Electricity 
 
 the 
 
 Burden Bearer 
 

Edison’s Laboratory and First Central Station (See page 13) 
 A winter scene at Menlo Park, N, J., early in 1881. 
 
Electricity the 
 Burden Bearer 
 
 By 
 
 William E. Keily 
 
 Assoc. A. I. E. E. M. W. S. E. 
 
 Class B Member N. E. L. A. 
 Member A. A. A. S. 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Illinois Committee on Public Utility Information 
 
 1920 
 
Copyright, 1920, 
 
 By Illinois Committee on Public Utility Information 
 
G&I3 
 K,<ZLb 6 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
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 >T WAS only during the nineteenth century that elec- 
 tricity was really put to work, and, indeed, only 
 in the last quarter of the last century that it was 
 put hard at work. The word “electricity” itself 
 was not coined until the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. But magnets, first observed as natural magnets, or 
 lodestones, had been known from antiquity; and magnetism 
 (although the word was not then invented) was put to work in 
 the twelfth century in Europe — perhaps earlier by the Chinese — 
 the mariner’s compass making possible, three hundred years 
 later, the discovery of the New World by Columbus. Magnetic 
 and electrical phenomena are closely allied, but the exact study 
 of their relationships is only one hundred years old. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton, that bright ornament of British science, 
 compared himself to a boy playing on the seashore, diverting 
 himself now and then in finding a pebble or shell smoother and 
 prettier than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all 
 undiscovered before him. The modesty of true greatness ! 
 
 With this distinguished example, we may devise a little alle- 
 gory. We may suppose that at the time this boy was busy with 
 his pebbles, say early in the eighteenth century, a curious jar 
 lay partly embedded on the beach of the Ocean of Knowledge. 
 It had been there for all the ages and had recently become 
 known as Electricit}^ All the boys, including Isaac, had exam- 
 ined it with interest, but the leader wandered off to such toys as 
 the Ether, Gravitation, Optics and Mathematics. But the jar, 
 while not indeed “the only pebble on the beach,” was the 
 source of strange sights and sounds, and, as the years went by, 
 other boys, in constantly increasing number, pressed around it, 
 eager to discover its secret. For a long time a mist or smoke had 
 
6 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 been observed to come from the mouth of the jar, and as the 
 strange object was rubbed and pushed and kicked and sounded 
 by lads from many lands (for all nations border on the Ocean 
 of Knowledge, and here is truly freedom of the seas) the mist 
 gradually assumed form. Not suddenly, as in the Arabian tale, 
 but gradually, the smoke took the form of the Genius of Elec- 
 
 Copyriglit Detroit Publishing Co. 
 
 Franklin’s Kite Experiment of 1752 
 
 The picture shows Benjamin Franklin demonstrating, with the help of his son, 
 that lightning is an electrical phenomenon. 
 
 tricity — a giant indeed. Now hugely delighted, the boys, grand- 
 sons of the grandsons of other inquisitive boys, danced about and 
 commanded this prodigy to do their bidding. And, because 
 they, succeeding their forbears, had earned the right, by long- 
 continued and increasingly intelligent effort, to direct the Force 
 they had released, Electricity obeyed. At first the new servant 
 was employed to carry messages, but later he was put at other 
 work, until now he is fast becoming the dextrous agent by 
 which power is applied to carry all the burdens of the world. 
 
ELEGTKIOITY TUB BURDEN BEARER 
 
 7 
 
 Such a comparative newcomer is this Electricity-at-Work that 
 we often ask “What is electricity?” We might as well ask, 
 “What is light?” or “What is heat?” or “What is gravity?” 
 Are we sure that we can answer these questions? Electricity is 
 a form of energy which has become a commonplace of our every- 
 day surroundings but as of yesterday. The power that makes 
 an apple fall in an orchard is really as mysterious as the power 
 that causes the turning of the armature of an electric motor. 
 But the boys around the old jar — all honor to them! — are still 
 at their delightful work of investigating and speculating. Many 
 of them have an idea nowadays, expressed in the so-called elec- 
 tron theory, that the atoms of all bodies are composed of still 
 more minute particles which are negative corpuscles or charges 
 of electricity associated, in the atom, with a positively electrified 
 nucleus. Thus it has been conjectured that the whole universe 
 is one vast electrical organism. But the electron theory is very 
 complex, and not altogether susceptible of demonstration, and 
 the truth is that no man can answer the question “What is elec- 
 tricity?” with any degree of certainty. But we can say some- 
 thing about what is done by means of electricity, and an attempt 
 to do this, very briefly and with particular reference to the 
 United States, is made in this pamphlet. 
 
 Pathfinders of Electrical Science 
 
 Fascinating as the story is, only the briefest reference can 
 be made to the “high spots” of the history of electricity. Dr. 
 William Gilbert, an English physician of Queen Elizabeth’s time, 
 is usually considered the founder of electrical science, although 
 the “science” was very nebulous indeed for a century and a 
 half after 1600, the year when Gilbert’s great book, De Magnet e. 
 was published. Following him came a long line of experi- 
 menters in many nations, including Robert Boyle, Otto von 
 Guericke, Stephen Gray and our own Benjamin Franklin, who 
 demonstrated by his famous kite experiment in 1752 that light- 
 ning is an electrical phenomenon. 
 
 Galvani is given the credit of being the first man to detect 
 a current of electricity. Hitherto the only electricity known had 
 
8 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 been developed by friction. The date of Galvani’s discovery 
 was some time between 1786 and 1790. Volta, another Italian 
 scientist, developed the first electric battery in 1800, and now 
 the century which was to witness the great practical use of 
 electricity was at hand. Sir Humphry Davy discovered the arc 
 light and, using voltaic batteries, exhibited it on a grand scale 
 before the Royal Institution of London in 1809. But it was 
 seventy years after that before electric lighting came into gen- 
 eral use, principally because there was no cheap way of produc- 
 ing electricity. 
 
 H. C. Oersted of Copenhagen announced the discovery of the 
 magnetic effect of the electric current in 1820, and this was an 
 important discovery because it opened the doors for the later 
 development of electrical machinery, based on the great work of 
 Michael Faraday of England, Davy’s pupil, who discovered in 
 1831 the basic principles on which dynamo-electric machines are 
 designed. He also announced the principle of induction, on 
 which the modern transformer is based. About this time Joseph 
 Henry, the famous American physicist, was also conducting his 
 valuable experiments with electromagnets and induced currents. 
 Many other scholars and inventors made important contribu- 
 tions to the science of electricity in the early part of the last 
 century. Among them were C. A. Coulomb, G. S. Ohm, K. F. 
 Gauss, W. E. Weber, A. M. Ampere, A. C. Becquerel and others. 
 Later the torch of electrical science passed to other worthy 
 hands, including those of such men as J. P. Joule, Clerk Max- 
 well, Lord Kelvin, H. A. Rowland, H. Hertz, C. P. Steinmetz 
 and many others. 
 
 “What Hath God Wrought?” 
 
