 Chapter 15 of Addison, His Life and Inventions This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information on to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nellie. Addison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lois Dyer and Thomas Comerford Martin. Chapter 15. Introduction of the Addison Electric Light In the previous chapter on the invention of a system, the narrative has been carried along for several years of activity after the verge of successful and commercial application of Addison's ideas and devices for incandescent electric lightning. The story of any year, one year in this period, if treated chronologically, would branch off in a great many directions, some going back to early works, others forward to arts, not within the generous array. And the effect of such treatment would be confusing. In line manner, the development of the Addison lightning system follows several concurrent simultaneously lines of lines and an effort was therefore made in the last chapter to give a rapid glance over the whole movement, embracing a term of near five years including its growth, both the old word and the new. What is necessary to the completeness of the story, at this stage, is not to recapitulate, but to take up some of the loose ends of the threads, woven in and followed them through until the clear and comprehensive picture of the events can be seen. Some things it will be difficult to reproduce in any picture of the art in times. One of the greatest delusions of the public or to any notable invention is the belief that the word is waiting for it with open arms and eager welcome. The exact contrary is the truth. There is not a single new art or device the word has ever enjoyed of, which it can be said that it was given immediate enthusiastic reception. The way of the inventor is hard. You can sometimes raise capital to help him in working out his crude conceptions. But even then it is frequently done at a distressed for cost or personal surrender. When the result is achieved, the invention makes its appeal on the score of economy a material of effort. And then labor often awaits with crushing and tyrannical spirit to smash the apparatus or forbid its very use. Where both capital and labor are agreed that the object is worthy of encouragement, there is the superior indifference of the public to overcome and the stubborn resistance of the pre-existing devices to combat. The years of hardship and struggle are thus prolonged. The targeting poverty and neglect two frequent bidders to invent a scanty bread. And one great spirit after another has scum-bin to the defeat beyond which lay the procrastinated triumph so dearly earned. Even America, where the adoption of improvements and innovations is regarded as so prompt and sure and where the huge torso of the patent office and the court-bare witness to the consistently efforts of the inventor, it is impossible to deny that the sad truth that unconsciously society discards invention rather than invites it. Possibly our national optimism as reviewing the invention is seeking the higher good and it's some check. Possibly the leaders would travel too fast and too far on the road to perfection if conservatism did not also play its salutary part in insisting that the procession move forward as a whole. Addison and his electrolyte were happily more fortunate than other man inventions in the relative cordiality of the reception given them. The merit was too obvious to remain unrecognized. Nevertheless it was through intense hostility and opposition that the young art made its way pushed forward by Addison's strong personality and by his unbounded, unwavering faith in the ultimate success of his system. It may seem strange that great effort was required to introduce a life so manifestly unconvenient, safe, agreeable and advantageous, but the facts are a matter of record. And today the recollection of some of the episodes brings a fierce glitter into the eye and keen indignation into the voice of the man who has come so victoriously through the door. There was not a fact at any time that the public was opposed to the idea of the electric light. On the contrary, the conditions for its exceptions had been rightening fast. Yet the very vogue of the electric art light made harder the arrival of the incandescent as a new illuminant for the streets. The art became familiar either as a direct substitute for the low gas lamp along the sidewalk curve or as a noble former moonlight raised in groups at the top of fluffy towers often 150 feet high. Some of these lights were already used for large indoor spaces. Although the size of the unit, the deadly pressure of the current and sputtering sparks from the carbons made them highly objectable for such purposes. A number of parent art lighting companies were in existence and a great many local companies had been caught into being under franchise for commercial business and to execute regular city contracts for street lighting. In this manner, a good deal of capital and the energies of many prominent men in politics and business had been rallied distinctively to support of art lighting under the inventive leaderships of such brilliant men as Bruce, Thompson, Weston and then Depple Eller. There were scores of others. The industry had made considerable progress and the art has been firmly established. Fear lurked, however, very rigorous elements of opposition. For Edison predicted from the start the superiority of this more electric unit of light and devoted himself exclusively to its perfection and introduction. It can be readily seen that this situation made it all the more difficult for Edison system to secure the large sums of money needed for its co-itation and to obtain new franchises of city ordinance as a public utility. Thus, in the curious manner the modern art of electric lighting was in a very true sense divided against itself with intense reveries and jealousies which were nonetheless real because they were by temporary and occuring felt where ultimate union of the force was inevitable. For a long period of time the art was dominant and superior in the lighting branch of the electric industry in all respects, whether as to investment, employees, income and profits or in the respect of the manufacturing side. When a great national electric light association was formed in 1885 its organizers were the captains of our clientele and not a single Edison company or a licensee could be found in its ranks. I would dare to solicit membership. The Edison company soon numbering about 300 formed their own association still maintained as a separate and useful body and the lines were tensely drawn in a way that made it not too easy for the Edison service to advance or for an impartial man to remain friendly with both sides. But the growing popularity of income does enlightening the flexibility and safety of the system the ease with which other electric devices for heat, power, etc. could be put indiscriminately on the same circuits with the lamps In due course render the old attitude of opposition, obviously foolish and unattainable. The