History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 111: The Great Western Gateway Bridge — Schenectady to Scotia, concluded ...
By Capt. Ernest D. Hendricks, Eastern Division Engineer.
This bridge violates three fundamental engineering and economic conditions, namely, it crosses a stream at its greatest width; it is a masonry structure on unstable foundations; it directs an extremely heavy through traffic into the main business street of a large city where already the traffic congestion is intolerable.
It will cost at least four times as much as an equally useful and better structure would have cost.
The benefits derived are a wide, beautiful and impressive structure to carry the east and west traffic of the Mohawk Turnpike, and a great increase in real estate values in a section of Schenectady where values were decreasing, and the possibility of utilizing the land occupied by two islands in the Mohawk River.
Already a large and handsome hotel is being erected at one end of the bridge, while plans are under way for a public park adjacent to the structure.
The total nominal cost of the bridge will be approximately $2,500,000.
Of this the City of Schenectady, County of Schenectady and the Village of Scotia have paid $267,000.
The remainder will be paid by the State of New York.
The principal items in the construction of this bridge, for which payment will be made are as follows:
100,000 cu. yds. of excavation.
70,000 cu. yds. of embankment.
60,000 cu. yds. of concrete.
3,000 tons of steel.
18,000 sq. yds. of paving.
220,000 feet of piling or about 40 miles if placed end to end.
The actual cost of this bridge will be greatly in excess of $2,500,000 as two of the contractors engaged on this work have lost money.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge.
The Great Western Gateway Bridge, the eastern portal of the Mohawk Valley gateway to the west — Schenectady bridge history — The four Schenectady bridges over the Mohawk River — Facts and figures of interest relative to the great traffic passing over the Great Western Gateway Bridge and the old Mohawk Turnpike — Mr. Harry Furman of Schenectady the original advocate of the G. W. G. B.
The Great Western Gateway Bridge at Schenectady is one of the most important and impressive bridges on any of the main trunk line highways in the United States of America.
It forms the eastern gateway to the Mohawk Valley mountain pass leading to the west, and it is the beautiful eastern portal of the Old Mohawk Turnpike, America's greatest automobile road.
This Schenectady-Scotia bridge is today (1925) the only handsome and artistic bridge structure in the Mohawk Valley and it should furnish a model and standard for future bridge construction in this region.
The Great Western Gateway Bridge, with its approaches, is three-quarters of a mile in length.
There are four bridges crossing the Mohawk at Schenectady: The Great Western Gateway Bridge, carrying automobile, highway, interurban trolley and foot passenger traffic; the old highway bridge, carrying the Schenectady Railways Co. (electric) tracks and traffic; the New York Central R. R. bridge and the Delaware and Hudson R. R. bridge.
The Mohawk was crossed by ferry at Schenectady for 150 years after the city's settlement.
In 1808 the first bridge was built here.
It was a picturesque wooden suspension bridge and was considered a marvel of bridge-building skill and its stone piers formed the supports of the later iron (1874) highway bridge.
A bridge built in 1798 blew down before completion.
The wooden suspension bridge was covered about 1820.
In 1874 the Remington Ilion Bridge Works built the iron highway bridge here.
This was a toll bridge up to March 11, 1920, when it became free.
The toll franchise brought in $25,000 annually to the town of Glenville.
In the old turnpike days here was the first Mohawk Turnpike toll gate, going west.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge.
The Great Western Gateway Bridge, the eastern portal of the Mohawk Valley gateway to the west — Schenectady bridge history — The four Schenectady bridges over the Mohawk River — Facts and figures of interest relative to the great traffic passing over the Great Western Gateway Bridge and the old Mohawk Turnpike — Mr. Harry Furman of Schenectady the original advocate of the G. W. G. B.
The Great Western Gateway Bridge at Schenectady is one of the most important and impressive bridges on any of the main trunk line highways in the United States of America.
It forms the eastern gateway to the Mohawk Valley mountain pass leading to the west, and it is the beautiful eastern portal of the Old Mohawk Turnpike, America's greatest automobile road.
