Public Welfare Service 
 
 Bulletin No. 2 
 
 (Third Edition) 
 
 ny ait tY-QF TH: 
 ey ea 
 
 } 1937 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 SrecrRieity 
 
 Its Process of Manufacture and Distribution 
 Pictured in Simple Language 
 
 For Use of School Students, English and 
 Current Topics Classes and Debating Clubs 
 
 Issued by 
 ILLINOIS COMMITTEE on PUBLIC UTILITY INFORMATION 
 125 South Clark Street - - - Chicago, Illinois 
 
ELECTRICITY — Zhe Giant Energy 
 
 Introductory: 
 
 Electricity has been called the giant energy. 
 Within the memory of men now living it has 
 revolutionized the world. It has made possible, 
 within half a century, greater progress than in 
 all the 500,000 years of history which preceded it 
 and which science gives to the career of man on 
 earth. 
 
 Man has learned to harness, distribute and util- 
 ize this secret power for day and night service 
 throughout the civilized world. It has banished 
 darkness, lightened the burden of the housewife 
 and become the silent partner of industry. 
 
 The story of the development of the use of 
 electricity is a fascinating recital. It is a story 
 of progress. Electricity has brought about @ rev- 
 olution in industry, for it has enabled one man to 
 do the work of many men, and made possible 
 huge production in our factories, rapid transpor- 
 tation and better living conditions in our homes. 
 It has built our great cities and industrial centers. 
 It has torn away the barriers of time and distance 
 and made all men neighbors. 
 
 Your Thirty Slaves’: 
 
 The Smithsonian Institution has figured that 
 if all our machinery operated by electrical and 
 steam power should be taken away, it would re- 
 quire the services of 3,000,000,000 hard-working 
 slaves to duplicate the work done in America. 
 In other words, the use of power and machinery 
 gives to every man, woman and child in our coun- 
 try the equivalent of 30 slaves, or the average 
 family of five has 150 “slaves” working for it. 
 
 But instead of this army-of slaves we have 
 electricity working for us at a “wage” so small 
 as to bring its services within reach of the poorest 
 man’s pocketbook; a sum so small as would not 
 even pay for what a servant would eat. 
 
 Push a button and our homes are illuminated 
 as by the midday sun; an electric vacuum cleaner 
 starts banishing dirt and dust; electric washing 
 machines and irons are helping with the house- 
 work; an electric fan starts giving cooling 
 breezes or an electric heater gives forth warmth; 
 an electric range is ready for the cooking of a 
 meal; the electric refrigerator starts generating 
 ice, or the countless other labor saving devices 
 are in action. 
 
 Electricity rings the door bell, or it tows a ship 
 through the Panama Canal, lifts a great bridge, 
 pulls a train over the mountains, increases the 
 efficiency of a modern factory by providing vastly 
 increased and better direct illumination and by 
 supplying a more efficient and easily controlled 
 
 motive power. It milks the cows of the farmer, 
 chops his feed and does a multitude of other 
 things. It lights the home, the store and the 
 factory. It provides the light by which the sur- 
 geon in the hospital performs his operations. It 
 has been made available, at any hour day or 
 night, through the tremendous efforts of the na- 
 tion’s electrical utility companies. 
 
 Yet it was only a short time ago—less than 50 
 years—that even the richest kings had none of 
 the commonplace things which brighten the lives 
 oi the poorest American today. 
 
 The Great Minds of Electricity: 
 
 Many great minds have contributed to the de- 
 velopment of the present-day electric central-sta- 
 tion systems through which our electricity is 
 provided. If only one name were to be men- 
 tioned, it would undoubtedly be that of Thomas 
 A. Edison. But before Edison, with his marvel- 
 ous inventions, and contemporary with him a 
 host of other electrical scientists and inventors 
 have contributed their part. 
 
 Such men as Dr. William Gilbert, Benjamin 
 Franklin, Luigi Galvani, Alesandro Volto, Sir 
 Humphry Davy, H. C. Oersted, A. M. Ampere, 
 G. S. Ohm, Charles Wheatstone, Michael Fara- 
 day, Joseph Henry, Z. T. Gramme, J. C. Max- 
 well, A. Pacinotti, S. Z. deFerranti, Werner von 
 Siemens, Lord Kelvin and many others did very 
 important work. 
 
 Early Inventions: 
 
 Although the electric light and power business, 
 as we know it today, is a development of com- 
 paratively recent origin, the foundations for it 
 were laid by early experimenters in the Seven- 
 teenth and Eighteenth centuries. Back in 1600, 
 Dr. Gilbert, an English physician, conducted 
 numerous experiments and made many important 
 discoveries, but it was nearly a century and a half 
 later before any great progress was made by 
 
 others who studied the subject. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin’s demonstration by his fa- 
 mous kite experiment in 1752, proving that light- 
 ning is an electrical phenomenon, is well known. 
 About 1790, Galvani discovered a current of elec- 
 tricity. Up to that time electricity had been de- 
 veloped only by friction. Volta developed the 
 electric battery in 1800. Oersted of Copenhagen 
 discovered in 1820 the magnetic effect of électric 
 current. This paved the way for the later devel- 
 opments of electrical machinery. Michael Fara- 
 day of England discovered in 1831 the basic prin- 
 ciples on which dynamo electric machines are 
 
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 ty 4 designed. Many other scientists and inventors 
 
 Af DP itxr at Dh/ 
 
 made important discoveries during the early part 
 of the Nineteenth century. 
 
 The telegraph was the first great electrical in- 
 vention. It was invented by Morse in 1837. Elec- 
 tro plating was perfected about the same time. 
 The electric motor was developed about 1873. 
 
 The First Central Station: 
 
 Development of the electrical industry, how- 
 ever, really dates from Sept. 4, 1882, the day on 
 which there was opened in New York city, the 
 first central: electricity generating station in the 
 world. This plant, known as the Pearl street sta- 
 tion, furnished electricity for lighting in a re- 
 stricted territory in downtown Manhattan. 
 
 Edison had invented the electric light three 
 years previously on Oct. 21, 1879, but until the 
 opening of the Pearl street station, it was little 
 more than a display or a curiosity. There were 
 also in various parts of the country a few isolated 
 electric light plants supplying individual custom- 
 ers. The inauguration of service from Pearl 
 street, however, marked a new epoch, because it 
 was the pioneer of the modern electric generating 
 and distribution systems. From the plan origin- 
 ally conceived by Edison, practically all electrical 
 energy in the United States today is generated 
 
 and distributed by central station companies. 
 
 take residential lighting service. 
 
