hhistory08
Vulcan Street Plant
Appleton, Wisconsin
Completed 1882
Mr. H.J. Rogers is a man who ordinarily deals in heavy things, such as his paper and pulp mills. Within the past few days, however, he has changed his tactics, or rather ... he has gone in for light transactions. He has purchased the exclusive right for illuminating the towns of the Fox River Valley with the Edison electric lamp.
- The Appleton Post, July 27, 1882
By 1880, Thomas Edison had already demonstrated his system for generating electricity with low-resistance generators that delivered power to low-resistance incandescent bulbs. One of the first locations for the application of Edison's demonstration was Appleton, Wisconsin, located on the Fox River just 30 miles southwest of Green Bay. On September 30, 1882, the Vulcan Street Plant in the Appleton Pulp Mill became the first central-station plant in the world to generate electricity by combining the latest advances in hydro-power sites with one of Edison's new electrical generators.
The Edison Company had already begun to generate electricity with steam power 26 days earlier at its Pearl Street plant in New York City, but steam-generated electricity proved more expensive. Within four years of Appleton's pioneering effort, nearly 50 hydroelectric generating projects were announced throughout North America and, by the turn of the century, hydroelectric power accounted for more than 40 percent of the United States' total electricity supply.
For more information on civil engineering history, go to www.asce.org/history.
Vulcan Street Plant
Appleton, Wisconsin
Completed 1882
Mr. H.J. Rogers is a man who ordinarily deals in heavy things, such as his paper and pulp mills. Within the past few days, however, he has changed his tactics, or rather ... he has gone in for light transactions. He has purchased the exclusive right for illuminating the towns of the Fox River Valley with the Edison electric lamp.
- The Appleton Post, July 27, 1882
By 1880, Thomas Edison had already demonstrated his system for generating electricity with low-resistance generators that delivered power to low-resistance incandescent bulbs. One of the first locations for the application of Edison's demonstration was Appleton, Wisconsin, located on the Fox River just 30 miles southwest of Green Bay. On September 30, 1882, the Vulcan Street Plant in the Appleton Pulp Mill became the first central-station plant in the world to generate electricity by combining the latest advances in hydro-power sites with one of Edison's new electrical generators.
The Edison Company had already begun to generate electricity with steam power 26 days earlier at its Pearl Street plant in New York City, but steam-generated electricity proved more expensive. Within four years of Appleton's pioneering effort, nearly 50 hydroelectric generating projects were announced throughout North America and, by the turn of the century, hydroelectric power accounted for more than 40 percent of the United States' total electricity supply.
For more information on civil engineering history, go to www.asce.org/history.