ntry."

Seen from yet another angle, the worries of this early work were not
merely those of the men on the "firing line." Mr. Insull, in speaking
of this period, says: "When it was found difficult to push the
central-station business owing to the lack of confidence in its
financial success, Edison decided to go into the business of promoting
and constructing central-station plants, and he formed what was known as
the Thomas A. Edison Construction Department, which he put me in charge
of. The organization was crude, the steam-engineering talent poor,
and owing to the impossibility of getting any considerable capital
subscribed, the plants were put in as cheaply as possible. I believe
that this construction department was unkindly named the 'Destruction
Department.' It served its purpose; never made any money; and I had the
unpleasant task of presiding at its obsequies."

On July 4th the Sunbury plant was put into commercial operation by
Edison, and he remained a week studying its conditions and watching for
any unforeseen difficulty that might arise. Nothing happened, however,
to interfere with the successful running of the station, and for twenty
years thereafter the same two dynamos continued to furnish light in
Sunbury. They were later used as reserve machines, and finally, with the
engine, retired from service as part of the "Collection of Edisonia";
but they remain in practically as good condition as when installed in
1883.

Sunbury was also provided with the first electro-chemical meters used
in the United States outside New York City, so that it served also to
accentuate electrical practice in a most vital respect--namely, the
measurement of the electrical energy supplied to customers. At this time
and long after, all arc lighting was done on a "flat rate" basis. The
arc lamp installed outside a customer's premises, or in a circuit for
public street lighting, burned so many hours nightly, so many nights in
the month; and was paid for at that rate, subject to rebate for hours
when the lamp might be out through accident. The early arc lamps were
rated to require 9 to 10 amperes of current, at 45 volts pressure each,
receiving which they were estimated to give 2000 c.p., which was arrived
at by adding together the light found at four different positions, so
that in reality the actual light was about 500 c.p. Few of these data
were ever actually used, however; and it was all more or less a matter
of guesswork, alt