Austin C. Dunham, electric power pioneer

<<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>>

[Downloaded 2010 from a page about the Hartford Electric Light Company posted by "Northeast Utilities Systerm at http://www.nu.com/aboutnu/helco.asp]

The Hartford Electric Light Company Old State Street Station, 1887 old state street station In 1878, at a time when electricity was largely limited to the academic physics laboratory, a group of Hartford businessmen who shared a keen interest in the rapidly developing science of electricity began to think about its use for industrial lighting. One of them was Austin Cornelius Dunham, a prosperous wool merchant. Late in 1878, Dunham had a simple six-lamp arc-light system installed in one of his Willimantic Linen Company buildings. So successful was this experiment that, two years later, in 1880, the company erected a new building which was described by a writer as "the model cotton mill of the world," especially for its extensive use of arc lighting throughout. The plant was visited by engineers, college classes, and the general public.

Arc lighting display circa 1876 arc lighting display circa 1876 In 1879, the Willimantic Linen Company loaned its arc-light system to Hartford for one evening's use, the anniversary of the Civil War Battle of Antietam. Some 30,000 people in Bushnell Park witnessed the arc lights illuminating the Capitol dome.

Public interest in the commercial use of electricity for lighting rose rapidly, and by 1881 the Connecticut General Assembly had several petitions for incorporation of electric light companies. The second week of April 1881, saw the Legislature give charters to the Norwich Electric Light Company, the Stamford Electric Lighting Company, the New London Steam Heating Company, the New Haven Electric Light Company, and The Hartford Electric Light Company. The New Haven Electric Light Company began service to customers before the end of that year.

The Formative Years HELCO began operations on April 7, 1883, when it inaugurated commercial electric service at sundown with a lighting demonstration at Hartford's Union Station. The HELCO generating station was on Pearl Street next to the boiler house of the Hartford Steam Company, whose coal-fired boiler produced steam to drive HELCO's prime mover - a 50-horsepower steam engine - which was belt-connected to drive a 28-light electric generator. Through wires strung temporarily along Asylum Street building walls and rooftops, this steam engine-generator supplied direct current to 21 arc lamps to illuminate the railroad depot, two pharmacies, a saloon, bakery, carriage shop and - on Pearl Street - a single lamp in front of the HELCO engine shed. HELCO began, then, with six customers. The HARTFORD DAILY COURANT commented editorially, "The push and enterprise of the new company promises well for the early use of electric lights on the principal streets of the city."

Prior to the HELCO era, Connecticut was illuminated by fire from candles, kerosene and oil lamps, and coal-gas jets. With the advent of electricity, the advantages of electric lamps for interior lighting over flickering, sooty, open flames were readily apparent, and demand for electricity skyrocketed. Hartford became the first electrically lighted city in Connecticut and among the earliest in the nation. By 1886, it was considered the best-lighted city of its size in America. By 1890, it had the first all-electric streetlighting system in New England.

Austin C. Dunham, first HELCO President, 1882-1912

The "push and pull" which the COURANT noted was provided by a small group of prominent businessmen who staked their personal fortunes on the future of their community and the infant electric utility industry. HELCO's first president was Austin Dunham, the wool merchant. When not going from door to door in the business community soliciting customers for the fledgling enterprise, he usually could be found in his office. "All I need to run this company," he is reported to have said, "is a pad and a pencil and a place to sit." Passersby would comment, "There sits Mr. Dunham, dreaming."

But they were dreams of rare vision. Dunham, also an inventor, was responsible for many innovations in the electric industry. He perfected an ice-making machine and spent a decade experimenting with electric cooking and heating. By 1908, the company was marketing the Dunham electric range-complete with broiler, cooker, roaster, and wiring-for $40.

In 1896, Dunham had a 300-ton, 400-kilowatt lead-acid battery installed to store surplus electricity for minimizing service interruptions caused by machine breakdowns. Ever since the summer of 1883, when he had experimented with the installation of a storage battery at his Willimantic Linen Company, he had envisioned the day when hydroelectric power could be produced around the clock and stored during the "off" hours for use during the "peak."