 The first central station only four decades ago 
 served 59 customers. Today the electrical in- 
 dustry has expanded to 5,654 operating com- 
 panies, serving approximately 15,000 communi- 
 ties and 12,206,590 customers, of whom 9,676,330 
 ‘The number of 
 customers of electric light and power companies 
 in the United States doubled in the six years 
 from 1909 to 1915, and doubled again in the next 
 six years from 1915 to 1921. The increase today 
 is at the rate of more than 1,400,000 a year. 
 
 The Pearl Street station had six generators 
 with a total generating capacity of 559.5 kilo- 
 watts. The generating capacity of all plants in 
 the United States at the beginning of 1923 was 
 
 17,404,000 kilowatts or approximately 22,205,000 
 
 horse power. 
 
 The output of electricity in 1922 set a new high 
 record, the total being 47,612,194,000 kilowatt 
 hours, according to reports of the U. S. Geological 
 Survey. The Commonwealth Edison Company, 
 which serves Chicago, in 1922 had an output of 
 2,225,442,875 kilowatt hours, the largest produc- 
 
 . tion of any steam central station company in the 
 
 world. An illustration of the rapid development 
 of the electrical industry is shown by the fact 
 that the Commonwealth Edison Company had a 
 generating capacity of only about 640 kilowatts 
 in 1888. In 1923 it was over 700,000 kilowatts. 
 Today the electric light and power industry 
 represents an investment of approximately $5,- 
 100,000,000, and about $750,000,000 is spent an- 
 nually for new plants and extensions to meet the 
 ever-increasing demands for service. The gross 
 revenue of the electric light and power companies 
 
 of the country in 1922 was $1,084,000,000. The 
 industry is owned by over 1,750,000 men and 
 women investors, as well as banks, insurance 
 companies and others, their money providing 
 funds for building the great system whose serv- 
 ices are available to all of the people. 
 
 W here Electricity Comes From: 
 
 The public obtains its electrical energy, which 
 we have been picturing, from central generating 
 plants or “Central Stations” as they are called, 
 where electricity can be produced in large quan- 
 tities and sent out from advantageously located 
 centers to supply the needs of the people—to 
 make their lamps burn, to operate their factory 
 machines, to make street cars and interurban cars 
 go, to supply the electric flat irons and the elec- 
 tric fans, and for all the thousands of uses for 
 which electricity is employed. 
 
 Electricity can be produced most economically 
 by the use of large generating units, and it can 
 also be transmitted and distributed to the great- 
 est advantage if all the electrical needs of a large 
 community or a number of small communities 
 are supplied from one common system of wires. 
 Therefore, the modern tendency is for the small 
 individual community central station of earlier 
 years to disappear, being replaced by the sub- 
 stations (or local distributing stations) of large 
 systems, giving the smaller towns the benefits 
 and economies of the great system. 
 
 There are two kinds of electricity made and 
 distributed by a central station—“direct” and 
 “alternating.” Direct, or continuous current, 
 constantly flows in one direction. This kind of 
 current, because it cannot be sent any great dis- 
 tance, is used largely in the congested centers of 
 populous cities. Alternating current flows first 
 in one direction, then reverses, but so fast that 
 the changes cannot be detected in an electric 
 light by the naked eye. Alternating current can 
 be sent, economically, hundreds of miles, and 
 therefore, is now used almost universally. 
 
 How Electricity Is Made Available: 
 
 Electricity is produced from some form of heat 
 energy, as that obtained by the combustion of 
 coal, oil, gas or wood; from some form of 
 mechanical energy like that of falling water 
 
 _or (to a slight extent) wind power, or from 
 
 chemical energy, as in batteries. In the case of 
 waterpower plants the momentum of the falling 
 water is used to turn waterwheels which in turn 
 operate electric generators. The water may be 
 comparatively small in amount, but of great 
 velocity or it may be of low pressure and of 
 much volume, or of any combination of. these 
 characteristics. 
 
 In the case of the familiar central station pro- 
 ducing electrical energy from steam derived from 
 the burning of coal we first see long trains of 
 sometimes more than a hundred coal cars deliver- 
 
ing the fuel from the mines of Central Illinois to 
 the premises of the central station. (But elec- 
 tric generating plants are sometimes built right 
 at the coal mine in Illinois and other states.) 
 Here the coal is handled by various forms of 
 mechanical conveyors and crushers, themselves 
 run by electricity, and delivered to the automatic 
 stokers of the furnaces without being touched 
 by human hands. (See “A,” in illustration.) 
 The other raw material (assuming that brains, 
 labor and capital are not raw materials) is water, 
 and it is delivered to the boilers, the steam pro- 
 duced by the application of the heat of the burn- 
 ing coal being led through pipes to steam tur- 
 bines, where its expansive force and impact are 
 used to turn the shafts of electric generators (B). 
 
 The Turbine: 
 
 The principle of the steam turbine is very 
 simple. It is practically the same as the water 
 turbine, and the water turbine is nothing but 
 an elaborated water wheel. The latter receives 
 its power from water pressure of rivers or reser- 
 voirs of water stored so that when the water 
 flows it strikes the blades of the wheel, rotating 
 it and producing power. In like manner steam 
 generated in a central station by boilers is forced 
 against the blades of a steam turbine which 
 rotates from this impact, perhaps 1,800 times a 
 minute, and produces power. To these turbines 
 “electric machines” or generators, as we now 
 call them, are usually attached direct to the shaft 
 without the use of belts. 
 
 The energy we have pictured as being created 
 in a central generating station so far is mechani- 
 cal energy and not electrical, but right here, be- 
 tween the turbine and the generator, the trans- 
 formation takes place. The power that goes into 
 the turbine as mechanical energy is taken from 
 
 GENERATION 
 
 4 Robes 
 LAG 
 
 DIAGRAM 
 
 TRANSMISSION 
 
 the generator at the other end of the shaft as 
 electrical energy. 
 
