  Murray,  then  vice-president  and 
general  manager  of  the  company,  and  when,  in  Oc- 
tober 1901,  the  first  Waterside  station  was  com- 
pleted, the  ideal  of  concentrating  the  generating 
processes  was  on  its  way  to  realization.  The  station 
was  opened  with  one  3500  kilowatt  engine ;  but  after 
eleven  of  these  had  been  installed,  the  equipment 
was  completed  with  turbines  in  sizes  ranging  from 
5000  to  9000  kilowatts  each. 

High-tension  polyphase  transmission,  in  combina- 
tion with  rotaries  or  motor  generators,  made  Water- 
side technically  possible;  but  it  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that  the  help  of  storage  batteries  did  much 
toward  rendering  it  commercially  successful. 

The  main  operating  room  of  "Waterside  No  i" 
is  1 15  feet  wide,  267  feet  10  inches  long,  and  nearly 
125  feet  high.     On  the  south  side  are  five  galleries 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

devoted  to  the  offices,  shop  and  store-rooms  of  the 
plant;  on  the  westerly  side,  four  stories  high,  in- 
closed in  glass,  are  the  electrical  operating  galleries. 

Sixty-eight  feet  above  the  floor  are  tracks  sup- 
porting two  traveling  cranes,  one  having  a  lifting 
capacity  of  fifty,  the  other  of  twenty-five  tons,  and 
both,  a  span  of  ninety-eight  feet.  In  addition  to  their 
main  hoists,  each  crane  is  equipped  with  a  whip 
hoist  of  five  tons.  These  cranes  travel,  fully  loaded, 
at  a  speed  of  150  feet,  and  lightly  loaded,  200  feet, 
a  minute.  The  hoist  speed,  fully  loaded,  is  twenty- 
five,  and  lightly  loaded  forty  feet  a  minute. 

In  the  basement  under  the  operating  room  are 
condensers  and  their  auxiliary  apparatus.  Two 
standard  batteries,  one  for  the  local  district  ser- 
vice, the  other  insuring  constant  potential  on  the 
field  excitation  bus,  occupy  a  section  extending  the 
length  of  the  building  on  the  Thirty-eighth  Street 
side.  The  oil-filters  and  pumps  are  also  in  the  base- 
ment. Below  the  level  of  the  basement  floor  are  the 
condensing  tunnels  leading  to  and  from  the  East 
River. 

The  controlling,  indicating  and  recording  fea- 
tures of  the  electrical  equipment  of  the  station  are 
confined  to  a  series  of  galleries  occupying  the  entire 
westerlv  end  of  the  structure.  On  the  main  floor  are 
the  motor-driven  exciters,  their  switchboards,  and 
the  controlling  and  indicating  devices  for  the  supply, 
control  and  record  of  low-tension  direct  current 
distributed  locally  from  this  station.  The  rheostats 
of  the  exciter  sets  are  on  a  mezzanine  gallery  di- 
rectly beneath. 

D36:] 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

On  the  first  gallery  are  the  automatic  oil  switches 
controlling  the  feeders,  and  the  transformers  for  the 
operation  of  their  indicating  and  recording  instru- 
ments. The  main  oil  switches  controlling  the  gen- 
erators are  also  on  this  gallery.  On  the  gallery 
above,  the  second,  are  the  group  selector  switches 
controlling  groups  of  two  feeders,  by  which  any 
group  may  be  placed  on  either  of  the  busses  of  the 
station,  and  the  field  rheostats  of  the  generators. 

The  gallery  above,  the  third,  is  the  main  operating 
gallery  of  the  station.  At  the  rear  is  the  bus  house, 
above  which  are  the  generator  selector  switches,  by 
which  any  generator  may  be  placed  on  either  of  the 
station  busses.  At  the  front  of  the  gallery,  so  ar- 
ranged that  the  operator  faces  and  has  in  full  view 
the  machinery  of  the  station,  are  the  various 
switches,  and  indicating  and  recording  instruments 
incidental  to  and  essential  for  the  operation  of  the 
generators.  Each  generator  is  controlled  from  a 
pedestal  upon  which  are  mounted  the  controlling 
switches  and  apparatus,  directly  above  which  is  a 
vertical  panel  containing  all  the  instruments  relating 
to  the  generator.  The  instruments  on  each  gener- 
ator panel  consist  of  a  recording  wattmeter,  giving 
a  summation  of  the  output  of  the  generator;  a  volt- 
meter, two  ampere-meters,  an  indicating  wattmeter, 
a  field  ammeter,  a  power  factor  indicator,  a  syn- 
chronizing lamp  and  the  signal  lamp  connected  to 
the  overload  relay.  There  are  also  illuminated 
signals  by  which  orders  are  transmitted  from  the 
operator  on  the  gallery  to  the  engineer  in  charge,  or 
vice  versa. 

1^371 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Above  the  operator's  desk,  in  the  center  of  the 
gallery,  are  the  frequency  indicators,  station  volt- 
meters and  synchronizers.  At  this  point  are  also 
located  the  ground  detectors,  which  by  means  of 
relay  circuits,  cause  a  bell  to  ring  should  a  ground 
develop  at  any  point  on  the  system.  Behind  the 
operator,  at  the  rear  of  this  gallery,  each  feeder  is 
provided  with  a  vertical  panel,  upon  which  are 
mounted  the  switches  controlling  the  motors  oper- 
ating the  feeder  switches,  a  recording  wattmeter, 
three  ampere-meters,  a  power  factor  indicator  and 
the  time-limit  overload  relays. 

At  one  side  of  this  gallery  is  stationed  the  system 
operator,  upon  whom  depends  the  distribution  of 
current  between  all  the  stations  and  substations  of 
the  company  in  conjunction  with  the  Waterside  plant. 
Upon  him  rests,  also,  the  responsibility  for  having 
adequate  machinery  in  operation  for  any  emergency, 
not  only  at  Waterside,  but  also  in  all  the  other  sta- 
tions. The  position  he  holds  has  been  likened  to 
that  of  a  train  despatcher  on  a  great  railroad  system. 

"Waterside  No  2"  was  opened  in  1906  with  an 
all-turbine  equipment,  consisting  of  ten  generating 
units.  Two  of  these  have  a  capacity  of  14,000  kilo- 
watts each  and  the  remaining  eight,  of  12,000  kilo- 
watts each. 

In  191 1,  four  of  the  old  3500  kilowatt  generators 
in  the  first  station  were  replaced  by  three  20,000 
kilowatt  turbines.  The  saving  in  ground-room  is 
enormous,  since  the  three  new  engines  take  up  little 
more  space  than  their  predecessors,  while  there  is  a 
gain  in  capacity  of  46,000  kilowatts. 


THE  GENERATING  SYSTEM 

Each  of  these  turbines,  the  largest  in  the  world,  is 
thirty-five  and  a  half  feet  tall  and  weighs  420  tons. 
To  supply  steam  for  one  of  these  monsters  400  tons 
of  coal  must  be  burned  every  day,  and  it  alone  could 
furnish  current  for  a  city  of  200,000  inhabitants. 
Special  condensers  of  high  efficiency  were  designed 
to  accompany  these  turbines.  They  are  of  the  dry- 
tube,  wing-base  style  and  can  each  handle  approxi- 
mately 3,250,000  cubic  feet  of  steam  per  minute. 

As  to  coal  and  water,  two  "first  causes"  of  the 
tremendous  energy  which  the  generating  plants  send 
out,  the  East  River  presents  an  inexhaustible  amount 
of  the  latter,  and  special  provisions  have  been  made 
both  for  necessary  fuel  and  for  an  emergency  re- 
serve. The  bunkers  in  each  station  hold  about  10,- 
000  tons  of  coal,  enough  to  last  in  the  region  of  a 
week.  Machinery  is  also  at  hand  to  replenish  them 
at  the  rate  of  150  tons  an  hour,  while  a  large  reserve 
supply  is  kept  constantly  in  the  company's  coal  piles 
at  Shadyside.  This  tract  of  land  on  the  west  shore 
of  the  Hudson,  opposite  Grant's  Tomb,  was  pur- 
chased in  1903  with  a  view  to  forestalling  any  diffi- 
culties in  obtaining  coal  which  might  arise  in  case 
of  mining  or  railroad  strikes.  Its  yards  can  hold 
about  300,000  tons.  Waterside  consumes  about 
1500  tons  a  day  during  the  summer,  and  in  the  win- 
ter about  2000. 

When  the  first  Waterside  station  was  built  it 
supplied  Manhattan  Island  only.  Today  the  two 
plants  furnish  current  for  Manhattan,  the  Bronx, 
Queens,  Blackwell's  Island  and  Yonkers,  while  they 
even  send  it  as  far  as  the  aqueduct  dam  at  Kensico. 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Station  No  i  has  a  rated  capacity  of  157,000  kilo- 
watts and  station  No  2,  of  140,000  kilowatts,  the 
maximum  load  for  the  two  stations  in  191 1  being 
170,000  kilowatts.  To  carry  on  the  work  of  these 
great  factories  for  electricity,  700  men  are  employed. 


THE  OPERATING  ROOM  AT  WATERSIDE  NO  2 
From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


[1403 


THE  NEW  TORE 
PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


AHT(>«    LJCi4«X  AND 
TILDEK  i'-    NliATI  M<8 
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Technique  of  Distribution 

AFTER  current  has  been  generated,  the  next  step 
is  the  sending  of  it  out  into  channels  through 
•"  which  it  will  ultimately  reach  the  consumer. 
Those  channels  are:  first,  the  cables  carrying  it  at 
high  tension  to  substations;  second,  these  stations, 
themselves,  whose  province  it  is  to  transform  the 
high-tension  alternating  current  into  direct  current 
at  low  voltage;  third,  the  feeders  and  mains,  by 
means  of  which  "juice"  is  conveyed  to  points  where 
customers  desire  to  convert  it  into  light,  heat  or 
power.  Under  the  topic  of  distribution,  then,  will 
come  the  high-tension  cables,  the  substations  and 
the  low-tension  distribution  network. 

From  Waterside  two  or  more  cables  go  out  by 
different  underground  routes  to  each  distributing 
station.  In  some  instances  the  number  of  cables  is 
greater  than  two,  as  for  example,  at  the  Duane-Pearl 
Street  station  where  there  are  four  cables,  and  at 
Twenty-sixth  Street  which  has  five,  each  connected 
with  Waterside  by  independent  routes.  There  is 
also  a  general  tie-feeder  which  either  loops  or  "tees" 
into  all  the  stations  and  substations  from  Duane  to 
One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fourth  Street.  This 
feeder  may  also  be  used  to  transmit  high-tension 
current  from  one  converting  point  to  another,  inde- 
pendently of  the  Waterside  station.    The  high-ten- 

D40 


/ 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

sion  transmission  system  also  extends  into  the  gener- 
ating station  of  the  Metropolitan  Street  Railway 
Company  at  Ninety-sixth  Street,  and  across  the 
Brooklyn  Bridge  to  the  plants  of  the  Edison  Com- 
pany of  that  borough. 

Each  high-tension  feeder  begins  practically  at  the 
automatic  oil  switches  on  the  first  floor  of  the  oper- 
ating gallery  of  the  Waterside  station.  Before  this 
point  is  reached  each  pair  of  feeders  is  controlled  by 
non-automatic  oil  selector  switches,  located  on  the 
second  floor  of  the  gallery.  The  selector  switch  per- 
mits the  connection  of  the  feeder  on  either  of  the 
two  main  busses  of  the  station.  The  control  of  the 
oil  switches  of  each  feeder  is  concentrated  on  a 
feeder  panel  situated  on  the  third  floor  of  the  oper- 
ating gallery,  upon  which  are  also  mounted  the  vari- 
ous indicating  and  recording  instruments  belonging 
to  the  feeder.  Likewise,  for  the  terminals  of  the 
feeders  at  the  converting  stations,  there  are  feeder 
panels,  upon  which  suitable  switches  have  been 
placed  for  their  control  at  that  point. 

Rubber  insulation  was  used  for  the  first  of  the 
high-tension  transmission  cables,  but  in  more  recent 
work  paper  has  been  adopted  exclusively.  The  speci- 
fications for  these  cables  were  drawn  to  insure  the 
best  utilization  of  the  subway  ducts,  and  called  for 
three  conductors,  each  aggregating  250,000  circular 
mils  and  made  up  of  thirty-seven  strands  of  cop- 
per wire.  The  paper  insulation  is  %2  of  an  inch 
around  each  conductor,  and  the  outside  insulating 
jacket  is  of  the  same  thickness.  The  lead  covering 
is  %2  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  and  alloyed  with  from 

[1423 


THE  NEW  YORK 
PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


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TECHNIQUE  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

2  to  3  per  cent  of  tin.  The  open  spaces  between  the 
conductors  are  filled  with  dry  jute,  saturated  with  an 
insulating  compound  to  exclude  air  and  moisture. 
It  is  required  that  after  being  laid  in  the  subway, 
the  insulation  of  the  cable,  including  the  joints, 
shall  be  300  meghoms  per  mile  at  60°  Fahrenheit. 
In  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the  Subway  Com- 
pany, each  feeder  is  subjected  to  weekly  tests.  The 
capacity  of  each  feeder  is  250  amperes  for  each  of 
the  three  phases  at  6600  volts. 

The  subway  system,  which  has  been  developed  by 
separate  corporations,  extends  through  every  impor- 
tant section  of  Manhattan  Island.  It  consists  of  iron 
pipe  or  vitrified  clay  ducts,  in  groups  of  from  two  to 
thirty  ducts,  from  two  and  five  tenths  to  four  inches 
in  diameter,  buried  in  concrete.  Manholes  are  pro- 
vided at  each  street  intersection,  the  distance  apart 
being  about  250  feet.  On  trunk  lines,  passing  through 
long  cross  blocks,  the  intermediate  lengths  may 
be  a  little  in  excess  of  this  distance.  Hand-holes 
serve  the  same  purposes  where  the  subway  has  more 
limited  capacity.  All  cable  joints  are  made  in  either 
manholes  or  hand-holes,  where  they  may  be  easily 
cut  for  testing  or  repairs.  The  manholes  are  built 
of  brick  enclosed  with  double  iron  covers— the  inner 
being  locked— ventilated  to  prevent  the  accumula- 
tion of  gas.  Where  passing  through  the  manholes, 
the  cables  are  carefully  racked  on  iron  hooks  fas- 
tened to  the  walls.  Those  belonging  to  the  high- 
tension  system  are  covered  with  a  wrapping  of 
asbestos  and  galvanized  steel  tape,  which  afifords 
protection  from  mechanical  as  well  as  electrical  in- 


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A   SUBSTATION 

Drawn  by  Norman  Price 


1:144: 


TECHNIQUE  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

jury,  otherwise  possible  in  the  event  of  short  circuit 
upon  other  cables. 

Extending  from  Waterside  there  are  four  inde- 
pendent routes  of  trunk  subways,  each  containing 
from  twenty  to  thirty  ducts  so  that  accident  in  one, 
however  remote,  by  no  chance  can  extend  to  the 
others.  In  the  high-tension  transmission  system  at 
the  present  time  there  are  384  miles  of  cable  carry- 
ing current  at  6600  volts,  three-phase,  twenty-five 
cycles. 

By  means  of  this  polyphase  transmission,  current 
produced  at  Waterside  is  brought  to  thirty-odd 
substations,  located  according  to  necessity  through- 
out Manhattan  and  the  Bronx.  While  there  is 
some  difference  in  the  internal  arrangement  of  these 
various  stations  their  equipment  is  more  or  less 
similar.  As  a  rule,  cable  vaults  are  located  in  the 
basement,  with  rotaries  and  low-tension  switch- 
boards, including  control  of  the  battery  end  cell 
switches,  on  the  first  floor.  Static  transformers, 
induction  regulators  and  high-tension  switches  are 
usually  on  a  mezzanine  gallery  with  the  batteries 
on  the  floor  above.  In  some  cases  these  last  adjuncts 
are  placed  in  the  basement,  while  both  low  and 
high-tension  switchboards  occupy  the  mezzanine. 

Besides  rotary  converters  and  storage  batteries,  a 
substation  is  usually  furnished  with  air-cooled  static 
transformers,  induction  regulators  for  the  rotaries, 
a  "booster"  set  for  the  batteries  and  a  direct-current 
compensator  for  the  three-wire  system.  The  switch- 
board is  generally  divided  into  panels  with  devices 
for  high-tension  feeder  control,  low-tension  feeder 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

control,  rotary  converter  control,  battery  control,  in- 
dicating, recording  and  synchronizing  instruments 
and  main  and  auxiliary  busses. 

Entering  the  station,  the  three-phase,  6600-volt, 
twenty-five-cycle,  alternating  current  is  received 
upon  high-tension  feeder  oil  switches.  From  these 
connections  are  made,  through  selector  oil  switches, 
with  the  high-tension  busses.  The  rotaries  are 
equipped  with  similar  switches,  so  arranged  that 
they  may  be  connected  to  any  feeder.  From  the  ma- 
chine high-tension  oil  switches,  the  current  passes 
over  triplex  cables  to  the  high-tension  or  primary 
coils  of  the  static  transformers.  At  the  statics  the 
alternating  current  is  transformed  in  the  secondary 
windings  to  170  volts.  The  secondary  sides  of  the 
transformers  are  connected,  through  the  induction 
regulators,  with  the  alternating-current  collector 
rings  of  the  rotaries.  From  the  direct-current  side 
of  the  rotaries  the  path  leads  directly  to  the  low-ten- 
sion switchboard,  where  suitable  switches  provide 
connection  with  any  one  of  three  busses,  each  main- 
tained at  a  different  pressure,  supplying  the  low- 
tension,  direct-current  feeders. 

On  the  direct-current  side  the  normal  pressure  of 
the  rotary  converters  is  270  volts,  which  may  be 
raised  or  lowered  thirty  volts  by  the  induction  regu- 
lators. Any  tendency  toward  unbalance  on  the 
three-wire  system,  which  provides  120-240  volts 
at  the  services,  is  cared  for  by  the  battery  and  com- 
pensator. 

All  static  transformers  are  air  cooled  and  stand  in 
sets  of  3-200,  3-400,  and  3-800  kilowatts  respec- 

i:>463 


TUB  HEWTOltl 
PUBUC  LiniliEf 


ft  d. 


TECHNIQUE  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

tively  for  the  500,  1000  and  2000  kilowatt  convert- 
ers. They  are  mounted  on  a  platform  containing 
an  air-duct  for  ventilation,  in  which,  supplied  by 
electric  blowers  from  beneath  or  at  the  ends,  air 
pressure  is  maintained  at  one  half  or  three  quar- 
ters of  an  ounce.  The  static  transformers  are  wound 
for  a  ratio  of  transformation  of  6300  to  170  volts. 
The  latter  types  contain  a  thermometer,  placed  in 
the  casing  between  the  transformer  cells,  thus  giv- 
ing temperature  indications. 

Without  undue  heating,  the  transformers  will 
operate  at  25  per  cent  overload  for  three  hours,  or 
qo  per  cent  overload  for  one  hour,  after  a  twenty- 
four  hour  run  at  full  load.  The  efficiency  of  the  400 
kilowatt  type  is  98  per  cent,  and  the  regulation  is 
I  per  cent.  The  use  of  electrically  operated  alter- 
nating-current switches  on  the  transformer  switch- 
board, controlled  by  small  switches  from  the  oper- 
ating switchboard,  results  in  shortening  heavy  cables 
and  saving  space  on  the  operating  board. 

Induction  regulators  permit  a  variation  of  from 
150  to  190  volts  in  the  pressure  of  the  alternating 
current  at  the  rotaries.  Their  secondary  windings 
are  connected  between  the  secondary  side  of  the 
transformers  and  the  collector  rings  of  the  rotaries. 
Their  primary  coils  are  wound  on  a  rotor  which,  by 
means  of  a  small  direct  current  or  induction  motor, 
controlled  from  the  operating  switchboard,  can  be 
turned  through  a  given  angle  in  either  direction. 
These  regulators  have  a  capacity  of  sixty-five  kilo- 
watts for  rotaries  of  400  kilowatts,  and  of  130  kilo- 
watts for  1000  kilowatt  rotaries.    Standing  upon  the 

D47] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

same  platform,  they  are  cooled  from  air-ducts  sup- 
plying the  static  transformers. 

Rotaries  now  used  in  the  company's  substations 
are  six-phase,  500,  1000,  2000  and  2500  kilowatts, 
respectively. 

At  present,  however,  five  new  3500  kilowatt  ro- 
tary converters  are  being  put  into  commission.  Their 
advantage  is  that  they  occupy  less  floor  space  per 
kilowatt.  The  rotaries  convert  to  240-300  volts 
direct  current  and  their  speed  is  375  revolutions  per 
minute  for  the  500  kilowatt  type;  187.5  ^^^  the  1000 
kilowatt  converter,  and  115  for  the  2000  kilowatt 
size.  A  few  500  kilowatt  rotaries,  converting  to 
240-340  volts  direct  current,  are  used  in  the  upper 
section  of  the  city  where  long  feeders  are  sometimes 
still  necessary.  They  are  provided  with  induction 
regulators  of  130  kilowatts  capacity,  which  give 
them  this  unusual  range  of  pressure. 