Electrical experts were very skeptical of the value of batteries, especially because Thomas Edison himself held them in low regard. And since there was little future to be seen in the device, no American manufacturer had undertaken even small-scale production of storage batteries.

In Europe, however, the storage battery had found more favor. Dunham was delighted to learn that a Philadelphia concern was being set up to manufacture batteries under a European patent. He went to Philadelphia and placed an order for HELCO, even though he knew it would take at least two years before delivery could be made. When it finally arrived, piece by piece, the huge device was reassembled at the State Street Station, where it occupied a large portion of the main floor. Power from the Rainbow Dam generator (on the Farmington River in Windsor) was transmitted to Pearl Street, for release upon demand at peak periods or in case of HELCO equipment failure.

(In setting up the battery, HELCO had shifted to 60-cycle alternating current.) HELCO's storage battery was hailed throughout the electrical industry as an important step in minimizing the effect of machine breakdown; customer complaints which had been heard in the recent past seemed to subside.

On May 12, 1899, the HARTFORD DAILY TIMES commented, "The city holds a leading place among the cities of the world in the amount of electrical power utilized in proportion to its population. The company is now supplying 45,000 incandescent lamps and 1,500 arc lights. The number of incandescents is increasing at the rate of 8,000 to 10,000 a year, and there is no limit to this growth in sight. Fifteen hundred arc lights is also a very large number for a city of 75,000 people.."

Early Innovators Dunham, who had the remarkable facility of anticipating the course of future development, foresaw that entire manufacturing plants would soon be run by electricity and that both steam and waterpower would give way to electricity as soon as a factory could be operated by electricity for the same amount of money it would have to spend for coal. So he took a big step on November 5, 1900, when HELCO contracted to furnish daytime power from its Tariffville Station to the drop forge plant of the Billings and Spencer Company for what it would cost the factory to generate its own electricity. No fixed rate was established at the time, but HELCO guaranteed that the cost of power would not exceed that of an equivalent supply of steam, and that the monthly coal bills for the previous years would be used to determine the rate. The contract was renewed a year later and in 1902 the charge was fixed by contract at 6.5 mills per kWh.

This low rate brought down upon Dunham the wrath of the entire electrical industry. To many, it seemed the president of HELCO had gone mad. True, the price was absurdly low, but the company still made a comfortable profit. Basically, Dunham's idea was that idle machinery earns nothing for its owners. Billings and Spencer consumed electricity during the daytime when the lighting load was low, and electricity consumed in the daytime was, then, a by-product. Actually, the rate which was established would earn a profit on power that was costing the company practically nothing. Dunham had simply applied the principle which he had used in submitting streetlighting contracts: electric lighting must be offered as cheaply as gas; electric power must be offered as cheaply as steam. Dunham worked on no established scientific basis; he merely devised his own rules of thumb - and they worked.

HELCO achieved other notable "firsts". In 1899, it became the first electric company in the world to use aluminum conductors (wire) in a transmission line. In 1908, it presented the world's first all-electric home demonstration. And, in 1923, it installed an experimental General Electric mercury-steam generating unit. This was followed in 1928 by one of the first commercial mercury cycle generating units in the world, at HELCO's South Meadow Station in Hartford. (Although the mercury-vapor cycle offered improved thermodynamic efficiency, its use was discontinued for several reasons. Its health hazards became known and major improvements in conventional steam turbines eclipsed the technology.) The South Meadow Station itself, which entered commercial service in 1921, was a marvel of efficiency at that time; the $5 million plant was equipped with coal conveyors and automatic stokers and burned 150 tons of coal daily.

Era of Expansion Another notable name in the roster of HELCO officers is Samuel Ferguson, who was president of the company from 1924 to 1946 and chairman from 1946 until his death in 1950. Under Ferguson, HELCO began hiring a stream of graduate engineers to fill the ranks of its technical departments. ....

<<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>> - <<>>