of electricity by chemical action, or-as has been suggested as a possibility-upon the artificial production of fire-fly light. Working of an Electric Lighting Station At present, coal barges in constant procession trail up the rivers and canals upon which are located most of the country's light factories. The Waterside Station of the New York Edison Company, situated adjacent to the East river on Manhattan Island, generates more electricity than any other single plant on earth, and supplies most of the current for lighting the metropolis. Here, therefore, may be located a brief description of how coal is transformed into electric light. The top floor of this station is an immense coalbin. On the bulkhead at the river's edge are two steel Most of this coal is brought directly from the mines; but since the coal strike of 1902, when it was necessary to import great cargoes of coal from England, the Edison Company has provided against an interruption of the supply from the usual sources, by establishing on the New Jersey side of the Hudson river, opposite Grant's tomb, a storage yard in which there are three huge mounds of coal, containing, in all, about 200,000 tons. Enormous trusses convey the coal to and from the tops and sides of these miniature black hills. Once in the bunkers of the Waterside Station, the coal slides, by gravity, through chutes, to the boilers below. There are fiftysix of these, on two floors, of which twenty are provided with au NIGHT VIEW OF ELECTRIC TOWER AT DREAMLAND, CONEY ISLAND. hoisting towers, each equipped with clam-shell buckets with capacity of a ton and a-half apiece. and a-half apiece. By means of these the coal is taken from the barges, placed in large receiving hoppers, and then, by a belt conveyor, is carried to the weighing hoppers, whence it is lifted in a huge conveyor bucket to the bunkers. In an hour, 150 tons of coal are thus handled. The daily consumption at this station is about 1,000 tons in summer, and 1,500 tons in the winter. A supply of 10,000 tons is kept continually in the bunkers. tomatic stokers. Human stokers feed the others; and day and night there are always in the boiler room bare-backed men shoveling coal into the flaming beds whose heat produces the steam that sets in motion the wheels and rods of the sixteen great engines. These engines are of the vertical marine type, and are capable of producing a combined energy of 128,000 horsepower. Besides the Waterside Station, there are several other steam generating stations on Manhattan Island. The Water side, however, is much the most important. It is the great pulsating heart of the electric system of New York. From it, power is transmitted to thirteen substations, where it is stored and sent forth to supply consumers. The distribution of the current from Waterside is regulated by the system operator, who has his post on a gallery at one end of the building, where, by means of signals, he is enabled to keep his finger on every pulse-beat of this huge electric heart. It is his duty to have adequate machines in operation for all emergencies. His position is somewhat like that "I want to get back to the quietude of my own workshop," he remarked on leaving. "I can't stand New York. You are too glaring and noisy over here, one of the chief reasons being that you are using so many of my contrivances." Large as is the present Waterside Station, it has been found too small to meet the constantly growing demands for electric current. This growth is indicated by the fact that the number of electric lights in New York City is increasing at the rate of 2,000 a day. To keep pace with this development, the Edison Company is constructing, adjacent to the first, a second Waterside Station, which will con gas that flow from the tanks to burst into millions of little flames, never cease to flow. Since 1826, when the New York Gas Company was organized, its fires have not been out. The gas-house was moved from the lower part of the city to its present site in 1848; but a foreman. brought along some fire in a forge-fire. that has ever since burned with fierce intensity. For the making of "water gas," which is somewhat more extensively manufactured for lighting in this country than is "coal gas," generators much resembling vertical furnaces, are kept full, from near the top to near the bottom, with coal; and this coal is kept at white heat by strong blasts of air. A critic of gas companys who was allowed to inspect a plant not long ago, observed the engine that was pumping air into the generator, and afterward exclaimed with great vehemence: "I was pretty sure that the company was selling the people air before I went to the gas-house; and now I know it, because-confound it!-I saw the thing actually done. They have a big engine just for that. heaven, the people should rise against this swindle!" By After about eight minutes of application of the air-blast to the coal, the engineer turns it off and turns on the steam, which is forced through the white-hot fuel and is transformed by its fiery passage into "blue" or hydrogen gas. After eight or ten minutes of this process, the steam is turned off and the air again turned on, to reheat the coal to the proper temperature. The blasts of air, rising suddenly through the generators, cause the lurid outshootings that intermittently illuminate gas-house districts at night with spectacular flame. Adding the Illuminant, and Scrubbing The blue gas thus generated has no illuminating power. It must be joined. with oil gas to become the gas of commerce. The union takes place in the pipes which lead away from the generators and from the "benches," in which the oil gas is produced. The word "benches" is applied to numerous retorts, about twenty feet long and two feet high. They are shaped like miniature tunnels. A low grade of crude petroleum flows through them in pipes, and the flame of RESERVE COAL SUPPLY OF THE NEW YORK EDISON COMPANY. |