 The principles elucidated by the scientists have received prac- 
 tical application at the hands of a host of inventors (although 
 it is impossible to make a sharp line of demarcation between 
 scientists and inventors). The telegraph was the first great 
 electrical invention, although the humbler art of electroplating 
 was practically contemporaneous with it. Like nearly all in- 
 ventions, the telegraph resulted from the work of many men, like 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 9 
 
 Henry in the United States, Cooke and Wheatstone in England 
 and Gauss and Weber in Germany. But Amerieans give the 
 credit for the invention of a practicable working telegraph to 
 S. F. B. Morse, who began his experiments in 1832, exhibited 
 a recording telegraph instrument in 1837 and sent the historic 
 message, “What hath God wrought 1 ?” between Washington and 
 Baltimore in 1844. At this time voltaic batteries were the only 
 available source of electricity, and so, until well along in the 
 seventies, the telegraph and electroplating were the only elec- 
 trical applications in general use. To a considerable extent men 
 like Edison who obtained their first practical electrical training 
 in telegraphy were the pioneers in later electrical advancement. 
 In 1858 the first messages were sent under the Atlantic by sub- 
 marine cable. This cable became inoperative, but finally in 1866 
 a new cable was laid, and since that time many cables have been 
 laid in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, connecting all 
 the populous parts of the globe. 
 
 Enter the Dynamo and the Motor 
 
 The invention of the dynamo-electric machine, by which the 
 mechanical energy of a steam engine, waterwheel, etc., may be 
 converted into electrical energy, was the forerunner of the 
 tremendous electrical development of the last quarter of the 
 nineteenth century because it furnished cheap electricity. Many 
 men had a hand in the invention of the dynamo. Pixii, Paci- 
 notti, the Siemens brothers (William and Werner), W 7 ilde, 
 Gramme, Brush, Edison, Hopkinson, Elilni Thomson, Edward 
 Weston and William Stanley may be mentioned, although other 
 inventors made important contributions to the art. Dynamos, 
 in something resembling their modern form, made their appear- 
 ance between 1867 and 1873. They gave a great impetus to the 
 study of the possibilities of electric lighting, a subject that had 
 been talked about ever since Davy’s historic experiment. In 
 fact, electric-lighting experiments had been constantly going 
 on in various countries. Sir W. R. Grove of England recorded 
 reading by an incandescent platinum spiral as early as 1840, and 
 in 1859, Moses G. Farmer, a Yankee inventive genius who was 
 
10 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 about a quarter of a century ahead of his time, lighted his house 
 in Salem, Mass., by crude incandescent lamps, using platinum 
 wire as the light-giving body. 
 
 The modern electric motor is said to date from 1873, when it 
 was found, at the Vienna Industrial Exhibition of that year, 
 that a Gramme dynamo could be reversed in operation and made 
 to serve as a motor. The first storage battery of importance was 
 made by Gaston Plante in 1860, but a very important develop- 
 ment was that of Camille A. Faure in 1880. Brush and Edison 
 of the United States have made many improvements in the stor- 
 age battery. The first electric boat was devised and operated by 
 Jacobi on the River Neva at Petrograd in 1839. The ingenius 
 but crude electric motor employed was operated by electrical 
 energy from primary batteries, and the boat, which was operated 
 at a speed of three miles an hour, was mainly interesting as an 
 experiment. It was fifty years later, following the invention of 
 the storage battery and of a practicable electric motor, before 
 electric launches came into use. The submarine torpedo boat, 
 which is, when submerged, an electric boat, is the result of the 
 work of many experimenters, including Lake and Holland in 
 the United States. The Zede of the French Navy was built in 
 1893. 
 
 Rise and Decline of Arc Lighting 
 
 In the United States the practical electrical development of 
 the latter part of the last century followed three main lines. 
 As might perhaps be expected, arc lighting was the first of these. 
 The Jablochkoff candles, which were arc lamps of a peculiar 
 design, created a sensation in Paris and London in 1878. But 
 before that, the American, Charles F. Brush, had turned his 
 attention to arc lighting. He completed drawings for a dynamo of 
 his own design in 1876, and two of these machines were exhibited 
 at Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1877. In this year also 
 Brush exhibited a new arc lamp. The first Brush arc lighting 
 dynamo arid lamp actually sold were shipped to Cincinnati in 
 January, 1878. In this year arc lights (Brush) were exhibited 
 in Chicago for the first time. Elihu Thomson built an arc- 
 
KLEOTRICIT V THU MJRDEN BEARER 
 
 11 
 
 lighting dynamo in 1879, which was used in Philadelphia in that 
 year. Edward Weston, James J. Wood and Charles E. Scrib- 
 ner were also early designers in this field. 
 
 Dr. Brush continued to improve his lighting system, and 
 finally dynamos capable of operating 125 arc lamps made their 
 appearance. By the end of 1880 about 6,000 arc lamps had been 
 installed in the United States. Much trouble was experienced in 
 the early days with the carbon rods used in the arc lamps, but all 
 these difficulties were overcome. The first carbons for arc lamps 
 were sold at the rate of $240 a thousand, but in later years they 
 came down to about $10 a thousand. In the heyday of “ series’ ’ 
 arc lighting, before the “enclosed arc” was introduced, the 
 annual consumption of carbons reached nearly 200,000,000 in 
 this country alone. 
 
 Street arc lighting was first effected in Cleveland in April, 
 1879. The Telegraph Supply Company of Cleveland changed its 
 name to the Brush Electric Company in 1881, and about ten 
 years later this company was merged into the Thomson-Houston 
 Electric Company. Due to the remarkable increase in the effi- 
 ciency of the incandescent lamp and its greater convenience in 
 operation, arc lighting has suffered a great decline in recent 
 years. It is probably true, however, that the early success of 
 arc lighting promoted and hastened the development of incan- 
 descent lighting as well as power transmission and electric rail- 
 ways. 
 
 Edison the Inventor of the Modern Central Station 
 
 But to Thomas A. Edison clearly belongs the credit of creat- 
 ing the modern electric central-station system for light and 
 power. Edison was already a^distinguished inventor when, in 
 1878, backed by several men of means, he turned his attention 
 to electric lighting. The original Edison Electric Light Com- 
 pany of New York, the parent company, was organized on Octo- 
 ber 16, 1878. From the first, Edison conceived an electric-light- 
 ing system, not only an incandescent lamp and an electric genera- 
 tor to supply the electricity, but also, and perhaps most im- 
 portant, a system of wiring such that one lamp could be turned 
 
12 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 out without affecting the burning of the others. He also devised 
 switching mechanisms, an electricity meter and many other ac- 
 cessories. Not only that, but Edison and his assistants had to 
 devise machinery and apparatus to make these various electrical 
 devices. Everything had to be created out of thin air, as it 
 were. This was the stupendous task accomplished by Edison. 
 
 In experimenting for an incandescent lamp to be connected 
 between the wires of an electric circuit, or ‘ ‘ in parallel, ’ ’ instead 
 of being “in series” with the other lamps on the circuit, as in 
 the case of the early arc lamps, Edison at first used platinum 
 wire for a filament and then tried mixing the platinum with 
 iridium. There were many experiments before the carbon fila- 
 ment burning in a vacuum was hit upon. It was no doubt these 
 experiments that were described before the American Electrical 
 Society, of Chicago — the first and for several years the only 
 national electrical society in the United States — by George H. 
 Bliss on December 11, 1878. This was one of the very first 
 descriptions of Edison’s light. However, the successful incan- 
 descent electric lamp with a carbon filament was not produced 
 by Edison until October 21, 1879. It was not until some time 
 later that the Edison carbon incandescent lamps came to Chicago. 
 Dr. H. S. Carhart, then professor of physics in Northwestern 
 University, believed that he received from Edison, in May, 1881, 
 the first incandescent lamps that ever came to Chicago. 
 
