chapter17.txt

CHAPTER XVII







OTHER EARLY STATIONS--THE METER







WE have now seen the Edison lighting system



given a complete, convincing demonstration in



Paris, London, and New York; and have noted steps



taken for its introduction elsewhere on both sides



of the Atlantic. The Paris plant, like that at the



Crystal Palace, was a temporary exhibit. The London



plant was less temporary, but not permanent,



supplying before it was torn out no fewer than



three thousand lamps in hotels, churches, stores, and



dwellings in the vicinity of Holborn Viaduct. There



Messrs. Johnson and Hammer put into practice many



of the ideas now standard in the art, and secured



much useful data for the work in New York, of



which the story has just been told.







As a matter of fact the first Edison commercial



station to be operated in this country was that at



Appleton, Wisconsin, but its only serious claim to



notice is that it was the initial one of the system



driven by water-power. It went into service August



15, 1882, about three weeks before the Pearl Street



station. It consisted of one small dynamo of a



capacity of two hundred and eighty lights of 10 c.p.



each, and was housed in an unpretentious wooden



shed. The dynamo-electric machine, though small,



was robust, for under all the varying speeds of water-



power, and the vicissitudes of the plant to which it,



belonged, it continued in active use until 1899--



seventeen years.







Edison was from the first deeply impressed with



the possibilities of water-power, and, as this incident



shows, was prompt to seize such a very early opportunity.



But his attention was in reality concentrated



closely on the supply of great centres of population,



a task which he then felt might well occupy his lifetime;



and except in regard to furnishing isolated



plants he did not pursue further the development of



hydro-electric stations. That was left to others, and



to the application of the alternating current, which



has enabled engineers to harness remote powers, and,



within thoroughly economical limits, transmit thousands



of horse-power as much as two hundred miles at



pressures of 80,000 and 100,000 volts. Owing to his



insistence on low pressure, direct current for use in



densely populated districts, as the only safe and truly



universal, profitable way of delivering electrical



energy to the consumers, Edison has been frequently



spoken of as an opponent of the alternating current.



This does him an injustice. At the time a measure



was before the Virginia legislature, in 1890, to limit



the permissible pressures of current so as to render



it safe, he said: "You want to allow high pressure



wherever the conditions are such that by no possible



accident could that pressure get into the houses of



the consumers; you want to give them all the latitude



you can." In explaining this he added: "Suppose



you want to take the falls down at Richmond,



and want to put up a water-power? Why, if we



erect a station at the falls, it is a great economy to



get it up to the city. By digging a cheap trench and



putting in an insulated cable, and connecting such



station with the central part of Richmond, having



the end of the cable come up into the station from



the earth and there connected with motors, the power



of the falls would be transmitted to these motors.



If now the motors were made to run dynamos conveying



low-pressure currents to the public, there is



no possible way whereby this high-pressure current



could get to the public." In other words, Edison



made the sharp fundamental distinction between high



pressure alternating current for transmission and low



pressure direct current for distribution; and this is



exactly the practice that has been adopted in all the



great cities of the country to-day. There seems no



good reason for believing that it will change. It



might perhaps have been altogether better for Edison,



from the financial standpoint, if he had not identified



himself so completely with one kind of current, but



that made no difference to him, as it was a matter of



conviction; and Edison's convictions are granitic.



Moreover, this controversy over the two currents,



alternating and direct, which has become historical



in the field of electricity--and is something like the



"irrepressible conflict" we heard of years ago in



national affairs--illustrates another aspect of Edison's



character. Broad as the prairies and free in thought



as the winds that sweep them, he is idiosyncratically



opposed to loose and wasteful methods, to plans of



empire that neglect the poor at the gate. Every-



thing he has done has been aimed at the conservation



of energy, the contraction of space, the intensification



of culture. Burbank and his tribe represent



in the vegetable world, Edison in the mechanical.



Not only has he developed distinctly new species,



but he has elucidated the intensive art of getting



$1200 out of an electrical acre instead of $12--a



manured market-garden inside London and a ten-



bushel exhausted wheat farm outside Lawrence,



Kansas, being the antipodes of productivity--yet



very far short of exemplifying the difference of electrical



yield between an acre of territory in Edison's



"first New York district" and an acre in some small



town.







Edison's lighting work furnished an excellent basis--



in fact, the only one--for the development of the alternating



current now so generally employed in central-



station work in America; and in the McGraw Electrical



Directory of April, 1909, no fewer than 4164 stations



out of 5780 reported its use. When the alternating



current was introduced for practical purposes it was



not needed for arc lighting, the circuit for which,



from a single dynamo, would often be twenty or



thirty miles in length, its current having a pressure



of not less than five or six thousand volts. For some



years it was not found feasible to operate motors on



alternating-current circuits, and that reason was



often urged against it seriously. It could not be



used for electroplating or deposition, nor could it



charge storage batteries, all of which are easily within



the ability of the direct current. But when it came



to be a question of lighting a scattered suburb, a



group of dwellings on the outskirts, a remote country



residence or a farm-house, the alternating current, in



all elements save its danger, was and is ideal. Its



thin wires can be carried cheaply over vast areas,



and at each local point of consumption the transformer



of size exactly proportioned to its local task



takes the high-voltage transmission current and



lowers its potential at a ratio of 20 or 40 to 1, for use



in distribution and consumption circuits. This evolution



has been quite distinct, with its own inventors



like Gaulard and Gibbs and Stanley, but came subsequent



to the work of supplying small, dense areas



of population; the art thus growing from within,



and using each new gain as a means for further



achievement.







Nor was the effect of such great advances as those



made by Edison limited to the electrical field. Every



department of mechanics was stimulated and benefited



to an extraordinary degree. Copper for the



circuits was more highly refined than ever before to



secure the best conductivity, and purity was insisted



on in every kind of insulation. Edison was intolerant



of sham and shoddy, and nothing would satisfy him



that could not stand cross-examination by microscope,



test-tube, and galvanometer. It was, perhaps,



the steam-engine on which the deepest imprint for



good was made, referred to already in the remarks



of Mr. F. J. Sprague in the preceding chapter, but



best illustrated in the perfection of the modern high-



speed engine of the Armington & Sims type. Unless



he could secure an engine of smoother running and



more exactly governed and regulated than those avail-



able for his dynamo and lamp, Edison realized that



he would find it almost impossible to give a steady



light. He did not want his customers to count the



heart-beats of the engine in the flicker of the lamp.



Not a single engine was even within gunshot of the



standard thus set up, but the emergency called forth



its man in Gardiner C. Sims, a talented draughtsman



and designer who had been engaged in locomotive



construction and in the engineering department of



the United States Navy. He may be quoted as to



what happened: "The deep interest, financial and



moral, and friendly backing I received from Mr.



Edison, together with valuable suggestions, enabled



me to bring out the engine; as I was quite alone in



the world--poor--I had found a friend who knew



what he wanted and explained it clearly. Mr. Edison



was a leader far ahead of the time. He compelled the



design of the successful engine.







"Our first engine compelled the inventing and making



of a suitable engine indicator to indicate it--the



Tabor. He obtained the desired speed and load



with a friction brake; also regulator of speed; but



waited for an indicator to verify it. Then again there



was no known way to lubricate an engine for continuous



running, and Mr. Edison informed me that as a



marine engine started before the ship left New ...