United States censors office statistics of 1902 show that the income from incandescent lightning by central stations had by that time become over 52% of the total while that from arc lightning was less than 29 and electric power surfaced due to the ease with which models could be introduced on incandescent circuits brought in 15% more Hence, 20 years after the first Edison station were established the methods they involved could be fairly credited with no less than 67% of all central station income in the country and the proportion has grown ever since then It will be readily understood that under these conditions the modern lightning company supplies to its customers both incandescent and arc lightning frequently from the same dynamo electric machinery as a source of current and that the old feud as between the rival systems has died out In fact, for some years past the residents of the National Electric Light Association have been chosen almost exclusively from among the managers of the great Edison lightning companies in the leading cities The other strong opposition to the incandescent light came from the gas industry They're also the most bitter feeling was shown The gas manager did not like arc light but it interfered only with his street service which was not his large source of income by any means What did arouse his eye and indignation was to find this new opponent the little incandescent lamp pushing boldly into the felt of interior lightning claiming it on a great variety of grounds of superiority and calmly ignoring the question of price because it was so much better newspaper records and the pages of the technical papers of the day show to what extent prejudice and passion were stirred up and a stunning degree to which the opposition to the new light was carried Here again was given the most convincing demonstration of the truth that such an addition to the resources of mankind always carries with it unsuspected benefits even for its enemies In two distinct directions the gas art was immediately helped by Edison's work The competition was almost solidary and a stimulus it gave to improvements in processes for making, distributing and using gas so that while vast economies have been factored at the gasworks the customers has had infinitely better light for less money In the second place the coming of the incandescent light raised a standard of illumination in such a manner that more gas than ever was wanted in order to satisfy the popular demand for brightness and brillancy both indoors and on the street The result of the operation of these two forces acting upon it wholly from without and from arrival it was desired to crush has been to increase enormously the production and use of the gas in the last 25 years It is true that the income of the central station is now over 300 million dollars a year and that isolated plant aligning presents also a large amount of diverted business but just as shown it would obviously be unfair to regard all this as allures from the standpoint of gas It is in a great measure due to new sources of income developed by electricity for itself A retrospective survey shows that had the man in control of the American gas lighting art in 1880 being sufficiently farsighted had they not taken a broad view of the situation they might easily have remained dominant in the whole field of artificial lighting by securing the ownership of the patterns and devices of the new industrial Apparently not a single step of that was undertaken No problems there a gas manager who would have agreed with Edison in the opinion written down by him that the time in little notebook number 184 the gas problems were having conferred on them an enhanced earning capacity It was now a fortunate and providential for the electric lighting art that in a state of immature development it did not fall into hands of men who were opposed to its growth and would not have sought its technical perfection It was allowed to carve out its own career and thus escape the fate that is supposed to have attended other great inventions of being bought up mainly for purposes of suppression There is a very popular notion that this happens to the public lords but the truth is that no discovery of any real value is ever entirely lost it may be retarded, but that is all In the case of the gas companies and the incandescent light many of them to whom he was in the early days as great and irritant as a red flat to a bow emulated the performance of that animal and spent a great deal of money and energy in belowing and throwing up dirt in the effort to destroy the heated enemy This was not long nor universally the spirit is shown and today in hundreds of cities the electric and gas products are united under that one management which does not find it impossible to push in a friendly and progressive way the use of both illuminance The most conspicuous example of this identity of interest is given in New York itself So much for the early opposition of which there were plenty but it may be questioned whether in our shares not equally to be dreaded with active ill will Nothing is more difficult in the world than to get a good many hundreds of thousands or millions of people to do something they have never done before A very real difficulty in the introduction of Islam and lightning system by Addison lay in the absolute ignorance of the public at large not only as to his merits but as to the very appearance of the light Some few thousand people had gone out to Melo Park and had there seen the lamps in operation at the laboratory or on the hillsides but there were an insignificant proportion of the inhabitants of the United States Of course a great many counts were written in red but while genuine interest was aroused it was necessarily apathetic A newspaper description of a maxing article admirably complete in itself with illustrations but until some person experienced his hat of the thing described it is not convict a perfect mental picture nor can it always make the desire active and insistent Generally people way to have the new thing brought to them and hence as in the case of the Addison light an educational campaign of a practical nature is a fundamental condition of success After a serious difficulty confronted Addison and his associates was that nowhere in the world were there to be purchased any of the appliances necessary for the use of lighting system Addison has resolved from the very first act the initial central station embodying his various ideas should be installed in New York City where he could super intend the installation personally and then watch the operation Plans to that end were now rapidly maturing but there will be needed among many other things every one of them new and novel the enamels, switchboards regulators, pressure and current indicators, fixturing great variety, incandescent lamp mirrors, sockets small switches, underground conductors, junction boxes service boxes, manhole boxes, connectors and even specially made wire Now, not one of these chalice things were in existence not any outsider was sufficiently informed