Recent  standard  storage  battery  equipment  used 
by  the  company  consists  of  chloride  accumulators, 
•each  cell  containing  twenty-nine  plates  and  being 
■capable  of  discharging  500  amperes  for  eight  hours, 
748  amperes  for  five  hours,  1120  amperes  for  three 
hours  or  2240  amperes  for  one  hour.  The  plates 
are  contained  in  wooden,  lead-lined  tanks,  48  inches 
high,  21  inches  long  and  34  inches  wide.  They  con- 
tain 754  pounds  of  acid  and,  including  the  acid,  the 
weight  of  each  completed  cell  or  tank  is  2492 
pounds.  There  are  150  cells  in  each  battery,  sev- 
enty-five on  the  positive  and  a  like  number  on  the 
negative  side.  Twenty  cells  on  each  side  are  con- 
nected to  the  end  cell  switches. 

[■48] 


TECHNIQUE  OF  DISTRIBUTION 


When  "juice," 
having  been  trans- 
formed in  a  sub- 
station to  low-volt- 
age direct  current, 
is  sent  out  into  the 
conductors,  it  en- 
ters the  under- 
ground netv^ork  of 
low-tension  feed- 
ers and  mains,  of 
which  today  there 
areabout93omiles 
in  The  New  York 
Edison  Company's 
system.  Of  these, 
646  miles  are 
mains  and  319 
miles  are  feeders. 

Of  the  old  Edi- 
son tubes,  laid  be- 
fore the  days  of 
ducts,  there  remain 
about  200  miles. 
These  are  kept  in 
good  order,  but  in 
all  new  work  cable 
is  used  exclusively 
both  for  feeders 
and  mains.  The 
Bronx  district 

which,  on  account 


[149:] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

of  sparse  population  was  originally  designed  to  ad- 
here to  the  Edison  "village  plan,"  has  overhead 
wires.  These,  however,  are  being  done  away  with, 
and  it  is  intended  eventually  to  give  this  region  also 
an  underground  system. 

In  feeders,  the  outside  conductors  of  Edison  tubing 
—those  of  positive  and  negative  polarity — have  a 
maximum  size  of  1,000,000  circular  mils,  the  neutral 
conductor  having  about  one  third  this  area.  For 
other  than  tie  purposes  between  stations,  these  feed- 
ers rarely  exceed  a  length  of  one  mile,  for  this  is, 
under  usual  conditions,  about  the  greatest  distance 
of  economical  supply  at  a  pressure  of  240  volts.  The 
cable  feeders  are  concentric,  two-conductor,  one  for 
each  polarity.  The  neutrals  are  contained  in  inde- 
pendent cables  of  2,000,000  circular  mils,  following 
the  "tree"  method,  each  being  common  to  a  number 
of  feeders,  thus  providing  at  any  given  point  very 
much  larger  conducting  capacity  in  the  event  of 
serious  disturbance  in  the  balance  of  the  system. 

All  single  conductor  cable  mains  are  stranded, 
and  each  conductor  has  an  area  of  200,000  circular 
mils.  In  special  instances,  where  the  main  acts  as 
a  tie  between  important  points  or  where  a  large 
installation  is  to  be  served,  larger  sizes— 350,000 
circular  mils  and  over — are  used.  Some  single 
buildings  require  as  many  as  four  services,  each 
having  an  area  of  1,000,000  circular  mils,  or  one 
inch  cross  section.  In  such  instances,  several  feed- 
ers converge  nearby  on  the  local  network,  which  is 
tied  and  strengthened  in  every  possible  way. 

In   all   instances,   services   are  brought  into  the 

[150;] 


TECHNIQUE  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

building  to  be  supplied,  at  the  expense  of  the  com- 
pany. They  terminate  on  or  near  the  front  wall  in 
a  switch,  by  which  the  entire  supply  may  be  con- 
trolled. Fusible  safety  devices  are  installed  at  this 
point  to  cut  ofif  the  current  instantaneously  should 
trouble  develop  on  wiring,  fixtures  or  apparatus. 
In  usual  practice  the  meter  is  placed  near  the  service 
end,  in  a  position  insuring  dryness  and  freedom  from 
vibration,  and  otherwise  favorable  for  the  accurate 
measurement  of  current. 

As  the  Edison  tubes  are  supplied  in  lengths  of 
about  twenty  feet — the  width  of  a  city  lot — they  are 
adapted  to  the  convenient  installation  of  an  indepen- 
dent service  connection  for  each  building.  The  iron 
pipe  and  tile  duct  systems  have  hand-holes  placed  in 
the  branch  lines,  accessible  from  the  street  by  remov- 
ing an  iron  cover,  from  which  building  connections 
may  be  conveniently  made. 

An  important  feature  of  the  Edison  underground 
system  is  the  junction-box,  of  heavy  cast  iron,  cir- 
cular in  form,  with  tube  stubs  at  the  bottom;  the 
number,  and  whether  for  mains  or  feeders,  being 
determined  by  the  type  of  the  box.  It  is  enclosed 
with  heavy  iron  covers,  the  inside  one  tightly  bolted 
down  on  a  rubber  gasket,  thus  making  the  interior 
water  and  air-tight.  The  other  lies  loose  on  a  suit- 
able flange  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  inner 
cover,  maintaining  the  street  level  and  supporting 
traffic.  In  the  interior  of  the  box  are  heavy  cop- 
per rings,  one  for  each  polarity,  which  connect 
by  flexible  cables  with  conductors  contained  in  the 
stubs  to  which,  in  turn,  mains  and  feeders  radi- 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

ating  from  the  box  are  connected.  All  conductors 
make  common  connection  with  these  rings,  the  posi- 
tive and  negative,  through  safety  fuses,  which,  in  the 
event  of  overload  arising  from  accident  or  other 
cause,  melt  and  sever  the  defective  part  from  the 
general  system.  The  neutral  series  of  conductors  is 
continuous  without  safety  fuses,  and  is  carefully 
grounded  at  each  box.  Thus  the  entire  system  of 
mains  and  feeders  interlocks,  and  yet  is  fully  pro- 
tected at  every  point. 


^<e,^0  nnnnnn.ununnnnnBQ03QQO°?,nnnnoQQQ° 


"""'SSSSi^^ 


UNDERGROUND  MAINS 
—  i8;ga  — 

The  Edison  KUcttlo  Iltuuilnatin;  Co.,  of  N.Y. ' 


0-^  C^  . 


a  o  dzj  tzK  era 

O  O  ^  •  •  ^kz^^ 


THE  EDISON  UNDERGROUND  SYSTEM  IN  1S83 


l^S^l 


The  Progress  of  Distribution 

HAVING  now  traced  to  some  extent  the  techni- 
cal means  by  which  current  is  at  present 
sent  out,  it  may  prove  interesting  to  look  at 
the  process  of  distribution  from  a  geographical 
standpoint.  This  will  be  done  in  order  to  describe 
somewhat  the  development  of  the  underground 
system,  and  to  give  some  account  of  the  varying  de- 
mands made  upon  it  today. 

For  convenience,  in  discussion  of  the  subject.  New 
York  may  be  divided  into  four  districts  correspond- 
ing in  general  with  what  the  company  calls  its  oper- 
ating districts.  The  first  of  these  extends  from  the 
Battery  to  the  region  just  north  of  Washington 
Square.  The  second  district  takes  in  all  the  city 
between  Eighth  Street  and  Fifty-ninth  Street,  while 
the  third  stretches  northward  to  the  Harlem  River 
and  the  Bronx  division,  as  the  name  suggests,  sup- 
plies that  borough.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
however,  that  though  these  districts  are  said  to  begin 
and  end  at  certain  points,  their  feeders  interlace 
forming  a  continuous  underground  mesh. 

It  seems  to  be  the  rule  in  New  York  that  every- 
thing grows  by  stretching  northward,  and  to  this 
custom  the  electric  lighting  system  is  no  exception. 
Thus,  by  starting  with  the  southern  part  of  the 
island,  and  working  uptown,  one  is  able  to  follow 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

the  history  of  the  Edison  distributing  process.  The 
present  first  operating  district  includes,  of  course, 
the  original  square  mile  of  territory  which  was  sup- 
plied with  current  at  the  opening  of  the  old  Pearl 
Street  station  in  September  1882.  One  of  Edison's 
most  far-reaching  ideas,  in  planning  for  the  incan- 
descent illumination  of  New  York  City,  was  his 
scheme"  of  a  distribution  system  which  should  be 
located  entirely  underground,  free  from  all  atmo- 
spheric disturbances  and  from  other  interferences  to 
which  overhead  wires  might  be  subjected.  Many 
had  been  the  predictions  that  such  an  arrangement 
could  not  be  made  to  work;  that  all  the  electricity 
would  either  escape  into  the  earth,  or  that  if  enough 
were  forced  into  conductors  to  overcome  leakage, 
the  conductors  themselves  would  be  destroyed. 

Edison's  ideas  on  this  subject  were  most  complete. 
He  divided  the  city  into  sections  of  about  a  square 
mile,  in  each  of  which,  he  said,  a  central  station 
should  be  located.  From  each  station  there  should 
radiate  many  "feeders,"  as  he  called  the  conductors. 
Each  feeder  was  to  supply  its  own  "junction-box," 
located  at  some  street  intersection,  and  no  service 
connection  was  to  be  made  to  any  feeder,  but  a  series 
of  mains  was  to  extend  throughout  the  district  from 
which  the  services  were  to  be  taken.  The  mains  of 
the  several  districts  were  to  be  tied  together,  and  his 
conception  was  a  continuous  intermeshed  network 
extending  throughout  the  city,  fed  at  various  points 
by  central  stations.  The  success  of  the  original 
First  District  system  proved  the  feasibility  of  this 
plan. 

[■54: 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

In  each  of  the  aforementioned  junction-boxes, 
there  were  two  rings  to  which  conductors  in  the 
feeders  were  connected  by  means  of  a  copper  tipped 
lead  connection  strip  or  "safety-catch."  To  the  same 
rings,  and  by  means  of  similar  but  lighter  weight 
safety-catches,  a  number  of  so-called  mains  were 
connected.  There  was  one  main  for  each  side  of  the 
street  in  all  four  directions  and  these  were  continu- 
ous to  a  similar,  but  somewhat  smaller,  junction-box 
located  at  the  next  street  intersection.  As  every  size 
of  conductor  was  made  up  into  standard  lengths  of 
about  twenty  feet,  enclosed  in  an  iron  pipe,  there  was 


FIFTH  AVENUE,  FROM  TWENTY-FIRST  STREET 
Nueva  York  Ilustrada,  i885.     A  C  Warren 


[155:1 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

a  joint  in  front  of  every  house ;  and  it  was,  therefore, 
an  easy  matter  to  connect  to  the  main  a  service  to  be 
carried  into  the  premises  of  any  would-be  consumer. 
Throughout  the  system,  resistance  was  placed  to 
regulate  any  possible  drop  in  voltage. 

In  general  appearance  this  tubing,  sometimes 
termed  Kruesi  tubing,  from  Mr  John  Kruesi  un- 
der whose  supervision  it  was  made,  was  the  same. 
In  both  feeders  and  mains  the  conductors  were 
made  of  half  round,  drawn  copper,  which,  after 
being  served  with  rope  wound  in  a  long  spiral  over 
each  of  them,  were  placed  with  the  flat  sides  toward 
each  other  and  again  served  with  rope  to  hold  the 
two  together.  This  couple  was  then  inserted  into 
a  length  of  iron  pipe,  about  six  inches  shorter  than 
the  conductors.  An  insulating  compound  was  forced 
through  the  pipe,  completely  filling  all  the  unoccu- 
pied space  and  serving  further  to  insulate  the  con- 
ductors from  each  other  as  well  as  from  the  enclosing 
pipe.  The  ends  of  the  pipe  were  then  closed  with 
wooden  plugs  and  it,  with  the  projecting  conductor 
at  each  end,  was  ready  to  be  laid  into  the  ditch  which 
had  been  prepared,  there  to  be  connected  as  one  link 
in  the  continuous  feeder  or  main. 

The  connection  was  made  by  almost  rigid  U- 
shaped  joints  which  were  slipped  over  the  conduc- 
tors, fastened  in  place  by  set-screws  and  soldered. 
These  joints  were  protected  by  coupling-boxes 
which  were  clamped  to  the  pipes  and  which  were 
also  filled  with  insulating  compound,  heated  and 
poured  in  after  the  box  was  in  place.  Mains  and 
services  differed  only  in  size.    The  feeders  generally 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

carried  two  extra,  separately  insulated  wires  called 
pressure  or  galvanometer  wires,  the  function  of 
which  was  to  enable  the  central  station  man  to  learn 
at  will  the  pressure  at  the  distant  end  of  the  feeder. 
This  he  did  by  connecting  any  selected  wires  to  a 
detecting  instrument  such  as  a  galvanometer,  and  he 
was  thus  enabled  intelligently  to  use  any  regulating 
devices  that  were  at  his  disposal. 

During  the  laying  out  of  the  First  District,  in 
order  to  determine  the  sizes  of  conductors  that 
should  be  used,  a  most  elaborate  survey  was  made 
of  the  territory.  Every  house  was  canvassed,  every 
gas-jet  counted,  every  horse-driven  treadmill  and 
every  engine  recorded.  Large  scale  maps  of  each 
street  were  drawn  to  which  the  data  collected  were 
transferred  so  that  the  exact  size  of  the  conductor  in 
each  street  could  be  reckoned  with  an  accuracy  so 
great  as  to  be  practically  scientific.  Probably  the 
Gas  Company  reaped  a  golden  harvest  from  the 
midnight  gas  that  was  burned  while  discussion  went 
on  as  to  whether  the  size  of  the  main  to  be  laid  on  a 
given  street  should  be  No  4  of  182,000  circular  mils, 
or  No  5  of  107,000  circular  mils. 

The  same  painstaking  care  was  devoted  to  deter- 
mining the  proper  size  for  each  of  the  twenty  feed- 
ers, and  then  further  calculation  was  made  as  to 
what  would  be  required  in  each  feeder  to  make  them 
all  of  nearly  equal  resistance,  or,  as  they  expressed 
it,  to  arrange  them  equipotentially.  A  scrutiny  of 
data,  in  accordance  with  which  conductors  were 
manufactured  and  which  may  be  found  in  the  chap- 
ter on  statistics,  will  show  the  factors  which  had  to 

[1573 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

be  considered.  The  column  headings  are :  number  of 
feeder  tube  and  copper;  length  of  each  feeder  from 
catch-box  to  elbow  in  front  of  station  curb;  length 
of  No  3  copper  from  elbow  through  cellar  wall; 
equivalent  length  in  main  copper  of  feeder;  length 
of  No  2;K4  copper  from  cellar  to  station  mains; 
equivalent  length  in  main  copper  of  feeder;  length 
of  each  feeder  from  elbow  to  station  main;  equiva- 
lent length  of  this  part  in  main  copper  of  respective 
feeder;  length  of  each  feeder  from  catch-box  to  sta- 
tion main;  equivalent  of  each  feeder  from  catch-box 
to  station  main;  equivalent  length  in  No  3  copper 
(circular  mils  252,951)  ;  carrying  capacity  as  com- 
pared with  No  3  as  unity;  carrying  capacity  as  com- 
pared with  No  18  as  unity. 

One  feature  of  the  underground  system,  which 
later  aroused  a  great  deal  of  interest,  was  a  small 
iron  box  set  in  the  sidewalk,  close  to  the  curb  line, 
and  about  twenty  feet  from  the  intersecting  street. 
This  was  a  one-conductor  disconnection  box,  de- 
signed with  the  idea  that  should  it  be  necessary  to 
cut  current  off  the  entire  main  or  any  block  front,  as 
in  case  of  an  extensive  fire,  it  would  be  possible  to  do 
so  from  this  box,  even  though  the  regular  junction- 
box  were  obstructed  by  fire-engines  or  rendered 
difficult  of  access  by  ice  or  snow.  This  device  would, 
of  course,  effectively  open  the  metallic  circuit  when 
the  safety-catch  on  the  single  conductor  in  the  box 
was  removed;  but  it  would  not  cut  current  off  the 
line  in  case  of  a  grounded  system,  where  the  ground 
happened  on  the  conductor  which  was  looped 
through  the  disconnection  box.     These  boxes  were 

1:158: 


a*»7s=i*; 


A    SUBWAY    SHAFT    ON    BROADWAY 
Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


i:r593 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

laid  in  the  northerly  part  of  the  district  after  which 
the  idea  was  abandoned  and  those  already  in  place 
were  disconnected.  Three  of  them  are  still  to  be 
found  where  they  were  originally  located;  one  on 
the  east  side  of  Cliff  Street,  twenty  feet  south  of 
Beekman;  one  on  the  south  side  of  Peck  Slip,  eigh- 
teen feet  east  of  Water  Street,  and  another  on  the 
west  side  of  Water  Street,  twenty  feet  south  of  Peck 
Slip. 

The  safety-catches  used  at  first  were  made  of  strips 
of  sheet  lead,  through  which  holes  were  punched 
for  a  stud-bolt  to  fasten  them  in  place  to  the  rings 
in  the  junction-boxes.  It  was  early  seen  that  expan- 
sion and  contraction  of  this  soft  metal  would  result 
in  poor  contact,  and  improvement  was  made  by  riv- 
eting and  soldering  the  lead  strips  to  copper  tips 
which,  it  was  expected,  would  remain  firmly  seated 
under  the  bolt-head.  It  was  found,  however,  that 
the  copper  tips  became  corroded,  and  the  next  im- 
provement was  to  have  them  plated  with  gold.  This 
work  was  done  at  the  very  interesting  shop  of  P  A 
Normandeau  at  50  Ann  Street,  one  of  the  com- 
pany's very  first  customers,  and  the  use  of  the  gold 
plated  safety-catch  was  continued  up  to  as  late  as 
1888.  The  idea  was  excellent,  but  its  value  was 
rather  lost  when  a  husky  jointer  vigorously  rubbed 
the  tips  with  coarse  sandpaper  "to  make  a  good 
bright  connection." 

A  great  deal  of  reliance  seems  to  have  been  placed 
on  the  safety-catches  and  they  were  used,  not  only 
in  customers'  premises,  but  on  all  the  mains  and 
feeders  in  the  junction-boxes,  on  the  station  ends  of 

1:60-2 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

the  feeders,  and  even  in  dynamo  circuits.  The  spe- 
cial function  of  the  safety-catch  was  to  open  the  cir- 
cuit by  fusing  in  case  of  trouble,  and  they  were  very 
closely  calculated  to  "blow"  if  the  load  exceeded  lOO 
per  cent  above  their  rated  capacity.  Lack  of  uni- 
formity, however,  in  the  mixture  of  which  they  were 
made  (60  per  cent  lead,  40  per  cent  tin),  coupled 
with  occasional  loose  contacts,  made  them  not  over- 
dependable.  Dr  S  S  Wheeler,  who  succeeded  Mr 
C  S  Bradley  as  electrician  of  the  company,  relates 
an  instance  in  which  the  safety-catch,  instead  of  pro- 
tecting the  system,  caused  a  complete  shut  down. 
During  a  period  of  heavy  load  one  or  two  defective 
catches  melted,  thus  cutting  ofT  their  respective 
feeders.  This  put  extra  load  on  the  remaining  feed- 
ers and  a  few  more  catches  melted  either  in  the 
station  or  in  the  junction-boxes,  thus  still  further 
overloading  the  remaining  catches.  In  a  few  min- 
utes they  also  melted,  one  after  the  other,  putting  out 
all  the  lights  in  the  district.  It  took  perhaps  three 
hours  to  replace  blown  fuses  and  restore  lighting  to 
normal  conditions.  Dr  Wheeler  says,  "No  one 
could  have  foreseen  such  an  occurrence,  but  after 
several  days'  deliberation,  the  company  concluded 
that  it  ought  to  give  some  apology  to  the  public  and 
make  an  example  of  some  one.  The  apology  was 
printed,  and  I  was  apparently  selected  as  the 
example.  I  was  discharged,  to  be  immediately  re- 
employed with  Mr  Edison's  approval,  and  was 
sent  to  lay  the  wires  in  Fall  River  and  Newburgh." 
This  was  one  of  the  two  breaks  in  Edison  Service, 
the  other  being  the  Pearl  Street  fire  in  1890. 

[1613 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

This  made  a  deep  impression  on  all  concerned 
and,  although  they  were  not  prepared  at  that  time  to 
adopt  the  real  safety-catch  which  is  used  at  the  pres- 
ent day— that  is,  a  link  made  of  copper  only— they 
took  extraordinary  precautions  to  prevent  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  trouble.  In  junction-boxes,  safety-catches 
were  frequently  inspected  and  renewed,  contacts 
thoroughly  cleaned,  and  bolts  firmly  set  up.  In  the 
station,  a  trough  was  built  along  the  line  of  fuses  on 
the  feeder  terminals.  Every  afternoon,  at  time  of 
heavy  load,  lumps  of  cracked  ice  were  fed  into  this 
trough  and  moved  up  against  the  lead  catches  to 
keep  their  temperature  below  the  melting  point. 