This Schenectady-Scotia bridge is today (1925) the only handsome and artistic bridge structure in the Mohawk Valley and it should furnish a model and standard for future bridge construction in this region.
The Great Western Gateway Bridge, with its approaches, is three-quarters of a mile in length.
There are four bridges crossing the Mohawk at Schenectady: The Great Western Gateway Bridge, carrying automobile, highway, interurban trolley and foot passenger traffic; the old highway bridge, carrying the Schenectady Railways Co. (electric) tracks and traffic; the New York Central R. R. bridge and the Delaware and Hudson R. R. bridge.
The Mohawk was crossed by ferry at Schenectady for 150 years after the city's settlement.
In 1808 the first bridge was built here.
It was a picturesque wooden suspension bridge and was considered a marvel of bridge-building skill and its stone piers formed the supports of the later iron (1874) highway bridge.
A bridge built in 1798 blew down before completion.
The wooden suspension bridge was covered about 1820.
In 1874 the Remington Ilion Bridge Works built the iron highway bridge here.
This was a toll bridge up to March 11, 1920, when it became free.
The toll franchise brought in $25,000 annually to the town of Glenville.
In the old turnpike days here was the first Mohawk Turnpike toll gate, going west.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge, continued ...
The following concerning the Great Western Gateway Bridge has been furnished the editor of this work by the Great Western Gateway League.
The opening paragraphs indicate, to the reader, the reasons for the selection of the name of the bridge.
The figures concerning the automobile traffic crossing the Mohawk river at Schenectady are most impressive.
To one who knows the growth of this traffic in recent years, the future estimates seem most conservative.
Probably nine-tenths of this Schenectady Mohawk river bridge automobile traffic passes, in whole or part, over the Old Mohawk Turnpike, which may be truly said to begin at the eastern portal of the Great Western Gateway Bridge at the foot of State Street in Schenectady where the Great Western Gateway Hotel now stands.
The Great Western Gateway League contribution follows:
Through the Gateway of Schenectady, before the coming of the white men, passed, with messages of peace or war, the chieftains of the Iroquois on their way to the council fires of the Confederacy of the Five Nations.
Through this Gateway advanced the intrepid vanguard of western civilization, unterrified of the red and savage horde with its menace of massacre and sudden death.
Through this Gateway, under the banner of Human Liberty marched the embattled Continental hosts to meet and conquer the minions of the oppressor King.
Through this Gateway, at the command of the Statesman, Clinton, flowed the waters of the Erie to meet the waters of the Hudson, and the portals of this Gateway first heard and answered with their echoes the shrill whistle of the iron horse.
Through this Gateway, to-day, by water and by rail, moves the vast commerce of the western continent.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge, continued ...
The following concerning the Great Western Gateway Bridge has been furnished the editor of this work by the Great Western Gateway League.
The opening paragraphs indicate, to the reader, the reasons for the selection of the name of the bridge.
The figures concerning the automobile traffic crossing the Mohawk river at Schenectady are most impressive.
To one who knows the growth of this traffic in recent years, the future estimates seem most conservative.
Probably nine-tenths of this Schenectady Mohawk river bridge automobile traffic passes, in whole or part, over the Old Mohawk Turnpike, which may be truly said to begin at the eastern portal of the Great Western Gateway Bridge at the foot of State Street in Schenectady where the Great Western Gateway Hotel now stands.
The Great Western Gateway League contribution follows:
Through the Gateway of Schenectady, before the coming of the white men, passed, with messages of peace or war, the chieftains of the Iroquois on their way to the council fires of the Confederacy of the Five Nations.
Through this Gateway advanced the intrepid vanguard of western civilization, unterrified of the red and savage horde with its menace of massacre and sudden death.
Through this Gateway, under the banner of Human Liberty marched the embattled Continental hosts to meet and conquer the minions of the oppressor King.
Through this Gateway, at the command of the Statesman, Clinton, flowed the waters of the Erie to meet the waters of the Hudson, and the portals of this Gateway first heard and answered with their echoes the shrill whistle of the iron horse.
Through this Gateway, to-day, by water and by rail, moves the vast commerce of the western continent.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge, continued ...
