Other Early Stations--The Meter - 7
"After the station had been running several months and was technically a success, we
began to look after the financial part. We started to collect some bills; but we found that
our books were kept badly, and that the person in charge, who was no business man, had
neglected that part of it. In fact, he did not know anything about the station, anyway. So I
got the directors to permit me to hire a man to run the station. This was Mr. Chinnock,
who was then superintendent of the Metropolitan Telephone Company of New York. I
knew Chinnock to be square and of good business ability, and induced him to leave his
job. I made him a personal guarantee, that if he would take hold of the station and put it
on a commercial basis, and pay 5 per cent. on $600,000, I would give him $10,000 out of
my own pocket. He took hold, performed the feat, and I paid him the $10,000. I might
remark in this connection that years afterward I applied to the Edison Electric Light
Company asking them if they would not like to pay me this money, as it was spent when
I was very hard up and made the company a success, and was the foundation of their
present prosperity. They said they `were sorry'--that is, `Wall Street sorry'-- and refused
to pay it. This shows what a nice, genial, generous lot of people they have over in Wall
Street.
"Chinnock had a great deal of trouble getting the customers straightened out. I remember
one man who had a saloon on Nassau Street. He had had his lights burning for two or
three months. It was in June, and Chinnock put in a bill for $20; July for $20; August
about $28; September about $35. Of course the nights were getting longer. October about
$40; November about $45. Then the man called Chinnock up. He said: `I want to see you
about my electric-light bill.' Chinnock went up to see him. He said: `Are you the manager
of this electric-light plant?' Chinnock said: `I have the honor.' `Well,' he said, my bill has
gone from $20 up to $28, $35, $45. I want you to understand, young fellow, that my limit
is $60.'
"After Chinnock had had all this trouble due to the incompetency of the previous
superintendent, a man came in and said to him: `Did Mr. Blank have charge of this
station?' `Yes.' `Did he know anything about running a station like this?' Chinnock said:
`Does he KNOW anything about running a station like this? No, sir. He doesn't even
suspect anything.'
"One day Chinnock came to me and said: `I have a new customer.' I said: `What is it?' He
said: `I have a fellow who is going to take two hundred and fifty lights.' I said: `What
for?' `He has a place down here in a top loft, and has got two hundred and fifty barrels of
"rotgut" whiskey. He puts a light down in the barrel and lights it up, and it ages the
whiskey.' I met Chinnock several weeks after, and said: `How is the whiskey man getting
along?' `It's all right; he is paying his bill. It fixes the whiskey and takes the shudder right
out of it.' Somebody went and took out a patent on this idea later.
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