As  it  was  desirable  to  keep  the  insulation  up  to  a 
high  standard,  a  great  deal  of  thought  was  given  to 
the  possibility  of  measuring  the  insulation  while 
carrying  current.  This  was  done  by  means  of  a 
modification  of  the  Wheatstone  bridge  invented  by 
Mr  C  S  Bradley,  and  in  daily  use  up  to  the  time 
of  the  fire,  January  i  1890,  when  it  was  destroyed. 

During  '1889,  Dr  S  S  Wheeler,  Professor  F  B 
Crocker,  and  Mr  Gano  S  Dunn,  experimented  in 
the  Thirty-ninth  Street  station,  endeavoring  to  mod- 
ify this  invention  of  Mr  Bradley's  so  as  to  make  it 
applicable  to  measuring  the  insulation  of  live  con- 
ductors in  the  three-wire  system.  They  were  not 
successful,  however. 

An  apparatus  was  also  used  in  the  old  station  for 
locating  grounds  on  the  underground  system.  One 
part  of  the  device  consisted  of  a  two-way  switch, 
by  means  of  which  either  conductor  could  be  con- 
nected at  will  through  an  adjustable  bank  of  lamps 

[162] 


THE  HEW  TORI 
PUBLIC  LTBRART 


TlLincV  ■       iMi'ATi  'lis 
B  L 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

and  a  quick-break  push-switch  to  the  ground.  The 
other  part  included  a  galvanometer,  a  reversing 
switch,  and  several  sets  of  adjustable  resistances,  all 
arranged  to  be  connected  at  will  to  the  pressure 
wires  of  any  feeder.  When  the  ground  switch  was 
closed,  the  galvanometer  needle  was  deflected  pro- 
portionately to  the  proximity  of  the  ground  to  the 
feeder  being  tested. 

This  apparatus  was  in  regular  use.  Every  evening 
a  test  was  made  of  all  the  pressure  wires  and,  guided 
by  the  galvanometer  deflection,  the  night  gang 
opened  junction-boxes  and  tested  the  mains  until  the 
defective  main  was  located  in  the  section  indicated. 
Digging  on  the  line  then  followed  until  the  fault 
was  found. 

The  station  was  also  equipped  with  a  ground  in- 
dicator, consisting  of  two  lamps  connected  in  series 
across  the  two  conductors,  with  a  wire  leading  to 
ground  from  the  center  of  the  connection.  Under 
normal  conditions  each  lamp  showed  a  half  light; 
but  with  a  dead  ground  on  the  conductor,  one  lamp 
was  dark  and  the  other  showed  full  candle-power. 
In  the  early  years  of  the  station's  operation  these 
lamps  varied  frequently  with  the  shifting  of  the 
ground  from  one  pole  to  the  other,  but  in  later  years 
the  negative  pole  became  pretty  solidly  grounded  so 
that  the  positive  lamp  remained  at  full  candle-power 
all  the  time. 

A  diagram  of  the  apparatus  for  locating  grounds 
will  be  found  in  the  chapter  on  statistics. 

When  the  station  was  started  there  was  no  ampere- 
meter  equipment   on    either   dynamos   or   feeders. 

1:163] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Shortly  afterward,  however,  a  meter  was  devised  of 
the  familiar  coil  type,  the  scale  being  graduated  into 
divisions  which  indicated  lamps.  The  graduation 
into  amperes  was  not  adopted  until  late  in  1886. 
These  meters  were  connected  in  series  with  each  dy- 
namo circuit,  but  probably  the  need  for  economy 
prevented  their  installation  on  feeders.  A  very 
crude  device  was  made  for  use  on  the  latter,  consist- 
ing of  a  rough  block  of  wood  carrying  a  common 
sewing-needle  suspended  between  two  brass  screw 
points  and  free  to  swing.  This  block  was  sprung 
over  one  of  the  conductors  of  each  feeder  and  the 
magnetic  field  created  by  the  passage  of  the  current 
over  the  conductor  caused  the  needle  to  be  deflected 
outward.  A  cardboard  scale,  crudely  graduated, 
gave  an  approximate  idea  of  the  number  of  lamps 
being  carried  by  a  particular  feeder. 

Before  leaving  the  history  of  the  First  District 
underground  system,  it  is  worth  while  to  mention 
that  in  1890  the  work  of  laying  three-wire  conduct- 
ors in  this  region  was  begun.  That  year  8.95  miles 
of  three-wire  feeders,  together  with  13.29  miles  of 
three-wire  mains  were  put  down.  At  the  same  time, 
a  little  over  two  miles  of  the  old  two-wire  conductors 
were  removed.  This  process  was  continued  at  such 
a  rate  that  in  1897  ^^^Y  0.17  mile  of  main  of  the 
original  two-wire  system  remained. 

Today  the  first  operating  district  of  The  New 
York  Edison  Company  has  seven  distributing  points. 
Of  these,  the  Bowling  Green  station  is  the  most 
southerly.  It,  together  with  the  Water  Street  sta- 
tion, supplies  the  great  financial  region  of  the  city 

[164:] 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

as  well  as  docks,  shipping  interests  and  wholesale 
coffee  and  tea  houses. 

By  an  odd  coincidence,  the  Gold  Street  substa- 
tion supplies  the  jewelry  district.  It  also  sends  out 
power  to  "newspaper  row,"  to  "the  swamp,"  famous 
for  its  dealings  in  leather,  and  lights  St  Paul's 
Church.  Old  Trinity,  by-the-bye,  gets  its  current 
from  Bowling  Green.  Duane  Street  also  has  news- 
papers for  its  patrons,  besides  the  City  Hall,  the  new 
Municipal  Building,  and  the  wholesale  dry-goods 
district  to  the  west. 

The  Vandam  Street  station  is  located  near  old 
Greenwich  village.  Here  residences  are  giving  way 
to  warehouses,  factories  and  loft  buildings,  which 
require  power  as  well  as  light.  Factories  also  pat- 
ronize the  Crosby  Street  station  which  serves  offices 
along  Broadway  and  shops  in  Chinatown,  besides 
lighting  the  Bowery.  From  the  Clinton  Street  sta- 
tion, power  goes  out  to  numberless  small  factories 
and  stores  in  the  East  Side,  while  its  current  also 
lights  the  Williamsburg  Bridge. 

The  second  operating  district  began  its  work  with 
the  opening  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Street  plant  in 
November  1888.  From  the  first,  it  was  laid  out 
with  the  three-wire  system.  In  1893,  the  district 
extended  from  Eighth  Street  to  Fifty-ninth  Street 
—  as  far  north  as  the  company  had  any  business, 
with  the  exception  of  Fifth  Avenue  where  lighting 
reached  to  Seventy-ninth  Street.  At  this  time,  cur- 
rent was  generated  at  the  Twenty-sixth  Street, 
the  West  Thirty-ninth  Street  and  the  Fifty-third 
Street  stations.    On  Sundays  and  during  the  night 

D6S] 


THE    BOWERY 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


[.66] 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

the  company  shut  down  all  but  Twenty-sixth  Street 
and  carried  the  entire  load  from  there,  feeding  to 
West  Thirty-ninth  Street  on  a  tie-feeder,  making 
the  same  connection  with  Fifty-third  Street,  and 
connecting  one  feeder  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  lighting. 
These  feeders  carried,  at  times,  as  much  as  yoo  or 
800  amperes,  in  those  days  a  heavy  load.  This 
method  was  continued  for  one  or  two  years,  after 
which  each  station  had  to  work  twenty-four  hours  a 
day. 

Next,  a  steam  plant  was  started  at  Twelfth  Street 
between  Third  and  Fourth  Avenues  and  later  a  tem- 
porary annex  was  erected  at  Seventy-second  Street 
and  Fifth  Avenue,  where  a  motor-generator  set 
obtained  high-tension  current  from  the  Manhattan 
Company  at  Eightieth  Street.  This  was  run  until 
the  Eighty-third  Street  rotary  station  was  built  in 
the  fall  of  1898.  The  load  in  the  district  in  the 
autumn  of  1893  ^^^  about  30,000  amperes.  In  191 1, 
it  had  a  maximum  load  of  465,900  amperes. 

The  second  district,  with  its  ten  substations,  now 
serves  that  portion  of  Manhattan  Island  between 
Eighth  Street  and  Fifty-ninth  Street,  east  and  west 
to  the  rivers  and,  although  it  is  not  as  large  as  the 
two  other  districts  combined,  it  has  carried  fully  50 
per  cent  of  the  total  maximum  load  of  the  three 
districts  for  the  past  few  years.  It  supplies  current 
to  almost  every  variety  of  service.  Prominent  among 
these  are  the  department  stores,  the  theatres  and 
especially  the  Great  White  Way,  with  its  myriads  of 
scintillating  lights  and  signs,  from  the  single  lamp 
type  to  the  largest  and  most  famous  sign  in  the 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

world,  the  Roman  Chariot  Race,  at  Thirty-eighth 
Street  and  Broadway.  Throughout  the  district  in 
the  vicinity  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Broadway  the 
heaviest  demand  is  located,  and  near  these  thorough- 
fares are  the  larger  substations. 

The  most  southerly  station  is  the  one  at  30-32 
Horatio  Street,  first  started  in  1900.  It  is  equipped 
with  three  500  and  two  1000  kilowatt  rotaries,  2150 
kilowatt  synchronous  motor-generator  sets,  and  two 
batteries.  Here,  also,  are  the  offices  of  the  com- 
pany's battery  department.  Horatio  Street  station 
serves  a  varied  class  of  business.  On  the  west,  it 
takes  care  of  the  shipping  and  wholesale  work  of 
the  river  front  and  on  its  east,  it  feeds  into  the  south- 
ern end  of  the  department  store  region. 

Next  comes  the  substation  at  115  East  Twelfth 
Street,  which  was  started  as  a  direct-current  steam 
plant  in  1895,  though  it  soon  outgrew  this  stage 
and  now  all  vestiges  of  its  former  purpose  have 
been  removed.  It  has  one  500,  eight  1000  and  one 
2000  kilowatt  rotaries  and  two  batteries.  This  day 
station  supplies  a  large  manufacturing  neighbor- 
hood including  the  dry-docks  on  the  East  River, 
and  workshops  and  small  stores  of  the  East  Side; 
while  Fourteenth  Street,  with  its  theatres  and  cafes, 
together  with  the  department  stores  on  the  north  and 
west,  gives  this  station  a  "two  peak  load." 

The  West  Sixteenth  Street  station  was  started  in 
1907  and  now  has  three  2000  and  three  2500  kilowatt 
rotaries,  some  of  the  vertical  type.  Although  built 
recently,  its  output  is  second  largest  in  the  district, 
this  being  due  to  its  position  in  the  department  store 

1:1683 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

center  and  also  to  the  northward  movement  of  fac- 
tories and  loft  buildings. 

The  Twenty-sixth  Street  station,  which  takes  in 
the  building  at  45-51  West  Twenty-sixth  Street,  and 
through  to  44-46  West  Twenty-seventh  Street,  was, 
in  1888,  the  second  steam  station  in  the  second  dis- 
trict; but  now  the  keystone  of  the  main  arch  is  all 
that  remains  of  the  original  plant.  Last  winter  it 
had  the  largest  output  of  any  substation  of  the 
company.  It  is  equipped  with  five  1000,  three  2000 
kilowatt  rotaries  of  the  horizontal  type,  three  2500 
kilowatt  rotaries  of  the  vertical  type,  and  three  bat- 
teries. The  side  streets  near  the  station  constitute 
New  York's  fur  market,  while  tall  loft  buildings  are 
rapidly  developing  for  manufacturing  purposes  in 
this  vicinity  and  on  Fourth  Avenue.  With  the 
department  stores  on  Sixth  Avenue  and  the  offices  of 
Broadway  and  Fifth  Avenue,  this  station  has  a 
heavy  day  load. 

The  substation  at  452  West  Twenty-seventh  Street 
was  started  in  1903,  and  has  three  1000  kilowatt 
rotaries  and  one  battery,  taking  care  of  the  large 
terminal  warehouses  and  wholesale  supply  houses 
around  Eleventh  Avenue  and  the  Hudson  River. 

Situated  three  stories  underground,  the  station  in 
the  Gimbel  Building,  with  its  five  1000  kilowatt 
rotaries,  is  perhaps  unique.  It  was  started  in  the 
fall  of  1910,  only  a  short  time  before  this  monster 
shop  opened,  and  it  not  only  supplies  current  to 
near-by  department  stores,  but  also  feeds  into  the 
Twenty-sixth  Street  station's  territory  on  the  south 
and  in  the  direction  of  Thirty-ninth  Street  on  the 

D69] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


FOURTH  AVENUE  AND  TWENTY-THIRD  STREET 
Niteva  York  Ilusirada,  1886 

north.  Its  compactness  has  brought  forth  much 
favorable  comment  and  has  been  a  strong  factor  in 
support  of  central  station  service  for  large  estab- 
lishments. 

The  151  East  Thirty-ninth  Street  station,  built  in 
1906,  has  four  2000  kilowatt  rotaries  and  two  bat- 
teries. Although  the  service  it  renders  is  generally 
to  smaller  customers,  with  the  exception  of  the  New 
Grand  Central  Palace,  Sherry's,  Delmonico's  and  a 
few  others,  it  has  shown  a  great  increase  in  output 
during  the  past  year. 

The  theatrical  district  of  New  York  centers 
around  the  station  at  117-119  West  Thirty-ninth 
Street.  Built  in  1888  as  a  steam  plant,  it  is  now 
equipped  with  two  500  and  seven  1000  kilowatt  ro- 
taries and  two  batteries,  and  at  night  is  considered 
one  of  the  most  important  substations  on  account  of 
the  great  number  of  theatres  it  supplies.  Here,  the 
deputy  assistant  superintendents  may  be  found  on 
duty  from  4  P.M.  to  8  A.M.,  and  this  is  also  the  home 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

of  the  emergency  department  of  the  company,  with 
its  telephone  switchboard  that  answers  emergency 
calls.  Here  also  are  the  second  district  store-room 
and  headquarters  for  the  meter  test  and  arc  depart- 
ments. 

Next  in  order  is  the  314  West  Forty-first  Street 
station,  started  in  1910,  with  one  500  kilowatt  induc- 
tion motor-generator  set,  two  2500  kilowatt  rotaries 
and  one  battery.  This  helps  West  Thirty-ninth 
Street  by  taking  care  of  part  of  the  theatre  load,  and 
also  supplies  current  to  the  rapidly  increasing  group 
of  factories  around  Eleventh  Avenue. 

The  station  at  120-122  West  Fifty-third  Street 
was  the  most  northerly  steam  plant  built  by  the 
company  for  direct-current  supply  and  was  started 
on  New  Year's  Day,  1893.  Here  the  first  storage 
battery  used  in  three-wire  central  station  work  in 
the  United  States  was  installed.  This  battery  was 
imported  from  England  and  had  a  very  small  out- 
put. But  at  that  time  this  station  served  a  wide  ter- 
ritory and  fluctuations  were  greater  then  than  they 
are  now,  so  that  this  comparatively  small  battery 
aided  the  regulation  to  a  marked  extent.  It  was 
through  this  substation  that  the  illumination  of  St 
Patrick's  Cathedral  was  carried  out  in  1912  with 
such  success.  This  station  has  an  installation  of  six 
1000  and  one  2000  kilowatt  rotaries  and  one  battery. 
With  more  of  a  residential  service  than  any  other  in 
the  district,  it  constitutes  a  night  load  center. 

A  comparison  of  the  first  English  type  battery  at 
the  Fifty-third  Street  station,  with  recent  large  in- 
stallations whose  outputs  are  from  15,000  to  21;, 000 

1:170 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

amperes  each  at  the  one  hour  rate,  shows  clearly  the 
strides  which  the  storage  battery  has  taken.  This 
has  been  made  necessary  in  order  to  keep  abreast  of 
other  developments  and  to  insure  continuity  of 
service. 

The  second  district,  as  a  whole,  with  its  day  load 
at  its  southern  end  and  its  night  load  toward  the 
north,  may  be  considered  a  good  long  load,  rather 
than  a  peak  load  district. 

The  third  district  developed  in  the  beginning  as 
part  of  the  second,  the  first  plant  established  within 
its  territory  being  the  station  temporarily  equipped 
at  Seventy-second  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue  in  1896. 
Here,  the  company  first  converted  high-tension  cur- 
rent into  low-tension  for  distribution,  and  as  a  result  a 
permanent  converting  station  was  erected  before  long 
at  Eighty-third  Street,  current  for  it  being  drawn 
from  the  Manhattan  Company's  plant  at  Eigh- 
tieth Street.  The  next  station  to  be  opened  was  that 
at  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-first  Street.  This  was 
in  1899,  and  it  was  followed  by  one  at  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-third  Street  during  the  same  year,  and 
by  the  Eighty-fourth  Street  station  early  in  1900. 

At  this  time,  the  territory  was  first  organized  as  a 
separate  district  and  other  stations  sprang  up  rap- 
idly. One  Hundred  and  Seventh  Street  was  opened 
in  November  1904;  the  Sixtieth  Street  building 
began  its  career  two  years  later ;  and  the  Sixty-fourth 
Street  started  in  October  1907. 

The  maximum  load  for  the  district  in  1900  was 
about  2000  kilowatts,  while  191 1's  maximum  was 
28,000  kilowatts,  and  this  year's  promises  to  reach 


THE  SOLDIERS'  AND  SAILORS'  MONUMENT 

On  a  rainy  night  during  the  Hudson-Fulton  Celebration 


AJWOK    LKNOX  AND 
TILDEN  K.»   Ni'ATI  »N8 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISTRIBUTION 

about  31,000  kilowatts.  Current  in  this  district  is 
supplied  principally  to  residences  and  retail  stores, 
there  being  little  manufacturing. 

Edison  Service  entered  the  Bronx  in  1899.  During 
that  year  there  were  approximately  twenty-five 
miles  of  streets  on  which  there  were  electric  light 
lines,  while  at  present  225  miles  of  street  are  so  cov- 
ered. On  these  lines  in  1899,  about  100  transformers 
had  been  connected,  having  a  combined  capacity  of 
700  kilowatts,  or  sufficient  to  light  only  14,000  sixteen 
candle-power  lamps;  while  at  the  present  time  there 
are  1289  transformers  with  a  combined  capacity  of 
17,088  kilowatts,  or  sufficient  to  light  341,760  sixteen 
candle-power  lamps.  Twelve  years  ago  there  were 
800  arc  lamps  in  use  for  street  lighting  in  the  Bronx, 
while  at  present  there  are  1867  ^^c  lamps  and  1144 
incandescent,  a  total  of  301 1  lamps  for  this  purpose. 

During  the  year  1899,  there  were  distributed  from 
the  station  at  Rider  Avenue  and  One  Hundred  and 
Fortieth  Street  2,000,000  kilowatt  hours  of  electric- 
ity. This  is  current  sufficient  to  keep  4566  sixteen 
candle-power  lamps  burning  twenty-four  hours  a 
day  for  one  year.  In  191 1,  27,114,000  kilowatt 
hours  were  distributed  from  the  Bronx  stations,  or 
enough  to  supply  64,187  sixteen  candle-power  lamps 
twenty-four  hours  a  day  for  a  year.  The  maximum 
amount  taken  at  any  one  time  in  1899  was  1 100  kilo- 
volt-amperes.  If  this  had  all  been  used  to  light  six- 
teen candle-power  lamps,  it  would  have  fed  22,000 
of  them.  In  191 1  the  maximum  amount  taken  was 
13,000  kilo-volt-amperes,  or  enough  to  sustain  260,- 
000  sixteen  candle-power  lamps. 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Briefly  stated,  there  are  in  the  Bronx  district  at 
present  nine  times  as  many  miles  of  streets  sup- 
plied with  electric  lines  as  there  were  twelve  years 
ago ;  thirteen  and  five  tenths  times  as  much  electricity 
delivered  from  these  lines  annually;  twelve  and  nine 
tenths  times  as  many  transformers  in  use  with 
twenty-four  and  four  tenths  times  the  total  capacity; 
while  twelve  times  as  much  electricity  is  taken  on 
anyone  occasion. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  distribution,  it  should 
be  stated  that  in  1901,  owing  to  the  spread  of  high- 
tension  transmission,  an  electrical  engineering  de- 
partment was  formed  to  supervise  the  distributing 
system.  Under  the  jurisdiction  of  this  department 
come  the  design  and  operation  of  high-tension  1 
switchboards  and  apparatus  both  in  stations  and  sub- 
stations, and  also  of  all  relays  and  protective  devices. 
The  planning  and  laying  out  of  the  distribution  net- 
work, including  low-tension  and  high-tension  feed- 
ers, is  part  of  its  work  as  well. 

Some  years  ago  most  high-tension  switches  in 
the  substations  were  of  the  expulsion  type,  and 
the  disconnected  switches  were  of  the  copper  blade 
exposed  style;  but  at  that  time  the  standard  of  con- 
struction began  to  change,  oil  switches  of  the  auto- 
matic and  non-automatic  type,  enclosed  variety,  be- 
ing substituted.  Another  duty  of  this  department 
was  the  development  of  speed  limit  devices  for  ro- 
tary converters,  and  the  arrangement,  in  inverse  time 
limit,  of  relays  for  high-tension  circuits  which  were 
first  installed  in  Waterside  No  i.  These  were 
probably  the  first  of  their  kind  in  this  country. 