The figures given below show the rapid growth of traffic over the old highway bridge over the Mohawk River from Schenectady to Scotia and figures showing what the travel will be over the Great Western Gateway bridge in 1930 and 1935 and the total of the whole period:
Autos and Trucks Crossing Scotia Bridge Yearly
Year Autos Regular Total Autos and Trucks Persons
1901 500
1910 62,000
1914 169,260 193,200 579,600
1918 463,758 541,600 1,629,800
1920 557,000 668,400 2,005,200
1925 (est.) 837,000 1,004,400 3,013,200
1930 (est.) 1,127,000 1,352,400 4,057,200
1935 (est.) 1,724,400 5,173,200
Total from 1920 to 1935:
15-year period 19,067,400 57,200,400
The following prediction was made by the Great Western Gateway Company League in 1919:
The above table for the 15-year period reaches the phenomenal number of 19,067,400 and the number of persons in autos during the same period is 57,200,400.
In addition to this there will be approximately 6,570,000 foot passengers and 273,000 wagons, making a total of approximately 60,043,400 persons in autos, wagon and pedestrians that will cross this bridge in the next fifteen years.
The basis for the above figures is taken from a report by the Secretary of State, for the years 1901-1919 and the future estimates are based on curves made from these figures, also on 200 automobile days a year and three passengers to a car.
This is the basis used by the Auto Club of America.
Secretary of State, Francis Hugo, wrote of the Old Mohawk Turnpike and the Great Western Gateway Bridge:
"The road west to Utica which passes through the territory of the Scotia Bridge and East to Pittsfield is one of the greatest single arteries in the United States."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge, continued ...
The figures given below show the rapid growth of traffic over the old highway bridge over the Mohawk River from Schenectady to Scotia and figures showing what the travel will be over the Great Western Gateway bridge in 1930 and 1935 and the total of the whole period:
Autos and Trucks Crossing Scotia Bridge Yearly
Year Autos Regular Total Autos and Trucks Persons
1901 500
1910 62,000
1914 169,260 193,200 579,600
1918 463,758 541,600 1,629,800
1920 557,000 668,400 2,005,200
1925 (est.) 837,000 1,004,400 3,013,200
1930 (est.) 1,127,000 1,352,400 4,057,200
1935 (est.) 1,724,400 5,173,200
Total from 1920 to 1935:
15-year period 19,067,400 57,200,400
The following prediction was made by the Great Western Gateway Company League in 1919:
The above table for the 15-year period reaches the phenomenal number of 19,067,400 and the number of persons in autos during the same period is 57,200,400.
In addition to this there will be approximately 6,570,000 foot passengers and 273,000 wagons, making a total of approximately 60,043,400 persons in autos, wagon and pedestrians that will cross this bridge in the next fifteen years.
The basis for the above figures is taken from a report by the Secretary of State, for the years 1901-1919 and the future estimates are based on curves made from these figures, also on 200 automobile days a year and three passengers to a car.
This is the basis used by the Auto Club of America.
Secretary of State, Francis Hugo, wrote of the Old Mohawk Turnpike and the Great Western Gateway Bridge:
"The road west to Utica which passes through the territory of the Scotia Bridge and East to Pittsfield is one of the greatest single arteries in the United States."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge, concluded ...
The Utica Saturday Globe of May 24, 1919, had the following concerning the men who were largely responsible for the creation and construction of New York State's most beautiful bridges and one of America's greatest works of concrete construction:
"The Great Western Gateway is an accomplished fact."
"Yesterday it was the vision of a dreamer who stood nearly alone at times, but one who had the courage of his dreams and whom rebuffs and discouragement could not shake off from his purpose to make his dream come true."
"To the men who assisted in putting over this great project all praise is due."
"Without the hearty co-operation of Senator Marshall and Assemblyman Machold, without the vital assistance of Senator Sage, the work of years would have come to naught."
"And without the broad vision of Governor Smith in grasping the potentialities of a Greater New York to which this project will vastly contribute, the whole plan would have failed."
