The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-10-17
ELECTRICAL DEVELOPMENT.
Some Data Supplied by the General
Electric Company.

W. Z. Curtis, in the Chicago Record.
The General Electric people tell me
that in 1898, when they commenced to
manufacture machinery for transmit
ting power, their business amounted
to less than $120,O00 for the year.where.
as for the present year up to date
their contracts exceed S6,000,OOO. In
1885 c. A. Coffin, who was engaged in
the shoe business at Lynn, Mass,
agreed to rent desk room In his office
and give his time for a part Of two
days III the week looking after the in
terests of Messrs. Thomson and Hous-
ton, two school teachers from Phila-
delphia. who had invented an arc light.
Now Mr.. Coffin is at the head of a
company employing $4,000 men. The
first application Of electrical power for
manufacturing purposes was at the old
Baltic mills in Rhode Island They
were formerly owned by Governor
Sprague. and were abandoned because
they were inaccessible. Somebody sug-
gested putting in electrical power, and
a wire was stretched from a dam five
miles away. That was the first ex-
pertinent In transmitting power along
a wire. and it was so successful that no
alterations have ever been made. and
the total cost of repairs has been less
than $500.
The largest electrical plant in the
world runs the surface street cars in
New York city. It can develop 10000
horsepower, and is divided into units
Of 5000 horse e-power each. The Mag
ara Falls plants combined now equal
nearly 100000 horsepower. and when
{Y1or rorsny ,t,p
will exceed 125,O00 horse power, A
company Is being organized by General
George S. Field, of Buffalo, to take up
the power on the Canadian side, and If
the plans are carried out it will be a
larger and more comprehensive devel-
opment than that on the American side.
The problem of transmitting power
is being gradually solved. 1t involves
simply a commercial question. The
power of Niagara river can be trans
mitted over wire to New York with
out difficulty, although in the present
stage of development of electrical sci
ence it would be more expensive than
steam. The power of 5000 horses can
be transmitted fifty miles over three
copper wires the size of lead pencil
and compete with any other form of
l.
creases the expense increases very rap
idly beond that distance until it be-
comes greater than is required to pro-
duce the same amount Of power from
coal. The higher the price of coal
as in Arizona and California-the far
ther electricity can be carried with
economy. AT Fresno. Cal, and at the
Telluride mines at Provo. Utah. cleo
tricity is carried fifty-tive miles: at
Kalamazoo, forty-siX miles, at Taco
ma, Wash, forty-five miles.
Electricity was used for mining very
early in it's development, and one of the
first plants was set up at Santa Ro-
salia. near Chihuahua. Mexico. Elec.
tricity is used extensively in the gold
fields of South Africa and Australia
and in the diamond fields of Brazil.
The first coal operations by electricity
were at Connection, Pa, and the Davis
Coke and Coal company, of West Nir-
ginia, in which Senator Elkins is in
terested, was the second to adopt it
for motive power.