IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2018 - 113

Gold Street steam-plant property it had
recently acquired (Figure 6). By July
1888, six basement boilers provided
steam to a 350-hp steam engine that
drove seven 50-hp generators to supply
electric power to its customers. electric
motors were rented at a monthly rate
that included maintenance and repair.
Soon the demand for electric mo-
tive power from printers, jewelers,
leather goods plants, and optical and
metal working firms was such that two
separate systems evolved. when the
excelsior Building supplanted the old
Spruce Street property in July 1888,
the company supplied power at 110 V
over the "east Side circuit" to more
than 100 industrial customers in the
area of dense commercial development
between Broadway and the east river
south of the Brooklyn Bridge, which
was the prime territory of edison's 1882
Pearl Street plant.
excelsior's customers employed
motors of 0.5-15 hp in the fall of 1887;
the most common sizes were 1.5, 3,
and 7 hp. the majority of those cus-
tomers were located on Spruce, Frank-
fort, Beekman, Fulton, John, william,
Pearl, and nassau Streets and also on
Maiden lane. Still more were located
on side streets and the waterfront, at
Burling Slip, James Slip, and old Slip.
a few were located west of Broadway.
Most streets, lanes, or alleyways in
the area had at least one excelsior cus-
tomer. the maximum distance from
the power station appeared to have
been 0.5 mi.
additional motor loads included
machine tools, hoists, a few elevators,
book binding, tobacco processing, res-
taurant ventilation, and a saw mill. in
some instances, one motor appeared
to have performed two functions, even
those as widely different in character
as an elevator and a paper cutter. often,
one customer was the primary lessee
while businesses on other floors used
the power as provided by agreement.
a total of 310 hp was listed-equal
to 231 kw, which would have required
over 2,100 a given the pressure of
110 V. an excelsior publication dated
1 July 1888 indicated that plans were
july/august 2018

an additional plant on Park Place
near west Broadway contained a 250-hp
generator for a separate "west Side
circuit" that covered the territory from
leonard Street to Cortlandt Street west
of Broadway. that supplied customers

being made to increase the capacity of
the system to 2,500 hp in the future,
but no future change in transmission
voltage was noted. to what extent that
expansion was completed has not come
to light.

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