"But the Great Western Gateway is a dream come true, and the dreamer is to-day receiving the only reward he ever desired — the knowledge, known to a few friends that his was the plan, the foresight, and the indomitable courage that will give to the Greater Schenectady of the next generation a piece of engineering which will stand as a monument to a dreamer who made his dream come true."
"Harry Furman was the dreamer."
"His was the courage and enthusiasm that opposition could not quench and failure oft repeated could not shake from his purpose."
"When others doubted, he dreamed on, never relaxing for a moment his determination to make this dream come true."
"His enthusiasm and courage were contagious."
"With him have stood a few men who worked indefatigably and all are reaping the only reward they have ever sought — the reward of those who work unselfishly for the good of others."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 112: Traffic Over the Great Western Gateway Bridge, concluded ...
The Utica Saturday Globe of May 24, 1919, had the following concerning the men who were largely responsible for the creation and construction of New York State's most beautiful bridges and one of America's greatest works of concrete construction:
"The Great Western Gateway is an accomplished fact."
"Yesterday it was the vision of a dreamer who stood nearly alone at times, but one who had the courage of his dreams and whom rebuffs and discouragement could not shake off from his purpose to make his dream come true."
"To the men who assisted in putting over this great project all praise is due."
"Without the hearty co-operation of Senator Marshall and Assemblyman Machold, without the vital assistance of Senator Sage, the work of years would have come to naught."
"And without the broad vision of Governor Smith in grasping the potentialities of a Greater New York to which this project will vastly contribute, the whole plan would have failed."
"But the Great Western Gateway is a dream come true, and the dreamer is to-day receiving the only reward he ever desired — the knowledge, known to a few friends that his was the plan, the foresight, and the indomitable courage that will give to the Greater Schenectady of the next generation a piece of engineering which will stand as a monument to a dreamer who made his dream come true."
"Harry Furman was the dreamer."
"His was the courage and enthusiasm that opposition could not quench and failure oft repeated could not shake from his purpose."
"When others doubted, he dreamed on, never relaxing for a moment his determination to make this dream come true."
"His enthusiasm and courage were contagious."
"With him have stood a few men who worked indefatigably and all are reaping the only reward they have ever sought — the reward of those who work unselfishly for the good of others."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 113: General Electric Company.
Mohawk Valley is cradle of electrical industry — Wonderful work of General Electric Co. engineers at Schenectady, N. Y. — Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, foremost writer of romance of electricity.
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Romance Is Dead
"Romance is dead, and the world is gray,
The olden glamor has passed away" —
Yet, when I write to my Love afar,
By hill and valley, by sea and land,
Under Tropic or Northern star,
Vast forces answer to my command.
Ships and horses and trains and men —
Straight they carry my words to her,
And ever as swift as a wheel can stir
Bring me her message back again!
"Romance is dead!" — yet I touch a spring
And the hands of a Master play for me,
Or I summon the Queens of Song to sing,
Thrilling my soul with their melody;
"Romance is dead!" — yet a switch I throw
To waken the magic spells I know,
And the room about me leaps alight,
For I have called on the power and might
of modern Genii to bring to me
This radiance, making the darkness flee!
"Romance is dead and its magic flown,"
And yet wherever I gaze, I find
Miracles wrought in steel and stone
And huge enchantments to 'maze the mind,
The lightning's harnessed — the floods are still,
Held in bondage to do my will;
Who was the fool — the fool and blind,
Dullard and laggard both — who said,
"Romance is dead"?
— Berton Braley.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 113: General Electric Company.
Mohawk Valley is cradle of electrical industry — Wonderful work of General Electric Co. engineers at Schenectady, N. Y. — Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, foremost writer of romance of electricity.
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Romance Is Dead
"Romance is dead, and the world is gray,
The olden glamor has passed away" —
Yet, when I write to my Love afar,
By hill and valley, by sea and land,
Under Tropic or Northern star,
Vast forces answer to my command.
Ships and horses and trains and men —
Straight they carry my words to her,
And ever as swift as a wheel can stir
Bring me her message back again!