[■743 


THE  NEW  YORK 
PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


AOTOB.  LSMOIC  AND 
lUDEN  ro'NOAlIOMB 


Marketing  Light,  Heat  and  Power 

DURING  the  first  decade  of  the  Edison  system's 
existence  in  New  York,  its  efforts  were  put 
forth  in  meeting  engineering  problems. 
Feeders  and  mains  had  to  be  laid;  plants  had  to  be 
built;  and  each  undertaking  brought  up  new  prob- 
lems to  be  solved  by  the  perfecting  of  equipment  and 
methods.  In  those  days,  the  question  was  never  how 
to  induce  more  people  to  use  electricity,  but  rather 
how  to  produce  enough  current  to  answer  the  most 
pressing  demands  for  it. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1892,  however,  a  gen- 
erating unit,  gigantic  for  that  time,  was  installed  in 
the  Duane-Pearl  Street  building.  It  could  develop 
2500  horse-power,  and  its  capacity  was  twice  as  great 
as  that  of  the  entire  old  Pearl  Street  station,  while  it 
occupied  only  one  tenth  the  floor  space.  Plans  called 
for  ten  such  units  to  be  set  up  in  the  operating  room 
at  Duane  Street,  and  at  last  the  company's  officials 
saw  that  they  would  be  able  to  manufacture  more 
electrical  energy  than  was  actually  being  called  for. 
It  was  at  about  this  time,  then,  that  the  company 
began  to  interest  itself  vitally  in  the  problem  of 
business-getting.  Records  of  that  period  show  an 
immediate  and  rapid  rise  in  the  number  of  custom- 
ers and  in  the  size  of  their  installations.  For,  while 
in  1890  there  were  only  1698  consumers  with  a  total 

D75:] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

of  64,174  lamps  on  a  sixteen  candle-power  basis, 
they  had  grown  by  the  end  of  1893  ^o  5154  custom- 
ers, who  used  the  equivalent  of  192,691  sixteen 
candle-power  lights.  During  the  same  time  the 
aggregate  horse-power  in  motors  had  increased  from 
697  horse-power  to  5529.  In  this  same  year,  1893, 
the  contract  and  inspection  department  was  estab- 
lished, the  company  having  given  up  its  wiring 
business  in  favor  of  outside  firms.  This  made  it  pos- 
sible to  rearrange  and  concentrate,  bringing  into  one 
department  those  branches  of  the  organization 
which  dealt  directly  with  the  public.  Since  1892 
the  company's  business  has  advanced  from  a  total 
of  about  196,932  fifty-watt  equivalents  to  one  of 
10,705,000. 

Today  the  marketing  of  light,  heat  and  power — 
which  means,  of  course,  the  getting  of  new  customers 
and  the  keeping  of  old  ones— may  be  said  to  have 
five  phases.  These  are:  meeting  the  customers;  fur- 
nishing them  with  expert  information  as  to  their 
installations;  making  known  the  advantages  of  the 
central  station  system  through  advertising,  direct  as 
well  as  indirect;  training  intelligent  and  courteous 
salesmen;  and  recording  the  company's  affairs  by 
means  of  clear,  comprehensive  accounts  and  statis- 
tics. The  part  played  by  each  of  these  divisions  in 
the  growth  of  Edison  Service  is  the  next  thing  to  be 
considered. 

First  in  importance,  probably,  come  direct  deal- 
ings with  customers  themselves.  For  this  purpose, 
district  offices  have  been  opened  in  various  parts  of 
the   city.      They   are    intended    primarily    for   the 

C176] 


MARKETING  LIGHT,  HEAT,  POWER 

greater  convenience  of  patrons  and  prospective  pa- 
trons. For  instance,  it  would  be  most  annoying 
for  a  man  living  in  Harlem  to  journey  to  Duane 
Street  to  pay  his  lighting  bill,  or  report  any  diffi- 
culty in  the  use  of  lamps  or  machinery.  Again,  a 
retail  merchant  in  Rivington  Street,  who  might 
think  of  installing  electricity  in  his  shop,  would  be 
far  more  likely  to  carry  out  his  intention  if  he  could 
make  all  inquiries  and  even  sign  a  contract  at  a  sort 
of  commercial  substation  in  his  own  neighborhood. 

Accordingly,  the  company  maintains  branches  at 
424  Broadway;  Delancey  Street;  Forty-second 
Street  with  a  Third  Avenue  annex;  in  Harlem; 
and  in  the  Bronx.  So  diverse  are  the  interests  in 
these  different  sections  that  each  office  would  almost 
seem  to  answer  the  needs  of  a  separate  city;  for  424 
Broadway  has  as  its  patrons  many  great  financial, 
commercial  and  wholesale  organizations,  while  De- 
lancey Street,  on  the  other  hand,  serves  owners  of 
small  factories  and  shops  in  the  East  Side.  Forty- 
second  Street,  with  its  annex,  numbers  among  its 
customers  theatrical  firms  whose  names  are  bla- 
zoned on  bill-boards  all  over  the  country,  depart- 
ment stores  equally  noted,  advertisers  who  have 
come  to  fame  and  fortune  through  their  electric 
signs,  as  well  as  fashionable  folk  whose  homes  form 
part  of  the  stock-in-trade  of  sightseeing  automobiles. 
Farther  uptown  there  is  more  and  more  residential 
patronage,  to  which  the  Harlem  and  Bronx  offices 
bend  their  attention. 

It  is  the  work  of  employees  in  these  offices  to  ac- 
quaint themselves  with  the  character  of  demands 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

for  light,  heat  or  power  in  their  particular  districts. 
Thus,  contracts  which  have  no  unusual  features  are 
carried  out  directly  in  the  district  offices,  which 
serve,  besides,  as  disseminators  of  information  with 
regard  to  central  station  current.    By  a  careful  sub- 


MR  EDISON  EXAMINING  A  NEW  ELECTRICAL 
PROTECTING  DEVICE 


division  of  duties — about  which  more  will  be  said 
later— The  New  York  Edison  Company  makes  it 
practicable  to  treat  every  customer  with  equal  con- 
sideration. It  is  its  desire  to  give  courteous  attention 
to  each  consumer,  whether  he  has  two  incandescent 


MARKETING  LIGHT,  HEAT,  POWER 

bulbs  over  a  fruit-stand  or  a  large  equipment  of 
current-driven  machinery. 

In  addition,  each  office  is  used  as  a  show-room 
where  all  kinds  of  electric  fixtures  and  instruments 
are  exhibited,  for  the  central  station  is  under  obli- 
gation to  keep  the  public  informed  as  to  all  progress 
in  applying  current  to  business  or  daily  living. 

Now  The  New  York  Edison  Company  deals  only 
in  electric  energy,  and  the  wares  shown  in  its  offices 
are  sold  without  commission  or  profit  of  any  sort, 
the  ultimate  and  only  gain  for  the  company  being 
the  increased  consumption  of  current  brought  about. 
Moreover,  rival  makes  of  implements  are  exhibited 
without  discrimination. 

This  leads  directly  to  a  second  branch  of  the  mar- 
keting process ;  that  is,  the  providing  of  expert  ad- 
vice on  electrical  matters  to  all  consumers  of  current. 
Such  advice,  however,  is  not  given  by  the  district 
offices,  but  by  a  series  of  bureaus  organized  to  co- 
operate with  them.  The  day  has  long  since  passed 
when  any  one  man  could  know  everything  about 
electricity  supply,  and  it  has  become  necessary  to 
have  specialists  in  different  forms  of  the  industry, 
whose  knowledge  is  placed  at  the  disposal  of  any 
district  office,  and  so  of  any  inquirer. 

Thus,  if  the  owner  of  a  building  wishes  to  learn 
what  lighting  arrangements  will  best  answer  the 
business  needs  of  his  tenants,  he  is  referred  to  the 
bureau  of  illuminating  engineering.  Plans,  with 
estimates  of  probable  cost,  will  be  made  out  for  his 
inspection  without  in  any  way  binding  him  to  accept 
them.     Again,  a  factory  proprietor,  in  doubt  as  to 


FIFTH    AVENUE   AT   NIGHT 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


[iSo] 


MARKETING  LIGHT,  HEAT,  POWER 

how  many  electrically  driven  machines  would  best 
suit  his  purpose,  may  consult  the  power  bureau;  or 
a  housekeeper  may  have  the  advice  of  specialists  in 
heating  and  cooking  utensils.  In  every  case,  it  is  the 
company's  policy  to  recommend  what  will  give  most 
thorough  and  lasting  satisfaction  to  the  future  cus- 
tomer, for  only  in  this  way  can  a  whole-hearted  con- 
vert to  central  station  service  be  gained. 

It  is  right  to  make  here  more  than  a  casual  allu- 
sion to  the  growth  of  the  heating  load,  since  this  is 
one  of  the  newer  developments  of  current  supply, 
and  since  much  is  expected  of  it  in  the  future.  Until 
1907,  comparatively  few  electric  heating  or  cooking 
appliances  were  used  even  in  homes,  and  practically 
none  in  factories.  That  year,  however,  manufac- 
turers of  these  devices  improved  their  output  to  a 
marked  degree,  so  that  in  1908  the  heating  bureau 
employed  several  demonstrators  and  set  about  creat- 
ing a  demand  for  these  implements.  Since  then 
there  has  been  a  steady  rise  in  installations.  In  191 1 
about  10,000  manufacturers  in  New  York  City  were 
using  heating  appliances  and  22,450  pieces  had  been 
placed  during  the  year.  In  191 2  that  amount  was 
doubled. 

The  equipping  of  large  public  buildings  like  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  or  the  Hippodrome  so 
as  to  preclude  any  interruption  in  lighting  is  an 
important  undertaking.  It  is  not  only  necessary  for 
business  reasons  that  such  service  should  be  depend- 
able to  the  last  degree,  but  it  is  also  imperative  for 
the  safety  of  the  thousands  of  people  who  form  the 
audience,  since  a  panic  would  be  easily  started  by 

C181] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

sudden  darkness  or  some  other  slight  mischance. 
The  planning  of  convenient,  complete  and  reliable 
systems  for  such  uses  is  the  work  of  the  service  engi- 
neering bureau. 

Experience  has  proved  that  men  accustomed  to 
think  usually  of  large  installations  are  not  equally 
successful  when  they  turn  their  attention  to  small 
ones,  and  the  reverse  is  also  true.  For  this  reason, 
separate  wholesale  and  retail  bureaus  have  been 
formed,  so  that  a  customer's  needs,  whether  great  or 
small,  receive  proper  attention;  while  the  commer- 
cial engineering  bureau  exists  in  order  that  no  tech- 
nical question  submitted  to  the  company  may  go 
unanswered. 

The  New  York  Edison  Company  years  ago  en- 
couraged electric  signs,  seeing  their  unique  adver- 
tising possibilities.  Today,  contracts  for  many  of 
the  glowing  bill-boards  which  line  Broadway  are 
made  through  the  bureau  of  signs.  Within  its  juris- 
diction also  comes  the  supplying  of  both  signs  and 
tungsten  lamps  on  the  instalment  plan. 

In  the  isolated  plant  bureau  are  experts  who  stand 
ready  to  lay  before  the  unconvinced,  proof  of  the 
greater  safety  and  economy  of  central  station  supply. 
Workers  in  this  branch  of  the  company  must  possess 
knowledge  not  required  in  its  other  divisions.  They 
must  understand  the  questions  of  coal  supply  and 
steam  manufacture.  Above  all,  thev  must  be  famil- 
iar  with  real  estate  values  in  this  city,  for  this  is  often 
a  prime  factor  in  leading  a  manufacturer  or  mer- 
chant to  give  up  his  private  plant.  The  automobile 
bureau,  in  turn,  is  able  to  go  deeply  into  the  fitness 

[182] 


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MARKETING  LIGHT,  HEAT,  POWER 

of  electric  trucks  or  delivery  wagons  for  varying 
uses,  advocating  current-driven  vehicles  as  the  cars 
of  the  future  for  city  needs. 

The  bureau  of  special  service  looks  into  any  com- 
plaints from  patrons.  Shakespeare  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  there  is  a  great  deal  in  a  name,  and 
it  is  deemed  more  tactful  to  indicate  by  the  title  that 
this  bureau  exists  for  careful  adjustment  of  difficul- 
ties, rather  than  for  filing  grievances. 

A  somewhat  similar  office  with  regard  to  bills  is 
filled  by  the  lighting  inspection  bureau.  It  has  been 
discovered  that  the  very  qualities  which  make  a 
good  sales-agent,  impair  his  value  for  dealing  with 
complaints.  He  is  generally  not  a  technical  man 
and  he  does  not  know  from  actual,  personal  experi- 
ence that  the  electric  meter  is  one  of  the  most  reli- 
able mechanical  devices  ever  invented.  Conse- 
quently, when  a  customer  declares  that  his  meter  is 
inaccurate,  the  agent  is  inclined  to  sympathize 
with  the  complainant  even  before  the  trouble  has 
been  investigated.  For  these  reasons,  the  company 
has  arranged  a  bureau  of  men  especially  trained  on 
the  subject  of  meters.  They  know  that  a  meter 
almost  never  lies  and  that  there  may  be  other  causes 
for  the  apparent  discrepancy.  At  the  same  time,  it 
is  the  unvarying  practice  of  the  company  never  to 
conceal  a  mistake.  If  one  is  discovered,  it  is  admit- 
ted and  rectified,  for  the  public  should  know  the 
truth  about  meters  to  the  end  that  confidence  may 
be  established. 

Advertising  is  a  far-reaching  factor  in  any  busi- 
ness.   In  the  electric  lighting  industry,  every  incan- 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

descent  bulb  is  a  subtle  reminder  of  the  cleanliness 
and  convenience  of  this  illuminant.  Every  home 
made  more  comfortable  by  current-fed  appliances 
is  an  object  lesson  to  the  nonconsumer.  Every  sat- 
isfied patron  becomes  an  advocate.  A  good  many 
years  ago  the  makers  of  some  patented  article  coined 
the  phrase,  "We  are  advertised  by  our  loving 
friends."  All  that  was  very  true,  but  it  was  also 
noticeable  that  this  firm  purchased  space  in  news- 
papers and  street  cars  so  as  to  keep  its  slogan  well 
within  range  of  the  public  eye. 

The  New  York  Edison  Company's  advertising— 
in  charge  of  a  bureau— was  carefully  planned,  typo- 
graphically and  esthetically,  long  before  many  ad- 
vertisers had  learned  the  advantage  of  good  taste  and 
discretion  in  this  direction.  In  1905  the  phrase  "At 
your  service"  was  adopted  in  the  company's  adver- 
tisements, being  a  most  succinct  and  happy  statement 
of  the  fact  that  a  public  utility  organization  is  truly 
the  community's  servant.  Today  The  New  York 
Edison  Company's  is  probably  the  most  extensively 
copied  corporation  advertising  in  the  world,  and  is 
constantly  mentioned  in  journals  concerned  with 
this  branch  of  printing  and  publishing. 

Forwarding  the  interests  of  the  central  station  in 
a  more  personal  way  is  the  work  of  the  follow-up 
bureau.  As  a  rule,  large  firms  spend  much  thought 
and  money  on  out-and-out  advertising,  but  they 
often  fail  to  drive  this  home  by  secondary  methods. 
In  the  follow-up  bureau  every  effort  is  made  to 
interest  people  who  may  in  time  become  consumers. 
A  million  and  a  half  communications  go  through 


MARKETING  LIGHT,  HEAT,  POWER 


ANOTHER  VIEW  OF  MR  EDISON  EXAMINING  THE  NEW  PROTECTIVE 
DEVICES  AT  THE  OFFICES  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  EDISON  COMPANY 

this  division  in  a  year,  materially  helping  the  com- 
pany to  keep  in  touch  with  possible  customers. 

The  editorial  bureau  exists  for  its  indirect  adver- 
tising value.  Besides  issuing  The  Edison  JVeekly 
— which,  being  intended  solely  for  the  company's 
employees,  will  be  described  in  that  connection — it 
publishes  The  Edison  Monthly,  a  magazine  with  a 
circulation  of  25,000.  This  periodical  recounts  in- 
teresting applications  of  electricity  in  every  walk  of 
life,  devoting  especial  attention  to  Edison  Service  in 
New  York  City.  The  policy  followed  is  to  make 
the  magazine  readable,  attractive,  and  of  value  for 
the  news  it  contains. 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Mention  of  the  Edison  Monthly  leads  one  natu- 
rally to  the  photographic  bureau,  for  many  illustra- 
tions in  the  magazine  are  its  work.  This  bureau 
has  made  a  specialty  of  night  photographs  of  New 
York  City,  which  have  been  widely  copied  on  ac- 
count of  their  picturesqueness. 

Having  provided  for  attention  to  customers,  and 
for  advertising  which  will  gain  new  adherents,  the 
next  step  in  the  business  of  selling  current  is  to  train 
salesmen.  This  is  the  purpose  of  the  educational 
bureau's  commercial  school.  A  detailed  account  of 
its  courses  will  be  found  in  the  chapter  devoted  to 
the  Edison  employees.  Here  it  is  only  necessary  to 
state  that  this  is  a  school  of  salesmanship  planned  to 
give  employees  an  understanding  of  the  commodity 
which  they  sell,  and  a  knowledge  of  the  most  cour- 
teous and  effective  ways  of  approaching  possible 
customers.  A  graduate  of  these  courses  possesses, 
besides  his  diploma,  a  belief  in  central  station  ser- 
vice. He  knows  that  he  is  urging  the  use  of  some- 
thing worth  buying.  But  beyond  all  this,  the  school 
teaches  men  to  be  men,  and  a  graduate  to  whom  one 
of  its  "A"  certificates  is  awarded  has  had  instruction 
as  valuable  as  that  afforded  by  many  college  courses. 

This  subdivision  of  the  marketing  process  would 
be  incompletely  mapped  out  if  no  means  were  at 
hand  for  recording  scientifically  all  information  as 
to  the  company's  affairs.  This,  then,  is  the  prov- 
ince of  the  statistical  bureau  and  of  the  accounting 
department. 

By  the  former,  detailed  charts  are  kept  showing 
the  growth  of  various  branches  of  current  supply; 

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MARKETING  LIGHT,  HEAT,  POWER 

as,  for  example,  increase  in  the  incandescent  light- 
ing load,  the  power  load  or  the  heating  load;  and 
these  records — minute  and  complete— are  arranged 
particularly  to  elucidate  problems  arising  in  mar- 
keting. Thus  it  is  possible  to  trace  effort  expended 
and  result  obtained,  from  week  to  week  or  year  to 
year. 

The  accounting  department  is  the  outgrowth  of 
a  clerical  force  of  two,  which,  in  1882,  recorded  cus- 
tomers, collections  and  disbursements;  did  all  the 
general  bookkeeping  of  the  company;  and  attended 
to  meter  work.  Today  these  tasks  are  divided 
among  the  "accounts  receivable"  bureau,  the  "col- 
lection," the  "payroll  and  timekeeping"  and  the 
"accounts  payable"  bureau,  the  treasury  department 
and  the  general  accountant. 

The  original  two  men  have  been  succeeded  by  a 
force  of  473,  consisting  of  76  meter  indexers,  "]"] 
bookkeepers,  33  bill  clerks,  51  general  and  statistical 
clerks,  45  employees  of  the  collection  office,  60  col- 
lectors, 20  employees  of  the  accounts  payable  bureau, 
2  general  accountants,  30  members  of  the  payroll 
office,  35  timekeepers,  7  paymasters  and  30  people 
in  the  cashier's  department. 

Among  the  books  and  papers  of  the  accounting 
department,  many  interesting  facts  as  to  the  com- 
pany's history  may  be  gleaned.  In  1882,  it  may  be 
noted,  current  cost  customers  about  twenty-two  cents 
per  kilowatt  hour,  while  at  present  the  average  rate 
is  about  six  cents.  In  addition  to  this  saving  in  the 
unit  cost  of  current  to  the  consumer,  great  improve- 
ment has  been  made  in  the  efficiency  of  incandescent 

C187] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

lamps.  From  a  consumption  of  four  watts  per  can- 
dle in  1882,  this  has  fallen  to  one  and  one  quarter 
watts  in  19 12.  This  means  that  a  person  using  four 
sixteen  candle-power  lamps,  three  hours  a  day  for 
one  month  in  1882,  would  have  paid  $5.67;  but 
today  an  equivalent  amount  of  illumination,  calcu- 
lated at  the  maximum  price  of  ten  cents  per  kilo- 
watt, would  cost  seventy-two  cents. 

At  the  beginning  of  1883  the  company  employed 
the  Edison  chemical  meter  for  measuring  current. 
This  required  many  operations  in  delivering  and 
collecting  plates,  weighing  with  fine  scales  the  out- 
going and  incoming  plates,  and  translating  the  dif- 
ference into  lamp  hours.  The  entire  process  was 
tedious  as  well  as  involved,  and  had  a  decided 
disadvantage.  No  possibility  existed  by  which  the 
customer  could  ascertain  the  extent  of  his  use  of  cur- 
rent, determination  being  absolutely  in  the  hands  of 
the  company.  It  should  be  recorded,  however,  to 
the  credit  of  the  managers  of  the  company  in  early 
days,  that  bill  questions  were  no  more  frequent 
proportionately  then  than  now;  although  today, 
besides  modern  metering,  the  consumer  has  the 
added  protection  of  the  Public  Service  Commission. 