 Edison was not alone in trying to produce an incandescent 
 electric lamp. Sawyer and Man took out their first patent for 
 an incandescent electric lamp on June 18, 1878. Other early 
 workers in this field were Joseph W. Swan of England and 
 Hiram S. Maxim. But after some years of controversy and court 
 litigation it was generally conceded, both in this country and 
 abroad, that Edison was the first to produce a practically useful 
 electric lamp on the incandescent principle with a filament of 
 carbon in a vacuum. 
 
 At Menlo Park Early in 1881 
 
 In the winter of 1880-1881 Edison installed a central-station 
 system at Menlo Park, New Jersey, for the purpose of demon- 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 strafing I lie success of wlmt was popularly called the subdivision 
 of the electric light. The generating station was composed of 
 nine or ten dynamos of a rating of perhaps six to ten kilowatts 
 each, which may be compared with the 35,000-kilowatt or 50,000- 
 kilowatt machines of the present day. Mr. Edison’s workshops 
 and laboratory and his own residence and those of his assistants 
 were lighted by incandescent lamps. The wires were laid under- 
 
 Thomas A. Edison, at Seventy-Three, Still Hard at Work 
 
 ground. There were motors at work in the laboratory, and, in 
 fact, all of the essential features of modern central-station gen- 
 eration and distribution were shown. 
 
 Many years later, Samuel Insull wrote an account of this 
 first central station. “It was on the evening of the first of 
 March, 1881,” he said, “that I paid my first visit to Menlo 
 Park. I had arrived in New York from England the day before, 
 having come on the invitation of Mr. Edison to act as his private 
 secretary. We had heard all kinds of gossip in London about 
 
14 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 the wonderful things that were being done at Menlo Park in the 
 way of practical electric-lighting work. Mr. Edison had been 
 writing to bis English friends for two years prior to the date 
 of my arrival in New York, telling of his success, but as we had 
 had no demonstration of it on the other side of the water, and 
 the scientists on both sides of the Atlantic expressed their doubts 
 as to the results of Mr. Edison’s experimental work, my natural 
 desire when I arrived was to pay an immediate visit to Menlo 
 Park and cable my English friends that I had actually seen Mr. 
 Edison’s central-station system at work. So far as the service 
 rendered, this first experimental plant at the birthplace of the 
 central-station industry was as perfect as the service now given 
 by any of the central-station companies in our large cities. 
 # # # At the same time, and running from the same generat- 
 
 ing station, Mr. Edison had in operation about a mile of electric 
 railway, the track being partially insulated and used for con- 
 ducting the current. A speed of 42 miles an hour was attained, 
 and over 5,000 people rode on this experimental electric rail- 
 way ’ ’ 
 
 The Idea Begins to Spread 
 
 The first commercial central-station system in the world that 
 has been in operation continuously ever since was that of the 
 Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, which was 
 organized on December 17, 1880. This company began the work 
 of laying the street mains for the Pearl Street central station in 
 New York in July, 1881, and the plant was put into permanent 
 operation on September 4, 1882. It is believed that the first com- 
 mercial central station for incandescent electric lighting was one 
 erected in London, England, in April, 1882. However, this plant 
 was discontinued two or three years later. The Pearl Street 
 station in New York, on the other hand, was the original generat- 
 ing station of the present system of the New York Edison Com- 
 pany. The Western Edison Light Company of Chicago was 
 chartered on May 25, 1882. It sold the machinery for a small 
 waterpower-driven central station which was put into operation 
 in Appleton, Wis., on or about October 15, 1882. This was the 
 second Edison central-station system in the United States. 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 15 
 
 Edison’s three-wire system of wiring, which effected a great 
 saving in copper, was developed in 1882 and 1883. The central- 
 station idea grew rather slowly at first, owing to the amount of 
 capital required, although many isolated electric-light plants 
 were installed. But in a few years Edison electric central sta- 
 tions were established in all the larger cities. That in Boston 
 
 Dynamo Room of the Old Pearl Street Edison Central Station in 
 New York City, Built in 1882 
 
 began business in 1886. In 1887 The Chicago Edison Company 
 succeeded the Western Edison Light Company, and in 1888 it 
 began to manufacture and distribute electricity. 
 
 From 1881 to 1892 the Edison manufacturing interests, com- 
 ing into being as a group of new industries, expanded amazingly. 
 The indomitable leader had as assistants a body of enthusiastic 
 and loyal men who shared with him the honor of being Edison 
 pioneers — men like Charles Batchelor, Samuel Insull, Edward 
 H. Johnson, John Kruesi, Francis R. Upton and Sigmund Berg- 
 mann. With the help of these men and others of their kind, Mr. 
 Edison built up the Electric Tube Company, Edison Machine 
 Works, Edison Lamp Company and Bergmann & Company, all 
 of which were merged into the Edison General Electric Company 
 
16 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 in 1889. The Edison works at Schenectady, N. Y., were opened 
 on Christmas Day in 1886. When the Edison General Electric 
 Company was organized Mr. Insnll was made second vice-presi- 
 dent of the company, having charge of manufacturing and sell- 
 ing. In 1892 the Edison General Electric Company was con- 
 solidated with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form 
 the present General Electric Company. Mr. Insull was elected 
 second vice-president of the newly organized company, but lie 
 immediately resigned to become president of The Chicago Edison 
 Company, predecessor of the present Commonwealth Edison 
 Company, which has become the largest individual electricity- 
 supply organization of the world under Mr. Insull ’s administra- 
 tion. 
 
 The Alternating-Current System 
 
 Meanwhile the third system for electricity supply was being 
 developed in the United States. This was the alternating-cur- 
 rent system, and with it is inseparably connected the name of 
 George Westingliouse. Both the early arc-lighting and the early 
 Edison systems, it may be explained, used direct current, per- 
 haps following the lead of the voltaic batteries. Mr. Westing- 
 house, an American inventor and business man who established 
 the great companies which bear his name, came into prominence 
 as the inventor of mechanical devices for railroad use, such as air 
 brakes, switches and signals. However, he also had the distinc- 
 tion of recognizing at an early date the merits of the alternating 
 current system of electrical distribution, and he gave much of 
 his personal attention to the development of this system in its 
 formative period. He purchased some electrical patents from 
 William Stanley as far back as 1883. Two years later he pur- 
 chased the patents of Gaulard and Gibbs for the distribution of 
 electricity by means of alternating currents, and in 1886 he or- 
 ganized the Westingliouse Electric Company, which was suc- 
 ceeded by the Westingliouse Electric and Manufacturing Com- 
 pany in 1891. In 1885, at Great Barrington, Mass., William 
 Stanley effected the first commercial distribution system using 
 alternating currents. The first regularly operated alternating- 
 
klkotrkhty r r 1 1 1<: bijrdwn bearer 
 
 17 
 
18 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 current plant in the United States was that established by the 
 Westinghouse Company at Greensburg, Pa., in 1886. The alter- 
 nating-current transformer, a most important piece of apparatus, 
 based, as has been stated, on Faraday’s discovery of induction, 
 was crudely developed in England by Gaulard and Gibbs, but 
 made a practical, working accomplishment by William Stanley. 
 