"Romance is dead!" — yet I touch a spring
And the hands of a Master play for me,
Or I summon the Queens of Song to sing,
Thrilling my soul with their melody;
"Romance is dead!" — yet a switch I throw
To waken the magic spells I know,
And the room about me leaps alight,
For I have called on the power and might
of modern Genii to bring to me
This radiance, making the darkness flee!
"Romance is dead and its magic flown,"
And yet wherever I gaze, I find
Miracles wrought in steel and stone
And huge enchantments to 'maze the mind,
The lightning's harnessed — the floods are still,
Held in bondage to do my will;
Who was the fool — the fool and blind,
Dullard and laggard both — who said,
"Romance is dead"?
— Berton Braley.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
It was in the early eighties that Thomas A. Edison was riding westward from Albany on the New York Central.
As the train passed through Schenectady, this genius visualized the manifold advantages of the old Dutch town as a factory location.
It had transportation, roads, railroads, and water.
It had a healthful climate surrounded by the Catskills, Adirondacks, Berkshires and Green Mountains.
And as Edison further investigated, he found other advantages — undiscovered by most — which made Schenectady an ideal site for a big industry.
And so Edison's vision and judgment resulted in the Mohawk Valley being the cradle for the great romance of electrical achievement.
For here 25,000 men and women are working under unsurpassed conditions, turning out electric products that go all over the world and which lift the loads, carry the burdens, and turn the wheels which human and animal muscles formerly lifted and carried and turned.
Far up in the Himalaya Mountains of India are water wheel generators which harness the mountain cataracts.
Far up in the Rocky Mountains at the very antipodes, freight and passenger trains, of unprecedented length are hauled across the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Mountains by electric locomotives.
South African and Japanese railways, Philippine sugar mills, Carolina cotton mills, New England weaving mills, Pennsylvania and Montana mines now use the electrical machinery turned out in Schenectady.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
It was in the early eighties that Thomas A. Edison was riding westward from Albany on the New York Central.
As the train passed through Schenectady, this genius visualized the manifold advantages of the old Dutch town as a factory location.
It had transportation, roads, railroads, and water.
It had a healthful climate surrounded by the Catskills, Adirondacks, Berkshires and Green Mountains.
And as Edison further investigated, he found other advantages — undiscovered by most — which made Schenectady an ideal site for a big industry.
And so Edison's vision and judgment resulted in the Mohawk Valley being the cradle for the great romance of electrical achievement.
For here 25,000 men and women are working under unsurpassed conditions, turning out electric products that go all over the world and which lift the loads, carry the burdens, and turn the wheels which human and animal muscles formerly lifted and carried and turned.
Far up in the Himalaya Mountains of India are water wheel generators which harness the mountain cataracts.
Far up in the Rocky Mountains at the very antipodes, freight and passenger trains, of unprecedented length are hauled across the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Mountains by electric locomotives.
South African and Japanese railways, Philippine sugar mills, Carolina cotton mills, New England weaving mills, Pennsylvania and Montana mines now use the electrical machinery turned out in Schenectady.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Right after Thomas Edison located in Schenectady, the firm was called "The Edison General Electric Company," and when Edison united with Prof. Elihu Thomson, of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Lynn, Mass., the name of the firm was changed to the General Electric Company, which now throughout the United States employs 76,000 people — manufacturing, selling, purchasing, advertising — in a hundred different lines of activities.
But the Schenectady works in itself is one of the wonders of the world.
Miracles have been performed here in the X-Ray, in the Research Laboratory, which perfected the electric lamps hanging above your head, in the improved lamps which have made the motion picture industry possible.
Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz said that the romantic side of industry is a reality, though most people can only see the grimy and uninteresting routine of production.
He pointed out to many the curious spectacular and awe inspiring scenes in this big industrial plant.
He said that the writers of today are out of touch with the twentieth century and that they have never seen the poetry of our scientific and engineering twentieth century.
And Dr. Steinmetz wrote,
"There is more poetry, more romance in the advances which we have seen in our life time than in all the tales of bygone ages."
"We navigate the depth of the ocean by submarines."