about such devices to make them in order except perhaps the special wire Addison therefore started the first of all a lamp factory in one of the buildings in mellow park equipped it with novel machinery and apparatus and began to instruct men, boys and girls as they could be enlisted in the absolutely new art that he must obtain in charge with regard to the condition attended upon the manufacture of the lamps Addison says when we first started the electric light we had had fan factory for manufacturing lamps as the addon c light company did not seem deposed to go into manufacturing we started small lamp factory in mellow park with what money I could raise from my other inventions or rioters and some assistance the lamps at that time were costing about 1.25 dollars each to make so I said to the company if you will give me a contract during the life of the patents I will make all the lamps required by the company and deliver them for 40 cents the company jumped at the chance of this offer and a contract was drawn up but then bought at a receiver's house at Harrison New Jersey a very large brick factory building which having used as an all your clothes we got it at a great bargain and only paid us more some damn and the ballast and water gauge we moved the lamp forks from mellow park to Harrison the first year lamps cost us about 1.10 dollars each we sold them for 40 cents but there were only about 20 or 30 thousands of them the next year they cost us about 70 cents and we sold them for 40 cents there were a good many and we lost more money the second year than the first the third year I succeeded in getting a machinery and in changing processes until it got down so that it cost somewhere around 50 cents I still sold them for 40 cents and lost more money that year than any other because the sales were increasingly rapidly the fourth year I got it down to 37 cents and I made all the money up in one year that I had lost previously I finally got it down to 22 cents and sold them for 40 cents and they were made by the million very upon the war street people thought it was a very lucrative business so they concluded that they would like to have it and bought us out one of the incidents which caused a very great cheapening was that when we started one of the important processes had to be done by experts this was the selling of the part carrying the filament into the globe which was rather delicate operation in those days and required several months of training before anyone could sell a fair number of parts in a day when we got to the point where we employed 80 of these experts the former union and knowing it was impossible to manufacture lamps without them they become very insolent one instance with that the son of one of these experts was employed in the office and when he was told to do anything and our would give an insolent reply he was discharged where upon the union notified us that unless the boy was taken back the whole body would go out it got so bad that the manager came to me and said he could no stand any longer something had got to be done they were not only more surly they were diminishing the output and it became impossible to manage the works he got me enthused on the subject so I started to see if it were not possible to do that operation by machinery after feeling around for some days I got a clue how to do it I then put men on it I could trust and made the preliminary machinery it seemed to work pretty well I then made another machine which did the work nicely and then made a third machine and would bring in yard men ordinary laborers etc and when I could get these men to put the parts together as well as the trained experts in an hour I considered the machine complete then went secretly to work and made 30 of the machines up in a toft loft off the factory we stored these machines and at night we put up the benches and got everything already then we discharged the office boy then the union went out when we formed the works of Harrison we divided the interest into 100 shares or part set 100 dollars part one of the boys were a hard app at the time and so two shares to Bob cutting after that crime we had never pay anything but we got around to the point where the board declared a divide of every Saturday night we had never declared a divide when cutting Bob his shares and after getting his divide 30 weeks in succession we caught up on the telephone and wanted to know what kind of concern this was that paid a weekly divide the work sold for 1 million and 85 thousand dollars Incidentally it may be noted as illustrative of the problem brought to that he had the factory at Harrison and importing the Chinese trader went to him and wanted a dynamo to be run by hand power explain that in China human labor was cheaper than steam power Addison devised a machine to answer the purpose and put long spokes on it he fitted it up and shipped it to China he has not however heard of its things for making the dynamo Addison secured as noted in the preceding chapter the Roche ironworks on Go Work Street, New York and this was also equipped a building was rented on Washington Street where machinery tours were put in specially designed for making the underground tube conductor and the various paraphernalia and the faithful John Kruyasi was given charge of that branch of production to Sigmund Bergman who had worked previously with Addison on telephone the Paradison phonographs and was already making Addison specialties in a small way in a loft on Ooster Street, New York was designed to test of constructing sockets, fixtures meters, safety fuses and numerous other details thus broadly the manufacturing end of the problem of introduction was carried off in the early part of 1881 the Addison Electric Light Company leased the old B-Shot mansion at 65 Fifth Avenue close to Fording Street for its headquarters and showrooms this was one of the finest homes in the city of that period and its acquisition was a pre-monitor sign of the surrender of the famous residential avenue to commerce the company needed not only offices but even more such as an interior as would display to advantage the new lighting everyday use and this house with its liberal lines, spacious halls lofty salons, white parlors and graceful wine stairway was ideal for the purpose in fact, in undergoing this violent change it enough is to be a home in the real sense but to this day many Addison veterans' house is quickened by some chance reference to 65 where through many years the work of development by a loyal and devoted band of workers was centered here Addison and a few of his assistants from Menlo Park installed immediately in the basement this more generating plant at first with the gas engine which was not successful and then with the Hampson high speed engine a boiler constituted a complete isolated plant the building was wired from top to bottom and equipped with all the appliances of the yard the experience with the little gas engine was rather startling at an early period of 65 we decided, says Addison system and put a gas engine in the cellar using city gas one day