Accounting  methods  have  been  influenced  by  time 
and  growth  of  business.  Two  absolutely  new  factors 
have  been  introduced  into  oflice  operation :  the  pres- 
ence of  women  employees,  and  the  adoption  of  me- 
chanical aids.  These  latter  include  typewriters, 
calculating  machines,  duplicating  processes  and 
stamping  and  mailing  devices.  Both  the  human  and 
the  mechanical  innovations  made  their  appearance 

[188] 


<0r. 


THE    LIGHTS   OF    BROADWAY 

Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


:i89] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

at  about  the  same  time.  All  mechanical  devices  used 
by  the  company  are  electrically  operated,  thereby 
greatly  increasing  their  productiveness  and  ease  of 
operation.  Reviewing  the  thirty  years,  probably  the 
most  significant  advance  in  accounting  work  has 
been  in  the  direction  of  scientific  cost  keeping  and 
analysis,  and  of  statistical  work  generally.  Recog- 
nition of  the  characteristics  of  maximum  demand 
costs  and  running  costs,  and  the  part  which  the  di- 
versity factor  plays  in  the  economics  of  business, 
have  all  followed  as  the  result  of  improvements 
made  in  cost  accounting  and  in  statistical  methods. 
Much  more  is  demanded  of  the  accounting  depart- 
ment of  today  than  thirty  years  ago.  Now  it  records 
the  activities  of  the  entire  organization,  and  from  its 
books  one  can  obtain  an  adequate  notion  of  work  in 
every  branch. 

Thus  two  modern  tendencies,  one  toward  special- 
ization, the  other  toward  more  thorough  record 
keeping,  have  entered  into  the  marketing  question 
and  have  changed  it  from  a  primitive  bargaining 
contest  to  a  study  in  psychology. 


C190:] 


Street  Lighting 


IT  was  not  until  1889  that  an  arc  lamp  was  per- 
fected for  connection  to  the  direct-current 
multiple  service.  Prior  to  this,  there  were  many- 
companies  in  New  York  City  which  had  in  service 
series  arc  lamps  supplied  from  arc  generators. 
These  were  the  only  available  units  of  high  in- 
tensity, and  the  companies  were  organized  chiefly 
for  supplying  arc  service,  their  circuits  including 
lamps  for  commercial  purposes  as  well  as  for  street 
lighting,  the  major  portion  of  their  business. 
There  was  but  little  demand  for  motor  service,  and 


this  in  very  small 
lamps  were  charged 
varying  schedules, 
ing  from  dusk  to 
dusk  to  twelve,  and 
o'clock,  as  well  as  for 
cuits  were  controlled 
lamps  as  burned  less 
put  out  by  a  patrol- 
installation. 

About  this  time  the 
tiple  two-in-series  arc 
development  stage  and 
equipment  furnished 
These  lamps  were  ad- 


units.  Commercial 
for  on  a  flat  rate  with 
which  included  light- 
eleven  o'clock,  from 
from  dusk  until  one 
all  night.  The  cir- 
f  rom  the  station,  such 
than  all  night  being 
man  who  visited  each 

"Ward"  type  of  mul- 
lamp  passed  out  of  the 
was  made  part  of  the 
by  this  company, 
justed  so  that  the  cur- 


D9O 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


rent  consumption  was 
pair,  with  an  arc  po- 
50  volts,  and  were 
across  the  120- volt 
man-silver  steadying 
trol  of  the  lamps  by 
of  them  on  a  meter 
with  series  arc  ser- 
their      design,      pre- 


1 


eight  amperes  per 
tential  of  from  45  to 
connected  in  pairs 
mains  through  a  Ger- 
resistance.  The  con- 
the  customer,  the  use 
basis  as  compared 
vice,  together  with 
sented    so    many    de- 


sirable features  that  a  total  of  no  lamps  was 
installed  during  the  year  of  their  adoption. 
This  type  was  simple  in  construction,  easily 
maintained  and  was  not  superseded  by  any 
other  form  until  the  advent  of  the  enclosed  long- 
burning  style,  a  fact  that  speaks  well  for  its  opera- 
tion and  equally  well  for  its  maintenance.  Further 
improvement  in  operation  resulted  in  increasing  the 
life  of  the  lamp  from  six  hours  to  ten  hours,  and 
later,  in  the  use  of  high-grade  imported  Nurenberg 


carbons,  which  stea- 
overcame  the  hissing 
earlier  type  of  carbon, 
tion  of  these  lamps 
nearly  4000,  when  the 
lamps  commenced  to 
The  extension  of 
series  type  of  arc 
ing  commenced  in 
Avenue  from  Wash- 
Fifty-ninth  Streetwas 
each  supporting  a 
lamps.  This  arrange- 


died  the  light  and 
that  accompanied  the 
By  1896  the  installa- 
reached  a  total  of 
enclosed  long-burning 
replace  them, 
the  multiple  two-in- 
lamp  to  street  light- 
1892,  when  Fifth 
ington  Square  to 
illuminated  by  posts 
twin  fixture  with  two 
ment,  designed  by  the 


D92;] 


STREET  LIGHTING 


Illuminating  Company,  was  manufactured  for 
the  Edison  system  by  Mr  S  Bergmann  for  the 
Columbian  Anniversary  Celebration.  Apprecia- 
tion of  what  was  at  that  time  a  radical  depar- 
ture from  established  practice,  was  shown  by  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works,  General  C  T 
Collis.  He  made  a  visit  of  inspection  abroad,  and 
on  his  return  he  reported:  "No 
street  lighting  in  Paris  or  Lon- 
don excels  the  Edison  lamps  for 
beauty  and  illumination."  In 
these  particular  lamps,  efifort 
was  made  to  increase  the  life  of 
the  carbons  by  additional  length 
between  lamp  centers,  and  by  a 
globe  which,  set  tightly  into  a 
metal  casing,  protected  the  arc 
from  drafts.  Besides,  a  specially 
high  grade  of  imported  carbon 
was  used.  By  exercising  the 
greatest  ingenuity  and  watchful- 
ness the  arc  lamp  department  of 
those  days  maintained  the  lamps  so  that  they  would 
burn  through  the  longest  winter  night.  The  lamp's 
design  and  the  construction  of  casings  were  such, 
however,  that  often  in  winter  every  man  in  sight  and 
able  to  handle  a  gasolene  blow  torch  had  to  be 
drafted  to  thaw  ice  off  holders,  and  so  make  it  possi- 
ble to  trim  the  lamps  for  the  night's  use. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  were  innova- 
tions, the  early  multiple  arc  lamps  of  this  company 
showed  themselves  at  once  to  be  superior  for  street 

D93] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

illumination  to  long  established  series 
arc  lighting  systems.  The  installation 
of  lamps  on  Fifth  Avenue  in  1892  was 
the  foundation  of  the  present  arc  lamp 
equipment  in  New  York  streets.  In 
1896,  this  service  was  extended  to  in- 
clude Madison  Avenue  from  Twenty- 
third  to  Seventy-ninth  Streets  and  several 
side  streets  near  Central  Park. 

The  development  of  the  long-burning 
enclosed  arc  lamp  was  completed  in 
1896,  and  it  found  immediate  popularity. 
This  will  be  appreciated,  for  the  life  per 
trim  of  a  single  pair  of  carbons  was  in- 
creased from  eight  to  ten  hours  in  the 
old  style  open  arc,  to  approximately  one  hundred 
hours  in  the  new  type.  In  addition  to  the  impetus 
that  naturally  resulted  from  this  increased 
life,  the  new  lamp  gained  because  of  in- 
dividual control  of  each  single  unit. 

The  extension  of  enclosed  arc  lamps 
for  street  lighting  as  well  as  to  the  cus- 
tomers of  this  company  was  very  rapid 
after  1896  and  in  1898  reached  a  total  of 
7000  lamps.  Ten  years  later  this  total  had 
been  increased  to  46,000  lamps  for  both 
classes  of  service.  The  years  between 
1898  and  1904  formed  a  transition  period 
in  the  arc  lamp  service,  owing  to  the  fact 

ithat  various  arc  lamp  systems  were  main- 
tained, being  those  of  the  several  compa- 
nies which   later  became   parts   of   The 

D94!] 


STREET  LIGHTING 


New  York  Edison  Company.  Among 
the  lamps  used  at  that  time  were  series 
open  arcs  of  the  Brush,  Thomson-Hous- 
ton, Schuyler  and  Excelsior  types;  alter- 
nating-current multiple  lamps  of  a  35- 
volt  type  operating  from  "economy 
coils";  enclosed  lamps  of  both  the  alter- 
nating-current series  and  multiple  type; 
and  direct-current  multiple  enclosed  arc 
lamps.  In  1904,  the  change  from  various 
systems  of  supply  was  completed  and  since 
then  multiple  enclosed  arc  lamps  alone 
have  been  installed  for  both  municipal 
and  commercial  lighting  on  Manhattan 

A  Island. 
The  growth  of  high  intensity  arc  light- 
ing has  been  slow  compared  with  that  of  incandes- 
cent lamps,  but  it  has  been  steady  and  constant. 
Following  its  customary  policy  of  investiga- 
tion and  of  testing  new  apparatus,  this  com- 
pany installed,  early  in  the  development  stage, 
Blondell  and  Bremer  types  of  flaming  arc 
lamps  in  the  large  squares  of  the  city.  The 
company  also  cooperated  with  municipal  au- 
thorities in  investigating  the  merits  of  flaming 
arc  lamps  for  armories  and  public  buildings, 
trial  installations  of  several  years  having  de- 
cided for  a  general  introduction.  As  a  result, 
several  armories  have  already  been  equipped 
with  the  higher  efiiciency  lamps,  while  others 
soon  will  be.  Investigations  have  also  been 
extended  to  arc  lighting  units  designed  espe- 

[195] 


1 


THE   BISHOP'S  CROOK 


D96] 


STREET  LIGHTING 

cially  for  street  lighting,  such  tests  including  both 
metallic  flame  arc  lamps  and  long-life  flaming  car- 
bon lamps. 

Street  fixtures  for  municipal  lighting  were  early 
made  the  subject  of  careful  consideration  by  those 
determining  the  policy  of  the  company.  In  contra- 
distinction to  former  practice,  Edison  lamps  were 
installed  from  the  beginning  on  ornamental  iron 
posts  superior  to  any  then  used  in  this  country.  This 
custom  has  been  followed  ever  since,  and  today  stan- 
dard equipments  in  New  York  City  are  of  high 
artistic  excellence.  The  report  of  the  Edison  Elec- 
tric Illuminating  Company  for  1897  said:  "Develop- 
ment of  enclosed  arc  lamps  has  made  possible  a  simi- 
lar remarkable  development  in  low-tension  street 
lighting.  After  a  careful  collection  of  views  and 
plans  of  arc  lamp  posts  used  in  various  cities  here 
and  abroad,  the  engineering  department  designed 
a  new  form  of  post  for  city  lighting,  of  artistic 
pattern.  This  has  met  with  general  approval. 
This  post  bears  on  its  base  the  arms  of  the  city  and 
the  seal  of  the  Edison  Company,  and  is  surmounted 
by  a  graceful  curve  in  place  of  the  awkward  yard 
arm." 

The  design  of  the  posts  has  always  taken  into  con- 
sideration electrical  features  necessary  to  the  lighting 
unit  employed,  and  those  now  available  are  suited  to 
the  varying  conditions  found  in  a  large  city.  Differ- 
ent styles  are  used  for  wide,  tree-lined  thorough- 
fares; for  large  squares  or  the  middle  of  roadways; 
and  for  residential  as  well  as  congested  districts. 
Many  features  require  careful  consideration,  and 

[;i973 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

have  been  made  possible  only  by  full  size  models 
prepared  in  advance  from  plans  of  the  engineering 
department.  Harmonious  ornamentation  suited  to 
the  lamp  structure  is  thus  worked  out,  as  accom- 
panying illustrations  show.  Decorative  street  fix- 
tures also  include  those  used  for  parks  and  park- 
ways, and  within  the  last  three  years  a  total  of  over 
2000  tungsten  lamps  have  been  added  to  the  munici- 
pal lighting. 

Since  electric  automobiles  have  been  available  for 
the  work  of  the  arc  lamp  department,  every  advan- 
tage has  been  taken  of  their  possibilities.  Heavy 
castings,  steel  tubes,  and  various  parts  that  go  to 
make  up  the  city  street  lighting  equipment  are  in- 
stalled most  economically  and  safely  by  labor-saving 
appliances.  Full  use  is  made  of  the  electric  winches 
connected  with  truck  batteries,  and  the  drilling  of 
holes  is  performed  by  electric  power  drills  fur- 
nished with  current  from  the  same  source.  The  lat- 
est design  of  specially  constructed  tower  for  trim- 
ming and  emergency  repairs  at  night,  is  mounted  on 
one  of  the  company's  high  speed,  looo-pound  wag- 
ons. The  tower  weighs  300  pounds  and  has  a  work- 
ing platform  which  can  be  adjusted  above  the  road- 
way twelve  to  twenty  feet. 

The  foregoing  allusion  to  the  company's  electric 
automobiles  describes  only  a  few  of  the  many  uses 
to  which  they  are  put.  In  all,  104  current-driven 
vehicles  are  used  by  the  Edison  system.  Of  these, 
twenty-five  are  for  passengers  and  thirty  are  deliv- 
ery wagons  for  incandescent  lamps.  Then  there  are 
twenty-three  2000-pound  wagons  for  delivering  sup- 

[198] 


TRIMMING   A   LAMP 


D99:] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

plies  to  work  in  progress,  six  3000-pound  wagons  for 
taking  meters  to  similar  destinations  and  one  4000- 
pound  wagon  to  carry  wiring  materials  for  the  same 
purpose.  One  3_^4-ton  truck  and  five  5-ton  trucks 
pull  cables  through  conduits,  while  one  truck  of  the 
last  mentioned  size  is  assigned  to  general  orders  and 


ERECTING  A  LAMP  POST 


freight  work.  For  these  last  duties,  there  are  also 
one  3-ton  truck,  one  4000-pound  wagon  and  one  700- 
pound  wagon.     The  arc  lamp  post  service  has  one 

[200] 


STREET  LIGHTING 

2j/>-ton,  and  one  3-ton  truck.  In  addition  there 
are  six  superintendent's  wagons  and  one  700-pound 
wagon  for  inspection  work. 


^201;] 


THE  UETW  YOEK 
PUBLIC  LIBKARY 


aotob  lknox  and 


Concerning  Meters  and  Testing 


THE  first  bill  for  current  presented  by  the  Edi- 
son Electric  Illuminating  Company,  was 
dated  January  17  1883,  and  made  out 
to  the  Ansonia  Brass  &  Copper  Company  at  15-17 
Cliflf  Street.  It  was  for  $50.40  and  had  been  deter- 
mined by  means  of  the  Edison  chemical  meter. 
Thus,  from  the  beginning,  the  New  York  Edison 
system  set  itself  to  sell  current  by  meter  rather  than 
by  contract. 

It  may  be  interesting  briefly  to  summarize  the 
routine  that  had  to  be  followed  in  those  early  years 
to  render  a  bill  for  current.  The  initial  operation 
was  to  prepare  the  zinc  plates  by  cleaning  them  in 
acid  and  carefully  amalgamating  them  with  mer- 
cury to  obtain  a  chemically  clean  surface.  After 
drying,  they  were  bufifed  to  remove  the  loose  par- 
ticles of  mercury  and  weighed  by  delicate  balances. 
Coupled  with  insulating  buttons,  they  were  set  in 
bottles  and  carried  out  to  be  installed  in  the  meters. 
The  bottles  were  brought  in  and  out  of  the  depart- 
ment at  least  every  month,  while  the  very  first  meters 
provided  for  a  quarterly  as  well  as  a  monthly  bottle 
for  checking  purposes. 

During  1 893-1 894  consideration  was  first  given 
the  mechanical  meter.  The  disadvantages  of  the 
chemical  meter— with  the  entailed  labor  of  weigh- 

C203] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

ing  20,000  plates  per  month  for  every  5000  cus- 
tomers and  the  subsequent  handling  in  customers' 
premises— pointed  to  the  necessity  for  a  different 
type  of  meter.  Various  styles  of  English  as  well  as 
of  American  make  were  tested,  but  none  of  these 
compared  favorably  for  general  accuracy  with  the 
chemical  type. 

In  1896  the  Thomson  meter  had,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  company,  passed  out  of  the  developmental 
stage  and  some  of  them  were  installed  on  the  system, 
although  the  greater  proportion  of  the  8532  meters 
on  customers'  premises  were  still  chemical.  Dur- 
ing 1897,  ^744  mechanical  meters  were  placed  in 
service. 

The  history  of  the  electric  meter  in  The  New 
York  Edison  Company  is,  briefly,  as  follows: 

1880  First  electrolytic  meter  made  at  Menlo  Park. 

1882  First   chemical  meter    for   commercial   service    installed  on 
mains  of  old  Pearl  Street  station. 

1883  First  bill  rendered  from  electric  meter  in  New  York  City. 
1883  to  1896  Increase  in  chemical  meters  to  8500. 

1893   First  investigation  of  Thomson  mechanical  motor  meter. 
1896  Initial    installation    of    twenty-five    mechanical    meters    in 

series  with  chemical  meters  for  comparative  service. 
1902   First    investigation    of    new    design    of    mechanical    meter 

known  as  "Type  C." 
19 1 2    159,000  meters  in  service. 

The  installation  of  improved  designs  in  meters 
and  the  retirement  year  by  year  of  thousands  which 
have  been  superseded,  have  kept  the  company's 
meter  service  in  the  forefront  of  the  growth  of  elec- 
trical   industry.      In    recent   years,    the    Electrical 

C204] 


THE  WASHINGTON  ARCH 
Looking  up  Fifth  Avenue  at  night 


T^  NEW  YORE 
PUBLIC  V,V.RARY 


TILDES  1-.     IX,, ATI  .,^8 


CONCERNING    METERS   AND   TESTING 

Testing  Laboratories  have  conducted  detailed  in- 
vestigations of  meters  for  the  company,  but  this 
merely  follows  the  routine  laid  down  formerly, when 
expert,  disinterested  advice  was  continually  brought 
to  bear  on  the  subject. 

A  few  details  of  design,  which  have  resulted  in 
the  installation  of  newer  types  of  meters  on  the 
company's  mains,  include:  A  complete  design  for  a 
side-entrance  mechanical  meter  made  on  specifica- 
tions of  the  company's  chief  engineer;  the  substitu- 
tion of  castings  for  tubing  and  punching  in  the 
construction  of  the  meters ;  development  of  insect 
and  dust  proof  covers;  reduction  in  the  weight  of 
the  moving  element;  substitution  of  enameled,  cov- 
ered wire  for  silk  and  cotton  and  shellac-covered 
wire  to  reduce  size  and  weight;  the  substitution  of  a 
paper  armature  form  for  that  of  fiber  and  brass; 
gravity  counterweights  for  the  regulation  of  the 
brushes;  considerable  reduction  in  the  diameter  of 
the  commutator  to  reduce  friction. 

The  types  of  direct-current  meter  at  present  in 
active  service  consist  of:  house  type  meters  3  to 
4000  amperes,  two-  and  three-wire  for  both  120  and 
240  volt  potential,  of  both  bottom  and  side  entrance; 
switchboard  meters  of  both  astatic  and  four-pole 
types. 

For  alternating  current,  there  are:  house  type, 
single-phase  and  polyphase  meters  for  no  and  220 
volt  service;  switchboard  type,  single-phase  and 
polyphase  meters  for  1 10  to  15,000  volt  service. 

The  meter  room  proper,  was  first  located  in  the 
old  Pearl  Street  station,  an  uptown  branch  being 

[1205] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

later  established  at  Thirty-ninth  Street.  In  1892  the 
Pearl  Street  and  Thirty-ninth  Street  equipments 
were  consolidated  and  moved  to  the  southeast  corner 
of  the  second  floor  at  Duane  Street.  The  mechanical 
meters  were  first  handled  from  a  departmental 
office  next  to  the  chemical  meter  department  on 
the  eighth  floor  at  Duane  Street.  In  1904  the  main 
office  of  the  department  was  moved  to  the  top  floor 
at  117  West  Thirty-ninth  Street,  and,  as  the  work 
warranted,  district  offices  were  established. 

The  handling  of  chemical  meters  required  a 
laboratory  for  weighing  precisely  the  zinc  plates 
removed  each  month,  for  washing  and  amalgamat- 
ing the  plates,  for  buffing  and  polishing  to  maintain 
properly  the  surface  of  the  plates.  With  the  retire- 
ment of  the  chemical  meter,  facilities  for  testing 
mechanical  meters  were  provided,  and  the  labo- 
ratory equipment  has  kept  pace  with  the  growth  and 
change  in  needs,  the  equipment  comprising,  in  part, 
motor-generator  sets,  potential  storage  batteries, 
carefully  designed  test  boards,  proper  checking 
standards,  etc. 

