Lighting up a city; First use for electricity was simply to pierce the dark
Mar 12 - Topeka Capital Journal
When Topekans first flipped on an electric light in 1882, Thomas Edison was still trying to perfect the incandescent light bulb.
On Nov. 25, 1881, the Brush Electric Co. had a public demonstration at the
Daily Commonwealth newspaper office. Copper cables were strung between the
newspaper office and the plant next door. Sixteen arc lamps were placed around
the pressroom. When the engineer threw the switch, the lights came on.
The arc lamps used for the demonstration were distributed at different
downtown street locations. As reported in the Topeka Daily Capital on Aug. 25,
1929, the arc lights were "a novelty and attracted much attention."
In March 1882, the Brush Co. contracted with the city of Topeka to erect
seven wooden towers to display arc lamps. The first tower was built at 10th and
Jackson, the highest downtown point. The lights on the tower were turned on at
1:40 a.m. on July 27,1882. The lights were said to resemble the light of the
moon.
The city council had committed to spending $6,000 for seven light towers
(more than $100,000 in 2002 dollars).
"There had been considerable murmuring in the community at the course of
the council in regard to the matter, and this was greatly intensified by
disappointment in the degree of illumination produced," Topeka founder F.W.
Giles wrote in "30 Years in Topeka, 1854-1884."
"The city council thereupon compromised in settlement with the party who
was to erect the towers, by paying $2,700. The one tower remains, a useless
memento of an ill-advised scheme."
That tower's light was used for special occasions for the next five or six
years, until damage to one leg finally resulted in its collapse.
On Oct. 24, 1887, horses from a city street railway car broke loose and
headed south on Kansas Avenue. The horses ran into the southwest corner of the
tower, knocking loose the brace supporting the corner.
For months, the tower stood on three legs. When it eventually fell, telephone
poles and wires were snapped. The tower landed on Jenks Brothers Butcher Shop
and S.L. Antrim's grocery store. No one was injured, but wreckage from the tower
was spread over several yards. The tower was a total lost with damage estimated
at $100.
After the tower disaster, the Brush Co. went back to its original arc
lighting. Street lighting was expanded and the company attempted to adapt the
outdoor lighting for indoor purposes, but the system was unsafe for interior use
due to the high voltage. Thomas Edison later perfected and patented a system
suitable for indoor lighting.
The Brush Co. made contracts to provide lighting for Oakland streets and
Oakland and Garfield Parks. At that time, Oakland wasn't part of Topeka.
Edison arrives
On Nov. 17, 1886, nine prominent Topeka businessmen organized the Edison
Electric Illumination Co. of Topeka. This group included John R. Mulvane,
president of the Bank of Topeka, Benjamin Davies, lumberman and builder of the
Davies Building (725-7 Kansas Ave.), and P.G. Noel, president of Topeka Mill and
Elevator Co.
These businessmen were able to obtain a license and operate under Edison's
patent. A generator was installed in the engine room of Shawnee Mills at 3rd and
Kansas Avenue.
Circuits were run from the mill to nearby homes and businesses, according to
"Downtown: Strolling Along the Avenue" (Shawnee County Historical
Society Bulletin No. 79, December 2002).
Residents were enthusiastic about the new system, but the city's growth soon
outweighed the generator's capacity. Edison Electric purchased two lots on the
east side of Van Buren between 7th and 8th streets for a plant. Built in 1888,
the plant was first used as a standby.
The act of generating electricity created steam, so Edison piped steam to
heat to the Statehouse, the city auditorium, the Memorial Building, the state
printing plant and to both sides of Kansas Avenue between 5th and 10th streets.
When the weather warmed and the heat wasn't needed, plant workers would begin
housekeeping --- chipping water deposits from the boilers and reconditioning
pipes.
Steam heat wasn't phased out completely until 1974. The Docking State Office
Building at S.W. 10th and Topeka Boulevard was the last public building to go
off the system.
