EARLY ELECTRIC LIGHT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 800, 22 October 1929, Page 11

EARLY ELECTRIC LIGHT

FIRST SERVICE IN NEW YORK EDISON’S EXPERIMENT New York was hardly more than an overgrown village in ISSi when Thomas A. Edison opened the first central station to sell his new incandescent light to a doubting public; says an exchange. The metropolis o£ crowds and towers of 1920 was a horse-car town, then. Xot a single skvscrapper had as yet reared its head. Homes worn lighted for the most part by gas. The cluster of globes, the daily evening round with a lighted war taper, the lamplighter on the streets, the sputtering arelights, are still familiar memories. Hotels still displayed in their rooms the warning “Don't blow out the gas." At present there is in progress Light's Golden Jubilee, a series of celebrations of stupendous proportions in honour of Thomas Edison and his incandescent light. For it was that light which prompted the first central station and was the origin not only of New York City's present electrical system, but also of an advance in every field of civilised effort that has no equal in any other period of history. After Mr. Edison had sufficiently perfected his incandescent lamp for commercial purposes in the Menlo Park, N.Y. laboratories, he organised the Edison Electric Illuminating Company on December 17, 1880, and prepared to establish a central station in New York City. The station was to serve a district about a square mile in ail. Edison ordered a thorough canvass and before the station opened he knew the exact number of gas jets in every building, how many hours they burned and the cost. He knew every consumer of power and just how much was used.

Edison would consider nothing but an underground system. He was building for permanency, and he didn’t propose to add his electric light system to the existing confusion of overhead wires. As the under-ground system was planned, many intricate problems arose and many were the devices Edison invented to solve them. Edison was not only forced to design his equipment, but he also had to manufacture it. At the same time the business of wiring customer's premises for lamps and meters went on. In those days Edison worked day and night with the energy for which he has become famous. Monday, September 4, 1882, was the eventful day of the official opening. At 3 p.m. steam was admitted to the engine of one Jumbo generator, current was generated, turned into the thirteen miles of underground conductors, the electric light system was started and a new art introduced to the world. At the end of the first month that station had 59 customers. By the first year tne number had reached 445. Light was supplied free for thr£p months while the meter system was thoroughly tested. The lirst bill for 50.40 dollars was collected from the Anaconda Brass and Copper Company. An interesting incident in connection with the early operation of the meter system concerns J. P. Morgan, the international financier, whose firm was among the first customers. Mr. Morgan doubted the accuracy of the meters. - Whereupon Mr. Edison devised a check by suggesting that cards to be hung on each fixture noting the number of lights and the time they were turned on and off. At the end of a month when these figures were checked against those of the meter, there was a considerable discrepancy. Another month’s test was made and again an overcharge seemed apparent. Mr. Edison, quite disturbed. made a personal call at the offices of Drexel Morgan and Company to investigate. He asked when the office was cleaned and was informed this was done at night. Further inquiry showed that the lights used by the janitor had escaped the record. The next month’s test included the janitor’s light and the results tallied almost to the penny with the meter. Mr. Morgan was satisfied, and Mr. Edison’s meter system was vindicated. The first plant was a huge success. It supplied about 400 lamps at the start but within a few years there were eleven Jumbo generators, nearly 1,000 consumers, and more than 14,000 lamps in circuit. The station ran for eight years steadily, stopping only a few days because of fire. One of the original Jumbos is still in existence, having been preserved by the Company for historical purposes.