Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 12

Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 12

 With Edison in this introduction of his lighting system the method was ruthless, but not

reckless. At an early stage of the commercial development a standardizing committee

was formed, consisting of the heads of all the departments, and to this body was intrusted

the task of testing and criticising 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 principal results--the education of the whole executive force

in the technical details of the system; and a constant improvement in the quality of the

Edison installations; both contributing to the rapid growth of the industry.

For many years Goerck Street played an important part in Edison's affairs, being the

centre of all his manufacture of heavy machinery. But it was not in a desirable

neighborhood, and owing to the rapid growth of the business soon became

disadvantageous for other reasons. Edison tells of his frequent visits to the shops at night,

with the escort of "Jim" Russell, a well-known detective, who knew all the denizens of

the place: "We used to go out at night to a little, low place, an all-night house--eight feet

wide and twenty-two feet long--where we got a lunch at two or three o'clock in the

morning. It was the toughest kind of restaurant ever seen. For the clam chowder they

used the same four clams during the whole season, and the average number of flies per

pie was seven. This was by actual count."

As to the shops and the locality: "The street was lined with rather old buildings and poor

tenements. We had not much frontage. As our business increased enormously, our

quarters became too small, so we saw the district Tammany leader and asked him if we

could not store castings and other things on the sidewalk. He gave us permission--told us

to go ahead, and he would see it was all right. The only thing he required for this was that

when a man was sent with a note from him asking us to give him a job, he was to be put

on. We had a hand-laborer foreman--`Big Jim'--a very powerful Irishman, who could lift

above half a ton. When one of the Tammany aspirants appeared, he was told to go right

to work at $1.50 per day. The next day he was told off to lift a certain piece, and if the

man could not lift it he was discharged. That made the Tammany man all safe. Jim could

pick the piece up easily. The other man could not, and so we let him out. Finally the

Tammany leader called a halt, as we were running big engine lathes out on the sidewalk,

and he was afraid we were carrying it a little too far. The lathes were worked right out in

the street, and belted through the windows of the shop."

At last it became necessary to move from Goerck Street, and Mr. Edison gives a very

interesting account of the incidents in connection with the transfer of the plant to

Schenectady, New York: "After our works at Goerck Street got too small, we had labor

troubles also. It seems I had rather a socialistic strain in me, and I raised the pay of the

workmen twenty-five cents an hour above the prevailing rate of wages, whereupon Hoe

& Company, our near 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 they struck at a time that

was critical. However, we were short of money for pay- rolls; and we concluded it might

not be so bad after all, as it would give us a couple of weeks to catch up. So when the

men 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. We said 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 relish it at all.

"What with these troubles and the lack of room, we decided to find a factory elsewhere,

and decided to try the locomotive works up at Schenectady. It seems 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 put in 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 assistants until sold

to the Edison General Electric Company. At one time we employed several thousand

men; and since then the works have been greatly expanded.