 The introduction of the alternating-current system and the 
 Edison three-wire system gave a tremendous impetus to the elec- 
 tric-lighting industry. Mr. Westinghouse pushed the alternating- 
 current system to a commercial success. One of his triumphs 
 was the incandescent lighting by alternating current of the 
 World’s Fair at Chicago in 1893, iising a so-called “stopper” 
 type of incandescent lamp necessitated by the patent situation 
 at that time. This lamp, which was gas-filled, like some of the 
 tungsten lamps of today, was considered by many as a doubtful 
 substitute for the Edison lamp, but it worked nevertheless, and 
 the World’s Fair was very well lighted. But it was the Edison 
 type of electric incandescent lamp which finally prevailed. In 
 addition to being the head of a number of corporations in Amer- 
 ica, representing an investment of many millions of dollars, Mr. 
 Westinghouse established large factories and works in Europe. 
 
 In the Days When Competition Was Bitter 
 
 In 1888 Nikola Tesla contributed very materially to the de- 
 velopment of the alternating-current side of the electricity-sup- 
 ply utility. In that year his polyphase-current patents, which 
 form the basis largely of the alternating-current generators and 
 motors now in use, were taken out. Among the first to recog- 
 nize the great importance of Mr. Tesla’s motors were Mr. West- 
 inghouse and his advisers. The Tesla patents were purchased 
 by the Westinghouse Company and proved a very valuable asset. 
 The famous Lauffen-Frankfort electrical power transmission in 
 Germany, using the Tesla system, was accomplished in 1891, but 
 it is believed that the first crude electric power transmission in 
 practice dates from 1890, when the beginning was made in one 
 of the mining regions of Colorado. The great hydro-electric de- 
 velopment at Niagara Falls dates from 1895, although its main 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 19 
 
 electrical characteristics had been determined by an international 
 engineering commission in 1893. 
 
 Electricity-at-Work has been directed not only by great scien- 
 tists, inventors and engineers, but also by great men of affairs. 
 Some of these have been mentioned. In 1882 Charles A. 
 
 A View in Northwest Generating Station, Chicago 
 
 Here machines of the vertical type are in the foreground. The rated capacity 
 of this station is 165,000 kilowatts. 
 
 Coffin, who had been engaged in manufacturing, became in- 
 terested, with others, in the inventions of Elihu Thomson and 
 Edwin J. Houston of Philadelphia. Prof. Thomson and Prof. 
 Houston had been teachers in the Central High School of Phila- 
 delphia, and had made some electrical inventions, principally re- 
 lating to arc lighting, jointly. Dr. Thomson resigned his pro- 
 fessorship in 1880 and boldly cast his lot with the then truly 
 
20 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 infant electrical industry. Prof. Houston (who died in 1914) 
 remained at the Central High School for many years afterward, 
 but the joint name was long employed. The Thomson-Houston 
 Electric Company established a small factory in New Britain, 
 Conn. These works were taken over by Mr. Coffin and his . 
 friends, and in the latter part of 1883 were transferred to a 
 new factory in Lynn, Mass. Here the Thomson-Houston Electric 
 Company became one of the great electrical manufacturing enter- 
 prises of the country. It was merged into the General Electric 
 Company in 1892. Elihu Thomson has been consulting en- 
 gineer for the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and the Gen- 
 eral Electric Company for many years. 
 
 While the direct-current electricity business was being ex- 
 ploited by the Edison companies, the Westinghouse Electric 
 Company and the Thomson-Houston Electric Company were en- 
 gaged in pushing the alternating-current business and using as 
 a basis for it the arc-lighting companies which in a number of 
 cities had been formed mainly by the Brush Electric Company 
 for doing city lighting. In 1885, when the National Electric 
 Light Association was formed in Chicago, it was thought that 
 there were perhaps eighty central station companies in the coun- 
 try, mainly arc-lighting companies operating at night only. For 
 many years there was a most acrimonious discussion between the 
 champions of the direct current and of the alternating current. 
 Both in the end prevailed, for the old Edison central-station 
 companies have always kept the lead in connection with central- 
 station development, while actually the alternating-current sys- 
 tem is now used so extensively in generating and transmitting 
 electric power that no one would think of building a direct-cur- 
 rent central station for use where any large amount of electrical 
 energy is required over an extended area. But for some pur- 
 poses, such as most electric-railway motors, charging storage 
 batteries, etc., direct current is still required. 
 
 A Glance at the Telephone 
 
 In this pamphlet, devoted principally to the lighting and 
 power developments of Electricity-at-Work, but scant attention 
 
ELECTRICITY TILE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 21 
 
 can be paid to that wonderful invention — the telephone. In 1854 
 Bourseul of Paris suggested an electric telephone, and in 1861 
 Philip Reis of Germany devised an. electric telephone which 
 •would transmit musical tones. Daniel Drawbaugh of Pennsyl- 
 vania alleged that he had made an electric telephone in 1867- 
 1868. Elisha Gray and Thomas A. Edison were also early tele- 
 phone inventors of the first importance. But the courts decided 
 that Alexander Graham Bell invented the electric speaking tele- 
 phone, his first application for a patent being on February 14, 
 1876. Blake and Berliner were also early telephone inventors. 
 Bell telephone companies were established in all the large cities, 
 with a long-distance system connecting them. When the funda- 
 mental Bell patents expired a large number of Independent com- 
 peting companies sprang up in the nineties. A formidable tele- 
 phone opposition was developed, and for a number of years there 
 was bitter warfare between the two camps. At the present time 
 a large majority of the Independent companies connect with the 
 American Telephone and Telegraph Company, or its subsidiaries, 
 for long-distance service. Strowger, an electrical engineer and 
 mechanician of Chicago, introduced the first automatic telephone 
 system in 1891. The earliest automatic designs were quite com- 
 plicated, but constant improvements were made, and the equip- 
 ment was simplified. The automatic system came into use grad- 
 ually at first in Independent exchanges in small places and later 
 in larger cities. According to present indications, the next great 
 telephone development will be the use of automatic exchanges, 
 both by Bell and Independent companies. 
 
 The Western Electric Company, Incorporated, has been closely 
 identified with the telegraph and telephone industry in the 
 United States, but it is also a large manufacturer of electrical 
 supplies and appliances, and at one time made a complete line 
 of electrical machinery and apparatus, both direct-current and 
 alternating-current. It is the outgrowth of a telegraph-instru- 
 ment shop established in Cleveland by the late Enos M. Barton 
 in partnership with George W. Shawk, in 1869. Within a year 
 Mr. Shawk sold out to Elisha Gray, later prominent as an elec- 
 trical inventor, and who was president of the International Elec- 
 
22 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 Modern Electric Transmission-Line Construction 
 
 1,000-foot span across the Des Plaines River south of Joliet, 111., with generating station on farther shore. The 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 trical Congress at Chicago in 1893. The firm name was changed 
 to Gray & Barton, and a little later Gen. Anson Stager, a tele- 
 graph pioneer, afterward vice-president of the Western Union 
 Telegraph Company, became an equal partner in the firm on con- 
 dition that the business should be removed to Chicago. This was 
 done in 1870. The little shop began to do manufacturing, and 
 in 1872 the Western Electric Manufacturing Company was in- 
 corporated to take over the business. Gen. Stager was the first 
 president of the company. Mr. Barton was the secretary, and 
 later became vice-president. In 1879 the company was reorgan- 
 ized as the Western Electric Company, Gen. Stager (who also 
 became president of the Western Edison Light Company, 
 previously mentioned, in 1882) remaining as president until 
 his death in 1885. In 1886 Mr. Barton became president of the 
 company, retiring in 1908 to become chairman of the board of 
 directors. The Western Electric Company was reorganized as 
 the Western Electric Company, Incorporated, in 1915. 
 
