Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-09-13
THIS CITY AS A POWER POINT

II viii ut III uulllhdhl poNti vi t"S "N' '
The first power employed by man was his own muscles
acting upon the levers supplied by his own bony frame.
work. This power subsequently reinforced itself with
artificial levers, beginning with a straight stick and ulti-
mately evolving the pulley, with its block and tackle.
Before the last had been reached and made perfect
man discovered another force. which he at once utilized,
and mas been employing even to the present day. II was
the power of the horse, and so general was its use and so
long has It continued that it has become the measure OF
almost all other forces, they being expressed In horse
powers, one horse power being the force necessary to lit
$4,000 pounds one foot in one minute.
subsequently for the production Of power man learn
ed TO employ the forces of nature, such as currents of air
and the momentum Of falling water; though the force of
sunbeams and the momentum Of the tides, often expert
mented upon, have never been utilized. The expansion
of steam. however. has thus far been the most forceful
friend of man in the purduction Of power. supplemented
sometimes by the expansion or contraction of exploding
gases. So easily was steam produced and so uocIe was II
in management, that It's reign became almost universal;
and under its aid in the production Of power, man has
achieved the sublimest realizations of his genius in the
conquest of nature and the manipulation of her products
But the reign of steam seems to be doomed, except
in a subordinate position. Electricity has invaded the
mighty monarch's domain. and year by year ana even
day by day. the newer and more occult force is wrestling
vast provinces from the empire Of usefulness which
steam had created for itself; and soon, just as Sampson,
shorn Of his locks and deprived of his eyes, was set to
grind corn for his foes. so will steam, the dethroned
car, find its sole province in the production Of cleo
tricity.
One of the greatest items of superiority in the new
powerproducing force, is the ease with which it can be
conveyed TO almost any desirable distance. Steam must
he generated where 1t is to be used. the possibility of the
conveyance of its power being confined to the limited use
of betting and puileys. Electricity, however, can be con
veyed miles upon miles from where it is generated,
through the medium of a mere wire, the force at its des-
tination being but insigrificantly reduced from its initial
power. This is illustrated on a large scale in the city
of Buffalo, n. Y. where the vast mechanical power EN-
ployed is derived from the electrical plant at Niagara
Falls.
Another point Of superiority is that steam can be pro
duced alone by the generation of heat, which itself is pro
duced, in merchantable quantity, only by the combustion
n fl H.. ~ D-;ol - F1 - al. ,1tr4 ~, tho
work is to be done, determines the price of steam. Con
sequently many valuable enterprises are estopped because
of the high price Of fuel, where such enterprises would be
located. But electricity can be generated. by water power
or by steam. and the generating plant can be located
where the water power is or where fuel is cheap, and the
electrical force conveyed by wire to the place where the
work is to be done, no matter how inaccessible it may
be or how excessive the price of fuel at that particular
place.
The Citizen has been led into these reflections,
which it hopes will be of interest to its readers, as the
result of a visit by this writer 70 the plant of the Albu-
querque Electric Power company, situated about 700 feet
from the mills of the American Lumber company. From
this visit the writer became convinced of two facts, and a
conclusion of priceless importance to albuquerque. The
facts are that the Albuquerque Electric Power company
has the largest and most efficient plant in the territory,
with ample room and arrangements for more than doub-
ling its present capacity; and that it has an exhaustless
supply of very cheap fuel.
The trip to the plant was made in company with MI.
J. B. Downey, superintendent for the Power company and
for the Albuquerque Gas. Electric Light & Power com
pany. And by the way, Mr.. Downey is from Denver, and
an electrician or experience and ability. He has been
here about ten weeks and has supervision over the plant
and the thirty-three men employed by the companies.
The service has been brought to a high degree of efic-.
iency, and the plant, which had the minor frictions in
s%eparable from its new installment, is now in the smooth
est and best working order. Mr.. Downey assured the
writer that the plant is the very best that money could
buy.
The structure in which it is housed is 1OOx1OO feet.
The frame work is structural steel on concrete founda-
tions. The west end of the edifice is the boiler room,
occupied by six boilers of rs horse power each. The
water, before passing into the boilers. is purified and
stored in a $4,000 gallon tank, where by the exhaust
steam 1t is raised almost to the boiling point. In the
engine room are two engines-a MurrayCorliss of 800
horse power, and a HamitonCorliss of 400-horse power.
The driving wheel of the first is 1s feet in diameter. that
of the second IA feet. A threeply belt, AS inches wide,
connects the first engine with a 500 klowatt DYNAMO.
made by the National Electric company of Milwaukee. A
similar belt connects the second engine with a $50 kilo-
watt dynamo of the same make. The works begun to run
on the 2Sth of June, but 1t was not till August nth that
the contractor, Mr.. Mcdonald, turned them over to the
management of the company. The capacity of the plant
can be largely more than doubled by the mere purchase
OF two more engines with their dynamos and converters,
the house being already prepared for them, and the com
pany standing ready for its purchase, as soon as the
patronage received shall reach the capacity of the pres-
ent plant. Mr.. Downey assured The Citizen that a better
plant in quality cannot be found in the southwest.
On approaching the plant, attention is first attracted
by a system of conyeyors, worked by endless chains. and
aggregating 1888 feet These are for carrying the fuel
automatically from the American Lumber company's
saw mills to the bins Of the power plant. This fuel is the
waste from the manufacture of lumber, which has first
been passed through a crusher that reduces il to the best
size for rapid consumption in the furnaces Of the power
plant The supply of this fuel is practically eXhaustless;
for besides being used in the furnaces for the saw mills
for the box, sash and door factory, and for the power
plant, besides being largely sold in town for kindling
vast quantities of it are piled upon the grounds Of the
lumber company, and other quantities are daily carried
by automatic conveyors to a consumer and there burned
merely 10 get. it out Of the way. And even Of greater i'm
portance, perhaps, is the fact that this fuel is remark
ably cheap-so cheap in fact, that the Albuquerque Gas
Electric Light e. Power company, supplied with It's
electricity by the power company are able to announce
a large reduction in price to residence patrons Of the
electric light service. The price has been 20 cents per
kiiowatt, with 10 per cent off If paid by the 10th OF the
month. The new price viii be II cents per kilowatt and
a reduction Of 20 per cent for payment by the 10Th of
each month. This will be a reduction of nearly onethird
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