it was not going very well and it went down to the man in charge and got exploring around finally I opened the pedestal a store has for a tour etc. we had an open lamp and when we opened the pedestal it blow the doors off and blow out the windows and not me Dan and the other man for the next 405 years 65 was a very double B high day and night the routine was very much the same as that at the laboratory in its other necklace of the clock the evenings were not only devoted to the continuous of the regular business but the house was thrown open to the public until late at night never closing before 10 o'clock so as to give everybody who wished an opportunity to see that great novelty of the time the incandescent light whose fame had meanwhile been spreading all over the globe the first year 1881 was eventually that which witnessed the greatest rush of visitors and the building hardly ever closed its doors till midnight during the day business was carried on on the greatest rush and Mr. Ingzao has described how Edison was to be found there trying to lead the life of a man of affairs in a conventional garb of polite society instead of pursuing inventions and researches in his laboratory but the disagreeable audio experience Edison could never again be tempted to quit his laboratory and work for any length of time but in this instance there were some advantages attached to the sacrifice for the crowds of lying hunters and people seeking business arrangements wouldn't only have gone out to Menlo Park while on the other hand the great plans are lying in New York demanded very close personal attention on the sport as he was not only Edison but officers and employees were kept busy exhibiting and explaining light to the probably of that day when the highest known form of the house illuminant was scarce the incandescent lamp with its ability to burn in any position is lack of heat so that you can put your hand on the brilliant glass globe the absence of any visiating effect on the atmosphere the average safety from fire the curious fact that you need in no match just to light it that it was under absolute control from a distance these and many other features came as a distinct revelation and marvel while promising so much addition comfort, convenience and beauty in the house that inspection was almost invariably followed by request for installation the camaraderie that existed at this time was very democratic but all were workers in a common cost as the believers in the doctrine they proclaimed and hoped to profit by the opening up of the new art often at night, in a small hours all would adjourn for refreshments to a famous resort nearby and to discuss the events of the today and tomorrow full of instant excitement the easy relationship at the time is neatly sketched by Edison and humorous complaint as to his inability to keep his own secrets when at 65 I would ask a box of secret I would go to the box for five times a day to get a secret but after it got circulated about the feuding everybody would come to get my secret so the box would only last about a day and a half I was telling a gentleman one day that I could not keep a secret even if I locked them up in my desk they would break it open he suggested to me that he had a friend over on 8th Avenue who made a superior grade of secrets and who would show them a trick he said that he would have some of them made up with hair and old paper and I could put them in without a word and see the result I thought no more about the matter it came in two or three months after and said how did that secret business work I didn't remember anything about it I'm coming to investigate it appeared that the box of secret had been delivered and had been put in my desk and I had smoked them all I was too busy on other things to denotus it was not uncommon sight to see in the parlows in the evening of Joan P. Morgan Novin Prane Grosvenor P. Laurie Henry Viller Robert L. Cotton Edward D. Adams J. Hoot Wright E.G. Fabry Armand Galloway and other men prominent in the city life many of them stockholders and directors all interested in doing this educational work as soon as that came bankers, brokers, lawyers editors and reporters prominent businessman, electricians insurance experts under whose research and intelligence inquires the fact was elicited and general admiration was soon one for the system which in advance had solved so many new problems Edison himself was in universal request and the subject of much adulation put all together two business models by it once in a while he found in his duty to go off the ground with scientific visitors many of whom were formed abroad and discussed questions which were not simply those of technique but related to newer phenomenon such as the action of carbon an age in the fact of high vacuums the principles electric goods subdivision the value of insulation and many others which unfortunately to say remain as esoteric now as they were then even fruit for themes of controversy speaking of those days of nights Edison says years ago one of the great violinist was Ramanee after his performances when were over he used to come down to 65 in talk economics philosophy, moral science and everything else he was highly educated and had a great mental capacity he would talk with me but I never asked him to bring his violin why night he came with his violin about 12 o'clock I had a library at the top of the house and Ramanee came up there he was in a january humor and played a violin for me for about two hours, $2,000 worth the front door were closed and he walked up and down the room as he played after that every time he came to New York he used to call at 65 late at night with his violin if we were not there he would come down to the slums and go up the street and would play for an hour door and talk philosophy I would talk for the benefit of his music Henry Dixie then at the height of his and on his popularity would come in those days after theater hours and would entertain us with stories 1882 to 1884 another visitor who used to give us a good deal of amusement and pleasure was Captain Shaw he was a good company he would go out among the fire ladies and have a great time one time Robert Lincoln Anson Stager of the West New Union interested in the electric light came on to make some arrangement with Major Eaton president of the Asson Electric Light Company they came to 65 in the afternoon and Lincoln commenced telling stories like his father it was all the afternoon and that night they left for Chicago when they got to Cleverland it dawned upon them that they had not done any business so they had to come back on the next train to New York and transact it they were interested in the Chicago Edison Company now one of the largest other systems in the world speaking of telling stories I went scouting telling a man's stories at the Harrisonland factory in the yard as he was leaving and he was all in first I had nothing on to protect me against the code I told him one story after the other six of all then I got pleurisy and had to be shipped to Florida for curie the organization of