In the early days, electrical service wasn't a monopoly. Many state buildings
had their own generators, powered by fuel oil, to light their offices.
More power
Envious of the progress being made in electricity south of the river,
merchants in North Topeka organized the North Topeka Light and Power Co. in
1888. The North Topeka plant was similar to the Brush Co. system and was
confined mainly to street lighting. Equipment at the plant was known as the
Jenny Arc Light System, named after the man who held the patent. The North
Topeka plant, located on East Laurent, went into operation in 1889.
For a time, three companies (Brush, Edison Electric and North Topeka Light
and Power) served different parts of the city with little or no overlap.
In 1891, Edison Electric bought North Topeka and Light and Power. The north
plant continued operation until North Topeka residents could be served from the
Van Buren plant. The Brush Co. continued to operate for several years after the
Edison/North Topeka merger, but eventually was purchased by Edison Electric in
1897.
"For nearly a decade the Edison Electric Co. was the only company
serving Topeka. It struggled with the demands for service of a rapidly growing
city and with the phenomenal advancement and of improvements in the production
of electricity," according to KPL's Service Magazine 75th anniversary
edition.
This period saw the onset of change from direct current to alternating
current (The last of Topeka's DC customers wasn't changed over until 1943).
In 1889, the first meters to measure customer use were introduced. Known as
Edison chemical meters, these determined usage by measuring the weight of zinc
plates that reacted with a chemical as electricity passed through a jar. These
meters were inconvenient and unreliable.
A more workable meter was discovered soon after when a Westinghouse
electrician noticed that electrical current caused a metal spring to rotate. In
a matter of weeks, this electrician, Oliver B. Shallenberger, had created a
meter that could record electricity usage.
That same year, the Edison Electric installed 2,000 16- candlepower AC
generators to serve outlying areas of Topeka. Two years later, new machinery was
installed at the Brush and North Topeka plants.
Merging offices
On Aug. 31, 1905, the Topeka Edison Co. was chartered and bought Edison
Electric. This new company was under the direction of L.E. Meyers, who owned the
Topeka Railway Co.. This brought the city's electric service and transportation
under the same management. Edison Electric offices at the Van Buren plant were
moved to the Topeka Edison offices at 734 Kansas Ave. These offices moved to 808
Kansas Ave. in 1913.
The city had introduced metallic filament lamps into its new system in 1909.
Some of the arc lamps were discarded the same year when the city purchased a
2,200-volt alternator.
The city's street lighting system was placed under the Department of
Waterworks and Street Lighting in 1910. The same year, control of Topeka Edison
transferred to the Illinois Traction System.
The boulevard system of lighting, otherwise known as the "white
way," was installed on Kansas Avenue in 1911. Between 1919 and 1921,
Topeka's arc lamps were replaced by street hoods adapted for incandescent lamps.
The new lamps provided 30 percent more light and used 20 percent less
electricity.
New lighting was installed in Garfield Park and on a bridge over Soldier
Creek. Lights were also installed in alleys to deter crime. Additional lighting
was extended into south Topeka. The National Electric Light Association gave
Topeka second place as a well-lit city, placing it ahead of Kansas City and St.
Louis, according to a March 21, 1921, article in the Topeka Daily Capital.
In 1923, Topeka Edison announced plans to build a power plant at Tecumseh and
Illinois Traction along with its subsidiaries came under the control of Illinois
Power and Light Corporation. The following year, Kansas Power and Light was
incorporated and construction on the Tecumseh power plant began.
Operation of the Tecumseh plant began in 1925. Two years later, Topeka Edison
and Topeka Railway merged with KPL on May 25. In January of that year, KPL
connected its first natural gas customers.
"Natural gas was slower to be recognized and developed than electricity.
When electric service was getting its foot in the door in the later 1800s,
natural gas was still very much a rarity," according to KPL's 75th edition.
In 1929, the Van Buren plant was used to supply power to the street railway
company and direct current to some downtown users. KPL acquired United Power and
Light Corp. in 1932.
