Evening journal., 1911-09-19
NEW FRANCHISES.
The Claim Of a Thirty Per Cent Re-
ductiOn in Price of Electric
Current Should Be Examined.

The Claim OF a Thirty Per Cent. Re-
ducfiOn in Price of Electric
Current Should Be Examined.
Editor of THE EVENING JOURNAL.
Your editorial of last Friday night,
the 18th inst, under the caption OF
THAT New Franchise" struck the
writer as being not only very able
one, but indicated what ! esteem to be
a very proper conception OF the situ-
alton Of granting franchises by any Of
our commissions without being very
carefully looked into and ascertaining
the merits or demerits concerning the
same.
Your thought that it is only proper,
in view of the allegations made by
engineers signing up new contracts
for the proposed Public Utility Com
mission, in that claim of 80 per cent.
reduction now charged for current in
Wilmington, is proposed, should be
most carefully looked into and sub
stantiated, and if so, that it be
ascertained why, If this be true, that
the company now in existence should
not be able to give their present sub
scribers the benefit of such reduction,
I consider to be extremely well taken.
I know as an engineer, something OF
the cost of producing and selling cur
rent, including the cost of generating
1t at the station, maintenance, over
head and administration charges, and
l am extremely doubtful Of the abil-
ity of the proposed new company to
make good their claims.
The present company, to my knowl-
edge, is at present installing a new
1000 Kilowatt Turbine Generator. re-
ouiring over 5000 horsepower TO drive
it, also a full complement of new
Edge Moor boilers, and to complete
this equipment, are erecting an enor-
nous stack, which will be about 225
feet high, this all being located in
conjunction with their Nc. l plant on
the Brandywine. While in no way
interested directly or indirectly in the
Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction
Company, | believe that it is at pres
ent both economically and ably ad-
ministered, and I believe with this
equipment that they Will be able 10
give the citizens Of Wilmington cur.
rent both for power and light at a
figure as economical and as cheeply
as il IS possible for any new company
to do so. This cry for cheaper cur
rent and competition, we recall, was
hailed with greater acclaim by oul
citizens when the power plant was
built by local capitalists; this plant
was of a very modern design and
equipped with Edge Moor water tube
boilers and a full complement Of
modern Turbine Generators, all o.
which ran on high vacuum, and w'
enjoyed the edifying spectacle o.
fierce competition and rate for cur.
rent that was so low that neither d
the parties IN interest made any
money and the inevitable result fol.
lowed, In that a merger took place
in which both concerns we're welded
together as we now have them, anC
at the same time the price Of current
is such now that many of our manu-.
facturers, 10 my personal knowledge
are using the same with a marked de-
gree of economy as against the cost
that would result in Manufacturing
current or power by their formol
steam equipment.
The writer, representing an engi
neering concern, spent some weeks II
Albany some time since, and noted II
the Albany Journal a condition o
things that was quite parallel witt
that now existing in Wilmington. th'
circumstances being as follows: Th'
citizens of Hudson, New York, a town
of about 5000 inhabitants. were fur
nished current by mill owner
which they claimed was poor II
candle power and also too high.
party of citizens organized a com