 In spite of the enormous power locked up in 
 a modern generator, the principle of its work 
 is founded on very simple laws. Early experi- 
 ments by the famous Faraday (born in England, 
 1791) marked the beginning of the electric 
 generator, and the same laws that Faraday 
 worked out are applied to the making of the huge 
 generators of today, nothing of importance havy- 
 ing been added except elaboration of machinery. 
 Faraday first took a coil of wire and a magnet. 
 Each time the magnet was thrust into the coil 
 its magnetism was found to cause a flow of 
 electricity in the coil, as shown by a compass 
 near the coil of wire. The same phenomenon 
 takes place when a generator rotates. A large 
 magnet and several coils of wire connected in a 
 circuit do the same work, only thousands of 
 times more effectively. So long as the generator 
 and turbine rotate a flow of electricity will be 
 generated. In fact, nowadays the turbine and 
 the generator are so closely related that they are 
 made by manufacturers in one machine known 
 as a turbo-generator. 
 
 The electricity which comes from the genera- 
 tors is so powerful that it must be very care- 
 fully controlled. This is accomplished by means 
 of various copper switching devices (C). Copper 
 is used because it is one of the best conductors 
 of electricity, and relatively cheap. The energy 
 is often raised to a high pressure because at high 
 pressures electricity can be transmitted over long 
 distances by use of comparatively small copper 
 wires. Electrical energy from the power house 
 is thus often sent great distances over “trans- 
 mission lines” of poles and wires—the great 
 arteries of the electrical system—to the place 
 where it is required. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION 
 
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The Transformer: 
 
 Now, before the electricity which these trans- 
 mission lines carry may be put to practical use 
 as light or power, the pressure must be greatly 
 reduced. A device known as a transformer is 
 used to accomplish this. Transformers may be 
 used in two ways—they can either “step” the 
 pressure up, or reduce the pressure. Sometimes 
 huge transformers, (D), are used in “sub-sta- 
 tions” from which energy is distributed to Jarge 
 sections of a city or to small towns, but the trans- 
 formers which are a familiar sight on poles in 
 streets or alleys, (E), finally reduce the pressure 
 to a safe point for domestic use and send it into 
 the dozen or more houses in the midst of which 
 the transformer is located. 
 
 The Basic Laws of Electrical Energy: 
 
 Something very interesting takes place within 
 the transformer and if our eyes could see elec- 
 tricity we should see a remarkable phenomenon 
 going on all the time in each one of these little 
 iron boxes. We have already noted above, in 
 connection with the generator, that when a piece 
 of magnetized iron was moved through a coil of 
 wire electricity was produced. Early experi- 
 menters found another trust which naturally 
 followed: viz., that when electricity flowed 
 through a coil of wire around a piece of iron 
 magnetism was produced in the iron. These 
 two principles taken together illustrate how a 
 transformer works. Suppose we think of elec- 
 trical energy as it travels from the power sta- 
 tion along transmission lines into the transformer 
 box. There it runs into a coil of wire which 
 surrounds a piece of iron. The electricity in the 
 coil magnetizes the iron and the magnetized iron 
 in its turn produces electricity in another coil, 
 which is around the magnet but entirely separ- 
 ate from the first coil. The more wires in either 
 of these two coils the more pressure we have, 
 therefore, if one coil has ten times as many wires 
 as the other or “secondary” coil, the pressure at 
 the other side of the transformer will be reduced 
 to one-tenth of what it was when it entered it. 
 
 From the other side of the transformer elec- 
 tricity is led at low pressure into the house or 
 factory through a service switch where it can 
 be turned on or off, and then through a meter, 
 which measures the current. After that it is 
 available for toasters, irons and the dozens of 
 other household uses. In the case of the large 
 neighborhood sub-stations, power taken from the 
 secondary side of the large transformers may be 
 used to operate street railways or street lighting 
 circuits. 
 
 How Electricity Has Revolutionized 
 
 Industry: 
 
 Electricity has made America machineland. 
 There are no less than 3,000 uses for electricity. 
 Most of them are in industry, but the use of elec- 
 tricity for power, as well as for lighting and heat- 
 ing, in the home is growing steadily. 
 
 Striking progress in the electrification of Amer- 
 ican industry is shown in a recent report of the 
 U. S. Bureau of the Census which has just tab- 
 ulated the results of its 1919 census of manu- 
 facturers. This report shows that at the end of 
 that year there were 1,483,039 electrical motors in 
 use in the factories of the United States. This is 
 nearly twice the number in use only five years 
 previously. 
 
 The total horse-power rating of these motors 
 was 16,317,383 or nearly double the total horse- 
 power rating of the motors five years before. Of 
 the primary power used in manufacturing in the 
 United States 64.4 per cent is electrical. 
 
 On January 1, 1922, industrial motors served 
 by central station electric companies numbered 
 1,759,300. They had a rating oi 19,561,200 horse 
 
 power. 
 
 While the use of electrical energy for driving 
 motors is the most common use of electricity in 
 industry, aside from illumination, it is being 
 used more and more for generating heat and 
 bringing about chemical reactions in many manu- 
 facturing processes. 
 
 In the latter field electricity has a wide use in 
 electro-chemistry, a department of industrial en- 
 deavor with which most people are not familiar. 
 In electro-chemistry, electricity is used to break 
 down, build up, cover, uncover, separate and 
 blend. Some remarkable accomplishments result. 
 
 These are probably better understood by refer- 
 ence to the experiment conducted in school lab- 
 oratories of reducing water to its component 
 parts, hydrogen and oxygen, by passing an elec- 
 tric current through it. That is an example of 
 breaking down. Electro-plating is an example of 
 the building up process. In electro-plating, cop- 
 per plates are immersed in a solution of silver 
 nitrate and by! passing current through the solu- 
 tion, silver is deposited on one of the plates. 
 
 There are many other reactions brought about 
 by electricity on a large scale which are the basis 
 of the electro-chemistry industry. Eighty per 
 cent of the copper produced in the United States 
 is separated from the ore by electricity. Gold 
 and silver are separated from ore in the same 
 way. Aluminum, nickel and silver are “recov- 
 ered” from ore and waste. Almost all gold jew- 
 elry is gilded by electrolysis. 
 
 Many bakeries are electrified. In some of them 
 the entire process of baking bread is mechanical. 
 Flour is received by electric conveyors and me- 
 chanically sifted, blended and mixed. The dough 
 is cut into loaf sizes by electric machines and put 
 into ovens. Electric machines wrap and seal the 
 bread after it is baked and electric trucks deliver 
 it to the grocer and the individual customer. 
 
 Electricity has increased the speed of opera- 
 tions in the foundry business. Giant magnetic 
 cranes lift heavy materials and place them where 
 needed. The “skull cracker,” or giant ball, used 
 to smash up scrap by being dropped on it and 
 raised by a magnet, has cut down the time re- 
 quired for this important operation. 
 