the Edison Electric Light Company went back to 1868 but after the time of leasing 65 Fifth Avenue had not been engaged in actual business he had merely enjoyed the delights of anxious anticipation after this pleasure of vacuuming Edison's experiments now active exploitation was required Dr. Noreen Green the well-known president of the western union telegraph company was president also of the Edison Company but the present nature of his regular duties left him no leisure for such close responsible management as was now required early in 1881 Mr. Gross Vaner P. Laury after consultation with Mr. Edison provide upon major SB Eaton the leading member of a very prominent law firm in New York to accept the position a vice president and general manager of the company in which has also in some of the subsidiary Edison companies and as president he continued actively and energetically for nearly four years a critical formative period in which the solidity of the foundation that is attested by the magnitude and splendor of the superstructure the fact that Edison conferred at this point with Mr. Laury should perhaps be explained in justice to the distinguished lawyer who for so many years was the close friend of the inventor and the chief consul in all the tremendous litigation that followed the effort to enforce and validate Edison patents as in England Mr. Edison was fortunate in securing the legal assistance of Sir Richard Webster and after Lord Chief Justice of England Sir America it counted greatly in his favor to ensure the advocacy of such a man as Laury prominent among the family leaders of the New York Barn, born in Massachusetts Mr. Laury in his earlier days of straightened circumstances was accustomed to the phrase some portion of his educational expenses but he did music in Berkshire villages and by a curious coincidence one of his pupils F. L. Pope later Edison partner for a time Laury went west to Bleeding Kansas with the first governor reader and both were actor participants in the exciting sense of the free state war until driven away in 1856 by many other free soilers but the act of the broader roughing legislature returning is Mr. Laury took a practice in New York soon becoming eminent in his profession and upon the accession of William the presidency of the western union telegraph company in 1866 he was appointed general council the duties of which posed his charge for 15 years one of the great cases in which he thus took a leading and distinguished art was that of the quadruplex telegraph and later he acted as a legal advisor to Henry Beelard in his numerous grand doys enterprises Laury thus came to know Edison to conceive an intense admiration for him and to believe in his ability at the time when others could not attack the fire of genius smothering beneath the modest bacteria of a young operator slowly finding himself he will be seeing that Mr. Laury was in a peculiarly advantageous position to make his convictions about Edison thought so that it was he and his friends who rallied quickly to the new barn of discovery and then to the inventor the aid that came as a critical period in this connection it may be well to quote an article that appeared at the time of Mr. Laury's death in 1893 one of the most important services which Mr. Laury has ever performed was in furnishing and procuring the necessary financial backing for Thompson a Edison and bringing out and perfecting his system of incandescent lightning with characteristic per tenacity Mr. Laury stood by the inventor through the second thing in spite of doubt discouragement and ridicule until he lost success crowns efforts and all the litigation which had resulted from the widespread infringements of Edison patterns Mr. Laury has ever born a burden and heat of the day and perhaps in no other fact has he so personally distinguished himself as in a successful advocacy of the claims of Edison to the invention of incandescent lamp and everything here around pertaining this was the man of whom Edison had necessarily to make confident an advisor and to supply other things beside the legal direction and financial alliance by his knowledge of the word and affairs there were many vital things to be done in the exploitation of the system that Edison simply could not and would not do but Laury's several affairs rather the wit and humor chevery and devotion graceful eloquence and admirable equi- poise of judgment were all the qualities that the occasion demanded and that met exegesis we are indebted to Mr. Ingsel for a graphic sketch of Edison at this period and of the conditions on which work was done and progress was made I do not think I had any understanding with Edison when I first went with him as to my duties I did whatever he told me and looked after all kinds of fears by his close to financing his business I used to open the correspondence and answer it all sometimes signing Edison's name with my initial and sometimes signing my own name if the letter of course were pursued I was addressing the stranger I was signing as Edison's private secretary I had his power of attorney and signed his checks it was seldom that Edison signed a letter of check at that time if he wanted personally to send a communication to anybody one of his close associates would probably be a pencil manual sign Edison it was a shorthand writer this item took down from Edison's dictation and as it was one on some technical subject that I did not understand I would go over the correspondence with Edison sometimes making a marginal note in shorthand that sometimes Edison would make his own old son letters and I would be expected to clear up the correspondence with Edison in the comments as a guide as to the character of answer to make it was a very common thing for Edison to write the words yes or no and this would be all I had on which to base my answer Edison marginalized documents extensively he had a wonderful ability in pointing out the weak points of agreement a balance sheet all the while protesting he was no lawyer or accountant and his values were expressed in very few words but in characteristic and emphatic manner the first few months I was with Edison he spent most of the time in the office at 65 Fifth Avenue then there was a great deal of trouble with the life of Lambsdale and he disappeared from the office and spent his time largely in Menlo Park and another time there were a great deal of trouble with some of the details and construction of dynamos and he spent a lot of time on Goer Street which had been rapidly equipped with the idea of turning out high polar dynamo electric machines directly connected to the engine the first of which went to Paris and London while the next were installed in Old Paris Street a station of Edison electrically dominating company of New York just south of Fluton Street and the west side of the street Edison devoted a great deal of his time to the engineering work in connection with the laying out of the first incandescent electric lighting system in New York apparently at that time at the end of 1881 and spring of 1882 the most serious were with the