Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-04-28
ELECTRICITY FOR POWER.
One Of the Conspicuous tendencies Of III.
Age

One Of the Conspicuous tendencies OF III.
Age
The announcement was made, week
or two ago. that the Henry II. Worth
ington Company, of Brooklyn, which Is
known the world over as a great manu-
facturer of pumps and hydraulic ma
chnery will substitute electricity toi
steam in the operati of its extensive
works. which cover two blocks OF
more of space. Although a contract
has been made with the Edison Electro
Illuminating Company to furnish about
$50 horse power, the proposed change
will be made cautiously and gradually
inasmuch as the Worthington people
regard the scheme as something of an
experiment. One after another of the
machines in their shops, which are non
driven by steam powerful be equipped
with electric motors. If. after a few
months, the preliminary venture proves
satisfactory, in respect to convenience
and economy. the substitution Will be
carried even further
Neither the operation of machinery
by electric power nor the purchase of
power by manufacture from an out
side producer is new idea. But the
matter is brought into fresh promi-
nence when SO famous a concern as this
one in Brooklyn undertakes the double
experiment Both in Brooklyn and
New York, for several years past i
considerable business has been done by
the electric light companies in furnish
ing current for power purposes only.
OF the electricity developed at its
three old generating stations in Brook
lyn the Edison Company has recently
been selling at least 1900 horse power
for such uses. 4 wonderful variety of
machinery. everything from a rotary
fan on a mans desk or a sewing ma
chine in private house up to lathes.
trip-hammers and printing presses, Is
run in this way nowadays. The Brook
I'm company probably has about 900
customers who buy power In
the Borough of Manhattan. by another
company. which has seven central sta
tons, at least 300 individuals and firms
are similarly served. it is said; and the
total output for power purposes alone,
on this side Of the East river below
Eighty seventh street. is estimated g,
10000 horse power. This consumption,
of course. does not include the opera
ton of electric railways, which haN2
their own power plants.
A large number uf the persons who are
thus supplied with current use only a
small quantity. Electric motors are
made which require only fraction of a
horse power, one-half, one-quarter, one
eighth and even ono-twelfth to run them.
But few consumers take AS much as
800 or $40 horsepower. Already. II Will b.
seen. there are several business concerns
in Manhattan and BrooklYn which take
more current purely for power than the
Worthington company has contracted for
at the outset. In Brooklyn. however
special effort will now be made to Sc
cure wholesale customers. The establish
ment of the new big generating station
Of the Edison company at Bay Ridge.
which will he in operation about q week
hence. makes ii possible to furnish more
current than has been available hitherto.
The Worthngton company will be sup
piled from that source: and its example
will no doubt be followed by other large
manufacturers before long. The Edison
people are hopeful that five years hence
there Will not be in the Borough of
Brooklyn a single big manufacturing
house that will generate on its own prem
ises the power which it consumes. but
will buy it all from outside parties.
The one thing about this general sys-
TEN which makes most manufacturers
hesitate is the necessity of buying small
electric motors for each of their ma
chimes. The first cost for some eStab-
lishments would be large enough to
make the management consider carefully.
On the other hand experience is demon
Strating more and more clearly every
wear the great advantages possessed by
the use of electricity in operating facto-
ries where number of machines, big
ana little are employed.
The most obvious merit is the economy
resulting from the new mode of distribute
ing the power through the different
rooms and to the various machines. The
old way. which is still in vogue to great
extent. is to have a long line of shafting
overhead in each room. to drive this with
betting from shafting elsewhere, and to
communicate the power to the drills,
lathes. planners and other machines by
means of other betting. Now. the fric-
ton which line of Shafting and its ac-
cessores involve is simply appalling. 1t
ranges from 80 to 10 per cent of the total
output of the engine room. In certain
establishments the machines are used
internationally, not continuously while
the shaftinS runs all the time. The
amount of power actually consumed in
work is often much less than the waste
in transmission. The amount of this
waste depends on variety of influences:
The length of shafting the continuity
and kind of work done by the machines
weaving. printing. turning. riveting and
so on). and still other circumstances; but
1t is always relatively large.
On the other hand. the new system puts
the power where it will do the most good.
The wires which transmit the current to
the different motors offer such an insig-
nifcant resistance that the Line losses"
are practically nothing. Then. too. when
a machine is idle. the attendant workman
turns the current off by "A switch. and
turns it on again when he wants to do
something. The only power consumed
therefore, is that which is expended in
real work. Perhaps only half the ma
chimes in the shop are being used at any
given minute. Perhaps less than that it
is quite possible that any one machine
may be used on a given day for only a
few minutes out of the whole eight or ten
hours But in any case the total amount
of power really consumed in work is
carefully registered by the electric me-
ter exactly like the gas consumption in
a store. and is paid for on that basis: and
YOU don't pay for what you don't use.
But the electric system has often mani