Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-15
GREATEST PLANT
STARTS OPERATION
EDISON COMPANY TURNS ON
$4,000 VOLTS
Longest Transmission Conduit In the
World Carries Power from
Kern River to Los
Angeles


pulling a lever and turning a switch
! IS, 600 volts of electricity were turned
into the wires yesterday to be carried
| from the Kern river into the city of Los
Angeles The monster power supply is
part Of that developed by the Edison
Electric company, and while it is en-
tirely serviceable today the company
will not begin to use the huge power for
commercial use until tomorrow.
The power which will turn night into
day and supply hundreds of factories
and other industries with their working
power comes from the new Kern river
plant No. l, on which men and engineers
in the employ of the Edison company
have been working for years. 1t is by
far the greatest power plant in the west
and it's product will be used exclusively
in Southern California.
From the Kern river to Los Angeles,
lit miles away in the most direct line
the surveyors could locate, the Juice"
will be carried to the local consumers
through six immense copper cables.
Supporting these cables 1140 steel
towers, which set a trail over river and
valley, desert and mountain, are in
place, and their slender magnificence
rears itself throughout the entire coun-
try between here and Kern.
lnsulators Monstrous
Perched high above the ground, so
that their actual height is pigmylike
in appearance, the insulators which sup"
port the copper band of dynamic life
and activity surmount the steel frame |
Of the supports. Weighing fifty pounds |
each and having a height of three feet |
these insulators carrying the six cables |
without the loss of voltage, are set on |
the immense arms at the top of each |
tower, and hold the cables
IN place.
That the development of the new
source of power by the Edison company
will be of incalculable value to Los
Angeles and the surrounding country Is
lot to be doubted. In addition to the
oower to be derived from the electricity
he water itself, by which the power is
reveals the possibilities of re-
the desert lands between hero
Ind Bakersfield.
Already much of the country which
before the advent of the electric COM
ANY in the field was sterile and bar
en- has been made to bloom with it's
myriad of flowers and to send forth
rom it's fertile soil fruits and vegetables
without limit. The irrigation problem,
hat bane Of progress in California, has
'een solved readily by the use of the
surplus water developed by the Edi-
ION company, and already $4,000 acres
If what was few years ago the worst
Kind of desert plain, has been put in
ouch with the plow and cultivator, and
is fruit and live stock have taken the
place of the cactus and jack rabbits of a
few years ago.
Work of Four Years
-Four years of the hardest kind Of
work, together with the combined brain
Efforts of some of the most capable en-
-ineers in the country, were consumed
W the Edison people in completing the
magnificent plant which was so inaus-
inaugurated yesterday, and
ONE of the obstacles which the men in
harge of the vast work We're forced to i,
vercome seemed insurmountable in !
heir strength. g
But the untiring energy of man finally =
revailed over nature in her unwilling.
ess to yield to progress and day after r
ay saw some feature of the vast enter r
rise completed. Tunnels were dug, here Z
nd there an entire mountain removed a
o give way to an open air conduit and
4 some instances wagon roads over the y
most ragged territory in the country f
we're constructed before the machinery h
f the plant could be carried to its d
estimation. IC
unnels were required to be built before !,
he water could be carried from the h
lace where it left the ground to the "
over house in which the vast dynamos Il
1hich generate the electricity are e
tored. Considering the dangers of the a
magnificent undertaking accidents We're
ew, and when they did occur the com I
any spared neither expense nor work e
1 safeguarding their employees against t
recurrence of similar disasters. n
Burial of Hicks
In one instance, that of L. B. Hicks,
he company spent hundreds of dollars
nd untold energy on the part of it's E
ighest officials in effecting a rescue
rom what looked like sure death. I
Ticks was the victim of a cave-in, t
yhich killed several of his companions, C
nd the chief engineer of the Edison Y
and his staff labored for many C
ours before they finally rescued the t
Amer from his living tomb. c
In many ways the new plant which I
eeds power to Los Angeles is one of h