manufacture installation of underground conducts in this territory these conductors were manufactured by electric tube company which Edison controlled in a shop at 65 Washington Street run by John Criasi half round copper conductors were used kept in place relatively to each other and in the tube first of all by heavy piece of cardboard and later on by a rope and then put in a 20 feet iron pipe and a combination of glass phantom and linseed oil was forced into the pipe for insulation I remember as a coincidence that the building was only 20 feet wide these lengths of conductors were 20 feet 6 inches long as the half round corpus extended 3 inches beyond the drag ends of the length of the pipe and in one of the operations we used to take the length of tubing out of the window in order to turn around I was elected secretary of the electric tube company and was expected to look after its finances and it was in this precision that my long intimacy with John Criasi started at this juncture a large part of the correspondence referred very naturally to electric lighting, emboating requests for all kinds of information, catalogs prices, terms, etc and all these letters were turned over to the lighting company by Edison for attention Edison swammed with a proposition for sale of territorial rights and with other negotiations and some of these were accompanied by the offer of very large sums of money it was the beginning of the electric light forward which soon rose to sensational heights had the company accepted this cash offer some various localities it could have gathered several millions of dollars at once in strategy but this was not at all in court with Mr. Edison idea which was to prove our actual experience the commercial value of the system and then to license a center station commerce in large cities and towns the apparent company taking the percentage of their capital for the license under the Edison patents and contracting also for the supply of apparatus, lamps, etc this left the remainder of the country open for the cash sale of plans were ever requested his concerts prevailed and the wisdom of the policy adopted were seen in the swift establishment of Edison companies in centers of population both great and small whose business were has ever been a constant and growing source of income, the para manufacturing interest from first to last Edison has been an exponent and advocate of the center station idea of distribution of so familiar to the public mind but still very far from being carried out to its larger conclusions in this instance demands for isolated plans for factories, mills, mines, hotels, etc began to pour in and something had to be done with them this was a class of plans which the inquires decided to purchase outright and operate themselves usually because of remoteness for any possible source of generate supply for a con card they had not been Edison's intention to cater to this class of customer and to his broad center station plan having worked out and he has also charged this isolated plant within the limits of urban circuits but these demands were so insistent it could not be denied and was deemed desirable to comply with it at once especially as it was seen that the steady care for supplies and renewers would come benefit the new Edison manufacturing plants after a very short trial it was found necessary to create a separate organization for this branch of the industry the Edison Electric Light Company to continue under the original plan of operation as a parent pat holding and licensing company accordingly a new and distinct cooperation was formed called the Edison Company for isolated lightning to which was issued a special license to sell and operate plants of a self-contained character as a matter of fact such work began in advance of almost every other kind using the paper carbon filament lamps were furnished by Edison at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Henry Villard for a steamshoe Colombia in 1879 and it is amusing to know that Mr. Upton carried the lamps himself to the ship very tenderly and jealously like fresh eggs a market garden asked it the installation was almost successful another pioneer plan was that equipped and started in January 1881 for hints and catch em a new confirm of lit though graphics and color painters who had previously been able to work only by day owing to the difficulties in coloring printing by artificial light a year later they said it is best substitute for daylight we have ever known and almost as cheap Mr. Edison himself described a rise instance in which it demands for isolated plants had to be met 1965 he says we are very anxious to get into a printing establishment I had caused a printer's composing case to be set up with the idea that if we could get editors and publishers to see it we should show them the advantages of the electric light so ultimately Mr. Bennet came and after seeing the whole operation of everything he ordered Mr. Hoel and general manager of the Herod to light the newspaper office at once with electricity another instance of the same kind deals with the introduction of the light for purely social purposes while at 65th avenue remarked Mr. Edison I got to know Christine Header then the largest creator of the United States he was a highly electoral man and I loved to talk to him he was always railing against the rich people for whom he did work for their poor taste one day Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt came to 65 saw the light and decided that he would have his new house light with it this was one of the big box houses on upper 5th avenue he put the whole matter in the hands of his son Mr. H. Mike Tombly he was standing in charge of the telephone department at the western union Tombly closed the contract for a plant Mr. Herod was doing the decoration and it was extraordinarily fine after a while we got the engines and boilers and wires all down and the lights in precision before the house was quite finished after the light about 8 o'clock in the evening we lit it up and it was very good Mr. Vanderbilt and his wife and some of his daughters came in and with their a few minutes when a fire cut occurred the large picture gallery was in lined with silk cloth into a room with fine metallic thread in some manner two wires had got crossed with this tinsel which became red hot and then the whole mess was soon on fire and it was no matter and ordered them to run down and shut off and not burst into flame and died out immediately Mr. Vanderbilt became hysterical and wanted to know where he came from we told her we had a plant in the cellar and then she learned we had a boiler there she said she would not occupy the house she would not leave over a boiler we had to take the whole installation out the houses afterward went on to the New York Edison system the art was however very crude and wrong and as there were no artisans in existence as mechanics of electricians who had had any knowledge of the practice there was inconceivable difficulty in getting such isolated the plants installed as well as wiring the buildings