Improved  test  boards  have  been  placed  in  the 
laboratory  as  needed,  and  complete  facilities  for 
verifying  the  accuracy  of  the  standards  have  been 
provided  in  all  district  offices.  For  direct-current 
testing  load,  storage  batteries  with  carbon  rheostats 
have  practically  superseded  the  water  rheostat; 
while  the  one-man  system  of  test  has  been  investi- 
gated and  adopted  in  preference  to  the  two-man  test, 
for  many  types  of  meters  and  installations. 

In   1910  various  Murray  devices  were  adopted, 

[206] 


CONCERNING    METERS   AND   TESTING 

covering  installation  and  testing  details  in  connec- 
tion with  the  meters.  These  devices  permitted  the 
complete  enclosure  and  protection  of  the  company's 
service  from  the  street  main  to  the  house  side  of  the 
meter.  They  also  resulted  in  standardization  and 
economies  in  the  cost  of  test,  besides  eliminating  the 
possibility  of  error  in  connection. 

The  laboratory,  office,  shops  and  store-room  of 
the  company's  meter  department  are  located  at  117 
West  Thirty-ninth  Street  with  district  offices  at  546 
Pearl  Street;  45  West  Twenty-sixth  Street;  314 
West  Forty-first  Street;  171  West  One  Hundred  and 
Seventh  Street  and  One  Hundred  and  Fortieth 
Street  at  Rider  Avenue. 

The  office  last  mentioned  is  in  the  Bronx  alter- 
nating-current district  and  is  different  in  its  equip- 
ment and  functions  from  the  Manhattan  offices.  It 
is  complete  in  itself,  containing  the  district  files  of 
test,  laboratory  equipment  and  store-room  facilities 
for  alternating-current  meters.  The  Manhattan  dis- 
trict offices  are  reporting  centers,  equipped  with 
suitable  accommodations  for  the  men  and  proper 
facilities  for  verifying  the  accuracy  of  portable  stan- 
dards used  in  customers'  premises. 

The  meter  shop  at  117  West  Thirty-ninth  Street 
is  equipped  to  make  necessary  repairs  and  replace- 
ments of  parts  in  the  meters,  both  on  the  company's 
mains  and  in  the  shop;  while  the  meter  store-rooms 
in  the  direct  and  alternating-current  districts  have 
facilities  to  maintain  a  proper  stock  of  meters  of  all 
capacities. 

The  history  of  the  department  includes  pioneer 

1:207] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

work  in  the  investigation  of  proper  bearings  for 
motor  meters.  Varying  compositions  of  steel,  ivory 
and  many  grades  and  kinds  of  precious  stones  have 
been  tried  as  pivots  and  step-bearings,  and  as  a  result, 
cupped  diamonds  have  been  substituted  for  sapphire 
bearings  in  many  thousands  of  meters  of  certain 
types  and  capacities.  Many  varieties  and  grades  of 
rare,  expensive  oil  for  use  on  these  jeweled  bearings 
have  also  been  investigated. 

The  meter  department  at  present  undertakes  ac- 
ceptance tests  and  inspection  of  new  meters  as  they 
are  received  from  the  manufacturer.  It  provides 
for  proper  tests  in  the  laboratory,  and  for  the  accu- 
racy of  all  meters  when  placed  in  stock.  After 
installation,  inspection  and  tests  establish  their  con- 
tinued accuracy  in  service.  After  removal  and 
return  to  the  store-room,  laboratory  tests  determine 
a  meter's  perfect  condition  for  reissue  to  a  custom- 
er's premises. 

Laboratory  tests  and  shop  repairs  now  necessitate 
the  handling  of  over  50,000  meters  (in  191 1),  and 
service  tests  and  inspections  require  an  organization 
for  making  upward  of  250,000  service  investiga- 
tions. 

The  character  of  the  work  and  the  organization 
of  the  department  presuppose  the  employment  of 
young  men,  preference  being  given  to  those  with 
high-school  training.  The  department  is  therefore 
constantly  recruiting  men,  since  an  expert  tester  is 
a  desirable  acquisition  in  other  fields  of  electricity. 

Very  shortly  after  the  starting  of  the  Pearl  Street 
station  in  1882,  a  test  room  was  equipped  and  placed 

[2083 


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in  charge  of  the  company's  first  electrician.  It  was 
installed  principally  for  testing  the  insulation  of  the 
underground  distributing  system,  since  at  that  time 
the  maintenance  of  this  insulation  was  a  matter  of 
great  concern. 

Under  the  supervision  of  Mr  C  S  Bradley,  and 
later,  Dr  S  S  Wheeler  and  others,  several  ingenious 
special  methods  were  developed  for  testing  the  insu- 
lation of  the  underground  system,  as  a  whole  and 
while  alive.  Other  devices  were  invented  for  locat- 
ing faults  in  the  system  after  they  had  developed. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that  care  of  instruments, 
later  most  important,  was  not  a  duty  of  the  test 
room  at  first,  for  no  measuring  instruments  were 
then  employed,  and  indeed,  none  were  available. 
While  Thomson's  reflecting  galvanometer  was  used 
by  telegraphers,  and  the  principle  of  the  electro- 
dynamometer  was  fully  understood,  they  had  not 
been  developed  in  commercial  form  suitable  for 
general  electrical  measurements.  D'Arsonval's 
moving  coil  galvanometer,  which,  as  later  devel- 
oped by  Dr  Weston,  revolutionized  the  electrical 
measuring  art,  had  not  yet  been  discovered. 

In  time,  other  duties  were  assigned  to  the  test 
room :  first,  tests  of  house  wiring  in  customers'  prem- 
ises, and  later,  of  motors  and  arc  lamps.  The  force 
consisted  ordinarily  of  two  men,  besides  the  com- 
pany's electrician  who  had  charge  of  the  depart- 
ment. 

The  first  vice-president,  in  his  annual  report  to 
the  president  of  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating 
Company,  for  theyear  1 892,  described  the  installation 

II2093 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

of  an  electrical  testing  room  and  laboratory.  Under 
supervision  of  the  company's  chief  electrician,  it  was 
planned  to  serve  also  as  a  bureau  of  standards. 

The  report  went  on  to  state:  "This  has  been  of 
great  use  in  testing  arc-lights,  incandescent  lamps, 
motors  and  new  appliances  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  company,  and  in  standardizing  all  the 
electrical  instruments  both  portable  and  other- 
wise." 

The  organization  of  this  laboratory  as  a  bureau  of 
standards  marked  an  advance,  and  this  standardiza- 
tion work  has  since  developed  into  a  most  important 
function  of  the  department.  The  laboratory  was 
fitted  with  Thomson  balances,  electro-static  volt- 
meters of  the  latest  type,  a  Board  of  Trade  standard 
ohm  and  other  improved  apparatus  for  precise  mea- 
surements. 

At  the  same  time,  the  general  scope  of  the  work 
was  extended  to  include  photometry,  for  which  pur- 
pose a  dark  room  and  complete  photometric  equip- 
ment were  provided,  making  possible  more  exten- 
sive testing  of  machinery  and  appliances. 

The  standardizing  apparatus,  although  excellent 
in  itself,  was  not  capable  of  reaching  the  possible 
limits  of  accuracy,  since  the  instruments  were  clumsy 
to  manipulate  even  on  a  comparatively  steady  com- 
mercial current  supply.  For  several  years,  there- 
fore, these  balances  and  other  standards  were  used 
only  for  occasional  reference,  and  dependence  was 
placed  upon  laboratory  pattern,  direct-reading  in- 
struments. In  1904,  owing  to  storage  battery  supply 
and  special  training  of  the  laboratory  assistants,  the 


CONCERNING    METERS   AND   TESTING 

standardization  work  was  put  upon  a  systematic 
basis. 

Since  1892  the  work  of  the  test  department  has 
grown  to  include:  the  standardizing  laboratory,  for 
the  preservation  of  standards,  and  calibration  as  well 
as  repair  of  instruments;  the  general  laboratory,  in 
charge  of  all  general  and  technical  testing,  includ- 
ing that  of  apparatus  and  appliances,  together  with 
experimental  and  research  work;  the  station  inspec- 
tion division,  for  calibration  and  maintenance  of 
switchboard  instruments;  and  the  commercial  test- 
ing division,  controlling  tests  in  customers'  premises. 
Originally,  there  was  no  definite  division  of  the 
work;  but,  as  different  features  developed,  they  were 
organized  separately,  the  commercial  testing  in 
1903,  and  the  station  inspection  about  1906.  It  was 
not  until  1908  that  the  general  laboratory  was  made 
a  special  division,  because  this  work,  though  al- 
ways important,  had  previously  been  done  by 
men  drafted  at  need  from  the  existing  force. 
The  pressure  inspection  division,  of  more  recent 
growth,  has  charge  of  regular  inspection  of  the  elec- 
trical pressure  maintained  on  the  distributing  sys- 
tem. 

With  the  enlargement  of  the  test  department, 
its  equipment  has  been  steadily  extended.  From  a 
small  corner  in  the  original  Pearl  Street  station,  the 
laboratory  was  moved  to  a  separate  room  in  the 
Duane  Street  building  in  order  to  house  what  was, 
for  that  time,  an  elaborate  outfit.  In  1903  the  labo- 
ratory took  up  an  entire  floor  at  45  West  Twenty- 
sixth  Street.  In  1910,  on  account  of  extending  duties 

1:211] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

and  increasing  refinement  in  standardizing,  the 
laboratory  was  taken  to  92  Vandam  Street,  a  build- 
ing specially  suited  to  its  purposes. 

Removed  from  vibration,  stray  magnetic  fields, 
dirt  and  widely  varying  temperatures,  the  labora- 
tory equipment  was  extended  to  provide  complete 
facilities  equal  to  those  of  any  similar  commercial 
establishment. 

The  standardizing  laboratory  now  has  working 
standards  of  the  best  modern  types,  and  also  a  wide 
range  of  transfer  instruments  for  calibration  of  port- 
able implements  used  in  meter  and  general  testing. 
The  standards  are  periodically  certified  by  the  Gov- 
ernment Bureau  of  Standards,  and  by  means  of  a 
system  of  checks  and  records,  it  is  at  all  times  possi- 
ble to  state  the  accuracy  of  any  portable  instrument, 
in  terms  of  the  electrical  units  legalized  by  Act  of 
Congress. 

The  standardizing  laboratory  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  the  meter  department,  since  the  lat- 
ter obtains  its  standards  of  measurement  from  this 
source,  and,  of  course,  the  accuracy  of  meters  tested 
depends  fundamentally  upon  the  accuracy  of  the 
standards  employed.  The  operating  department  is 
also  directly  concerned,  since  station  outputs  are 
determined  by  meters  calibrated  in  the  laboratory, 
and,  in  addition,  the  pressure  maintained  upon  the 
system  is  determined  by  means  of  volt-meters  stan- 
dardized by  the  laboratory. 

The  station  inspection  and  pressure  inspection  di- 
visions are  engaged  largely  in  routine  work.  These 
divisions  follow  schedules  designed  to  provide  peri- 

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CONCERNING   METERS   AND   TESTING 

odic  inspection  of  station  instruments  and  service 
pressures. 

Besides  routine  work  in  collecting  data  for  the 
contract  department,  the  commercial  test  division 
does  special  testing  in  customers'  premises.  These 
tests  vary  in  importance  from  those  of  simple  ap- 
pliances to  extensive  plant  tests,  including  boilers, 
engines  and  compressors,  as  well  as  refrigerating 
plants. 

The  general  laboratory,  having  charge  of  impor- 
tant technical  experiments  and  investigations,  re- 
flects the  progress  of  the  central  station  industry. 
Thus,  among  more  important  investigations,  are  the 
following,  in  rough  chronological  order: 

Extensive  investigations  and  comparisons  of  chemical  and 
motor  type  meters,  leading  eventually  to  the  adoption  of  motor 
meters. 

Photometric  and  life  tests  of  incandescent  lamps.  Also  the 
testing  of  returned  lamps,  leading  to  a  definite  practice  for  han- 
dling returned  lamps. 

The  development  of  protective  devices,  such  as  ground  detec- 
tors. This  development  followed  the  extension  of  the  high-tension 
supply  system,  as  earlier  methods  proved  inadequate. 

Extensive  tests  on  the  discharge  capacities  of  storage  bat- 
teries, in  relation  to  their  use   for  stand-by  service  in  substations. 

Tests  to  investigate  the  many  operating  features  introduced  by 
the  concentration  of  very  great  generating  capacity  in  the  main 
supply  stations.  These  tests  include  the  short  circuit  character- 
istics of  generators,  the  performance  of  limiting  reactances,  and 
many  other  incidental  questions. 

Tests  on  the  insulating  properties  of  power  cables,  and  general 
investigations  of  dielectrics,  for  use  in  such  cables. 

Research  and  development  work  in  line  and  wiring  materials, 
leading  to  the  production  of  special  types  of  protective  devices 

C2133 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

such  as  high-  and  low-tension  fuses,  specially  adapted  to  a  system 
of  electricity  supply  where  reliability  and  safety  are  of  utmost 
importance.  Another  part  of  the  work  consists  of  the  systematic 
testing  of  supply  materials,  machines  and  miscellaneous  apparatus. 

In  this  systematic  testing,  as  in  the  experimental 
and  research  work,  much  development  parallels  that 
of  manufacturers,  leading  to  general  advance  in  the 
(]uality  and  usefulness  of  electrical  products. 

This  progressive  principle  is  an  exemplification 
of  the  company's  broad,  constructive  policy,  since 
work  of  this  character  is  not  directly  productive. 
The  department  has  developed  from  one  or  two 
men,  engaged  in  work  which  was  originally  of  im- 
mediate necessity,  into  a  group  of  over  fifty  specially 
trained  employees.  The  department  now  possesses 
extensive  plant  facilities  in  a  specially  adapted 
building,  and  its  efiforts  are  almost  exclusively  di- 
rected toward  improvements  and  safeguards,  and 
toward  the  rigorous  maintenance  of  measurement 
standards. 


[2143 


The  New  York  Edison  Company 
and  its  Employees 

IN  the  days  when  the  First  District  system 
was  preparing,  a  certain  comradeship  existed 
among  the  men  concerned  in  its  work.  They 
were  all  pioneers  advancing  into  a  recently  discov- 
ered but  still  unexplored  country,  sure  of  their  ulti- 
mate victory,  and  filled  with  the  determination 
which  met  obstacles  and  surmounted  them.  Thus 
they  were  drawn  together  by  a  common  interest 
and  a  common  belief.  Today  5000  people  are 
required  to  carry  on  the  work  which  this  group  of 
enthusiasts  began. 

It  is,  however,  manifestly  difficult,  if  not  impossi- 
ble, to  maintain  the  same  intimate,  informal  rela- 
tions in  a  large  body  as  in  a  small  one.  But  through 
all  the  enormous  development  of  the  last  fifteen 
years,  a  spirit  of  genuine  interest  has  existed  between 
the  executives  and  all  members  of  the  company. 
This  is  perhaps  due  to  the  fact  that  many  of  its  offi- 
cials have  won  their  way  to  their  present  positions 
from  the  ranks. 

Every  efifort  has  been  made  to  continue  the  com- 
radeship of  those  early  days  when  Mr  Edison  was 
himself  on  the  ground  and  in  touch  with  men  on  the 
firing  line.     An  "open  door"  policy  has  been  con- 

1:215] 


THOMAS    A    EUISON 


[216] 


THE  COMPANY  AND  ITS  EMPLOYEES 

stantly  in  force  between  executives  and  workers.  The 
latter,  even  though  their  relations  to  the  former  might 
be  remote,  have  always  been  encouraged  to  appeal 
to  company  officials  in  case  of  any  grievance  con- 
nected with  conditions  of  employment.  Moreover, 
this  door  has  never  been  closed  to  men  chafing  under 
apparent  lack  of  opportunity  for  advancement,  or  to 
others  wanting  guidance  in  their  personal  future 
development.  The  executives  aim  continually  to 
make  the  company  a  model  in  its  human  relations. 

Even  during  the  period  preceding  its  present 
administration.  New  York's  central  station  system 
had  already  begun  to  provide  for  the  welfare  of  its 
workers.  Efforts  had  been  made  to  prevent  acci- 
dents and  to  furnish  compensation  for  those  occur- 
ring; and,  while  such  endeavors — together  with  all 
other  means  for  obtaining  satisfactory  industrial 
conditions — were  by  no  means  so  thoroughly 
worked  out  as  they  are  toda}^,  they  serve  to  show  that 
attention  was  being  paid  these  matters  at  a  time  when 
such  a  course  was  still  unusual  in  large  businesses. 

All  the  various  methods  of  the  past  for  maintain- 
ing proper  working  conditions  have  resulted  in  The 
New  York  Edison  Company's  present  policy  toward 
its  employees.  This  plan  of  action  has  many  phases 
and  is  administered  either  directly  by  the  company 
or  indirectly  through  the  Association  of  Employees. 
It  may  be  summed  up  under  the  following  heads: 
accident  prevention;  care  of  the  injured;  efforts  for 
good  health  among  all  the  company's  force;  educa- 
tional incentives;  recreational  and  social  opportuni- 
ties; and  the  encouragement  of  thrift.     A  clearer 

C2173 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

understanding  of  each  of  these  subjects  will  be  ob- 
tained from  looking  into  them  one  by  one. 

Of  paramount  importance  is  the  question  of  acci- 
dent prevention,  and  The  New  York  Edison  Com- 
pany believes  that  its  first  duty  is  to  reduce,  as  far  as 
is  humanly  possible,  the  risks  of  the  electrical  indus- 
try. Compared  with  this,  all  schemes  for  compen- 
sating the  injured  or  their  families  are  lame 
endeavors. 

In  accordance  with  this  belief  the  company  has 
given  particular  attention  to  the  safeguarding  of 
machinery,  to  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  warn- 
ing signals  and  to  the  promulgation  of  stringent 
rules  designed  to  prevent  accidents  through  inadver- 
tence or  ignorance.  Since  the  greatest  source  of 
danger  is  of  course  the  use  of  high-tension  apparatus, 
great  care  has  been  taken  to  cover  all  the  vital  parts 
of  such  machinery,  and  so  well  has  this  been  effected 
that  serious  accidents  are  rare.  During  the  year 
191 1  there  was  not  a  single  death  from  injury  among 
all  the  Edison  employees,  and  of  that  year's  acci- 
dents only  I  I.I  I  per  cent  were  due  to  electrical 
causes. 

At  generating  stations  an  elaborate  system  of  su- 
pervision and  notification  is  in  force.  For  instance, 
switches  which  control  the  generators  are  in  sep- 
arate compartments.  These  are  locked,  carefully 
numbered,  and  the  voltage  is  recorded.  To  use  a 
switch,  the  operator  must  be  accompanied  by  some 
one  who  unlocks  the  door  leading  to  it.  All  rotary 
converters  are  equipped  with  hand-rails,  and  rubber 
mats  are  also  provided.  Each  operator  is  given  a  copy 

[218] 


THE  COMPANY  AND  ITS  EMPLOYEES 

of  the  "Rules  for  the  Government  Employees  Oper- 
ating and  Handling  High-tension  Apparatus,"  for 
which  he  signs  a  receipt.  Besides,  machines  are  reg- 
ularly inspected  and  a  sharp  lookout  is  kept  for  flaws 
in  the  transmission  or  transforming  system.  In 
addition,  the  touching  of  dangerous  apparatus  is 
done  only  with  rubber  gloves  which  have  been  tested 
by  an  electrical  pressure  of  10,000  volts. 

So  much  for  the  warding  off  of  accidents.  If,  in 
spite  of  precautions,  an  employee  is  hurt  the  next 
question  is  the  treatment  of  his  injury.  Previous  to 
1905  the  company  carried  a  large  industrial  accident 
policy;  but,  becoming  convinced  that  this  did  not 
result  in  sufficiently  broad  consideration  for  the 
men,  it  took  upon  itself  the  care  of  sick  or  injured 
employees.  Three  physicians,  versed  in  the  treat- 
ment of  accident  cases,  were  secured,  and  a  plan  of 
procedure  was  laid  out. 

Under  this  arrangement,  if  a  person  is  very 
slightly  hurt  he  is  treated  at  a  medical  cabinet  kept 
for  the  purpose.  If  his  trouble  is  more  serious  he  is 
sent  to  a  doctor  who  examines  him,  treats  him  and 
sends  In  a  report  of  his  case.  The  man  is  then  returned 
to  "full  duty"  or  "partial  duty"  or  given  sick  leave, 
according  to  the  physician's  judgment,  and  a  com- 
plete account  of  the  accident  and  its  causes  is  sent  in 
by  the  foreman  as  well  as  by  the  medical  attendant. 
All  such  records  are  preserved  and  from  them  the 
company's  statistics  are  compiled.  In  191 1,  1412 
injuries  were  reported,  of  which  more  than  half 
were  so  slight  that  the  workmen  lost  no  time,  and 
246  were  "off  duty"  from  one  to  three  days.    A  large 

[219:1 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

proportion  of  the  remainder  were  incapacitated  for 
not  more  than  two  weeks  and  the  three  gravest  cases 
required  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  weeks  for  recovery. 
Of  the  total  number  of  accidents,  it  was  found  that 
the  victims  themselves  were  responsible  for  87.4  per 
cent;  fellow-employees  for  6.87  per  cent;  outside 
agents  for  .70  per  cent;  and  the  company  for  5.39 
per  cent. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  expense  of  all 
treatment  for  injuries  is  met  by  the  company,  and 
that  a  man  who  loses  time  from  such  a  cause  does  not 
lose  wages.  Workmen  who  have  been  wholly  or 
partially  crippled  are  put  upon  the  "disability  pay- 
roll," and  in  case  of  their  death  their  widows  or  de- 
pendents receive  the  same  sum  which  the  men  would 
have  received  had  they  been  totally  incapacitated. 