"Thanks to electricity in the spark, we fly to the higher altitudes of the skies by aeroplane."
"We fling the human voice over thousands of miles across continents and oceans by telephone."
"Still unborn generations will hear the living voices of our musicians bequeathed to them by the phonograph."
"Our great, great grandchildren will see in action the prominent men of today recorded and everlastingly perpetuated by the cinematoscope — new historian of these great times."
"There is romance in the life of the vigilant mariner who listens to wireless messages from distant shores."
"There is romance in the mighty spinning tops, the steam turbines, fed by the stored sunlight of prehistoric ages — ages when ferns were giant trees and our ancestors were crawling things in the slime on the shores of the lagoon — not very long ago as time is counted in the universe."
"Turning at a speed which would carry it across the continent in a few hours were it not imprisoned in the power plant, some single turbines furnish mankind with electricity equaling the power of 60,000 horses."
"They turn night into day and propel the electric train with the speed of a gale."
"They actuate mines and factories and make possible wonderful material unknown to former generations."
"In the modern power plant and factories, there is more romance and poetry than there has ever been in the history of the past; but we must be living with it to see and understand it."
"That is, we must be living with the men of our century and not sheltered in the dust of past ages."
So wrote Dr. Steinmetz, the Electrical Wizard of Schenectady.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Right after Thomas Edison located in Schenectady, the firm was called "The Edison General Electric Company," and when Edison united with Prof. Elihu Thomson, of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Lynn, Mass., the name of the firm was changed to the General Electric Company, which now throughout the United States employs 76,000 people — manufacturing, selling, purchasing, advertising — in a hundred different lines of activities.
But the Schenectady works in itself is one of the wonders of the world.
Miracles have been performed here in the X-Ray, in the Research Laboratory, which perfected the electric lamps hanging above your head, in the improved lamps which have made the motion picture industry possible.
Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz said that the romantic side of industry is a reality, though most people can only see the grimy and uninteresting routine of production.
He pointed out to many the curious spectacular and awe inspiring scenes in this big industrial plant.
He said that the writers of today are out of touch with the twentieth century and that they have never seen the poetry of our scientific and engineering twentieth century.
And Dr. Steinmetz wrote,
"There is more poetry, more romance in the advances which we have seen in our life time than in all the tales of bygone ages."
"We navigate the depth of the ocean by submarines."
"Thanks to electricity in the spark, we fly to the higher altitudes of the skies by aeroplane."
"We fling the human voice over thousands of miles across continents and oceans by telephone."
"Still unborn generations will hear the living voices of our musicians bequeathed to them by the phonograph."
"Our great, great grandchildren will see in action the prominent men of today recorded and everlastingly perpetuated by the cinematoscope — new historian of these great times."
"There is romance in the life of the vigilant mariner who listens to wireless messages from distant shores."
"There is romance in the mighty spinning tops, the steam turbines, fed by the stored sunlight of prehistoric ages — ages when ferns were giant trees and our ancestors were crawling things in the slime on the shores of the lagoon — not very long ago as time is counted in the universe."
"Turning at a speed which would carry it across the continent in a few hours were it not imprisoned in the power plant, some single turbines furnish mankind with electricity equaling the power of 60,000 horses."
"They turn night into day and propel the electric train with the speed of a gale."
"They actuate mines and factories and make possible wonderful material unknown to former generations."
"In the modern power plant and factories, there is more romance and poetry than there has ever been in the history of the past; but we must be living with it to see and understand it."
"That is, we must be living with the men of our century and not sheltered in the dust of past ages."
So wrote Dr. Steinmetz, the Electrical Wizard of Schenectady.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Would you like to take an inspection trip of this big factory — a city in itself?
Yes?
Then come with me.
The Great Industrial Orchestra
In walking down the great avenue we come to building 49.
As we enter the door of this long structure, 1,200 feet long, you glance at your watch.
It is 12:27 P. M.
The only sound is the low conversation of a few men sitting together as the end of the dinner hour draws near.
We walk down the aisle of the building viewing the giant machines which tower high above our heads on either side, when suddenly the roar of the 12:30 whistle interrupts our thoughts.
