Edison by Edmund Morris

Author:Edmund Morris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

A GASLESS NEW YORK

Edison could have recalled all his bamboo explorers in December, because by then one of them, William H. Moore, had sent him an ideal variety for his filaments: Yawata madake, a giant timber from the Kansai forest of Japan.*25 Its long, steel-strong fibers were built up of eight-sided cells that carbonized with uniform density and stiffness, held the shape of the mold when electrified, and rated an average 2,450 hours of life.98

Francis Upton tried hard to prove on paper that a central station electric illumination franchise in Manhattan would be profitable, despite delay and the physical, political, and financial obstacles still to be surmounted before the first dynamos began to spin. Working with insurance maps and his beloved slide rule, he estimated that it would cost $150,680 to wire up an initial downtown district, plus $45,989 for patent rights and other expenses. If customers plugged in ten thousand lamps and ran them five hours a day (based on current gas consumption averages), receipts should total $136,875 a year—and then would surely increase at a compound rate, as more and more New Yorkers converted to the safety and economy of incandescent light. Upton therefore felt confident in recommending that the company capitalize the plant at around $300,000, with an expectation of a payable dividend of 30 percent and a 60 percent annual return on its investment.99

Edison’s backers, however, had learned to look first and count twice before approving any scheme emanating from Menlo Park. On 17 December nine directors of the Edison Electric Light Company, led by Grosvenor Lowrey, formed a majority of the board of a new corporation, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York. Its urgent mandate was to transfer Edison’s operations to Manhattan as soon as City Hall could be persuaded to give him permission to start digging up the streets. Edison sensed from the board’s composition, which notably represented the interests of some of the most powerful financiers on Wall Street, that he would lose much of his independence when he moved. In a vain gesture of protest, he declined to serve as a director. Lowrey slapped him down. “I shall not present your letter of resignation as Mr. Fabbri [of Drexel, Morgan] very strongly objects to your leaving the Board. His impression was that ‘Edison’s name is a tower of strength to us, and if he never attended a meeting, it would be a great loss if his name should not appear at all times among the names of the Directors.’ ”100

The Illuminating Company was duly organized and capitalized at $5 million. Five nights before Christmas Edison showed his ability to épater le bourgeois when a large party of municipal dignitaries, including eight aldermen, arrived at Menlo Park by special train.101 The sun had just gone down, and some two hundred freshly polished streetlamps were already glowing up the hillside. A little tavern by the tracks stood ready to slake the thirst the visitors had worked up on their journey. But they

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.