Manhattan Electrification

This article was initially written as part of the IEEE STARS program.

Citation

The first quarter century of electric utility operation in New York City represented a technological road map of the engineering and development of practical systems from the primitive arc street lamps of 1881 to the established commercial and industrial supplies of 1906.

Essay

Introduction

The first 20 years of electric power development in Manhattan represents the birth of commercial utility systems in what is still the world’s most densely concentrated site of electrical load. Commercial sales began with the Brush Electric Company’s arc light contracts to illuminate major streets and Madison Square Park in 1881. Edison opened the Pearl Street station the following year, introducing the concept of metered power sales for interior lighting and eventually electrically powered equipment. Subsequent development was delayed by political issues until 1888, when Edison opened ‘‘vertical’’ stations in midtown. midtown.

The first competition appeared in 1889 when Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company introduced alternating current (ac) lighting to lower Manhattan through its acquisition of the United Electric Light & Power Company. Despite continued technical problems, Westinghouse and United initiated 60 Hz ac in Manhattan below 59th Street by the end of 1896. At that time, prevailing theory favored direct current (dc) distribution due to power loss in ac distribution systems. However, dc generation was impractical given the limited distribution range of low-voltage dc power. The continued construction of power stations to supply neighborhoods was also economically and logistically impossible. Therefore, the Edison Company began planning for large-scale generation based on 25-Hz ac transmission to local substations, where the voltage was reduced and converted to dc for distribution to customers. United, echoing the belief of Westinghouse, sought to provide a complete ac system and began research in concert with Westinghouse engineers to address the power losses encountered in ac distribution systems.

In 1899, Westinghouse extended its systems beyond Edison’s northern limit at 135th Street to offer ac to customers anywhere on the island. The limitations of the ac motors available at that time, however, discouraged the use of ac by customers. The Edison Company continued to supply 90 percent of the commercial power on Manhattan and constructed the Waterside generating station as a central facility. The expansion of the Edison Company territory was funded by mergers and acquisition of smaller companies, an effort spearheaded by financier Anthony N. Brady with technical direction by Thomas E. Murray. That effort was so successful that within five years the load forecast for ten years was in sight and a second Waterside station was constructed. Thus, an entire industry had been created that was vital to urban life and commerce.

Initial Systems, 1881-1883

Commercial power distribution in Manhattan began formally in June of 1881 when the Brush Electric Company began receiving from the city payment for the arc light illumination of Broadway between Herald Square and Union Square. Power was supplied by a small power station on West 25th Street over a two-wire direct current line energized at 2000 volts (see Fig. 1). Experimental operation for demonstration purposes had begun in late December 1880, with the initial line completed in January 1881. Arc lights were also made available to private customers with large interior spaces, such as hotels and theaters, at the rate of ten dollars per lamp per month. The high cost was offset by the increased income produced by the new attractive appearance. Street lighting also improved the income of stores as signs and window displays were more visible at night.

Additional lamps were installed on a 160-foot tower to illuminate Madison Square Park and reportedly could be seen from New Jersey and Long Island, although the glare from the clustered lamps occasioned complaint from local residents. Arc lights had been considered a civic improvement ever since Father Joseph Neri, S.J., chairman of the physics department at St. Ignatius College in San Francisco, illuminated the adjacent Market Street with his lamps for the nation’s centennial celebration in 1876. Neri predicted that developments in electrical science would revolutionize transportation, commerce and most of daily life within a short time. Arc light systems were installed in public spaces in Wabash, Indiana, and elsewhere but New York City was the first to install a large-scale public lighting system. After the initial Brush installation, plans moved forward rapidly to franchise similar lighting systems on the other major thoroughfares of Manhattan.

Indoor lighting was a different matter. While Brush constructed an additional station to illuminate the docks, warehouses, and piers of the Lower West Side, most rooms required a light that was softer and more comfortable than the harsh glare of an electric arc. The immediate solution appeared in the form of incandescent lighting as developed by several experimenters and brought to a high state of

Fig. 1. Brush Electric’s carbon arc lamps illuminated wealthier districts of Manhattan, like 25th Street and Broadway, shown here in 1881.

practicality by Thomas Edison (see Fig. 2). A number of residences, institutions, and businesses installed Edison lighting plants, but the duplication of boilers, steam engines, and generators made that an expensive and cumbersome approach. Edison determined to make electric lighting affordable to the general populace by development of a distribution system modeled on that of gas light companies. In that scenario, the expense of generation would be distributed across a number of customers to make electric lighting affordable to smaller merchants and residents of the expanding middle class.

Fig. 2. Edison’s pioneering electric lighting station at Pearl Street, ‘‘but a minute’s walk from Fulton Ferry,’’ received a cover story from Scientific American in 1882.

Such a system required development and manufacture of the necessary power conductors, external and internal wiring components, and lamp fixtures. Following the experimental operation of a station at Holborn Viaduct in London, power was first distributed from Edison’s station on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan in the late summer of 1882; metered sales commenced in January 1883 (see Fig. 3). Power consumption was measured through a chemical meter that recorded current flow by electrolytic transfer of metals between plates, which were weighed at 30-day intervals. Power was distributed initially over a two-wire, 110 volt, underground circuit. Pearl Street was the basis for the development of both his ‘‘Village’’ (overhead conductors) and ‘‘City’’ (underground distribution) systems marketed by the Edison Electric Illuminating Companies that were established in municipalities across the nation.

Timeline

• 1900, date 1
• 1902, date 2
• 1905, date 3

Bibliography

References of Historical Significance

Lamme, B. G. ‘‘Synchronous Motors for Regulation of Power Factor and Line Pressure.’’ A paper presented to a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, June 1904.

Murray, Thomas E. Electric Power Plants: A Description of a Number of Power Stations (New York: 1910).

Murray, Thomas E. Power Stations (New York, 1922).

References for Further Reading

Cunningham, Joseph J. Manhattan Power (North Charleston, SC: 2013).

Cunningham, J. J. ‘‘Architect of Power: Thomas E. Murray and New York’s Electrical System,’’ IEEE Power & Energy Magazine 10, no. 2 (March–April 2012), pp. 80–94.

Cunningham, J. J. ‘‘An AC Pioneer: United Electric Light & Power Co.,’’ IEEE Power & Energy Magazine 11, no. 3 (May–June 2013), pp. 84–98; corrections, idem 11, no. 5 (September–October 2013), p. 6–7.

Freedberg, Ernest. The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America (New York: 2013).

Hughes, Thomas P. Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880–1930 (Baltimore: 1983). Israel, Paul. Edison: A Life of Invention (New York: 1988).

Jones, Payson. A Power History of the Consolidated Edison System, Compiled as a Reference Work from Original Documentary and Other Sources, with Especial Reference to the Menlo Park and Pearl Street Origins of the System (New York: 1940).

Thirty Years of New York, 1882–1912: Being a History of Electrical Development in Manhattan and the Bronx (New York: 1913).

Usselman, Steven W. ‘‘From Novelty to Utility: George Westinghouse and the Business of Innovation during the Age of Edison,’’ Business History Review 66 (Summer 1992), p. 251–304.

About the Author

Joseph J. Cunningham's interests in electric power systems dates to his high school science project, ‘‘The Theory and Operation of Alternating Current,’’ which won a first-place gold medal. This led to a scholarship for the study of physics at St. Francis College. He has researched and authored numerous booklets, articles, and books on topics including industrial electrification, electric utility power systems, and electric rail transportation. He has lectured on and taught the history of electric technology and has consulted on numerous history projects and television productions. His latest book is New York Power (2013).