Before the whistle stops blowing, we see one man neatly fold up his newspaper and put it in his coat pocket; and scarcely has the sound of the whistle died down than there arises sharp and clear, the shrill whine of a motor driving one of the smaller machines tools.
But it is only for an instant that the high soprano of this motor fills the building, for almost immediately it is followed by a second machine — one whose motor sings a tenor note; and we had not taken twenty steps after the blowing of the whistle before the deep, rumbling grunt of a boring mill takes up the bass.
In less time than it takes to describe it, lathes, drill presses, cranes and hand tools, all join together singing their respective parts, and we are surrounded by a great industrial orchestra — the building reverberating to the indescribable song of American industry.
A step more and the sharp staccato strokes of some pneumatic tools dominate the song and then an overhead electric crane swoops down and gently deposits 17 tons of cast iron at our feet.
All around us, reverberating from the high ceilings and resounding from the whitewashed walls, is the voice of steel as it tortures steel, fabricating electrical machinery to drive the wheels of world-wide industry.
Turbines that propel ships, generators for use in power plants, motors for steel mills, yes, these giant machines that emancipate labor from dull drudgery, these machines that do the muscle work and allow the operators to work more with their brains than with their muscles — they will soon be in the customers' hands, throughout the four quarters of the globe.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Would you like to take an inspection trip of this big factory — a city in itself?
Yes?
Then come with me.
The Great Industrial Orchestra
In walking down the great avenue we come to building 49.
As we enter the door of this long structure, 1,200 feet long, you glance at your watch.
It is 12:27 P. M.
The only sound is the low conversation of a few men sitting together as the end of the dinner hour draws near.
We walk down the aisle of the building viewing the giant machines which tower high above our heads on either side, when suddenly the roar of the 12:30 whistle interrupts our thoughts.
Before the whistle stops blowing, we see one man neatly fold up his newspaper and put it in his coat pocket; and scarcely has the sound of the whistle died down than there arises sharp and clear, the shrill whine of a motor driving one of the smaller machines tools.
But it is only for an instant that the high soprano of this motor fills the building, for almost immediately it is followed by a second machine — one whose motor sings a tenor note; and we had not taken twenty steps after the blowing of the whistle before the deep, rumbling grunt of a boring mill takes up the bass.
In less time than it takes to describe it, lathes, drill presses, cranes and hand tools, all join together singing their respective parts, and we are surrounded by a great industrial orchestra — the building reverberating to the indescribable song of American industry.
A step more and the sharp staccato strokes of some pneumatic tools dominate the song and then an overhead electric crane swoops down and gently deposits 17 tons of cast iron at our feet.
All around us, reverberating from the high ceilings and resounding from the whitewashed walls, is the voice of steel as it tortures steel, fabricating electrical machinery to drive the wheels of world-wide industry.
Turbines that propel ships, generators for use in power plants, motors for steel mills, yes, these giant machines that emancipate labor from dull drudgery, these machines that do the muscle work and allow the operators to work more with their brains than with their muscles — they will soon be in the customers' hands, throughout the four quarters of the globe.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Examine one of these machines — of what are they composed?
Chiefly copper, iron, steel, wood, cotton, silk and rubber.
A yellow man spun the silk in Japan, a black man picked the cotton in Texas, a brown man tapped the rubber trees of Ceylon for the insulation around the wires, people in the uttermost parts of the world picked, dug, scraped, dragged and carried the raw materials which are now being assembled into machines that help the human race.
The iron was made from Minnesota ore, smelted in south Chicago with Michigan limestone, and coke made from Pennsylvania or West Virginia coal.
The armatures of the motors are bound with phosphor bronze wire.
Each ounce of this wire involves the carrying of its ingredients almost 16,000 miles; for the copper travels 2,700 miles from Montana, the zinc came 2,000 miles from Oklahoma and the tin 11,000 miles from Singapore — and combined they make the toughest wire known to the engineer.
What a world-wide mechanism is the electrical business, drawing its parts from Tropics and Orient, from the Old World and the New, and then sending the electrical machine back to help gather more material to make more machinery.