Use of electricity for smelting ore is a compara- 
 tively recent development. Making of “electric 
 steel” is a fast-growing industry. The number 
 of electric furnaces has increased rapidly. In 
 1914, 25,000 tons of “electric steel” was produced. 
 The production five years later in 1919 was 
 1,150,000 tons. 
 
 By using electricity, vanadium and chrome— 
 new kinds of steel—were produced. These are 
 used for automobile and airplane parts and for 
 castings where a perfect texture is necessary. 
 Electric steel is also used in making tools such as 
 drilling bits which must stand hard wear. 
 
 Electric heat is being applied to iron, nickel, 
 copper, silver, brass and bronze and other non- 
 ferrous metals. Electric furnaces produce such 
 electro-chemical “mysteries” as ferro manganese, 
 silican, tungsten, molybdenum, chromium and 
 titanium, abrasive materials such as carborun- 
 dum and alaxite, magnesite, dolomite and calcite. 
 
 The great development of the future will prob- 
 ably be electrification of the railroads. The ex- 
 perimental stage of electrification of the railroads 
 seems to be past. The terminals of several im- 
 portant railroads have been electrified in certain 
 cities and in Montana a railroad has electrified 
 its lines across the mountains for several hundred 
 miles. Four thousand ton trains go up and down 
 heavy mountain grades under perfect control at 
 speeds never known before and with a regularity 
 that leaves no doubt as to the practicability of 
 electrification. The big obstacle in the way of 
 railroad electrification at present, however, is its 
 cost, but once the railroads have proper credit so 
 they can induce investors to provide the enor- 
 mous sums necessary for this improvement, great 
 savings will be made in the nation’s coal re- 
 sources and railroad travel will be clean and more 
 rapid than it is today. 
 
 What an Electrical Map of the 
 U.S. A. Would Look Like: 
 
 Ii one could see, upon a map of the United 
 States, outlines of systems for generating, trans- 
 mitting and distributing electricity the impres- 
 sion would be something like a number of in- 
 ter-connected spider-webs, each large generating 
 station being the center of its own web. Each 
 system may have several generating stations, the 
 whole network being tied together in such a way 
 that the breakdown of a machine in one generat- 
 ‘ing station or the failure of a sub-station would 
 not, usually, mean loss of service to the customer, 
 other sources of supply being available in emer- 
 gency. 
 
 Already many farms have electricity delivered 
 to them by the central station plants and within 
 a very short time it is to be expected that the 
 rural districts will have the same efficient and 
 modern service as is possible in the thickly popu- 
 lated cities. 
 
 The same plants that serve the cities, now fur- 
 nish service to the smaller communities and to 
 the farms. They are no longer local distributors, 
 
 Total Generation in 
 
 but reach out as iar as their wires reach. One 
 company, alone, may serve hundreds of commu- 
 nities from its central station energy producing 
 plants. That is why the rendering of service is 
 now regulated by the state. It has outgrown its 
 original boundaries. 
 
 The Illinois Super-Power System: 
 
 The first electric generating stations and dis- 
 tribution systems were constructed in large 
 cities, such as Chicago and New York, only about 
 30 years ago. 
 
 At first many small stations were constructed 
 in the same city to serve very restricted areas 
 which did not exceed two miles square. The art 
 of generating and distributing electric energy 
 rapidly advanced so that about 10 years after the 
 completion of the first plants we find that in the 
 large cities many of these small plants were sup- 
 erseded by very much larger generating stations 
 which supplied the entire community. 
 
 About 20 or 25 years ago small plants were 
 also constructed in medium sized cities and 
 smaller communities of not less than 5,000 inhab- 
 itants. At this time, therefore, only a relatively 
 small proportion of these people of any country 
 living in cities or towns were able to secure any 
 electric service, because in the state of the art 
 when small plants were necessary for each com- 
 munity, there remained thousands of small com- 
 munities in which no electric service was supplied 
 because of the impossibility of furnishing this 
 service without loss. 
 
 Early Systems Small: 
 
 The early systems in most small and medium- 
 sized towns did not operate 24 hours per day 
 but only from dusk to dawn over each night, 
 since practically the entire business supplied in 
 those days consisted of lighting. 
 
 Aiter 15 or 20 years ago the electric motor com- 
 menced to develop and many of these plants were 
 
 then operated throughout 24 hours per day in 
 
 order to furnish motor power. This 24-hour op- 
 eration was extended to only a portion of the 
 plants in existence at that time, as in a great 
 number of communities sufficient load in the day 
 time could not be found to pay the additional 
 
 
 
 Statistical Data Showing Develoaue: 
 in the United States ] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1902 1907 19) 
 
 Capital Invested ...... 504,740,352 1$1,096,913,622 |$2,175,678,266 |$3,060,3 
 Gross Revenue .......... 78,735,500|$ 175,642,3381$ 302,273,3981$ 526,8 
 Capacity in Kilo- iat 
 
 WALCS alr. eee 1,212,200 2,709,225 8,9 
 No. of Customers 
 
 CPotal iat 1,465,060 1,946,979 6,9 
 
 Residence; 4. 
 
 Commercial ...........- 
 
 Power) 222-2 
 
 Kilowatt - hours ....} 2,507,051,515| 5,862,276,737 |11,569,109,885 |29,650,0 
 
 
 
expenses of operating the plant and system 
 throughout the full day and night. — 
 
 The plants of 15 or 20 years ago in small and 
 : medium-sized communities proved to be expen- 
 sive to operate and the rates for electric light 
 and power service were therefore comparatively 
 high—in fact so high that they would seem ri- 
 diculous and impossible today. : 
 
 A great many of the early plants established 
 in this manner failed financially, notwithstanding 
 the high rates received, because many such sys- 
 tems had been installed in communities where 
 there was not a sufficient volume of business, 
 even at the high rate, to pay the expense of opera- 
 tion and a return upon the investment for these 
 systems. 
 