 Early Days of the “Broomstick Train” 
 
 The electric railway also came into being in the last quarter 
 of the nineteenth century. The first miniature electric railway 
 carrying passengers was put in operation at Berlin in 1879 by 
 Siemens & Halske. Mention of Edison’s work has already been 
 made, but Edison dropped the electric railway for the electric 
 light. In 1883 an electric railway car was operated at an ex- 
 hibition in Chicago on the Lake Front in the old Exposition 
 Building where the Art Institute now stands. However, the 
 commercial introduction of the electric railway in the United 
 States dates from the building of a complete and successful sys- 
 tem in Richmond, Va., in 1887 and 1888, by Sprague. The first 
 elevated electric railway in the United States was that at the 
 Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Stephen D. Field, Charles J. 
 Van Depoele, Leo Daft, Sidney H. Short and others were promi- 
 nent electric-railway inventors, but it was Frank J. Sprague, 
 sometimes called “the father of the electric railway,” who, more 
 than any other man, brought the thing to pass. Within six 
 years from the opening of the Richmond system five-sixths of the 
 
24 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 existing horse-car lines in the country had been converted into 
 electric railways. Seldom has an industrial revolution been so 
 quickly accomplished. The Van Depoele Electric Manufactur- 
 ing Company of Chicago was absorbed by the Thomson-Houston 
 Electric Company in 1888, and the Sprague Electric Railway 
 and Motor Company by the Edison General Electric Company 
 in 1890. The Westinghouse Company was also active in electric- 
 railway work. Oliver Wendell Holmes, when he nicknamed the 
 trolley car, with its upstanding pole, the “broomstick train/ ’ 
 could hardly have foreseen that the time would come when it 
 would carry 15,000,000,000 passengers a year in this country 
 
 Electrical Pioneers Not Without Honor 
 
 Being a child of the nineteenth century, Electricity-at-Work 
 could not be measured by units having names extending back 
 into the dim past, like foot, pound and quart. It was necessary 
 to invent designations for the electrical units of measurement, and 
 it was decided, happily, to honor the names of electrical pioneers 
 in this way. The units ohm, volt and ampere were first authori- 
 tatively defined in 1881, and the watt, more commonly used in 
 “kilowatt, ” in 1889. The}’' commemorate the names of a Ger- 
 man, an Italian, a Frenchman and a Scotchman. Electrical 
 units less frequently encountered in non-technical literature per- 
 petuate the names of other electrical scientists, including Cou- 
 lomb, Maxwell, Gauss, Gilbert, Faraday, Henry and Joule. The 
 fundamental electrical units are international, and they are also, 
 like the metric system, expressed in the decimal notation, a kilo- 
 watt being a thousand watts, and so on. The watt is the elec- 
 trical unit of power, and the kilowatt-hour is the unit of work 
 which is usually used in the sale of electrical energy. 
 
 The many and important applications of electrochemistry are 
 all comparatively modern, although the electrical production of 
 aluminum was described in patents granted in 1885. Electric 
 welding, as extensively used in the present day, was invented 
 by Elihu Thomson in 1886. The electric automobile, in its first 
 crude form, appeared about 1890, although “electric carriages’' 
 were known before that date. In 1891 Branly invented the 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 25 
 
 colierer used in wireless telegraphy. Marconi greatly developed 
 and improved “wireless” in 1895 and thereafter. X-rays were 
 discovered by W. C. Roentgen in 1895. 
 
 Civilization’s Servant at Work 
 
 Wonderful, indeed, have been the accomplishments of Elec- 
 tricitv-at-Work since the lights of the first central station were 
 reflected from the snows of Menlo Park early in 1881. It has 
 brought light and cheer to the depressed, strength to the weak, 
 and relief to the weary. It is found in the home, the office, the 
 hospital, the laboratory, the workshop, the factory, the rolling- 
 mill. the mine, the store, on the farm and the railroad — prac- 
 tically everywhere where heat, light and power are required. It 
 is as efficacious in producing a soothing breeze at the bedside of 
 a sick child as it is in towing 30,000-ton ships through the 
 Panama Canal. In the fanciful language of H. A. Seymour : 
 
 This very subtle essence is the lightning of the gods; 
 
 ’Twill travel instanteously forty million rods. 
 
 You turn it into light or heat or power, as you will ; 
 Commercially it “takes the cake,” no matter what the odds. 
 
 Its brilliant light can equal all the blaze of noonday sun; 
 
 ’Twill heat a smelter furnace ; it will bake your breakfast bun, 
 Or gently rock the baby’s cradle, pull a train uphill, 
 
 Or do a thousand other stunts — the list is just begun. 
 
 Then ho ! for amperes, watts and volts 
 And artificial thunderbolts ! 
 
 For roaring fires, copper wires, central energy, 
 
 For engines singing day and night, 
 
 For motive power, heat and light, 
 
 For clean and ready, safe and steady Electricity ! 
 
 Among the reasons why the electricity-supply utility in the 
 United States has exhibited such a rapid development are the 
 high efficiency of the electric generator, enabling mechanical 
 energy to be changed into electrical energy with but small loss ; 
 the ability to transmit this energy over long distances at high 
 efficiency by means of simple and relatively inexpensive con- 
 struction ; the great improvement in efficiency of the incandescent 
 electric lamp; the development of the steam turbine, which in 
 
26 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 the larger sizes effects a saving in steam of 50 per cent or more 
 in comparison with the reciprocating steam engine, and the 
 great economies effected by centralizing power generation in 
 large units. The development of the transformer and of the 
 rotary converter in alternating-current distribution also had 
 much to do in spreading electricity. 
 
 Steam turbines have practically replaced reciprocating engines 
 in large electric generating stations. In 1896 George Westing- 
 house secured the rights to manufacture the Parsons steam tur- 
 bine in this country. Turbines came into use slowly at first, and 
 it was not until 1903 that one central-station company manifested 
 sufficient boldness to build an all-turbine generating station. 
 This company was the Commonwealth Electric Company of Chi- 
 cago, a predecessor of the Commonwealth Edison Company, Sam- 
 uel Insull being its president and the man responsible for the 
 innovation. The station referred to was the famous Fisk Street 
 plant, and the original turbines were of the Curtis type made 
 by the General Electric Company. So rapid was the progress 
 of the art that within six years these original turbines were 
 taken down to make way for others of a more efficient type. The 
 original 5,000-kilowatt machine at Fisk Street was re-erected at 
 the Schenectady works of the manufacturing company, where it 
 now stands as a monument to the development of the art. 
 
