much tree-trimming
would be necessary. When they came to some heavily shaded spots, the
fine trees were marked "T" to indicate that the work in getting through
them would be "tough." Where the trees were sparse and the foliage was
thin, the same cheerful band of vandals marked the spots "E" to indicate
that there it would be "easy" to run the wires. In those days public
opinion was not so alive as now to the desirability of preserving
shade-trees, and of enhancing the beauty of a city instead of destroying
it. Brockton had a good deal of pride in its fine trees, and a strong
sentiment was very soon aroused against the mutilation proposed so
thoughtlessly. The investors in the enterprise were ready and anxious
to meet the extra cost of putting the wires underground. Edison's own
wishes were altogether for the use of the methods he had so carefully
devised; and hence that bustling home of shoe manufacture was spared
this infliction of more overhead wires.

The station equipment at Brockton consisted at first of three dynamos,
one of which was so arranged as to supply both sides of the system
during light loads by a breakdown switch connection. This arrangement
interfered with correct meter registration, as the meters on one side of
the system registered backward during the hours in which the combination
was employed. Hence, after supplying an all-night customer whose lamps
were on one side of the circuits, the company might be found to owe him
some thing substantial in the morning. Soon after the station went into
operation this ingenious plan was changed, and the third dynamo was
replaced by two others. The Edison construction department took entire
charge of the installation of the plant, and the formal opening was
attended on October 1, 1883, by Mr. Edison, who then remained a week in
ceaseless study and consultation over the conditions developed by
this initial three-wire underground plant. Some idea of the confidence
inspired by the fame of Edison at this period is shown by the fact that
the first theatre ever lighted from a central station by incandescent
lamps was designed this year, and opened in 1884 at Brockton with an
equipment of three hundred lamps. The theatre was never piped for gas!
It was also from the Brockton central station that current was first
supplied to a fire-engine house--another display of remarkably early
belief in the trustworthiness of the service, under conditions where
continuity of light