 About 15 years ago the condensing steam tur- 
 bine was developed in very much larger sizes 
 than the reciprocating engine. It was found to 
 be very much more economical in the use of coal 
 and in addition could be built in very large units. 
 Development of large stations became possible 
 and it began to be generally recognized that the 
 only way in which the advantages of the develop- 
 ment of the electrical art could be extended to 
 the smaller and medium-sized cities was by 
 means of transmission lines which would receive 
 4 their supply at one large generating station and 
 
 . transmit it for use to a large number of commu- 
 nities. This would permit of 24-hour service, it 
 was found, and also of a reduction in electric 
 rates, then something like 20 cents per kilowatt 
 hour, which figure today would be considered an 
 impossible rate. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Transmission Line Systems: 
 
 Commencing about 10 years ago transmission 
 systems of this character were built. Large num- 
 bers of isolated generating stations were dis- 
 placed by the new service and all these commu- 
 nities were then given 24-hour service in place 
 of the former restricted supply. Thousands of 
 communities, too small to operate an isolated 
 plant, were given electric service for the first 
 time at rates very much less than formerly 
 charged in the larger communities which had the 
 
 ; advantages of the early, small stations. 
 ) Industries were furnished with power from the 
 i new systems which before that time had been 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 he Electric Light and Power Industry 
 ring the Last 20 Years 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 
 41($3,121,600,000 $3,345,071,000/$3,688,597,000}$4,658,000,000 Ther ono nog 
 '40|/$ 664,850,000]$ 773,650,000|$ 932,000,000/$ 983,000,000 1,084,000,000 
 1107 9,174,295 12,761,000 13,000,000 14,466,915 17,404,000 
 421 7,498,105 8,457,762 9,597,997 10,794,083 12,206,590 
 5,744,800 6,517,600 7,465,900 8,467,600 9,676,330 
 1,445,000 1,585,300 1,744,500]: 1,896,900 2,080,260 
 308,305 352,862 387,597 429,584 450,000 
 
 00 |37,826,410,000)38,921,000,000) 43,555,000,000]40,976,000,000)47,612,194,000 
 RR a a ee a, 
 
 compelled to generate power by installation oi 
 inefficient stations with resulting high costs of 
 operation. Energy was furnished for great num- 
 bers of domestic appliances used in homes, such 
 as electric irons, toasters; washing machines, vac- 
 uum cleaners, fans and finally thé electric range. 
 
 In no section of our country has this great 
 development been more marked than in Illinois. 
 Before the days when “transmission lines were 
 built, electric service*was available to only about 
 200 communities, and inithe majority of cases 
 only for part of.the 24 hours. 
 
 Illinois a Leader: 
 
 At the present time, after a ten-year period of 
 continuous construction of transmission lines 
 throughout the state by many public service com- 
 panies, 24-hour electric service is being rendered 
 to a total of 1,080 organized communities. It is 
 fair to say that practically all the communities 
 now receiving electric service from transmission 
 systems, which were not included in the original 
 200 communities; could not be furnished this 
 service upon a basis where it would be a com- 
 mercial possibility. There have been cases where, 
 small isolated plants have been constructed in the 
 last 10 years in our state, but these’ were usually 
 cases where transmission service was impossible 
 to obtain and many of these have since been sup- 
 erseded by transmission line service. 
 
 A map of the state of Illinois showing all of 
 the transmission lines now in-operation, appears 
 as an amazing network of lines, and showing 
 that almost all of the state-is-now receiving the 
 benefits of this class of service. 
 
 There is now in operation in Illinois about 
 6,500 miles of transmission line operating at high 
 voltages, the predominating voltage being 33,000. 
 Branching off from these great energy lines are 
 thousands of miles of lateral wires which lead 
 to the users of electricity. There is now installed 
 and in operation a total of 1,200,000 kilowatts of 
 generating capacity in central stations of the util- 
 ities of the state. 
 
 Illinois stands first among the states in the 
 number of electric light customers and second in 
 number of electric power customers served by 
 central stations. The number of electric lighting 
 customers served in the four leading states in the 
 United States on Jan. 1, 1922, was as follows: 
 
 TUTOR OI ee en 858,000 
 CANOLA tage nce 752,000 
 Dawn OF ie Riuacnase 686,000 
 Pennsylvania ...........-.---943,000 
 
 State was a Pioneer: 
 
 Illinois was a pioneer in the building of the 
 early transmission systems serving a large num- 
 ber of communities from a central source. Great 
 as is the present super-power system, large addi- 
 tions are constantly being made. 
 
 By tracing the extreme limits of some of the 
 inter-connected transmission lines in Illinois, one 
 notes a continuous transmission system starting 
 
at Zion City, at the extreme northeast corner of 
 the state, southward around Chicago as far as 
 Bismarck—a transmission line distance of ap- 
 proximately 250 miles. This same system is in- 
 ter-connected west as far as Freeport, Erie and 
 Toulon, these three points being about 225 miles 
 from Zion City along the transmission lines. 
 
 Further south is a continuous system extend- 
 ing from Keokuk, Ia., through central Illinois to 
 Terre Haute, Ind., a transmission line distance 
 of approximately 350 miles. This is the longest 
 continuous transmission line in the state. There 
 is also a continuous transmission line system ex- 
 tending from Danville on the east, Peoria on the 
 north to Venice on the south, giving a transmis- 
 sion line mileage of about 200 miles. From Keo- 
 kuk, Ia., to St. Louis is another transmission line 
 of 141 miles. 
 
 Many of the transmission systems in Iilinois 
 near state lines are connected with lines in the 
 adjoining states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri 
 and Iowa. While the systems referred to com- 
 prise the larger and more striking transmission 
 lines, it will be noted that there are numerous 
 other systems not connected to the larger sys- 
 tems, but which serve comparatively large areas. 
 
 The further development of the transmission 
 line systems in Illinois, which will take place in 
 the immediate future, will undoubtedly be the 
 extension of present systems to serve additional 
 territory and the inter-connection of a great many 
 of the systems now in operation. A compara- 
 tively small number of miles of transmission lines 
 will inter-connect almost all of the transmission 
 systems of the state. The inter-connection of the 
 existing systems will result in achieving substan- 
 tial benefits to the systems thus connected 
 through concentrating the production of the en- 
 ergy required in the large and more efficient gen- 
 erating stations. 
 
 To illustrate the relative advantages of the 
 economic results which are now secured in the 
 generation of energy in the large transmission 
 systems, as compared with the smaller isolated 
 plants which were superseded, the small plants, 
 before the construction of transmission lines, 
 used an average of 15 pounds of coal per kilowatt 
 hour. Through building large and efficient plants, 
 discontinuing the operation of a large number of 
 small, inefficient stations and distributing energy 
 by transmission lines, the average coal consump- 
 tion is possible of reduction to but 344 pounds 
 per kilowatt hour. 
 