 Power Transmission and Railroad Electrification 
 
 Electricity has made it practicable to transmit over long dis- 
 tances power generated at waterfalls or other economical source 
 of supply. Some of the earliest hydro-electric systems were 
 built in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states, owing to the 
 abundance of waterpower and the scarcity of coal in that part of 
 the country. Electric power is now transmitted hundreds of 
 miles at pressures of 150,000 volts or more. The Niagara Falls 
 region, both on the American and Canadian sides, is still the 
 greatest single center of hydro-electric development. In Illinois 
 the largest electrically developed waterpower is that of the 
 Sanitary District of Chicago, on the Chicago Drainage Canal, 
 but this is comparatively small, being rated at about 28,000 kilo- 
 
ELECTRICITY the burden bearer 
 
 27 
 
 watts. It was built in 1904-1907. However, Illinois gets some 
 of its electrical energy from the interesting and important hydro- 
 electric development on the Mississippi River, between Keokuk, 
 Iowa, and Hamilton, 111., which has a rated capacity of about 
 125,000 kilowatts. The building of this plant was begun in 1911 
 and completed in 1913. 
 
 Heavy railroading is done by electric power in many places 
 in the United States, particularly in large city terminals and in 
 tunnels. Perhaps the most interesting example of trunk-line 
 operation by electric locomotives is that of 650 miles of the main 
 line of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway in Montana, 
 Idaho and Washington, crossing four mountain ranges, includ- 
 ing the Continental Divide of the Rockies. Here waterpower, 
 much of it from the Great Falls of the Missouri River, is changed 
 into electric power and delivered to the railroad from a number 
 of substations scattered along the route. The electric locomotives 
 employed for this particular job of Electricity-at-Work are rated 
 at 3,440 horsepower, weigh 284 tons and are 112 feet long. 
 Each one takes the place of four ordinary steam locomotives. 
 In crossing the Rocky Mountains this railroad reaches an altitude 
 of 6,322 feet. 
 
 One of the more recent applications of electricity is in the 
 propulsion of great ships. Following the example of the collier 
 Jupiter, the new U. S. S. New Mexico, a first-class battleship 600 
 feet long and of 32,000 tons displacement, is electrically pro- 
 pelled. It is announced that the U. S. S. California and other 
 capital ships of the United States Navy will also be driven by 
 electric motors. No doubt electric drive will also be employed 
 on merchant ships, owing to its economy and convenience. 
 
 Thirty-five Billion Kilowatt-Hours 
 
 Statistics are apt to be tiresome ; but how can we show without 
 them, in compact form, what our friend Electricity-at-Work has 
 done? The figures are indeed imposing. It may be estimated 
 that the total capitalization in 1918 of all the industries of the 
 United States that may be called electrical was $14,000,000,000, 
 and that the total income of these industries for that year was 
 
28 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 A General View of the Hydro-Electric Development “Harnessing” the Mississippi River at Keokuk 
 
 The locks for navigation are shown in the foreground. 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 29 
 
 $3,000,000,000. This, however, includes not only the elect ric- 
 light-and-power central stations and electrical manufacturing, 
 but also electric railways of various kinds, the telephone and 
 the telegraph and other miscellaneous applications. 
 
 Concerning the electricity-supply utility itself, more exact 
 figures are at hand for the year 1917. The United States Census 
 Reports show that for that year electric-light-and-power stations 
 
 Electric Locomotive Drawing Passenger Train Emerging From 
 Eagle Nest Tunnel in Rocky Mountains. 
 
 of the United States generated more than 25,000,000,000 kilo- 
 watt-hours* of electrical energy, producing an income of more 
 than $500,000,000, and giving employment to more than 100.000 
 persons. Detailed figures are given in the table on next page, 
 showing the remarkable increases since 1907. For instance, the 
 
 * Careful estimates put the corresponding figure for 1919 at about 
 35,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours. 
 
30 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 rating of stationary electric motors served from central stations 
 increased over 450 per cent in the ten years from 1907 to 1917. 
 
 Electric Light and Power Stations in the United States 
 
 
 1917 
 
 1912 
 
 1907 
 
 Number of establishments. . 
 
 6,541 
 
 5,221 
 
 4,714 
 
 Commercial 
 
 4,224 
 
 3,659 
 
 3,462 
 
 Municipal 
 
 2,317 
 
 1,562 
 
 1,252 
 
 Income 
 
 $526,886,408 
 
 $302,273,398 
 
 $175,642,338 
 
 Electric service 
 
 $502,100,346 
 
 $287,138,657 
 
 $169,614,691 
 
 All other 
 
 $ 24,786,062 
 
 $ 15,134,741 
 
 $ 6,027,647 
 
 Total expenses, including sal- 
 
 
 
 
 aries and wages 
 
 $427,136,049 
 
 $234,577,277 
 
 $134,196,911 
 
 Number of persons employed. 
 
 105,546 
 
 79,335 
 
 47,632 
 
 Salaries and wages 
 
 $ 95,239,954 
 
 $ 61,161,941 
 
 $ 35,420,324 
 
 Total horsepower 
 
 12,857,998 
 
 7,530,044 
 
 4,098,188 
 
 Steam engines : 
 
 
 
 
 Number 
 
 7,464 
 
 7,847 
 
 8,054 
 
 Horsepower 
 
 8,389,389 
 
 4,949,778 
 
 2,693,273 
 
 Internal combustion engines : 
 
 
 
 
 Number 
 
 2,946 
 
 1,116 
 
 463 
 
 Horsepower 
 
 217,186 
 
 111,035 
 
 55,828 
 
 Water wheels : 
 
 
 
 
 Number 
 
 3,357 
 
 2,939 
 
 2,481 
 
 Horsepower 
 
 4,251,423 
 
 2,469,231 
 
 1,349,087 
 
 Kilowatt capacity of dynamos 
 
 9,001,872 
 
 5,165,439 
 
 2,709,225 
 
 Output of stations, kilowatt- 
 
 
 
 
 hours 
 
 25,438,611,417 
 
 11,569,109,885 
 
 5,862,276,737 
 
 Stationary motors served: 
 
 
 
 Number 
 
 554,817 
 
 435,473 
 
 167,184 
 
 Horsepower 
 
 9,216,323 
 
 4,130,619 
 
 1,649,026 
 
 Number of street lamps : 
 
 
 
 
 Arc 
 
 256,838 
 
 1,389,382 
 
 348,643 
 
 681,957 
 
 
 Incandescent etc 
 
 
 
 
 The capitalization of the electricity-supply utility of the 
 United States in 1917 was probably $3,000,000,000 or more. It 
 takes from four to seven years for the electric-service company 
 to “turn over” its capital. Thus for every $1.00 of income the 
 utility has from $4.00 to $7.00 invested, so that, if money costs 
 the utility 7 per cent, the annual interest charge on every dollar 
 of income is from 28 cents to 49 cents. In the electrical manu- 
 facturing industry, the figures for 1918 (see page 31) show a 
 turnover of capital in less than eight months, or three times in 
 two years — a decided contrast. 
 
