a total of nearly ten thousand lamps connected to the
mains. This pioneer system was operated continuously until February
9, 1900, or for a period of about seventeen years, when the sturdy old
machines, still in excellent condition, were put out of service, so that
a larger plant could be installed to meet the demand. This new plant
takes high-tension polyphase current from a water-power thirty or forty
miles away at Paderno, on the river Adda, flowing from the Apennines;
but delivers low-tension direct current for distribution to the regular
Edison three-wire system throughout Milan.

About the same time that southern Europe was thus opened up to the
new system, South America came into line, and the first Edison central
station there was installed at Santiago, Chile, in the summer of 1883,
under the supervision of Mr. W. N. Stewart. This was the result of the
success obtained with small isolated plants, leading to the formation of
an Edison company. It can readily be conceived that at such an extreme
distance from the source of supply of apparatus the plant was subject to
many peculiar difficulties from the outset, of which Mr. Stewart speaks
as follows: "I made an exhibition of the 'Jumbo' in the theatre
at Santiago, and on the first evening, when it was filled with the
aristocracy of the city, I discovered to my horror that the binding wire
around the armature was slowly stripping off and going to pieces. We had
no means of boring out the field magnets, and we cut grooves in them.
I think the machine is still running (1907). The station went into
operation soon after with an equipment of eight Edison 'K' dynamos with
certain conditions inimical to efficiency, but which have not hindered
the splendid expansion of the local system. With those eight dynamos we
had four belts between each engine and the dynamo. The steam pressure
was limited to seventy-five pounds per square inch. We had two-wire
underground feeders, sent without any plans or specifications for their
installation. The station had neither voltmeter nor ammeter. The current
pressure was regulated by a galvanometer. We were using coal costing $12
a ton, and were paid for our light in currency worth fifty cents on the
dollar. The only thing I can be proud of in connection with the plant is
the fact that I did not design it, that once in a while we made out to
pay its operating expenses, and that occasionally we could run it for
three months without a total b