in the district to be covered by the third central station New York a night's tour was therefore confounded at Fifth Avenue and so it was put in charge of Mr. E. H. Johnson fresh from his success in England the most available man for the purpose were of course those who had been accustomed to wiring for the simple electrical system then the vogue telephones district messengers cars balker alarms health amni... nancy eaters etc and a number of these wired men was engaged in structured patiently in the rudiments of the new arts by means of a blackboard in our lessons students from the technical schools and colleges were also eager recruits for here was something that promised a career and one that was especially learned to young youth because of its novelty these beginners were also instructed in general engineering problems under the guidance of Mr. C. L. Clark who was brought in from the MeloPark laboratory to assume charge of the engineering part of the communist affairs many of these pioneer students and workmen become afterward large and successful contractors or have failed positions of distinction as managers and superintendents of central stations possibly the electrical industry may not now attract as much adventurous genius as it did them fraud mobiles, aeronautics and other new arts have come to the front in a quarter of a century to enlist in the enthusiasm of a young generation a mercurial spirit but it is certain that at the period of which we write Addison himself still under 35 with the center of an extraordinary group of men full of ever pressing and aspiring talent to which he gave Gloria's opportunity a very novel literary feature of the work was the issuance of a bulletin devotee entirely to the Addison Lightning propaganda nowadays the house organ as it is caught has become very hacknet feature of industrial development confusing in its variety in volume and somewhat doubtful adjunct to a highly perfected widely circulating periodic press but at that time 1882 the bulletin of the Addison Electric Light Company publishing ordinary 12 ammo foreign was distinctly new in advertising and possibly unique as it is difficult to find anything that compared with it the bulletin was carried on for some years until it's necessary was removed by development of other opportunities for reaching the public and his pages serve now as a vivid and lively picture of the period to which its record applies the first issue of January 12 1882 was only four pages but it dealt with the question of insurance plans at San Diego chili and region area and the european company with 3 million 500,000 francs described the worst in Paris London Strasbourg in Moscow the laying of over six miles street main in New York a patent decision in favor of Edison and the size of a safety catch wire by April of 1882 the bulletin had attained the respectful size of 16 pages and in December it was a partly maximum for 48 every item it bears testimony to the rapid progress being made and by the end of 1882 it is seen that no fewer than 153 isolated insurance plans have been started in the United States alone with a capacity of 29,192 lands moreover the New York Central Station had gone into operation starting at 3 p.m. on September 4th and at the close of 1882 there was lighting 225 houses wide for about 5,000 lands this apocard story will be told in next chapter the most interesting art of bulletin in England especially in regard to the brilliant exhibition given by Mr. E. H. Johnson at the Crystal Palace in Sydenham visited by the Duke and Duchess of Annenberg twice by the Duke's western minister and Sutherland by 300 members of the gas institute and by a number of delegations from cities, bars, etc. Describing this before the Royal Society of Arts Sir W. H. Perry's kind things have been said by Mr. Edison and his promises perhaps no one has been severe in this direction than myself it is some gratification for me to announce my belief that he has at last solved the problem he set himself to solve and to be able to describe to the society the way in which he has solved it before the exhibition closed it was visited by the Prince and Princess of Wales now that it sees Edward VII and the Dowry Queen Alexandra and the Princesses received from Mr. Johnson as a souvenir, a tiny electric chandelier fashioned like a banquet of fern, leaves, and flowers the buds being some of the first miniature incandescent lamps ever made the first item in the first bulletin board dealt with the fire question and all through the successive issues runs a series of significant items on the same subject and there are several green summaries of death and fires due to gas leakers of exploitation a tendency existed at the time to assume that electricity was altogether safe while its opponents predicting their attacks on arc lighting, casualties insisted it was most dangerous Edison's problem educating the public was rather difficult for while his low pressure direct current system has always been absolutely without danger to life there has also been the undeniable fact that escaping electricity might cause a fire just as a leaky water pipe can flood a house the important question had arisen therefore upset the fire and the fire on the wires asked the safety of the system he had foreseen that there would be an absolute necessity for special devices to prevent fires from occurring by reason of any excessive current flowing in any circuits and several of his earliest detailed lighting inventions dealt with this subject the insurance underwrites of New York and other parts of the country gave a great deal of time and studied the question through their most expert representatives with the aid of Edison and his associates other electric light commons are cooperating and the knowledge of this gain was embodied in insurance routes to government wiring for electric lighting formulated during the later part 1881 adopted by the New York Board of Fire Underwriters January 12, 1882 and subsequently endorsed by the other boards in the various insurance districts under temporary rulings however a vast amount of work had already been done but it was obviously that the industry grew there with the less and less possibility of supervision except though through such regulations insisting upon the use of the best devices and methods indeed the direct superintendent soon became unnecessary owing to the increasing knowledge and a great skill acquired by the installing staff and this system of education and was notably improved by many reading by Mr. Adams himself copies of this broad cure are as scarce today as first foliar Shakespeare's and common prices equal to those of the other American first editions the little bug is the only known for this into literature if we accept the brief articles he has written for technical papers and for the magazines he contained what was at once a full elaborate and tourist explanation of a complete isolated plant with diagrams of various methods of connection and operation and a carefully detailed description of every individual part its function is characteristics