Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 9

Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 9

 At this juncture a large part of the correspondence referred very naturally to electric

lighting, embodying requests for all kinds of information, catalogues, prices, terms, etc.;

and all these letters were turned over to the lighting company by Edison for attention. The

company was soon swamped with propositions 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 furor which soon rose to sensational

heights. Had the company accepted the cash offers from various localities, it could have

gathered several millions of dollars at once into its treasury; but this was not at all in

accord with Mr. Edison's idea, which was to prove by actual experience the commercial

value of the system, and then to license central- station companies in large cities and

towns, the parent company taking a 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 plants wherever requested. His

counsels prevailed, and the wisdom of the policy adopted was seen in the swift

establishment of Edison companies in centres of population both great and small, whose

business has ever been a constant and growing source of income for the parent

manufacturing interests.

From first to last Edison has been an exponent and advocate of the central-station idea of

distribution now so familiar to the public mind, but still very far from being carried out to

its logical conclusion. In this instance, demands for isolated plants for lighting factories,

mills, mines, hotels, etc., began to pour in, and something had to be done with them. This

was a class of plant which the inquirers desired to purchase outright and operate

themselves, usually because of remoteness from any possible source of general supply of

current. It had not been Edison's intention to cater to this class of customer until his broad

central-station plan had been worked out, and he has always discouraged the isolated

plant within the limits of urban circuits; but this demand was so insistent it could not be

denied, and it was deemed desirable to comply with it at once, especially as it was seen

that the steady call for supplies and renewals would 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, leaving the Edison Electric Light Company

to continue under the original plan of operation as a parent, patent-holding and licensing

company.

Accordingly a new and distinct corporation was formed called the Edison Company for

Isolated Lighting, 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. A small plant using the paper-carbon filament lamps was furnished by Edison

at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Henry Villard for the steamship Columbia, in 1879, and

it is amusing to note that Mr. Upton carried the lamps himself to the ship, very tenderly

and jealously, like fresh eggs, in a market-garden basket. The installation was most

successful. Another pioneer plant was that equipped and started in January, 1881, for

Hinds & Ketcham, a New York firm of lithographers and color printers, who had

previously been able to work only by day, owing to difficulties in color- printing by

artificial light. A year later they said: "It is the best substitute for daylight we have ever

known, and almost as cheap."

Mr. Edison himself describes various instances in which the demand for isolated plants

had to be met: "One night at `65,' " he says, "James Gordon Bennett came in. We were

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 in to see it, we should

show them the advantages of the electric light. So ultimately Mr. Bennett came, and after

seeing the whole operation of everything, he ordered Mr. Howland, general manager of

the Herald, to light the newspaper offices up at once with electricity."