 Big Benehits Obtained: 
 
 The benefits of this great gain in efficiency 
 have been given, to the customers in the form of 
 lower rates than those originally charged by the 
 smaller plants, 24-hour service to all communi- 
 ties served and adequate power supplies for in- 
 dustries at reasonable rates. Notwithstanding 
 the fact that coal today costs 100 per cent more 
 per ton than in pre-war times, the average rates 
 now charged are very much less than the average 
 
 190 
 
 rates ten years ago in these same communities. 
 If such systems had not been constructed, the 
 average rates now prevailing would be at least 
 25 to 50 per cent higher in order to pay the cost 
 of operating the smaller, inefficient stations. 
 
 Aiter most of the existing transmission sys- 
 tems in Illinois have been inter-connected, and 
 the loads served by these systems continue to 
 increase to much larger amounts, there will un- 
 doubtedly be constructed new, large capacity, 
 high-voltage trunk lines, or true super-power 
 lines, which will serve as feeder lines to the 
 existing transmission systems at a large number 
 of intersecting points. Such super-power lines 
 will undoubtedly receive their supply of energy 
 from very large central stations of the most ef- 
 ficient type, and the development of such a sys- 
 tem will enable the more inefficient stations still 
 operating to be discontinued. The existing trans- 
 mission lines will then occupy the relative posi- 
 tion of primary distribution lines, with the new 
 trunk lines serving as: the transmission source. 
 Such a development will not render useless any 
 of the present systems now in service, but on the 
 contrary serves to increase their capacity and 
 thus enable increased capacities to be supplied 
 to all of the communities served to keep up with 
 the growth of these communities. 
 
 Electricity Cannot be Stored: 
 
 One characteristic of electrical power which 
 has an interesting bearing on central station en- 
 terprises is that it cannot be stored. This is not 
 literally true, because you are familiar with dry 
 batteries and the larger storage batteries, but for 
 general power purposes in large cities batteries 
 are not practical, except as an emergency reserve. 
 
 The result is that when a customer of a central 
 station company makes a “demand” upon the 
 company for electricity by turning a switch, the 
 company must be prepared to supply this demand 
 instantaneously and it must likewise be pre- 
 pared to supply all of the simultaneous demands 
 of all of its customers. 
 
 Unfortunately central stations cannot make up 
 in advance enough electricity to supply their cus- 
 tomers for a day or a week or a month, as a store 
 stocks up with goods in advance of its custom- 
 ers’ demands. This very fact puts an added bur- 
 den on the central station because it must main- 
 tain a plant and equipment large enough to de- 
 liver the huge amounts of electricity for the dark 
 and busy days of December, even though during 
 the month of June, when the days are long, a 
 much smaller plant costing very much less 
 money might suffice. 
 
 Similarly plant and equipment must be large 
 enough to take care of the very heavy demands 
 of the late afternoons of winter months, whereas 
 during the rest of the day and night only a small 
 fraction of that amount of electricity would be 
 demanded. These highest points of “demand” 
 are called the “peak load” and the central station 
 managers always have to figure on investing 
 enough money to take care of the “peak load.” 
 
WAUKEGAN 
 
 
 
 
 
 mi LAKE FOREST 
 GLENCOE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 SUPER-POWER 
 ELECTRICITY 
 SYSTEM 
 
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 This map shows the 
 location of the high 
 tension electric trans- 
 mission lines, ranging 
 ds icantly 66,000 ' 
 volts, whi compose ? 6 - 
 the “backbone” of the great energy sys- | --¢]- Pacers ys — oman ae 
 tem serving the state’s people. Radiating Being ye I ' 
 from these “trunk lines” are thousands gongsporo ! : 
 of miles of distribution lines, covering the ) ! tots 
 state like a closely woven web, which carry ; ‘. 
 the electricity into the homes, offices and a 
 factories. Ms 
 
 yYCAIRO 
 
Watching the Service Demand: 
 
 Let us go to the electric lighting company and 
 see just how electricity is made to do its work. 
 We walk into the office of the: manager of one 
 of these companies. One of the manager’s duties 
 is to watch the traffic. He is the guardian over 
 the flow of electricity. Every minute of the day 
 he can tell something interesting about what the 
 citizens of his community are doing. Before him 
 he has a long sheet on which lines indicate the 
 rise and fall in the use of the service he is fur- 
 nishing. His fingers are on the “pulse” every 
 minute. The line which he is watching is called 
 the “load,” which simply means the total amount 
 of service being used at a given moment. 
 
 We will watch him for a day. Let us say this 
 particular manager is manager of your local elec- 
 tric company. In the larger companies there is 
 a man assigned to this work solely, and he is 
 called the “load dispatcher.” 
 
 It is 5 o’clock in the morning. The line is 
 running along straight. It is 5:30 A. M.; the 
 line commences nervously to start upwards. 
 Some people are rising and turning on the lights. 
 It is 6 A. M.; the line has shot far up. Many 
 people are getting up, but it is still dusk, and 
 they must have light. It is 7 A. M.; the line has 
 taken an almost perpendicular upturn. Prac- 
 tically everybody in town is now up; some are 
 using electricity to read the morning paper, some 
 for cooking; the street car systems have put on 
 many cars hauling people to work; the industries 
 have turned on electricity for operating the big 
 machines. It is 8 o’clock; his line shows that out 
 in the residence districts but little current is be: 
 ing used, but in the manufacturing centers, the 
 load is tremendous. So he watches the current 
 that would have gone to the residential district 
 shift to the manufacturing district. The street 
 car load is much less than it was while people 
 were going to work. 
 
 It is mid-day. The residential district load has 
 “picked up” a little. Some women are ironing, 
 others using sewing machines, washing ma- 
 chines, or vacuum cleaners, still others are cook- 
 ing lunch. 
 
 ‘Afternoon sees his line up near the top of his 
 sheet and keeping steady. Most of the current 
 is being used in the manufacturing plants. 
 
 Five o’clock comes. The workers quit for the 
 day. The mills, with the exception of the great 
 electric furnaces in the steel mills and smelters, 
 close down their machinery. But at the same 
 time has come a great demand from another 
 source. The people must getihome. The trans- 
 portation electric load swells. The residential dis- 
 tricts are again demanding electricity for lighting 
 and cooking. His load shifts over to that side. 
 Up until 6 P. M. it may sag a trifle, while the 
 industrial load has eased, but then the great de- 
 mand comes for the evening lighting of the 
 homes, and it picks up again. 
 