ELECTRICITY the burden bearer 
 
 31 
 
 Electrical Manufactures and Exports 
 
 As to the production of electrical machinery, apparatus and 
 supplies, no census figures are available later than 1914. The 
 value of these products for that year was placed at $359,412,676. 
 Some of the principal items of this total were : 
 
 Insulated wires and cables $69,505,573 
 
 Motors 44,176,235 
 
 Dynamos 23,233,437 
 
 Telephone apparatus 22,815,640 
 
 Magneto-ignition apparatus, sparks, coils, etc 22,260,847 
 
 Incandescent lamps 17,350,385 
 
 Transformers 13,120,065 
 
 Storage batteries 10,615,150 
 
 Electric measuring instruments 8,786,506 
 
 Primary batteries 8,719,164 
 
 Electric heating apparatus 4,034,436 
 
 Electric locomotives 3,720,914 
 
 Telegraph apparatus 2,248,375 
 
 For the year 1918 the value of electrical machinery, apparatus 
 and supplies produced in the United States was probably not far 
 from $900,000,000, for the three principal electrical manufactur- 
 ing companies in the United States alone reported sales, for that 
 year, of $522,421,220. This was on a capitalization of $320,015 - 
 135. Aside from the three largest, there are probably over a 
 thousand other electrical manufacturing establishments in the 
 country, some of which are of large size. Expressed in tabular 
 form, the capitalization and sales of the three leading electrical 
 manufacturing companies of the United States for 1918 were as 
 follows : 
 
 Capitalization 
 
 Sales 
 
 General Electric Company 
 
 Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing 
 Company (year ended March 31, 1919) 
 Western Electric Company, Inc 
 
 $152,921,800 
 
 96,127,650 
 
 70,965,685 
 
 $216,815,277 
 
 160,379,943 
 
 145,226,000 
 
 $320,015,135 
 
 $522,421,220 
 
 It is to be remarked in relation to the sales of electrical manu- 
 facturing concerns tabulated above that they related to a year 
 of war, when the demand was very heavy and prices were very 
 
32 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 high. In 1914 New York was the first electrical manufacturing 
 state in value of products, Illinois being second, Pennsylvania 
 third, Massachusetts fourth, New Jersey fifth and Ohio sixth. 
 
 About 40 per cent of the electrical energy produced in the 
 United States comes from waterpower, the remaining 60 per cent 
 being generated in stations using coal, oil or other fuel. In 
 states like Illinois and New York about one-third of all the 
 primary power requirements are supplied from electric central 
 stations. 
 
 Uncle Sam’s Electricity-at-Work sends his handiwork all over 
 the world. For the year ended December 31, 1919, the value of 
 electrical exports from the United States was $89,089,711. This 
 is the largest valuation of electrical exports from the United 
 States ever recorded for one year. The corresponding figure 
 for 1918 was $59,982,526. 
 
 The Old Order Changeth 
 
 While the material progress of this servant of mankind has 
 been truly marvelous, the conception of the manner in which elec- 
 tricity should be produced and applied to public use has under- 
 gone very great changes. When electric central stations were 
 first established, no one could foresee the dominating part which 
 electricity was destined to play in modern life. Electric-light 
 companies were started purely as private ventures, often as the 
 result of the urging of manufacturers of electrical machinery, 
 and the business was exploited like any private business. At 
 first, too, the central stations were purely local affairs. There 
 was a great “boom” in electrical affairs in the late eighties and 
 early nineties. Next came the business depression of 1893 to 
 1896. Thereafter the managers of electric-service enterprises 
 began to study their business with more care, with deeper in- 
 sight and with a keener appreciation of its economic position in 
 the community. 
 
 It was discovered that the old system of flat rates for electric 
 service was unjust, both to the community as a whole and to the 
 producer. Rates were, therefore, gradually adjusted on the basis 
 of the characteristics of the demand made on the central-station 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 company. The percentage of time that electricity is used in pro- 
 portion to the time when it is available for use is called the 
 “load factor’ 7 of the utility, and a diligent effort was made to im- 
 prove this load factor. In making rates it was seen not to be 
 just that a man who uses the central-station investment only, say, 
 100 hours a year, should be able to buy the product at the same 
 price per unit as a man who uses the investment, say, 3,000 hours 
 a year, when the amounts of money invested to take care of the 
 two customers are precisely the same. Rates should be adjusted 
 so as to pay the operating expenses required for good service, 
 plus a fair return on the money invested, plus a reasonable al- 
 lowance to meet depreciation. So far as it can be arranged in 
 practice, every customer should pay a rate proportionate to the 
 cost of the service furnished to him, remembering that electric 
 service from central stations is more of the nature of a service 
 than of a commodity. 
 
 The Laborer Is Worthy of His Hire 
 
 In studying the achievements of Electricity-at-Work one im- 
 portant thing to remember is that the rates for electrical energy, 
 going back for a term of years, have in most localities materially 
 decreased, unless, under the stress of war conditions, increases 
 have been necessary in the last three or four years. But, on the 
 whole, these prices have decreased, while it is equally true that 
 the rates for necessities like food, clothing, fuel and taxes have 
 increased from 75 to 250 per cent or more. This contrast is illus 
 trated by a diagram given on page 35. This is accounted for, 
 in spite of the fact that the labor and materials used in the pro- 
 duction of electrical energy have very materially increased in 
 price, by the fact that, with the advance in the art, great econ- 
 omies have been effected by the use of large generating units, 
 improved incandescent lamps, and in other ways. Furthermore, 
 the almost universal use of electricity nowadays for all sorts of 
 purposes enables the machinery and other equipment to be used 
 for a greater proportion of the twenty-four hours. This reduces 
 the cost. Conservative financing lias also played its part. 
 
34 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 In the eighties central-station rates were equivalent to about 
 25 cents a kilowatt-hour. In 1898 the average income of large 
 companies was in the neighborhood of seven cents a kilowatt- 
 hour, while in 1919 the average income of the Commonwealth 
 Edison Company of Chicago was about two cents a kilowatt-hour. 
 Many factors enter into the making of equitable rates, and the 
 cost of producing and distributing electricity varies to a very con- 
 siderable extent in different communities. 
 
 How This Servant Does His Best Work 
 
 Gradually it was discovered also that the hap-hazard hit-or- 
 miss plan of allowing two or a dozen or half a hundred central- 
 station organizations in a given community was all wrong. It 
 was found that the cheapest and most efficient way to produce 
 and distribute electrical energy was by operating the utility as a 
 monopoly over as large a territory as could be economically 
 served from one organization. The word “monopoly,” as used 
 here, does not have the offensive meaning of that word at com- 
 mon law, but indicates an exclusive privilege, the company being 
 subjected to such reasonable regulation that it is shorn of all the 
 evils of a monopoly. At first the electric-service utilities were 
 regulated by municipal authorities, by politics, by competition, 
 or by threats of competition, but in late years the plan of regula- 
 tion by state public-utility commissions has been adopted largely. 
 Out of the forty-eight states in the Union forty have public- 
 utility commissions with authority over electric-light-and-power 
 companies. 
 
 Central-station managers have come to look upon themselves 
 as semi-public officials ; they aim to conduct their affairs with the 
 community so as to secure the advantage of a reputation for abso- 
 lutely fair and impartial dealing. No longer is the electricity- 
 supply enterprise regarded as a private venture ; it is now, indeed, 
 a public utility. In a public-utility enterprise no man is so highly 
 placed that he can afford to be arrogant, nor is any man so lowly 
 that he need be servile. 
 
 To effect greater economy, and often to improve the quality of 
 the service, the generation of electrical energy in small places is 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 35 
 
 often abandoned, such towns and the intermediate territory be- 
 tween them being served from a network of electrical transmis- 
 sion and distribution lines, the electricity being generated at 
 large stations at economical points of production and transmitted 
 to local substations and distributing systems. 
 
