©Genealogy Trails
Quincy probably saw its first electric light here when the W.W. Cole Circus came to town in 1879 with lights in its big top. The Cole show had earlier revamped its rolling stock here with wagons purchased from the E.M. Miller Carriage Company. If Yankee Robinson came through this area they also saw lights in his tent. When the Sells Circus showed here on May 9, 1881, seven arc lights were used to light up the big top. The newspapers suggested that the city fathers purchase a number of these lights for Washington Park.
Actually, the first electric light was the arc discovered by Humphrey Davy in 1800, with “invisible fluid” flowing through two sticks of wood charcoal. Pencils of hard carbon were later introduced to replace the charcoal. An arc lamp invented in 1847 by W.E. Staite was a great improvement over Davy’s theory, and Charles F. Brush made other improvements so that by 1878 small Brush arc lights were sold to Wanamaker’s big store in Philadelphia, as well as others.
The first electric lights installed for illuminating a public street were two thousand candle power Brush arc lamps set up on poles in the public square in Cleveland in 1879. A year later the Brush arcs were illuminating some of the streets of New York City and then spread to other cities.
In 1878 Elihu Thomson and Edwin J. Houston of Lynn, Massachusetts, developed a very successful and complete arc lighting system. Their system permitted individual lamps to be switched on and off at will without upsetting the entire system.
Thomson and Houston assigned their patent rights in arc lighting to a New Britain, Connecticut firm, the American Electric Company. This company failed when its chief backer died in 1881, but with new money was reorganized on February 12, 1883, as the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. When it was organized, it held contracts to supply power for 365 arc lamps on five generating systems. Within a year it had thirty-one generating stations in operation, serving 2,400 arc lamps. It later went into incandescent lighting, manufacturing these in 1884, and in 1887 making alternating current dynamos and transformers.
During this period Thomas Edison was working on the arc light, forming the Edison General Electric Company. In 1892 Thomson-Houston merged with Edison General Electric, with the name changed to General Electric Company and with Charles Coffin of the Thomson-Houston Company as the new president. Samuel Insull, of the Edison General Electric Company, was offered a post as second vice president but declined it. Edison’s name was dropped entirely from the title, with Mr. Edison frozen out of a place on the board. Thomson became the chief advisor of the new company.
We are concerned with the history of this company, for they brought the electric light to Quincy. As we said, there was agitation here for electric light, as early as May 1881. During the winter 1882-1883, the new scientific wonder was demonstrated on the streets of Quincy. On February 9, 1883, representatives of three companies arrived to place sample lights on poles. The Brush Electric Company placed a light on a pole at Fourth and Hampshire; the American Electric Company, later known as Thomson-Houston, suspended one of their lamps from a pole at Fifth and Maine; and the U.S. Electric Company placed a sample lamp at Sixth and Hampshire.
The machinery of the Turner Tobacco Factory on the northeast corner of Fifth and Jersey was used to turn the dynamos and furnish the power. The mayor appointed a committee to compare the lights and give their report. Persons using the telephone line to Hannibal said that they heard vibrations over the line while the lights were in use.Many were disappointed that the lamps did not illuminate the entire street.
A committee composed of John Robertson (a partner in the Gardner-Governor Company), M.T. Greenleaf, and J.B. Russell judged the American Electric Company dynamo the best machine. The general committee was composed of Mayor D.F. Deaderick; Aldermen Chumbley, Wall, Harrop, VanderBoom, Rogers, Swimmer, Wemhoener, Turner, and Cruttenden; along with businessmen R. Lambert, H. Hirsch, R. Newcomb, M. Grundman, D.E. Lynds, and I. Lesem. This committee said the Brush light gave a good volume but flickered, while the U.S. and American lights gave strong and powerful illimunation.
By now, Rock Island was lighted with electric lights using seven steel towers similar to those used today at the ballpark. Demonstrations and arguments went on and on. J.R. Marke, of the Edison Electric Light Company, came here on February 21, 1883, to meet with carious businessmen in the hope of forming a local company to finance and set up an electric lighting system in Quincy. The Edison people would furnish the dynamo, wires, etc., but wanted a certain percent of the profits.
On March 27, 1883, the Sperry Company talked to the City Council about fufty lamps, and the American Electric Company agreed to send in an electric machine capable of one hundred lights, until a company could be formed. The Edison people were being represented by Sibley, Govert and Carter.
On July 20, 1883, after much haggling, the Quincy City Council appropriated $1,336 for electric lights in the downtown business area of the city and $10,000 to pay the gas company to install gas lamps in those parts of the city not already lighted by gas. The Thomson-Houston Company had originally asked for two thousand dollars for lighting the business area with fourteen lamps suspended thirty feet above the street, provided fifty Quincy businessmen who came into the scheme and took lamps for their business houses.
On August 29 the newspapers commented that nearly every large city was using the new light for stores and streets and fifty towns were lighted entirely by electric light. Springfield and Aurora were examples close to home. In Aurora a system of seven towers had been used at first. To reach every part of the city, eight more towers were added. The Thomson-Houston Company had the contract to light Des Moines.
On August 30, 1883, Mayor Deaderick ordered out the old Civil War cannon to give the signal for turning on the lights in Quincy for the first time. At eight o’clock that night, the fourteen lamps blazed coldly but brilliantly. In one or two lamps the carbon failed to work properly, but the people were satisfied, for the light was white, not yellow like the gas lamps.
The lamps were suspended from poles placed at the side of the street, except at the town square where they were hung in the center of the intersection. The park was well lighted by one lamp suspended over the fountain. The editor of the Whig remarked that the park would no longer be a resort for thugs. He said that Quincy was the best-lighted city in the West, with the exception of Dubuque, which had the lamps in 1880.
The lamps used in the beginning were single carbon, but they would be replaced by duplex lamps that would burn from ten to fourteen hours before the carbons would have to be replaced. By September 10 the Joseph Stern Clothing Store had five of the new lamps, and there were one or two at J. Parkhurst’s, J.D. Levy Clothing, Thopson-Bowles, A. Doerr and Brothers at Sixth and Hampshire, Jonas Meyer, H. Schroeder. J.H. Buschman, and A.A. Fischer.
With the new lights on, the fountain in the park operating, and the Gem City Band playing, it was like a celebration. The streets were full of people admiring the new lights. However, there were some small inconveniences. For instance, on September 11 the lamps were not turned on because of the moonlight. After all, the gas company didn’t light its lamps three nights each month when the moon was full. This was soon remedied with the new company so that the city always had light.
The Hotel Tremont installed a light in its office and another in the sample room.The Trinity Church on the northwest corner of Fifth and Jersey found that the new light drew standing room only. True, the new electric light was higher in price than gas, but everyone except the gas company said it was better. The rate was fifteen dollars a month for three lights, whether used or not. Sterns had five lights, costing nine hundred dollars a year. Many lights probably would not be used over three hours a day, and some thought the lamps were not turned on early enough.
The lamps were at the corners of Front, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth on Hampshire and Main, with one over the fountain in the park. Two dynamos were in use operating the lamps in the stores, with a larger one used for the street lamps.
Then the people of Quincy began to demand that the new light be placed on other street corners in the city. In April 1884 a committee was sent to Chicago to investigate the Van Depoele Electric Company. This company wanted twelve thousand dollars for 120 lights, as opposed to the seventeen thousand dollars of the Thomson-Houston Company. The Van Depoele Company was told to bring in their machine and stage a demonstration, but they withdrew instead. The gas company was still fighting to hold its franchise to light the city with gas.