 Then comes 9 o’clock. The children have been 
 put to bed. Many lights have been darkened. 
 
 10 
 
 The load sags; 10 o’clock and many grown-ups 
 are going to bed and it sags more; 11 o’clock and 
 the majority are in bed and the demand now is 
 far below that of an hour before. The great 
 engines in the power plant can be eased up a bit, 
 given a little rest, when repairs and cleaning can 
 be done for a repetition of this giving of service 
 in the morning. 
 
 What the electric manager saw, the gas and 
 telephone and transportation traffic men saw, 
 their line only changing to represent the happen- 
 ings in their particular branch of giving service. 
 They are the genii who “drive” invisible forces 
 about their work, seeing that at all times they 
 work efficiently and are always on the spot when 
 needed and that their strength is equal to the 
 tasks they must perform. 
 
 Governmental Regulation: 
 
 Electric light and power companies are regu- 
 lated as are other public utilities such as gas, 
 street railway and telephone companies. In prac- 
 tically every state in the union they are regulated 
 by state commissions created for that purpose. 
 
 In Illinois the regulatory body is the Illinois 
 Commerce commission. Illinois has had state 
 regulation since Jan. 1, 1914, when the Illinois 
 Public Utilities commission came into existence 
 under an act passed by the state legislature dur- 
 ing the previous year. In 1921 the legislature 
 modified the law to some extent and changed the 
 name of the regulatory body to the Illinois Com- 
 merce commission. This commission exercises 
 supervision over the rates and service of the util- 
 ities. The theory of these commissions is that 
 they will be an impartial judge in all controver- 
 sies which might arise, so that no stumbling 
 blocks may be thrown in the way of proper and 
 continuous development of the various utility 
 services for all of the people. 
 
 Why Public Utilities are Built 
 on Borrowed Money: 
 
 In one important respect the utility industry 
 is unlike almost any other business in the nation. 
 The electric light and power, gas, telephone, 
 street railways and steam railroads have had to 
 be built up on borrowed money. They make no 
 “profits” in the sense that most businesses do. 
 Under the system of regulation in effect they are 
 permitted to charge rates which will enable them 
 to earn operating expenses and a fair return on 
 the money invested in their properties. Conse- 
 quently all additions and extensions must be 
 financed by the sale of new securities to thrifty 
 investors. 
 
 The reason for this latter is simple. Where the 
 ordinary business turns its capital over three to 
 five times a year, the utility company turns it 
 only once in four or five years. In the case of a 
 dry goods store, for instance, the merchant bills 
 out to his customers and gets back from them 
 each year several times as much money as he 
 has invested in his business, whereas the utility 
 
= 
 
 bills out to 1ts customers and gets back each year 
 only a small fraction of the money that its stock- 
 holders have invested in it. If you should decide, 
 for example, to become a merchant in your home 
 town and you invested $10,000 in the business 
 
 you would expect to transact a total business 
 
 each year of $30,000 or $40,000 or perhaps $50,000, 
 but on the other hand if you decided to start a 
 utility enterprise in your home town and you in- 
 vested $10,000 in that enterprise you could only 
 expect to transact a business of $2,000 each year, 
 or at the best $3,000. 
 
 Schools Now Hold Generations That 
 Must Carry on the Utilities: 
 Service of these commodities necessary to 
 
 modern life does not begin, nor end, with the 
 
 mere installation of power plants, distributing 
 plants, the maze of equipment, nor the building 
 up of great bodies of employes as the operating 
 forces. 
 
 There are three fundamental elements back of 
 all this: 
 
 1. Individual brains: this is personified in the 
 man who sees the possibilities of rendering 
 service to a community; who devotes his 
 time, experience and brains to skillfully 
 planning that service to meet needs; who 
 interests people having money in his “big 
 idea,” organizes a company and gives the 
 public the benefits of his initiative. 
 
 2. The investors: Those of the state and 
 nation, who having saved through thrift 
 from their earnings, become interested and 
 purchase securities—stocks or bonds—in 
 the company in the expectation that it will 
 be successful and will earn profits for them 
 in return for their lending their savings to- 
 ward financing this plant that is to render 
 public service indiscriminately to all per- 
 sons of a community. 
 
 3. The inventors: The geniuses who made 
 possible the great machines and wonderful 
 apparatus that is necessary to produce 
 service, and who are constantly striving 
 for improvement, they too expecting finan- 
 cial reward for their labors. 
 
 These three elements of service form an un- 
 breakable chain. Were it not for the initiative, 
 daring and constructive effort of the man “with 
 the idea” and who carries it to success, the com- 
 pany that furnishes service would not come into 
 existence; were it not for the great army of in- 
 vestors, made up of men and women who have 
 saved, of banks, trust funds and insurance com- 
 panies, the large sums of money necessary to 
 build the plants planned by the promoter would 
 not be possible; were it not for the ceaseless work 
 of the inventor and developer, already a creator 
 and striving for further improvement in machin- 
 ery and methods of production, the service itself 
 could not be rendered. All three are indispen- 
 sable to one another. Were any one of them to 
 become discouraged, development would imme- 
 
 11 
 
 diately lag and the nation would be the loser. 
 In the schools today are those who in the future 
 
 must “carry on”; who must soon be in the har- 
 
 ness working out the problems of light, heat, 
 transportation and communication for the nation 
 
 -and the world; problems that will be none the 
 
 less complex than those that the great pioneers 
 have faced. The tremendous fight of the pioneers 
 —those of the “first generation,” the men with 
 the vision—who convinced the world that such 
 “absurdities” as electric lighting, electric power, 
 street cars that moved by invisible power, tele- 
 phone wires that could carry a voice over un- 
 limited spaces, gas that could actually be piped 
 and made to cook, heat and operate: great fac- 
 tories, were in reality possible, and through over- 
 coming incredibility and actual superstition made 
 possible a revolution of home, commercial and 
 industrial life, has not ended. Within the next 
 ten years the demands of the nation for service 
 will probably be double that of now as a result 
 of the more complex civilization, increase in pop- 
 ulation and need of more intensive and econom- 
 ical production. 
 
 Definitions of Electrical Terms: 
 
 AN OHM:— 
 The practical unit of electrical resistance. It 
 is named for G. S. Ohm, the German scientist. 
 