The war effort
During World War II, heavy demands were placed on electric companies to
supply power to production plants. KPL had to put construction plans on hold
because materials were needed for the war effort. As part of a fuel conservation
plan instituted by KPL, the city experienced brownouts. Street lights, outdoor
advertising and window displays were darkened. KPL workers had to monitor 240
cities, turning off electricity when customers disobeyed War Production Board
orders.
Many KPL employees further contributed to the war effort by leaving their
jobs to fight. As men went off to war, women filled the positions of meter
readers, plant clerks and dispatchers.
In 1949, KPL sold some of its non-utility properties and merged with Kansas
Electric Power Co.
Modern lighting
KPL installed high-pressure sodium vapor lamps on Kansas Avenue in 1969.
These lamps were the first of their kind in Kansas. They produced 10 to 12 times
more light than the mercury lamps and gave off a golden glow instead of the
harsh blue-white of the old lamps.
By the 1970s, better technology and maintenance costs contributed to the
phasing out of the Van Buren plant. It had played an important role in providing
electricity to downtown Topeka, but the plant had outlived its usefulness.
Steam heat was also being phased out. The Docking State Office Building was
the last business on the steam system. Residents receiving steam were last
served in 1974.
The smokestack at the Van Buren plant had become a landmark of sorts in
Topeka. With the plant's closing, the smokestack was no longer needed. Work
began on dismantling it in 1985.
Tearing down the smokestack proved to be more difficult than the workers
anticipated. The stack was made of 12-inch thick concrete reinforced by steel in
the upper 35 feet of the structure. Initially only about 40 feet of the smoke
stack was chiseled away, according to SCHS bulletin No. 79. Eventually, the
smokestack and the plant were torn down to make room for a parking lot. Part of
the plant's wall was used as landscape for the parking lot.
In 1990, KPL and KG&E of Wichita filed a joint merger application with
the Kansas Corporation Commission. The merger was completed by 1992, and
shareholders approved of the company's name being changed to Western Resources
Inc.
Kansas Gas Service, which had merged with KPL in 1983, was created when ONEOK
of Tulsa bought Western Resources' natural gas assets. In 2002, Western
Resources changed its name to Westar Energy.
SOURCES: "Downtown: Strolling Along the Avenue," Douglass W.
Wallace, editor (Shawnee County Historical Society Bulletin No. 79, December
2002); Topeka State Journal; Topeka Daily Capital; "History of the State of
Kansas" by William G. Cutler, Westinghouse
EDISON'S BULB
James Prescott Joule theorized that electrical current, if passed through a
resistant conductor, would glow white-hot with heat energy turned to luminous
energy. The problem was devising the right conductor, or filament, and inserting
it in a container without oxygen, because the presence of oxygen would cause the
filament to bum.
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, in England, was the first to construct an electric
light bulb, but he had trouble maintaining a vacuum in his bulb. Thomas Edison
solved this problem, and on Oct. 21, 1879, he illuminated a carbon filament
light bulb that glowed continuously for 40 hours.
From 1878 to 1880 Edison and his associates worked on at least 3,000
different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. Incandescent lamps
make light by using electricity to heat a thin strip of material (called a
filament) until it gets hot enough to glow.
Edison's lamp would consist of a filament housed in a glass vacuum bulb. He
had his own glass-blowing shed where the fragile bulbs were carefully crafted
for his experiments. Edison was trying to come up with a high resistance system
that would require far less electrical power than was used for the arc lamps.
This could eventually mean small electric lights suitable for home use.
By the end of 1880, Edison had produced a 16-watt bulb that could last for
1,500 hours and he began to market his new invention.
In 1910, William David Coolidge of the General Electric Co., of Schenectady,
N.Y., invented the tungsten filament, which further improved the longevity of
the light bulb.
SOURCE: www.ideafinder.com
Brenda Kipp is a freelance writer living in Topeka. She can be reached at
kippkat@yahoo.com.