Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 10

Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 10

Another instance of the same kind deals with the introduction of the light for purely

social purposes: "While at 65 Fifth Avenue," remarks Mr. Edison, "I got to know

Christian Herter, then the largest decorator in the United States. He was a highly

intellectual 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 lighted with it. This was one

of the big `box houses' on upper Fifth Avenue. He put the whole matter in the hands of

his son-in-law, Mr. H. McK. Twombly, who was then in charge of the telephone

department of the Western Union. Twombly closed the contract with us for a plant. Mr.

Herter was doing the decoration, and it was extraordinarily fine. After a while we got the

engines and boilers and wires all done, and the lights in position, before the house was

quite finished, and thought we would have an exhibit of the light. About eight o'clock in

the evening we lit up, and it was very good. Mr. Vanderbilt and his wife and some of his

daughters came in, and were there a few minutes when a fire occurred. The large picturegallery

was lined with silk cloth interwoven with fine metallic thread. In some manner

two wires had got crossed with this tinsel, which became red-hot, and the whole mass

was soon afire. I knew what was the matter, and ordered them to run down and shut off.

It had not burst into flame, and died out immediately. Mrs. Vanderbilt became hysterical,

and wanted to know where it came from. We told her we had the plant in the cellar, and

when she learned we had a boiler there she said she would not occupy the house. She

would not live over a boiler. We had to take the whole installation out. The houses

afterward went onto the New York Edison system."

The art was, however, very crude and raw, and as there were no artisans in existence as

mechanics or electricians who had any knowledge of the practice, there was

inconceivable difficulty in getting such isolated plants installed, as well as wiring the

buildings in the district to be covered by the first central station in New York. A night

school was, therefore, founded at Fifth Avenue, and was put in charge of Mr. E. H.

Johnson, fresh from his successes in England. The most available men for the purpose

were, of course, those who had been accustomed to wiring for the simpler electrical

systems then in vogue-- telephones, district-messenger calls, burglar alarms, house

annunciators, etc., and a number of these "wiremen" were engaged and instructed

patiently in the rudiments of the new art by means of a blackboard and oral 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 alluring to youth because

of its novelty. These beginners were also instructed in general engineering problems

under the guidance of Mr. C. L. Clarke, who was brought in from the Menlo Park

laboratory to assume charge of the engineering part of the company's affairs. Many of

these pioneer students and workmen became afterward large and successful contractors,

or have filled 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

then, for automobiles, aeronautics, and other new arts have come to the front in a quarter

of a century to enlist the enthusiasm of a younger generation of mercurial spirits; but it is

certain that at the period of which we write, Edison himself, still under thirty- five, was

the centre of an extraordinary group of men, full of effervescing and aspiring talent, to

which he gave glorious opportunity.

A very novel literary feature of the work was the issuance of a bulletin devoted entirely to

the Edison lighting propaganda. Nowadays the "house organ," as it is called, has become

a very hackneyed feature of industrial development, confusing in its variety and volume,

and a somewhat doubtful adjunct to a highly perfected, widely circulating periodical

technical press. But at that time, 1882, the Bulletin of the Edison Electric Light

Company, published in ordinary 12mo form, 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 its necessity was removed by the development of other

opportunities for reaching the public; and its 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; plants at Santiago, Chili, and Rio

de Janeiro; the European Company with 3,500,000 francs subscribed; the work in Paris,

London, Strasburg, and Moscow; the laying of over six miles of street mains in New

York; a patent decision in favor of Edison; and the size of safety catch wire. By April of

1882, the Bulletin had attained the respectable size of sixteen pages; and in December it

was a portly magazine of forty-eight. Every item bears testimony to the rapid progress

being made; and by the end of 1882 it is seen that no fewer than 153 isolated Edison

plants had been installed in the United States alone, with a capacity of 29,192 lamps.

Moreover, the New York central station had gone into operation, starting at 3 P.M. on

September 4, and at the close of 1882 it was lighting 225 houses wired for about 5000

lamps.