 Illustration: The difficulty with which water 
 flows through a pipe is determined by the size, 
 shape, length, smoothness and so forth of the 
 pipe. This difficulty with which current flows 
 along a wire is determined by the size, length 
 and material of the wire. 
 ance is measured in ohms. 
 AN AMPERE:— 
 
 A unit of measurement to determine the rate 
 of flow of electric current along a wire. It is 
 named after A. M. Ampere, French mathemati- 
 cian. 
 
 Illustration: The rate at which water flows 
 through a pipe which may be checked by open- 
 ing any faucet and measuring what comes out is 
 generally measured gallons per minute. The rate 
 of flow of electric current is measured by Am- 
 peres. 
 
 A VOLT :— 
 
 A volt represents the force required to produce 
 a current of one ampere when applied to a circuit 
 of unit resistance. The name is derived from 
 
 Volta, the Italian physicist. 
 
 Illustration: The flow of electric current in a 
 single circuit is just about the same thing as the 
 flow of water through a pipe. The three princi- 
 pal elements are found under practically iden- 
 tical circumstances, namely, pressure imposed to. 
 induce flow; rate of flow and resistance to flow. 
 Pressure exerted to send electricity along a wire 
 is sometimes known as. “electro-motive-force” 
 and is commonly measured in volts. 
 
 AN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC UNIT :— 
 
 A system of units based upon the attraction or 
 
 repulsion between magnetic poles, employed to 
 
 The electrical resist- ° 
 
measure quantity, pressure, etc., in connection 
 with electric currents. 
 
 A WATT :— 
 
 A watt is the unit of electrical power produced 
 when one ampere of current flows with an elec- 
 tric pressure of one volt applied. A watt is equal 
 approximately to 1/746 of one horse-power, or 
 one horse-power is equal to 746 watts. It de- 
 rives its name from James Watt, a Scottish engi- 
 neer and inventor. 
 
 A KILO-WATT :— 
 
 A unit of electric power, equal to one thousand 
 watts, especially applied to the output of dyna- 
 mos. Electric power is usually expressed in kilo- 
 watts. As the watt is equal to 1/746 horse-power, 
 the kilowatt equals 1000/746 or 1.34 horse-power. 
 
 Kilo is of Greek origin and means one thou- 
 sand. A kilowatt is one thousand watts. 
 
 A KILOWATT HOUR:— 
 
 A kilowatt hour means the work performed by 
 one kilowatt of electric power during an hour's 
 time. 
 
 HORSE-POWER:— 
 
 A unit of mechanical power; the power re- 
 quired to raise 550 pounds to the height of one 
 foot in one second, or 33,000 pounds to that 
 height in a minute. Horse-power involved three 
 elements, force, distance and time. If we ex- 
 press the force in pounds and the distance passed 
 through in feet, it is the solution of and the 
 meaning for the term “foot pounds.” Hence a 
 foot pound is a resistance equal to one pound 
 moved one foot. 
 
 James Watt, Scotch inventor, was asked how 
 many horses his engines would replace. To ob- 
 tain data as to actual performance in continuous 
 work, he experimented with powerful horses, and 
 found that one traveling 2%4 miles per hour, or 
 220 feet per minute, and harnessed to a rope lead- 
 ing over a pulley and down a vertical shaft could 
 haul up a weight averaging 100 pounds, equaling 
 22,000 foot pounds per minute. 
 
 To give good measure, Watt increased the 
 measurement by 50 per cent, thus getting the 
 familiar unit of 33,000 minute foot pounds. 
 
 HORSE-POWER ELECTRIC :— 
 
 A unit of electrical work, expressed in watts. 
 It is equal to 746 watts. To express the rate of 
 doing electrical work in mechanical horse-power 
 units, divide the number of watts by 746. 
 
 ELECTRICAL CURRENT :— 
 Current is the term applied to a flow of elec- 
 tricity through a conductor. 
 
 DIRECT CURRENT :— 
 
 Direct or continuous current flows constantly 
 in one direction. This current, because it cannot 
 be sent any great distance, is used largely in the 
 congested centers of thickly populated cities. 
 
 ALTERNATING CURRENT :— ines 
 Alternating current flows first in one direction, 
 
 then reverses, but so fast that the changes cannot —_— 
 
 be detected in an electric light bulb by the naked 
 eye. Alternating current can be sent economic- 
 ally hundreds of miles, and, therefore, is now 
 used almost universally. Ff 
 
 THE PART ELECTRICITY PLAYED 
 
 IN THE MAKING OF THIS BOOK 
 
 
 
 The Type—Set by an electric machine. 
 
 The Illustrations—Electricity furnished the bright arti- 
 ficial light, drying heat and current used in the engraving 
 process. 
 
 Electrotypes—Made by electrically depositing copper 
 on wax moulds. 
 
 The Printing—The presses were run by electricity. 
 
 Folding—An electric folding machine saved hours ot 
 hand-labor. 
 
 Binding—The machines that stitched the pages were 
 run by electricity. 
 
 Cutting—Electric paper cutters trimmed the pages to 
 the proper size. 
 
 How to Use This Bulletin: 
 
 NOTE—There are four ends of speech, or in 
 
 other words, four purposes for which men speak; 
 first, to make an idea clear; second, to make an 
 idea impressive ; third, to make men believe some- 
 thing, that is, to convince; and to lead men to 
 action. 
 
 Rhetoric, Oral English, and Current Topics 
 Classes: Suggested topics for theme writing; 
 Oral English and Current Topics discussions. 
 
 1. To make an Idea Clear: 
 
 Describe the Electrical Equipment of this 
 Community. 
 
 2. To Make an Idea Impressive: 
 
 The New World Created by Electrical Inven- 
 tions. 
 
 3. To Convince: 
 Debate. Resolved: That Electricity Has 
 Had a Greater Effect Upon Human Life 
 Than Have the Railroads. 
 
 4. To Secure Action: 
 
 Make Our City the Best 
 Equipped City in the State. 
 Other Topics: 
 1, An Electrically Equipped Home. «> 
 2. Some New Uses for Electricity, ~~ 
 3. A Short Story of Edison’s Life. 
 Debate: 
 
 1. Large Central Stations Systems Are Pref- 
 erable to Many Smaller Plants. 
 
 2. That Thomas A. Edison Is America’s 
 Greatest Inventor. 
 
 Electrically 
 
 
 
 FOR ADDITIONAL BULLETINS PLEASE ADDRESS 
 Illinois Committee on Public Utility Information, 125 South Clark Street, Chicago, ll. 
 
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