The First Edison Central Station- 4

The First Edison Central Station- 4

 Just before Christmas in 1880--December 17--as an item for the silk stocking of Father

Knickerbocker --the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York was organized.

In pursuance of the policy adhered to by Edison, a license was issued to it for the

exclusive use of the system in that territory--Manhattan Island--in consideration of a

certain sum of money and a fixed percentage of its capital in stock for the patent rights.

Early in 1881 it was altogether a paper enterprise, but events moved swiftly as narrated

already, and on June 25, 1881, the first "Jumbo" prototype of the dynamo-electric

machines to gen- erate current at the Pearl Street station was put through its paces before

being shipped to Paris to furnish new sensations to the flaneur of the boulevards. A

number of the Edison officers and employees assembled at Goerck Street to see this

"gigantic" machine go into action, and watched its performance with due reverence all

through the night until five o'clock on Sunday morning, when it respected the

conventionalities by breaking a shaft and suspending further tests. After this dynamo was

shipped to France, and its successors to England for the Holborn Viaduct plant, Edison

made still further improvements in design, increasing capacity and economy, and then

proceeded vigorously with six machines for Pearl Street.

An ideal location for any central station is at the very centre of the district served. It may

be questioned whether it often goes there. In the New York first district the nearest

property available was a double building at Nos. 255 and 257 Pearl Street, occupying a

lot so by 100 feet. It was four stories high, with a fire-wall dividing it into two equal

parts. One of these parts was converted for the uses of the station proper, and the other

was used as a tube-shop by the underground construction department, as well as for

repair-shops, storage, etc. Those were the days when no one built a new edifice for

station purposes; that would have been deemed a fantastic extravagance. One early

station in New York for arc lighting was an old soap-works whose well-soaked floors did

not need much additional grease to render them choice fuel for the inevitable flames. In

this Pearl Street instance, the building, erected originally for commercial uses, was quite

incapable of sustaining the weight of the heavy dynamos and steam-engines to be

installed on the second floor; so the old flooring was torn out and a new one of heavy

girders supported by stiff columns was substituted. This heavy construction, more

familiar nowadays, and not unlike the supporting metal structure of the Manhattan

Elevated road, was erected independent of the enclosing walls, and occupied the full

width of 257 Pearl Street, and about three-quarters of its depth. This change in the

internal arrangements did not at all affect the ugly external appearance, which did little to

suggest the stately and ornate stations since put up by the New York Edison Company,

the latest occupying whole city blocks.

Of this episode Edison gives the following account: "While planning for my first New

York station-- Pearl Street--of course, I had no real estate, and from lack of experience

had very little knowledge of its cost in New York; so I assumed a rather large, liberal

amount of it to plan my station on. It occurred to me one day that before I went too far

with my plans I had better find out what real estate was worth. In my original plan I had

200 by 200 feet. I thought that by going down on a slum street near the water-front I

would get some pretty cheap property. So I picked out the worst dilapidated street there

was, and found I could only get two buildings, each 25 feet front, one 100 feet deep and

the other 85 feet deep. I thought about $10,000 each would cover it; but when I got the

price I found that they wanted $75,000 for one and $80,000 for the other. Then I was

compelled to change my plans and go upward in the air where real estate was cheap. I

cleared out the building entirely to the walls and built my station of structural ironwork,

running it up high."