The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-20

ago, were in about the same condition
| that those of Topeka. are in today.
The plant is under direct management
| of the superintendent, who Is under the
board of public works. a commission
| Of three business men; divorced from
politics in that the superintendent Is
appointed to hold as long as he be-
| HAYES himself and cannot be removed
| except for cause. The plant is under
| civil service rules.
has an area, according to the city
clerks statement, of two miles by
seven miles and 145s1niles of streets.
The population is nearly three times
that Of Topeka They are using 566
| lamps; the city Is well lighted. We
are planning for 500! The St Joseph
electric light building, as the mayor
and councilmen will testify, is large,
well constructed brick building so by
100 feet. The floors are cement. thing
and hard wood. One of the rooms, a
| lobby, is like the entrance to a sub
| stantial hotel, the flooring of tile, the
walls of white porcelain faced tile, the
| ceiling of metal. a small fountain
| ent and his assistants have suite of
| rooms furnished with ro11top desks
| and corresponding equipment. These
things were all bought out of the $751;
a beautiful young lady stenographer
and typewriter and the records are
| Systematically kept.
I'VE are proud of our superintend-
ent, and of our electric light plant"
said Mayor Spratt.
well, Mr.. Mayor. your superintend-
ent of light has better quarters than
you have"
That's so; that's so.'' said he.
VIM. H. Floyd of ST. Joseph, a mem
Der of the committee on electric street
| lighting, says that the building, includ-
| ing furniture and fixtures, cost $19,674
and the equipment $56,675. In disposing
Of the old building ST. Joseph got $3.50
for it and $1,000 for some old machinery.
This Of course was available In addition
to the bonds. superintendent Stewart
said that Topeka would not need as
| many dynamos as ST. Joseph requires.
st. Joseph has six dynamos but op-
crates five. Four would be sufficient
for Topeka. The six dynamos, includ-
! ing a switch board for each, cost ST.
Joseph s2s, 900. Topeka would thus save
$4,000 on dynamos. It would also save
a thousand dollars on boilers for the
reason that Topeka makes the best
| boilers on earth and st. Joseph went to
Springfield. ILL.,, for her boilers.
Simply deducting this $1,000 from the
$50, SIS, which the ST. Joseph new equip
ment cost, would leave $45,675. That is,
not counting the building, furniture
| and fixtures. Topeka has a good build
ing. ST. Joseph also bought new en-
CINE. Topeka has an engine now prac-
tically as good as new and with ample
capacity for over 500 lamps This would
be an additional saving of fully $1,000.
The engine cost when new $1,000. so 1T is
seen that Topeka could practically dup
licate the St. Joseph plant, excluding
the building, furniture and fixtures,
and an engine, for about $4,000 and
add what it pleased for elaboration.
The st. Joseph engine is a 500 horse
power Twin City Coriiss engine, al
most a duplicate of the engine now in
use in the city of Topeka.
1t might also be added that the St.
Joseph equipment includes a porce-
lain lined bath tub. This is only stat
ed to show the completeness, not to
say the luxury, ST. Joseph displayed
in equipping her model plant
There are several unusual charges
st. Joseph is very billy. The streets
are being cut down and grade ma
teriaIly changed. The resetting of
to operation of electric light plant. al
though it might properly go to street
department This charge for January
was $4,000.
ct am hoping that we may be able
to borrow Mr. Stewart. the St. Joseph
superintendent, for a. few days, said
Mayor William Green. HE Is a thor
oughIy honest man and in every way
competent to advise US. st. Joseph
has a very fine plant indeed. They
have an investment of som ething like
S105, 900, as understand. it; $4,000
being represented in their plant and
the balance in their outside pole lines.
From this would not think we could
rebuild our plant for $4,000, especial
ly as I understood Mr.. Stewart to say
that he was forced to- economic some
when he figured on the reconstruction