And the shipping of these giant machines is a study in itself.
Let us visit Building 50 — the department in Schenectady where the apparatus is boxed and crated for its long arduous journey.
Think of the preparation necessary to insure the safe delivery of electrical machinery to South America, for instance.
It goes by railroad to New York, by boat to South America, and from the boat it is unloaded into canoes.
These canoes are paddled as close as possible to shore and then the boxes or packages of carefully made electrical machinery are cast into the surf.
Then they are dragged to shore and trucked to a railroad station and begin a journey of from two to four days more in an open or flat car to the end of the line near the foot of the mountain; then four days more in an open boat with an Indian or peon as pilot.
And then, after the river ceases to be navigable to boats, the Yankee motors and generators are loaded on the backs of mules for their long journey up the narrow winding paths of the Andes Mountains.
And the shipping experts in Schenectady are acquainted with the habits of the people and even of the insects of foreign lands.
The termite is an insect in India which feeds chiefly on wood and does not leave even as much as sawdust after he has completed his meal.
On one occasion a row of telegraph poles in India were completely eaten up by these termites and in 48 hours nothing was left but the wires and glass insulators.
Schenectady engineers have found that there are only three things which resist this insect, namely, stone, iron and humble coal tar.
So that all boxes that are sent to this section must be thoroughly coated with coal tar just as the workmen spread it thickly on the roof of a building.
And to the opposite end of the earth — Alaska — machines is boxed for transportation by Eskimo dog teams.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 113: General Electric Company, continued ...
By Charles M. Ripley, E. E.
Examine one of these machines — of what are they composed?
Chiefly copper, iron, steel, wood, cotton, silk and rubber.
A yellow man spun the silk in Japan, a black man picked the cotton in Texas, a brown man tapped the rubber trees of Ceylon for the insulation around the wires, people in the uttermost parts of the world picked, dug, scraped, dragged and carried the raw materials which are now being assembled into machines that help the human race.
The iron was made from Minnesota ore, smelted in south Chicago with Michigan limestone, and coke made from Pennsylvania or West Virginia coal.
The armatures of the motors are bound with phosphor bronze wire.
Each ounce of this wire involves the carrying of its ingredients almost 16,000 miles; for the copper travels 2,700 miles from Montana, the zinc came 2,000 miles from Oklahoma and the tin 11,000 miles from Singapore — and combined they make the toughest wire known to the engineer.
What a world-wide mechanism is the electrical business, drawing its parts from Tropics and Orient, from the Old World and the New, and then sending the electrical machine back to help gather more material to make more machinery.
And the shipping of these giant machines is a study in itself.
Let us visit Building 50 — the department in Schenectady where the apparatus is boxed and crated for its long arduous journey.
Think of the preparation necessary to insure the safe delivery of electrical machinery to South America, for instance.
It goes by railroad to New York, by boat to South America, and from the boat it is unloaded into canoes.
These canoes are paddled as close as possible to shore and then the boxes or packages of carefully made electrical machinery are cast into the surf.
Then they are dragged to shore and trucked to a railroad station and begin a journey of from two to four days more in an open or flat car to the end of the line near the foot of the mountain; then four days more in an open boat with an Indian or peon as pilot.
And then, after the river ceases to be navigable to boats, the Yankee motors and generators are loaded on the backs of mules for their long journey up the narrow winding paths of the Andes Mountains.
And the shipping experts in Schenectady are acquainted with the habits of the people and even of the insects of foreign lands.
The termite is an insect in India which feeds chiefly on wood and does not leave even as much as sawdust after he has completed his meal.
On one occasion a row of telegraph poles in India were completely eaten up by these termites and in 48 hours nothing was left but the wires and glass insulators.
Schenectady engineers have found that there are only three things which resist this insect, namely, stone, iron and humble coal tar.
So that all boxes that are sent to this section must be thoroughly coated with coal tar just as the workmen spread it thickly on the roof of a building.
And to the opposite end of the earth — Alaska — machines is boxed for transportation by Eskimo dog teams.
TO BE CONTINUED ...