East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1907-08-21

A very few pieces OF experimental
apparatus was the entire produce of
electrical machinery between 1900
and 1925. This was the basis from
which later inventions dated. The
first commercial activity in electrical
development was noticeable soon af-
ter the telegraph was developed by
Morse in lSS2-S5. Companies were
formed to install telegraph lines and
the manufacture of telegraph instru-
ments was started. This was follow
ed by the art of electro-plating but
the apparatus required for this work
was not extensive.
Although the electric motor was
discovered by Thomas Davenport
early in the nineteenth century, it
was many years before the machines
were known outside of experimental
laboratories and put TO commercial
use. In fact, Edison Electric power
station located at Appleton, Wis, in
1882, was the first of its kind in the
world.
Bell produced the telephone in
1876 and a few months later tele-
phone apparatus was being manufac-
tured in a small way. In the mean
time inventors and scientists had
been experimenting with the electric
light and the arc light was pronounc-
ed a success. The Thomson-Houston
system of electric street lighting
came in 1881 and the first 25 arc
light machines were manufactured by
this concern in that year. This COM
pany was taken over soon after by
the General Electric company which
also began the manufacture OF the
incandescent lamp discovered by
Thomas A. Edison the same year.
This was practically the beginning of
the great industry.
The electric motor, which had lain
dormant so long, was given new life
and impetus by applying it to all in
dustrials as a source of power. To
generate all the current required for
this work the dynamo was developed
and manufactured on a large scale.
Sprague proved that electric traction
was possible and the first street cars
were soon running in the streets of
Richmond, Va. From that time on
to the present day the development
of the electrical industry has been
most wonderful. 1t is applied to al
most every industry and profession
and has become a household neces-
sitty. Electricity is used for heating
cooking, forging and welding, min
ing and agriculture, in irrigation and
shipping. 1t is adapted to the most
delicate instruments of science or for
the heaviest tasks of steel mills and
railroad work.
twenty-five years ago there was not
a factory in the world engaged in the
exclusive manufacture of electrical
machinery. Yet in the year ending
with 1905 this great industry of phe-
nomenal growth made the following
astonishing showing:
Establishments -. .... 1S+
Capital Oargely increas-
ed since S174, 6,O2t
Wage earners. ay. No. 60,46t
Yearly wages of same. sS1,S41,52I
Cost Of materials used
yearly VV'o"V'"-
Yearly product ........ S14O, ,SOs,36
In addition to the above. 1913 es
tablishments engaged primarily il
other lines of manufacture turne'
out s1s,742, 053 worth of electric ap
paratus in 1905.
New York, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsyl
yania, Massachusetts,, Connecticut
Indiana and New Jersey report SO
of the Ts4 establishments makin
electrical apparatus at the census o
1905. and yearly product valued a
12s,s0T,s04, or 90.1 per cent of tn
total for the whole country. In val
ue Of products New York led, fol
lowed By Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mas
sachusetts, New Jersey and Ohio i
order named. The combined outpu
Of thoss six states constitute five
siIths (s4.5 per cent? of the totf
value Of products. Neither Connect
cut nor Indiana reached the $4,000
OG6 marx.
IN capital and yearly products c
the leading states we're in 1905:
Yearly