In  close  association  with  caring  for  the  injured 
come  the  arrangements  for  treating  any  Edison  em- 
ployee who  is  ill.  He  or  she  may  have  the  services 
of  a  company  doctor  without  expense,  while  full 
salary  is  paid  until  the  patient  recovers.  This  has 
sometimes  been  done  for  as  long  as  a  year  or  more.  It 
is  customary  always  to  grant  applications  for  "time 
of?"  to  keep  dentists'  or  oculists'  appointments,  it 
being  deemed  wisest  as  well  as  kindest  to  encourage 
the  entire  working  force  to  be  in  the  best  physical 
trim.  For  this  reason,  also,  the  company  urges  its 
members  to  take  up  athletics,  but  this  question  will 
be  dealt  with  later  under  its  proper  head. 

Having  provided,  as  far  as  possible,  for  the  physi- 
cal well-being  of  those  it  employs,  the  Edison  Com- 
pany strives  to  give  them  educational  opportunities, 

[;22o] 


THE  NEW  YORK 
PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


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THE  COMPANY  AND  ITS  EMPLOYEES 

to  the  end  that  they  may  be  fitted  for  promotion  and 
that  the  organization's  business  may  be  conducted 
more  smoothly.  This  is  done  for  the  most  part  in 
two  ways:  through  the  Association  of  Employees, 
and  through  the  company's  commercial  school. 

The  Association  of  Employees  has  nearly  2000 
members  who  each  pay  dues  of  $2.60  a  year.  This 
gives  it  funds  to  support  many  enterprises  in  which 
it  is  materially  helped  by  The  New  York  Edison 
Company.  Among  the  institutions  of  this  associa- 
tion is  a  technical  school.  The  scope  of  the  course 
is  laid  out  by  the  employees,  but  expenses  are  met  by 
the  company,  which  provides  instructors  and  fur- 
nishes the  laboratory  where  classes  meet.  The  first 
year's  training  is  intended  for  beginners  and  pro- 
vides an  excellent  grounding  in  the  principles  of 
electricity.  This  is  followed  by  a  second  year,  going 
more  deeply  into  the  subject,  while  the  third  course 
deals  especially  with  the  study  of  alternating-cur- 
rent machinery. 

In  191 1  a  school  to  provide  other  than  technical 
training  was  begun  and,  since  attendance  is  com- 
pulsory, employees  are  allowed  time  for  it  during 
the  company's  hours.  It  is  designed  to  acquaint 
members  of  various  bureaus  with  the  system  of  the 
entire  company,  to  show  them  the  interrelation  of 
different  departments  and  to  increase  their  interest 
and  intelligence  with  regard  to  their  work.  It  is 
really  a  school  of  salesmanship  and  is  intended  to  be 
especially  valuable  to  all  employees  who  act  in  any 
way  as  go-betweens  for  the  company  and  the  general 
public.    There  are  four  courses,  the  first  having  as 

C221;] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

its  subject  "Elements  of  Central  Station  Business- 
Getting."  Lectures  are  delivered  on  points  in  this 
connection,  such  as:  "Courtesy— the  Greatest  Indus- 
trial Asset";  "The  Value  of  Right  Thinking"; 
"Education— What  to  Learn";  and  "Six  Steps  in 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  EDISON  COMPANY 
Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


Salesmanship."  In  all,  twenty-six  of  these  talks  are 
given,  nine  of  them  being  based  on  the  "Electrical 
Solicitor's  Handbook"  of  the  National  Electric 
Light  Association,  six  of  them  relating  to  funda- 
mental electricity  and  the  rest  taking  up  miscella- 
neous topics. 

Course  II  concerns  "Hygiene,  Health  and  Recre- 
ation, and  Elements  of  Psychology."     Some  of  its 


THE  COMPANY  AND  ITS  EMPLOYEES 

lectures  are  on  "Making  the  Most  of  Your  Vaca- 
tion"; "Helps  for  Better  Health";  "What  is  Psy- 
chology?"; "The  Human  Element  in  Business." 

Course  HI  deals  with  "Basic  Principles  of  Sales- 
manship and  their  Relations  to  Business-Getting." 
Outsiders  of  note  in  their  own  professions  speak  to 
the  employees  on  many  problems  of  salesmanship. 

Course  IV  is  devoted  to  the  "Policies  and  Organ- 
ization of  The  New  York  Edison  Company,"  and 
representatives  of  the  company's  different  depart- 
ments explain  subjects  of  interest,  such  as  "Con- 
tracts," "Commercial  Engineering,"  "Central  Sta- 
tion Service— Its  Advantages  over  Isolated  Plants." 

Employees  who  attend  the  lectures  are  required 
to  hand  in  written  summaries.  Their  work  is  graded 
and  careful  records  are  kept  of  the  manner  in  which 
it  is  done.  Afterward,  this  information  is  used  in 
questions  of  promotion.  Although  the  school  has 
been  in  existence  only  about  a  year,  250  men  and 
women  have  been  enrolled,  this  being  about  75  per 
cent  of  the  membership  of  the  contract  and  inspec- 
tion department.  Of  these,  seventy-six  have  gained 
certificates  for  having  completed  Courses  II,  III, 
and  IV,  since  Course  I  is  only  required  of  new- 
comers to  the  company.  All  employees  who  come 
in  contact  with  the  general  public  are  expected  to 
attend  one  or  more  of  the  courses  and  eventually  to 
get  certificates.  The  New  York  Edison  Company 
was  the  first  electrical  organization  to  plan  a  school 
of  this  sort,  and  its  success  had  emboldened  other 
corporations  to  develop  similar  methods  of  instruc- 
tion. 

C223] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

The  company  library  at  44  West  Twenty- 
seventh  Street  might  be  added  as  another  educational 
opportunity,  since  periodicals  and  works  on  techni- 
cal subjects  are  there  provided  for  all  employees, 
while  The  Edison  Weekly  regularly  contains  a 
digest  of  recent  articles  on  electrical  and  scientific 
subjects.  This  "house  organ,"  begun  in  the  contract 
and  inspection  department  a  few  years  ago  with  a 
circulation  of  about  300,  is  now  sent  regularly  to 
2775  employees  while  the  demand  for  it  is  steadily 
increasing. 

The  old  saying  about  "all  work  and  no  play"  is 
today  established  as  a  psychological  fact,  and  no 
scheme  for  the  welfare  of  a  large  working  force 
would  be  complete  without  some  provision  for  ath- 
letics as  well  as  for  sociability. 

The  Employees'  Association  supports  a  baseball 
team  and  arranges  games  with  semi-professionals 
and  with  the  teams  of  other  electrical  companies, 
while  in  the  winter  bowling  takes  the  place  of 
outdoor  sports.  Then  there  are  the  association's 
monthly  meetings— partly  devoted  to  business,  partly 
to  pleasure— several  of  which  each  year  are  ar- 
ranged especially  for  the  welcome  of  women  mem- 
bers. In  addition,  there  is  an  annual  entertainment 
as  well  as  a  summer  picnic.  Both  of  these  events 
are  so  popular  as  to  be  not  only  self-supporting  but 
also  lucrative,  helping  to  fill  the  association's  trea- 
sury. 

The  New  York  Companies'  Section  of  the  Na- 
tional Electric  Light  Association  also  holds  monthly 
entertainments  and  meetings  besides  its  yearly  ex- 

C224;] 


THE  COMPANY  AND  ITS  EMPLOYEES 


THE  EDISON  AUDITORIUM 
Drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 


cursion  and,  to  encourage  members  of  the  Associa- 
tion of  Employees  to  enter  this  other  body,  the 
Edison  Company  pays  one  half  the  dues  of  all  who 
join. 

Last,  but  not  least,  in  promoting  the  well-being  of 
workers  comes  the  question  of  individual  financial 
aid  and  reward.  The  employees,  through  their 
association,  maintain  a  death  benefit  fund;  and  to 
each  $150  paid  on  the  decease  of  a  member,  the 
company  adds  $100.  During  the  year  1912  a 
Savings  and  Loan  Association  was  organized,  of 
which  the  company  assumes  all  running  expenses 
and  guarantees  the  safety.  Depositors  are  paid  6 
per  cent  interest,  and  money  is  lent  at  the  same  rate 
to  employees  who  wish  to  build  homes.  This  is  done 

1:225:] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

in  the  hope  of  developing  thrift,  it  being  felt  that 
a  man's  first  step  toward  independence  is  the  owning 
of  his  own  home.  Although  the  Savings  and  Loan 
Association  has  only  been  in  active  operation  a  few 
months  $17,000  have  already  been  entered  on  its 
books,  and  three  persons  have  been  enabled  to  be- 
come their  own  landlords. 

In  thus  having  regard  for  the  safety,  health  and 
happiness  of  the  people  whom  it  employs  The  New 
York  Edison  Company  has  done  away  with  much 
friction  in  the  mechanism  of  daily  work.  Strikes, 
for  instance,  have  been  almost  unknown  in  recent 
years;  but  the  company  looks  not  only  to  eliminate 
strikes,  but  to  do  away  with  indifiference  and  care- 
lessness among  all  its  workers.  For  without  intelli- 
gent, interested  effort  on  the  part  of  every  one  from 
the  office  boy  up,  good  service  to  the  public  cannot 
result. 


[226] 


Statistics 

A  Corporate  Statement 

THE  New  York  Edison  Company  is  successor 
to  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating  Com- 
pany of  New  York  and  the  New  York  Gas, 
Electric  Light,  Heat  and  Power  Company.  The 
consolidation  of  these  two  corporations  was  consum- 
mated on  May  i  1901. 

From  the  time  of  its  organization,  the  Edison 
Electric  Illuminating  Company  of  New  York  had 
only  three  chief  executives.  Its  first  president  was 
Dr  Norvin  Green,  elected  on  December  20  1880, 
who  continued  to  serve  until  December  ir  1883. 
At  the  end  of  Dr  Green's  term  the  company  had 
approximately  900  horse-power  in  station  equip- 
ment, and  was  serving  513  customers  who  main- 
tained 10,297  incandescent  lamps  rated  at  16  candle- 
power. 

The  second  president,  Mr  Spencer  Trask,  was 
elected  on  December  1 1  1884  and  remained  in  office 
more  than  fourteen  years,  resigning  on  May  26 
1899.  This  period  of  administration  saw  a  growth 
to  24,200  horse-power  in  station  machinery,  to  10,- 
400  customers,  and  the  equivalent  of  980,000  incan- 
descent lamps  of  16  candle-power. 

Mr    Anthony    N    Brady,    the    third    president, 

C227] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

elected  on  May  i8  1900,  was  chief  executive  of  the 
corporation  until  its  termination  and  merging  with 
the  present  company  on  May  i  1901.  With  the 
organization  of  The  New  York  Edison  Company, 
Mr  Brady  was  chosen  president,  his  term  of  office 
continuing  unbroken  to  the  present  time.  This 
administration,  beginning  with  36,290  horse-power 
in  station  equipment,  has  developed  it  to  no  less  than 
400,000  horse-power,  while  during  the  same  years 
the  number  of  customers  has  increased  from  about 
18,000  in  1 901  to  today's  aggregate  represented  by 
170,000  meters.  There  has  been  a  corresponding 
growth  in  current  distributed,  rising  from  approxi- 
mately 1,625,000  50-watt  equivalents  in  1901  to  the 
present  total  of  11,000,000  50-watt  equivalents. 

This  makes  The  New  York  Edison  Company  by 
far  the  largest  corporation  in  existence  whose  ser- 
vice is  devoted  entirely  to  the  commercial  light  and 
power  field.  Its  extraordinary  growth  is  perhaps 
better  indicated  by  the  charts  in  this  chapter,  their 
shadings  representing  the  wonderful  electrical  de- 
velopment of  New  York  City  during  the  present 
corporation's  existence. 

The  incorporators  of  the  Edison  Electric  Illu- 
minating Company  were:  Mr  T  R  Edson,  Mr 
James  H  Banker,  Mr  R  L  Cutting,  Jr,  Mr  Egisto 
P  Fabbri,  Mr  Jose  F  di  Navarro,  Mr  Nathan  G 
Miller  and  Mr  G  P  Lowry.  The  first  board  of 
directors,  which  was  elected  on  December  17  1880, 
added  Dr  Norvin  Green,  Mr  Robert  M  Gallaway, 
Dr  James  O  Green,  Mr  Henry  Villard,  Mr  T  A 
Edison  and  Major  Sherburne  B  Eaton. 

1:228] 


STATISTICS 

The  present  directors  of  The  New  York  Edison 
Company  are:  Mr  George  F  Baker,  Mr  Anthony 
N  Brady  (president),  Mr  Nicholas  F  Brady  (first 
vice-president),  Mr  George  B  Cortelyou,  Mr  Har- 
rison E  Gawtry,  Mr  Lewis  B  Gawtry  (secretary), 
Mr  Thomas  E  Murray  (second  vice-president), 
Mr  Edgar  Palmer,  Mr  William  Rockefeller,  Mr 
John  W  Sterling  and  Mr  Frank  A  Vanderlip. 


Growth  in   Customers  and   Equivalents 
Manhattan  and  Bronx 


Year 
September  4   1882 

October   i 
November   i 
December  i 
January   i    1883 
February  i 
March  I 
April  I 
May  I    . 
June  I    . 
July  I     . 
August   I 
September   i 
October  i 
November   : 
December   i 

December  31,  1888 

December  31,  1889 

December  31,  1890 

December  31,  1891 


Number  of 
Customers 


50  Watt 
Equiva- 
lents 


59 

94 
203 

231 

302 

324 
361 
386 
410 


1,284 
1,704 

3,144 

3,477 
4,131 
4,331 
4,884 

5,574 
6,466 


436 7,429 

443 7,946 

455 8,218 

472 8,573 

508 10,164 

513 10,297 

710 16,377 

1,213 45,615 

1,698 73,684 

2,875 122,895 

C229] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

Growth  in   Customers  and  Equivalents 

Manhattan  and  Bronx 


50  Watt 

Number  of 

S^'umber 

of                 Equiva- 

Year 

Customers 

Meters 

lents 

December  31, 

1892        . 

4,344     •      • 

196,932 

December  31, 

1893        . 

5,154     •      • 

273.361 

December  31, 

1894        . 

5,877      .      • 

340,784 

December  31, 

1895        . 

6,675      . 

425,823 

December  31, 

1896        . 

7,898      . 

613,991 

December  31, 

1897        • 

8,711      . 

.       .           756,438 

December  31, 

1898        . 

9,990     . 

.       .          891,614 

December  31, 

1899        .          ] 

1,015      . 

.       .       1,102,121 

December  31, 

I 900        .          ] 

6,349     • 

.       .       1,473,807 

December  31, 

1 901 

28,03( 

3     .     1,928,090 

December  31, 

1902 

33,69 

I     .     2,343,721 

December  31, 

1903        . 

40,23( 

D       .       2,851,463 

December  31, 

1904        . 

46,96 

I        .       3,320,310 

December  31, 

1905        . 

56,57- 

2       .       3,878,666 

December  31, 

1906 

68,99( 

3       .       4,923,986 

December  31, 

1907        . 

8o,8o( 

5      .      5,856,166 

December  31, 

1908 

90,28 

3      .      6,729,926 

December  31, 

1909        . 

104,44 

5      .      7,422,649 

December  31, 

191O 

121,85 

3      .      8,584,725 

December  31, 

191I 

144,01 

8     .     9,922,562 

August  31,   1 

912      .        . 

15: 

^65 

8     .    10,672,042 

C230] 


STATISTICS 


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1:235:] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


Mileage  of  the  Two-Wire  System  in  the  First 
District,  Showing  How  it  was  Superseded  by 
the  Three-Wire  System 


December  31,  1889 15-24      Miles 

December  31,  1890 13.16 

December  31,  189 1 8.81 

December  31,  1892 6.37 

December  31,  1893 3-2765 

December  31,  1895 0.24 

December  31,  1898 0.15 

From  Annual  Reports  of  the  Edison  Electric 
Illuminating  Company 


Most  Northern  Point  of  the  Edison  System 
at  Various  Stages  of  Development 


1883  .    . 

Nassau  Street  near  Park  Row 

1889  .    . 

Fifty-ninth  Street 

1890  . 

Fifty-ninth  Street 

I89I  . 

Sixty-sixth  Street 

1892  . 

Seventy-ninth  Street 

1893  - 

Seventy-ninth  Street 

1897  - 

Eighty-seventh  Street 

1898  . 

Ninety-fifth  Street 

1902   , 

The  Bronx 

I9I2   . 

Edison  Service  in  practically  every 
Manhattan  and  the  Bronx 

street  of 

C236: 


STATISTICS 


Average  Life  of  Lamps  during  Early 
Years  of  Edison  Service 


January 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 


1884 
400  hours 


1885 
1084  hours 


523    ' 

1075   " 

349   ' 

'    1032   " 

448   ' 

1047   " 

400 

838   " 

389   ' 

939   " 

502 

1009   " 

553   ' 

924   " 

727   ' 

948   " 

730   ' 

884   " 

914   ' 

1029   " 

832   ' 

1347   " 

1886 

1227  hours 
109 1 

996 

998 
1244 

1423 
1505 

1235 
1504 

1478 
1623 
1462 


From  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating 

Company  for  1886 


The  Company  Payroll 


Week  ending 
August  24   1882 
30  years  after 
August  24   1 912 


No.  of  Total 

Employees    Annual  Payroll 

78  $71,000.80 

.       5732      $5,167,847.88 


1:237:3 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


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[240] 


STATISTICS 


Dates  of  Opening  Various  Stations 

255-257  Pearl  Street     .       .       .      , 1882 

60  Liberty  Street  (annex  station) 1886 

39th  Street-West 1888 

26th  Street 1888 

Produce  Exchange  Annex          . 1890 

Duane  Street 1891 

53d  Street 1893 

12th  Street 1895 

Bowling  Green 1896 

83d   Street 1898 

Crosby  Street 1898 

Gold  Street 1899 

I2ist  Street 1899 

Vandam  Street 1900 

Horatio  Street 1900 

84th  Street 1900 

123d  Street 1900 

140th  Street 1900 

Riverdale 1900 

Waterside  No  i 1901 

Clinton  Street 1903 

27th  Street— West 1903 

107th  Street 1904 

Water  Street 1906 

Waterside  No  2 .  1906 

39th  Street— East 1906 

60th  Street 1906 

1 6th  Street .  1907 

64th  Street 1907 

Fordham = 1909 

Gimbel  Building       » .1910 

Blackwell's  Island     . 1910 

41st  Street— West 1910 

C241;] 


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STATISTICS 


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SPRIMQ  SWITCH 


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DIAGRAM  OF  APPARATUS  FOR   LOCATING  GROUNDS  IN 
EARLY  DAYS  OF  EDISON  SERVICE 


Standard  Sizes  of  Feeders  and  Mains  for  the 
Original  First  District  System 


Size  of 

Area  of  One-Conductor 

Maximum 

Standard 

lubes 

Circular  Mils 

Current 

Outside  Diameter 

No. 

Inches 

I 

1,639,890 

1,400 

3^ 

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1,296,419 

1,100 

3i 

2 

862,976 

760 

3 

2i 

671,362 

660 

2l 

2I 

491.541 

570 

2i 

3 

262,95  I 

370 

2i 

4 

182,884 

300 

I  .09 

5 

107,289 

220 

I-3I 

6 

66,581 

170 

I-3I 

7 

33.015 

100 

1.05 

C2433 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 


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1:2453 


Electricity 

"Let  there  be  light," 
The  Wizard  cried, 
And  straight  the  night 
Was  glorified. 

While  arc  and  incandescent  blazed 
Till  all  the  world  looked  on,  amazed 
And  dazzled  by  the  splendid  light 
Which  swept  the  shadows  of  the  night 
Away 

And  turned  the  darkness  into  day; 
Lit  up  the  city, 
Flashed  its  gleams 

Along  the  pathways  of  man's  dreams 
Of  hidden  power,  that  he  might  see 
The  trail  to  untold  energy. 
Ho,  Light  and  Power, 
The  guide  and  force 
Which  measure  and  control  the  course 
Of  all  activities,  you  stand 
Twin  souls  of  progress  in  a  land 
Which  leads 

In  meeting  man's  material  needs. 
The  wayside  and  the  farm 
Have  felt  your  strength  and  charm, 
But  in  the  city,  at  the  heart 
Of  concentration,  there  your  part 


ELECTRICITY 

Means  everything;  there  you  give 

The  touch  that  makes  man  truly  live, 

And  what  you  are  today  is  nought 

Compared  with  wonders  to  be  wrought 

In  days  to  come  when  you  attain 

The  fullness  of  your  promised  gain. 