 290 
 
 225 
 
 200 
 
 175 
 
 150 
 
 125 3 
 
 5 
 
 Cft 
 
 m 
 
 100 
 
 7 $ 
 
 -u 
 
 m 
 
 50 * 
 
 o 
 
 m 
 
 z 
 
 25 
 
 0 
 
 o 
 
 m 
 
 25 3 
 
 m 
 > 
 <A 
 
 50 m 
 
 75 
 
 100 
 
 96 '98 1900 *02 *04 '06 *08 1910 '12 '14 M6 M8 , 19 
 
 Other Prices Go Up; Electric Lighting Goes Down 
 
 The figures are for Chicago. 
 
 During the period of this transformation from local plants 
 to large systems a few service interruptions on the 4 ■ high lines , 9 9 
 as the transmission lines are sometimes called, have been re- 
 ported. It is no doubt true that at the present time, at the close 
 of the Great War and during the troubled era of reconstruction, 
 the companies that direct Electricity-at-Work have not been able 
 
36 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 to secure capital adequate to the building of transmission lines 
 of ample capacity, having sufficient reserve to protect against in- 
 terruptions. But the ultimate advantage to the consumer of be- 
 ing a part of these large interconnected systems is so great that 
 any slight inconvenience of the development period may be 
 borne with patience. 
 
 Paralleling of investments in the shape of generating stations 
 and distributing systems simply adds to the cost of the product 
 which the community purchases. Therefore, a regulated monop- 
 oly, whether such monopoly is privately operated or publicly op- 
 erated, is more in accordance with scientific methods than regula- 
 tion by competition. The economic tendency toward the combina- 
 tion and centralization of electricity supply has been very marked 
 in the United States during the last ten or fifteen years. 
 
 Fair Play for the Burden Bearer 
 
 The duties of Electricity-at-Work are now tremendously im- 
 portant. In considering the public relations of public-utility 
 companies it may be well to remember that management for the 
 people is not necessarily management by the people. Obviously 
 the people cannot, of themselves, perform the highly technical 
 task of operating public utilities. They must employ experts for 
 this purpose. And, in this country and at this time, the best 
 way to secure the best service of the best experts — to give the 
 public the best service at the lowest rates consistent with the best 
 service — is to permit private enterprise a suitable financial re- 
 ward to serve as an incentive, so that the character of brains 
 so greatly needed for this complex undertaking shall be attracted 
 to the work. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt is reported to have said : ‘ ‘ I do not believe 
 in government ownership of anything which can with propriety 
 be left in private hands. ?? Another great man, a fair-minded 
 man, who has given thought to this subject, is Thomas A. Edi- 
 son. Referring to old contracts for five-cent fares on street rail- 
 ways, Mr. Edison said quite recently: “The municipalities can 
 exact their pound of flesh if they so desire, with the ultimate 
 bankruptcy of these organzations. But the spirit that is now 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 37 
 
 abroad in the world is against this. We are all trying to play 
 fair. If suffer we must, we must all suffer alike. If prosperity 
 comes, all should participate in a like manner. ” 
 
 Municipal operation has the theoretical advantage that capital 
 can be borrowed more cheaply and that it is not necessary to 
 make a profit. However, opposed to these, are the practical ad- 
 vantages of careful management, continuity of management and 
 private initiative. Mr. E. N. Hurley, who served during the 
 
 A Modern Electric Substation in a Small Illinois Town 
 
 recent war as chairman of the United States Shipping Board, 
 when asked what had impressed him most in carrying out his 
 great task, said: “The efficiency of private ownership and op- 
 eration, as compared with public ownership and operation.” 
 Mr. Hurley declared that the whole proposition of government 
 ownership is fine in theory, but that in practice the push of in- 
 dividual energy is missing. 
 
 In the larger plans being worked out for the distribution of 
 cheap electricity over the country through interconnected net- 
 
38 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 works, the small local plant, including the small municipal plant, 
 seems to he out of place. Large systems covering wide areas can 
 he more economically operated, thus serving the people best in 
 the long run. This is a very important aspect of the subject, 
 and all citizens with the good of the country at heart should have 
 knowledge of the importance of power production and distribu- 
 tion in the United States, so that the pressure of public opinion 
 will back up those in authority, who should have vision and im- 
 agination in understanding the great importance of Electricity- 
 at-Work. 
 
 Really the matter is simply one of common honesty in giving 
 the electrical utility a fair and just return for work faithfully 
 performed. 
 
 Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Fortunately the electrical requirements of Smith, Jones and 
 Robinson— or of the light-and-power, street-railway, industrial, 
 mining, farming and transportation interests of a state or a part 
 of a state — do not exactly coincide. Thus the centralized elec- 
 tricity-supply system can utilize this diversity of demand to bet- 
 ter advantage than a number of power-producing systems. It 
 has been estimated that if the primary power requirements of 
 the -United States were massed in a number of economic power 
 areas, each supplied with its own interlinked system of generat- 
 ing, transmitting and distributing electrical energy, the saving 
 in fuel alone, compared with present conditions, would be prob- 
 ably not less than $1,000,000,000 a year. 
 
 What has been accomplished thus far in electrical develop- 
 ment, in directing Electricity-at-Work, has been due to private 
 initiative. Apparently the future demands that will be made on 
 this faithful servant are almost without limit. Electric power is 
 bound to be used to a much greater extent in agricultural opera- 
 tions, in metallurgy, in operating the trains of trunk-line rail- 
 roads and in the home. In states like New York and Illinois 
 perhaps one-third of primary power requirements are supplied 
 from electric central stations. The time will come, no doubt, 
 when this proportion will be nearly 100 per cent. Waterpowers 
 
ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 :i9 
 
 should be developed to the greatest extent, but, according to Dr. 
 C. 1 . Steinmetz, the liope that if coal should fail we may use 
 the waterpowers of the country as a compensatory source of en- 
 ergy is a dream, because if all the possible waterpowers of the 
 country were developed the resulting energy would hardly supply 
 the present demand. Probably the possibility of the exhaustion 
 
 -/ 
 
 Electric Generating Station in Southern Illinois 
 
 Much of the output of this plant goes to coal mines. 
 
 of the coal supply of the world is so remote that the study of 
 such sources of power as atomic energy, solar radiation, the heat 
 of the earth, winds and tides, is not of immediate pressing im- 
 portance. Whatever the future may hold for us in the manner of 
 sources of power, it is at present certain that Electricity-at-Work 
 is a most economical and convenient servant for applying energy 
 to conditions of actual work. 
 
40 
 
 ELECTRICITY THE BURDEN BEARER 
 
 The cost of power is very closely related to the welfare of the 
 human race. It is probable that the future will see networks of 
 electrical distribution systems covering all the populous parts 
 of the United States, with large electrical generating stations 
 feeding into this network at points where electrical energy can be 
 produced most cheaply. These stations may be driven by steam 
 engines, waterwheels or oil or gas engines. Many of the material 
 problems of modern society relating to the conditions of life and 
 labor and the bringing up of children will be met more satisfac- 
 torily when cheap electric power is thus spread over the land, 
 throughout rural communities, so that it may be “ on tap ’ ’ where- 
 ever other conditions are favorable for industrial operations, thus 
 relieving much of the congestion in crowded centers of popula- 
 tion. Eleetricity-at-Work is looking ahead to his great task of 
 today and tomorrow — that of bringing cheap power and the com- 
 forts of modern civilization to every man’s door. 
 
Gaylord Bros 
 Makers 
 yracuse, N Y, 
 
 AT. JAN. 21, 1908 
 
 
 I 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 112081887