Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-08-10
ELECTRIC LIGHTS.
4 Talk With Edfson-What His Com
pany is DoiDg-Ths Concern
Prosperous
And Making Mouey-The 6rea' inventor
Accused of AppropriatiDg Another
Mans Work.
x.,v vo-s .,-,h,,ns. August 5th.

H. r.; .sked yesterday By
Tribune reporter for cop l;,h,;no :
lions that his system Of electric iIgnsins In
this citv once more had been inusnni'eiy
POSTPONED. Mr.. Ellison showed mot 'ne ie@st
seusitiyeuess TO the criticism brougnt 10 his
attention, as he answered; HII
"No date whatever has been oIho! an-
nounced, to my knowledge. lor snv 9G;. Ih!s
of the first of our districts lof So
ing. l suppose that is what ouI -t,,o-;SI
to. We have issued no circnisr P os,pV;.lns
anv anticipated date of beginning operations.
We are now working at the p4uul =, .ue
mains and the service pipes when connect 1,t
our customers with the central station. we
have been delayed, it is true, ID one way I WA
another, in opening the hrss U.s. s ~,
would give orders for the manulac'ute OF
boilers and The firm would burst up, ana
then we would have to go to someoouy else
to have our orders filed. Apd II IL "as moi y
one thing, it was another, ana oelay WIN
constantly arise which We ~ Uise1es
could not possibly prevent
going 10 remedy great deAl u 'it ns5 sur
OF trouble by making our own pohefs
hereafter YssterdavI was over in Brooklyn
buying land for the site OF oor ne" poiier
works. Our purchase is in WlIlIaus1urgi;
the property covers two acres; ! Is ~p Ts
Two blocks from Pratt's Oil hoIk5. Ang
property was owned by Colonel Hunt, l
believe: he ia ninety wears old, and has held
the land since 1880. There 1t Is, covering
five blocks, situated right in the heart OIL me
city-surrounded by big, tall buildings. On
that land we are going to efect e4len 0e
foundries, boiler-shops and tuoe-works' our
orders are already out for our pohers' pipes
and tubes, aud will be filed Of course. But
when our new works are up we Will not ee-
9TH trhgQ we are going
10 open new lighting district we WIZ WI emo"
what we can do ourselves, and VIII not NC
disappointed in our arrangenenS'
allow Can anybody talk about hearing
great deal of the Edison system, continued
Mr.. Edison, sand it never being ready Tor
The public? We have 10000 isolated iiSnts
10 operation in this country-hghts not
managed by our own engineers, out Dy inose
Of our customers. And the number OF ilgn!s
is being constantly increased. The best evi-
Deuce Of the light amounting to something
land here n genial. seIf-satisfed smile illu-
minated Mr.. Edison's face, as II his own
eletric light had been turned upon III Is
that our company ia making money! we
are continually filing foreign orders. we
are now engaged in filling an immense Ior-
eign order amounting to nearly SoOo'Voo.
Fhe lights are intended for Italy, Russia,
Holland and England. At the oiG Etna iron
Works, formerly owned by John Roach, We
manufacture our dynamo machines. We are
now making six large general distributing
steam dynamos, each of 400 sixteen
candle-light power. Two OF these are Tor
Milan; they are intended to light
he great La Scala Theater there. We have
our chandeliers manufactured by Bergman
& Co. They have recently bought the
property in Avenue formerly owned by
the United States Electric Lighting Company.
The properly originally cost the latter
SIG, 900; it has been sold for,
believe, 5000. Then in East Newark we
have works covering about seven acres,
the old Etna Iron Works and the new works
we propose 10 put up in Williamsburg"
"When do you think you will be able to
open the first district in which you will
operate your lighting system from general
center of distribution powerr" asked the
reporter.
at is impossible 10 cay definitely" Mr.
Edison replied. ''We hope to open the First
district on September LIST, but don't fix the
late definitely. If you do you may invite
criticism upon us for further delay when il
g not merited. 1 don't know when we will
-eally be ready. IL is not true that the de-
ails of my system have gone through con-
iderable changes. The changes have been
ew and small, and were all in the direction
If economy. You can't expect to start a
general lighting system at once, when it is
me which Is going to wips out millions of
apital Invested in gas companies. Wait
md see what our system will amount TO
Vhen we are all ready to start"