And  yet  how  young  you  are! 

How  brief  the  space 

From  weakling  to  the  giant's  place 

Where  now  you  mark 

Attainment  by  a  flashing  spark! 

Born  with  the  earth, 

There  was  no  meaning  to  your  birth 

Until  a  Wizard  wisdom  saw  and  knew 

The  destiny  of  power  in  you. 

And,  from  your  birthplace  and  your  grave, 

Raised  you,  man's  master  and  his  slave. 

How  young  you  are, 

And  yet  how  you  have  grown 

Essential  to  mankind! 

And  when  the  end  is  known. 

The  substance  and  the  mind. 

Perhaps,  no  one  now  knows, 

It  may  be  you  through  which  life's  current  flows, 

W  J  Lampton 


1:247] 


Looking  Forward 

THE  central  station  system  in  New  York  today 
stands  an  actual,  tangible  embodiment  of 
visions  realized;  and  not  the  visions  of  one 
man  alone  but  those  of  all  the  students  of  an  un- 
known force  who  have  given  their  thoughts,  ener- 
gies and  hopes,  sometimes  with  apparent  unsuccess, 
to  the  forwarding  of  electricity  on  its  mission  to 
mankind.  But  as  in  nature  everything  is  in  a  state 
of  becoming,  so  the  achievements  thus  recorded 
serve  only  as  milestones  marking  the  long  route  of 
progress. 

What,  then,  are  the  possibilities  for  the  further 
growth  of  Edison  Service?  Summed  up  in  two 
phrases  they  may  be  termed:  greater  internal  ad- 
vance, and  more  complete  general  usefulness. 

Development,  like  charity,  begins  at  home,  and  in 
order  to  respond  adequately  to  the  needs  of  a  city, 
an  industry  must  strive  always  to  keep  its  equipment 
up  to  the  highest  standard.  Now  this  equipment 
includes  not  only  machines,  but  people  and  ways  of 
dealing  with  them.  As  a  company  keeps  abreast  of 
all  inventions  for  mechanical  betterment,  adopting 
such  as  suit  its  purposes,  so  a  constant  and  under- 
standing attention  should  be  given  to  the  human 
machinery.  The  Edison  system  in  New  York  has 
in  its  history  shown  itself  to  be  already  moved  by 

[249;] 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

both  these  desires;  and  this  attitude,  long  since  be- 
come a  habit,  will  doubtless  lead  it  continuously  to 
make  use  both  of  the  newest  electrical  inventions 
and  of  the  farthest  sighted  policies  toward  those 
whom  it  employs. 

The  encouragement  of  ambition  among  its  forces 
will,  in  coming  years,  be  one  of  the  most  important 
endeavors  of  The  New  York  Edison  Company.  At 
present  in  certain  departments  record  is  kept  of  the 
work  of  each  individual,  and  an  effort  will  be 
made  to  promote  him  whenever  suitable  opportu- 
nity offers.  It  is  hoped  to  develop  this  practice: 
first,  by  arranging  educational  courses  which  will 
bear  upon  the  business  and  technical  affairs  of  the 
company;  and  second,  by  increased  personal  interest 
in  the  capabilities  of  each  employee. 

Present  engineering  practice  seems  to  point  to  the 
continued  — and  perhaps  increasing— use  of  very 
large  generating  units.  Thirty  years  have  seen  a 
growth  from  125  horse-power  "jumbos,"  considered 
enormous  in  their  day,  to  turbines  with  a  capacity  of 
30,000.  This  means  that  the  largest  generators  of 
the  Edison  system  today  are  two  hundred  and  forty 
times  as  powerful  as  those  installed  in  1882,  and 
something  more  than  eight  times  as  powerful  as  the 
biggest  employed  when  the  first  Waterside  station 
was  opened.  While  it  is  perhaps  impossible  to 
calculate  the  rate  of  future  growth,  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  generating  units  have  by  no  means 
reached  the  limit  of  their  capacity  and  to  predict 
more  marvels  in  this  direction. 

Having  thus  touched  on  tendencies,  already  mani- 

1:2503 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

fest,  which  are  leading  to  an  even  bigger  central 
station  system  efficient  in  all  its  parts,  harmonious 
and  well-knit,  what  are  the  services  which  it  will  be 
able  to  perform  for  the  community?  Do  they  not 
consist  in  the  enlargement  and  completion  of  those 
it  carries  on  today? 

Here  it  will  be  well  to  recall  for  a  moment  a  prin- 
ciple to  which  this  organization  has  adhered  ever 
since  the  opening  of  the  old  Pearl  Street  station. 
This  is  the  matter  of  cooperation  with  all  public 
authorities.  When  electric  illumination  was  new, 
it  was  the  custom  of  the  First  District  office  to  report 
to  the  Board  of  Fire  Underwriters  all  methods 
found  to  be  dangerous,  and  to  seek  with  this  board 
to  insure  safety  in  every  way.  The  company's  pres- 
ent policy  of  hearty  cooperation  with  city  and  state 
officials  and  with  the  Public  Service  Commission, 
will  be  carried  into  the  future,  favoring  always  the 
voluntary  reduction  of  rates  whenever  conditions 
warrant  this  step.  Today,  for  any  given  amount  of 
current  purchased,  customers  get  fully  three  times 
as  much  light  as  they  did  in  1882.  But  Edison  him- 
self is  of  the  opinion  that  a  time  is  coming  when,  by 
still  further  improvement  in  lamp  manufacture,  cur- 
rent will  be  made  to  yield  ten  times  as  much  light 
as  formerly. 

To  suggest  in  outline  what  Edison  Service  may 
accomplish,  it  is  only  necessary  to  consider  once 
again  the  skyscraper,  the  factory  and  the  home  as 
representing  three  great  branches  of  interest  to  all 
New  York's  inhabitants.  The  skyscraper  may  be 
used   figuratively  to  embody  commercialism;   the 


A   GLIMl'SE   OF   THE   OLD    GRAND   CENTRAL   STATION 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


11252] 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

factory,  industrialism;  and  the  home,  all  the  per- 
sonal and  intimate  relations  of  life. 

In  all  three  of  these  departments  it  will  be  the 
province  of  electric  supply  to  lessen  drudgery  and  to 
promote  health  and  safety.  Separate  plants  will 
grow  less  numerous  because  of  the  impracticability 
of  maintaining  them  in  the  face  of  increasing  land 
values,  and  because  it  will  be  found  safer  not  to 
place  high-pressure  steam-boilers  in  the  basements 
of  buildings  housing  many  hundreds  of  people.  In 
the  business  office,  current  will  be  used  for  mathe- 
matical calculations,  dictation,  drafting  and  for 
many  other  tasks  which  would  otherwise  take  human 
time  and  energy.  An  indirect  result  will  be  the  mak- 
ing of  bookkeepers'  and  stenographers'  work  less 
monotonous. 

In  factories,  electricity  will  do  away  to  a  large 
extent  with  dust  and  dirt,  and  the  use  of  direct  con- 
nected units  will  bring  back  somewhat  of  the  per- 
sonal element,  since  the  "hand"  will  have  control 
and  understanding  of  his  own  machine.  Reduction 
of  noise,  improvement  of  ventilation,  prevention  of 
accident,  and  possibility  of  more  attractive  sur- 
roundings will  do  much  to  make  life  pleasanter  for 
the  thousands  of  men  and  women  who  provide  the 
markets  with  commodities. 

Acting  as  a  connecting  link  between  the  factory 
and  the  office  and  serving  the  home  as  well,  the  elec- 
tric vehicle  will  become  a  more  and  more  important 
item  in  New  York  life.  Its  recent  strides  into  public 
favor  have  been  described  elsewhere,  and  as  to  its 
future  usefulness,  Edison  himself  has  spoken.    In  an 

C2S3:] 


THE   ELEVATED 

A  lithograph  by  Joseph  Pennell 


1:2543 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

article  for  Popular  Electricity  in  June  1910,  he 
said: 

''There  is  absolutely  no  reason  why  horses  should 
be  allowed  within  city  limits;  for  between  the  gaso- 
lene and  the  electric  car,  no  room  is  left  for  them. 
They  are  not  needed.  The  cow  and  the  pig  have 
gone,  and  the  horse  is  still  more  undesirable.  A 
higher  public  ideal  of  health  and  cleanliness  is 
working  toward  such  banishment  very  swiftly.  .  .  . 
Many  people  now  charge  their  own  batteries  because 
of  lack  of  facilities;  but  I  believe  central  stations 
will  find  in  this  work  very  soon  the  largest  part  of 
their  load.  The  New  York  Edison  Company,  or  the 
Chicago  Edison  Company,  should  have  as  much 
current  going  out  for  storage  batteries  as  for  power 
motors ;  and  it  will  be  so  some  near  day." 

An  indication  that  central  station  service  is  des- 
tined to  supply  current  for  other  forms  of  transpor- 
tation, is  already  at  hand.  This  is  furnished  by  the 
fact  that  during  the  past  summer  the  Third  Avenue 
Railway  Company  drew  up  a  contract  under  which 
The  New  York  Edison  Company  took  over  the 
former's  power  plant  at  Kingsbridge.  It  thus  be- 
came part  of  the  central  station  system  which,  in 
return,  supplies  for  the  propulsion  of  street  cars 
a  30,000  kilowatt  load.  Although  the  Kingsbridge 
station  was  in  excellent  condition  and  had  been  well 
conducted,  the  railway  company  has  deemed  it  best 
to  confine  itself  to  the  transportation  problem,  leav- 
ing the  manufacture  of  power  to  those  who  are 
specialists  in  that  undertaking.  This  plan,  which 
went  into  action  in  October  of  191 2,  probably  not 


THIRTY  YEARS  OF  NEW  YORK 

only  foretells  the  coming  of  a  time  when  car  lines 
and  subways  will  cease  to  make  their  own  current, 
but  also  foreshadows  the  arrival  of  an  era  when 
every  industry  and  interest  of  the  city  will  depend 
upon  one  great  central  station  for  its  electric  energy. 

In  the  home,  also,  electricity  finds  a  rich  field,  for 
possibilities  in  this  direction  are  only  just  beginning 
to  be  realized.  When  the  day  arrives  that  every 
housekeeper  can  bring  central  station  service  to  her 
aid  in  many  tasks,  then  the  conduct  of  the  home  will 
become  a  kind  of  domestic  engineering.  Women 
w^ill  be  less  unwilling  to  enroll  themselves  as  cooks, 
laundresses  or  housemaids  for  their  calling  will 
stand  on  a  different  plane;  and  housework,  one  of 
the  oldest,  most  necessary— and  therefore  most  hon- 
orable—of occupations  will  come  into  its  own. 

This,  however,  by  no  means  exhausts  the  account- 
ing of  useful  and  humane  purposes  to  which  elec- 
tricity may  be  put  as  time  goes  by,  for  to  do  so  in  the 
space  of  a  few  concluding  pages  would  be  impossi- 
ble. But  it  serves  to  show  that  in  the  New  York  of 
the  future  the  central  station  will  help  in  a  measure 
to  lessen  men's  burdens,  to  make  lives  happier  and 
to  dignify  all  forms  of  labor. 


[256] 


HIGH   BRIDGE 

Drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 


C257] 


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Index  to  Illustrations 


Waterside  from  the  Opposite  Shore     .       .       .       drawn  by 

Joseph   Pennell  .  .  . Frontispiece 

PAGE 

New  York  about  1880   .    .    from  an  engraving  ....        4 
The  Streets    .    .    a  cartoon  from  Harper  s  Weekly,  1 880     .        6 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

A  Chapter  of  Headers    .    .    Scribne/s  Monthly,  now   The 
Century  Magazine,   1 880 8 

By  permission  of  The  Century  Company 

"Othello's  occupation  gone"    .    .    Scribner's  Monthly,  now 
The  Century  Magazine,  1880 9 

By  permission  of  The  Century  Company 

Bonfires  on  Election  Night    .    .    Leslie's  Weekly,  i^^o  .       .      10 

By  permission  of  the  LesHe-Judge  Company 

A  Saloon  in  Bottle  Alley   .    .   sketch  by  C  A  Keetles,  Har- 
per's Weekly,  1880 12 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

Proposed  Arcade  Railway  under  Broadway,  1870   .    .    from 
a  lithograph  at  the  New  York  Public  Library       .      .      .14 

New  York  from  Brooklyn  Heights   .    .  Nueva   York  Ilus- 
trada,  1886 16 

By  permission  of  D  Appleton  &  Company 

Our  Street  Commissioners   .    .   a  cartoon  by  Wopsey,  Har- 
per's Weekly,  1880 1 7 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

Broadway  with  Proposed  Elevated  Railway,  1848    .    .    from 
a  lithograph  at  the  New  York  Public  Library       .      .      .18 

How  Horses  Are  Abused    .    .   sketches  by  Thomas  Worth, 
Harper's  Weekly,  1880 20 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

Printing  House  Square,  1864-65    .    .    from  a  lithograph  at 
the  New  York  Public  Library 24 

Edison's  Home  at  Menlo  Park   .    .   a  sketch  by  Theodore 

R  Davis,  Harper's  Weekly,  1 880 26 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 


1:259;] 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Broadway  near  St  Paul's  Church   .    .      Nueva   York   Ilus- 
trada,   1886 29 

By  permission  of  D  Appleton  &  Company 

The  Dynamo  Room  at  257  Pearl  Street    ,    .    from  The  Sci- 
entific American,  1882 30 

A  Photograph  of  Thomas  A  Edison,  1882    .    .    furnished 

by  Mr  W  H  Meadowcroft 34 

Regulators  at  the  Old  Pearl  Street  Station    .    .    from  a 

woodcut,  1882  or  1883 36 

Bank  of  a  Thousand  Lamps  at  the  Pearl  Street  Station 

from  a  woodcut,  1882  or  1883 37 

An  Autograph  Note  of  Thomas  A  Edison   .    .    from  the 

Scrap  Book  of  Dr  S  S  Wheeler 43 

Rush  Hours    .    .    a  cartoon  by  Thomas  Nast,  Harper's 

Bazaar  about  1882 46 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

A  Proposed  Central  Station    .    .   Scribner's  Monthly,  now 

The  Century  Magazine,  1 880 49 

By  permission  of  The  Century  Company 

An  Early  Arc  Lamp  for  a  Table    .    .   Scribner's  Monthly, 

now  The  Century  Magazine,  1878 52 

By  permission  of  The  Century  Company 

The  First  Skyscraper  and  Its  Taller  Neighbors   .    .    drawn 
by  Joseph  Pennell 57 

Manhattan  Bridge  in  Course  of  Construction   .    .    drawn 

by  Joseph  Pennell 58 

The  Terminal  Building   .    .    drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell  .      .      60 

Night  Work  on  a  Skyscraper    .    .    drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell     64 

West  Street    .    .    drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 67 

The  Singer  Building  from  Brooklyn  Heights    .    .    drawn  by 
Joseph   Pennell 09 

Along  the  New  York  Waterfront    .    .    drawn  by  Vernon 

Howe  Bailey 70 

East  River   .    .   an  etching  by  H  Farber,  Harper's 

Weekly,    1880     •      •      • 72 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

1:260:] 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


The  New  Farmers'  Market   .    .   sketch  by  C  A  Keetles,  in 
Harpers  Weekly,   1880 74 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

The  Goal  of  the  Immigrant facing     76 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Removal  of  the  Obelisk  from  the  Foot  of  96th  Street,  Les- 
lie's Weekly,   1880 78 

By  permission  of  the  Leslie-Judge  Company 

A  Newspaper  Press-Room    .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe 

Bailey 81 

An  Old  Factory   .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey    .      .  83 

Building  the  Skyscraper   .    .    drawn  by  E  Horter     ...  84 

Riverside  Drive   .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey     .      .  89 

The  Mall,  Central  Park   .    .   Nueva  York  Ilustrada,  1886  91 

By  permission  of  D  Appleton  &  Company 

A  Skating  Party  on  Central  Park  Lake   .    .    drawn  by  A  B 
Frost,  Harper's  Weekly,  1880 92 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

At  Manhattan  Beach    .    .   Nueva  York  Ilustrada,  1886       .      94 

By  permission  of  D  Appleton  &  Company 

The  Charms  of  Brighton  Beach  in  the  Eighties   .    .   Nueva 
York  Ilustrada.  1886 95 

By  permission  of  D  Appleton  &  Company 

Christmas  at  the  Five  Points  House  of  Industry   .    .    drawn 
by  W  T  Smedley  in  Harper's  Weekly,  1 880    ....      97 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

The  Passing  of  the  Brownstone  Front   .    .    drawn  by 

Vernon  Howe  Bailey 98 

The  Metropolitan  Tower facing   loi 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

In  New  York's  Old  Business  District   .    .    drawn  by 

Vernon   Howe  Bailey 103 

Lower  New  York  at  Twilight facing   105 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Old  Greenwich  Village    .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey   107 

"New  York  in  a  Few  Years  from  Now"    .    .   a  cartoon  by 
T\\om^.s^^.st  irom  Harper's  Weekly,  i^^i     .      .      .      .110 

By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers 

[;26i] 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Light  and  Shade  on  the  East  River facing   112 

Photographic  I'.ureau,  The  Xew  York  Edison  Company 

A  Gala  Night  in  City  Hall  Park facing   115 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Waterside  Illuminated  for  the  Hudson-Fulton  Celebra- 
tion      facing   1 1 7 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Waterside    .    .    from  a  painting  by  Guy  C  Wiggins       .      .120 

The  Metropolitan  and  IMadison  Square  Towers 

sketched  by  Louis  Fancher 123 

Waterside.    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey    .      .      .      .126 

A  ^listy  Morning   .    .    drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell      .      .      .129 

A  Night  Scene  from  Metropolitan  Tower  during  the 

Hudson-Fulton  Celebration facing   135 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

The  Operating  Room  of  Waterside  No  2    .    .    drawn  by 

Vernon  Howe  Bailey 140 

The  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument    .    .    Lighted  to  Wel- 
come the  Fleet facing   141 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Night  Along  the  River  Front facing   143 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

A  Substation    .    .    drawn  by  Norman  Price 144 

Moonlight  and  Snow — Looking  North  from  the  Liberty 

Tower facing   147 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Plan  of  New  York,  showing  the  Supplying  Mains  of  The 
New  York  Edison  Company 149 

The  Edison  Underground  System  in  1883 152 

Fifth  Avenue  from  21st  Street    .    .    Nueva  York  Ilustrada, 
1886         155 

By  permission  of  D  Appleton  &  Company 

A  Subway  Shaft  on  Broadway   .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe 
Bailey I59 

The  City  and  Three  of  its  Bridges facing   163 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

The  Bowery   .    .   drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 166 

[;262:] 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Fourth  Avenue  and  23rd  Street    .    .    Niieva  York  Ilustrada, 
1886         170 

By  permission  of  D  Appleton  &  Company 

The  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument       ....    facing   172 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Court  of  Honor — the  Hudson-Fulton  Celebration  .    facing   175 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Mr  Edison  examining  a  New  Electrical  Protecting  Device   178 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Fifth  Avenue  at  Night    .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey   180 
Broadway,  looking  towards  the  Times  Tower     .       .    facing   182 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Another  View  of  Mr   Edison  examining  the  New  Protective 
Devices  at  the  Offices  of  The  New  York  Edison  Company  185 

Photographic  Bureau,  7'lie  New  York  Edison  Company 

Fireworks  at  the  Opening   of  the  Hudson-Fulton  Celebra- 
tion      facing   186 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

The  Lights  of  Broadway    .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe 

Bailey 189 

The  Bishop's  Crook ig6 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Trimming  a  Lamp 199 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Erecting  a  Lamp  Post 200 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

A  Mast  Arm  Post 201 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

The  Washington  Arch facing  204 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

A  Study  in  Reflections facing  209 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Riverside  Drive  Illuminated  for  the  Fleet     .       .       .    facing  213 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

Thomas  A  Edison 216 

Everybody's  Christmas  Tree   .......    facing  221 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 

The  Library  of  The  New  York  Edison  Company    .    . 

drawn  by  Vernon  Howe  Bailey 222 

The  Edison  Auditorium    .    .    drawn  by  Vernon  Howe 

Bailey 225 

1:263:] 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Charts: — 

Chart  Showing  Grouth  in  50-Watt  Equivalents        .      .      .231 

Chart  Shoiving  Maximum  Rate  for  Current  Supply,  1884- 
igi2         234 

Chart  Showing  Increase  in  Number  of  Customers     .      .      .    235 

Chart  Showing  Increase  in  Incandescent  Lamps  ....    238 

Chart  Showing  Increase  in  Horse-Poiver  of  Motors  .       .       .    239 

Chart  Showing  Grouth  of  Storage  Battery  and  Heating  In- 
stallations        240 

Diagram  of  Apparatus  for  Locating  Grounds      ....    243 

A  Glimpse  of  the  Old  Grand  Central  Station    .    .    drawn 
by  Joseph  Pennell 252 

The  Elevated    .    .    a  lithograph  by  Joseph  Pennell  .      .      .    254 

High  Bridge   .    .    drawn  by  Joseph  Pennell 257 

Light  Invincible preceding  259 

Photographic  Bureau,  The  New  York  Edison  Company 


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