the remarkable success of those early years which indeed only achieved by following up with the Chinese exactness the minute and intimate methods insisted upon by Edison after the use of the power and devices employed it was a curious example of establishing standard practice while changing with clay scopic rapidly all the elements involved he was true to idea as to the Polestar but was incessantly making improvements with in every direction with the iron classon that has often seen rudeness and brutal he did not hesitate to sacrifice older devices the moment a new one came inside that embodied a real advance in securing effective results the process is heretic but costly nobody ever had a bigger trap heat than Edison but who dare proclaim the process interestingly wasteful if the losses could occur in the initial stages and economies in all the later times with Edison in this introduction office lighting system the method was ruthless but not reckless at an early stage of commercial development a standardizing committee was formed consisting of the hands of all the departments and to this body was instructed in the test of testing and criticizing all existing and proposed devices as well as of considering the suggestions and complaints of workmen offered from time to time this procedure was fruitful in two principles results the education of the whole executive force in the technical details of the system and the constant improvement in the quality of the Edison installations both contributing to the rapid growth of the industry for many years goer street played an important part in Edison fears in the center of always manufacture of heavy machinery but it was not in a desirable neighborhood I know into the rapid growth of the business soon became disadvantageous for other reasons Edison house of his frequent visits to the shops at night with the escort of Jim Russell a well-known detective who knew all the innocence of the places we used to go out at night a little low place an old light house 8 feet wide and 20 feet long where we got a lunch at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning it was the toughest kind of restaurant ever seen for the clam chowered they used to same 4 claims during the whole season and the average number of flies per pile was 7 that was by extra count asked the shops and the locality the street was lined with rather old buildings and poor tenements we had no much frontage as our business increased enormously our quarters became too small so we saw the district and asked him if we could now store castings and other things on the sidewalk he gave us permission told us to go ahead and he would see it it was all right the only thing he required for this was that on the man was sent with a note from him asking us to give him a job he has to be put on he had a hand labor foreman big jame a very powerful Irishman he could lift above half a ton when one of the tenement aspirants appeared it was told to it was told to go right to work at 1.5 dollars per day next day he was told to off to lift a certain piss and if the man could not lift he was discharged that made the Tammy men all safe jim could pick the piss up easily the other man could not and so we let him out finally the Tammy later caught a hot as we were running big engine lets out on the sidewalk and he was afraid that we were carrying it at least we were right out in the street and bowed it through the windows for the shop and last week we became necessary to move from GoWork Street Animes Edison gives a very interesting account of the incidents in connection with the transfer of the plan to Scanaktery, New York after hours to GoWork Street go too smor we had labor troubles also it seems I rather so show list was trying to me and I raised the workmen twenty-five cents an hour above the prevailing rates of wages, whereupon Hoh and Company, our new neighbors, complained at our doing this. I said I thought it was all right, but the men having got a little more wages thought they would try coercion and get a little more, as we were considered soft marks, whereupon this truck at that time, that was critical. However, we were short of money for payrolls, and we concluded it might not be so bad after all, and it would give us a couple of weeks to catch up. So when the workmen went out, they appointed a committee to meet us, but for two weeks they could not find us, so they became somewhat more anxious than we were. Finally they said they would like to go back. Was it all right, and back they went. It was quite a novelty to the men not to be able to find us when they wanted to, and they didn't realize it at all. Back with these troubles, and lack of room, we decided to find a factory elsewhere, and decided to try the local-motive works at Skennakatadi. It seemed that the people there had had a falling out among themselves, and one of the directors had started opposition works, but before he had completed all the buildings and putting machinery some compromise was made, and the works were for sale. We bought them very reasonably and moved everything there. These works were owned by me and my assistant until so-to-Edison January Electric Company. The one time we employed several or a thousand men, and since then the work had been greatly expanded. At these new works, our orders were fair, far excess of our capital had to the business, and both Mr. Inzow and I were afraid we might get into trouble for lack of money. Mr. Inzow was then my business manager, running the whole thing, and therefore when Mr. Henry Villard and his syndicat offered to buy us out, we concluded it was better to be sure than to be sorry, so we sold out for large sum. Villard was a very aggressive man with big ideas, so I could never quite understand him. He had no sense of humor. I remember one time, we were going out to the Hansen River, boating to inspect the works, and with us was Mr. Henderson, our chief engineer, who was certainly the best recontour of funny stories I ever known. We sat at the tail end of the boat, and he started into tale of funny stories. Villard could not see a single point, and scarcely laugh at all, and Henderson became so disconcerted, he had to give it up. It was the same way with Goad. In the early tar-graph days, I remember going with him to see Mackay in the impaccioner's country editor. It was very funny, full of amusing, absurd situation, but go and have a smile at once. The formation of the Edison-General Electric company involved the custodialization of the immediate Edison manufacturing interest in electrolyte and power, with a capitalization of $12 million, now a relatively modest sum, but in those days the amount was large, and the combination caused a great deal of new paper comment as to such a coinage of brain power. Next up came with the creation of the Great General Electric Company of today, a combination of the Edison, Thompson Hansen, and brushlining interest in the manufacture, which to this day maintains the ever-glowing plans at Harrison, Lane, Schenectady, and their employees from 20 to 25,000 people. End of Chapter 15.