Roslindale EDISON Substation Most Likely the Edison Station at 669 South St- Trainee Program 1919
A little background on this 'Edison Trainee program Photo' from the 'Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston' archives:
books.google.com/books?pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Roslin...
"FEMALE EMPLOYEES AS A WAR MEASURE
AS the war progressed the Company encouraged to enlist those in its / \ employ who were fitted for service and who were not in positions JL JL which rendered their retention more valuable to the Government than service in some other capacity.
In order to make their departure easier and to provide for the continuance of the work, the Company studied the problem of replacing temporarily those who went into the service without employing others who were needed by the Government for the carrying out of its program, it being understood that those who returned from service would be reinstated if positions still existed and they were then fitted to fill them.
One of the types of positions most necessary to be filled was that of substation operators. Women had been employed in England for some time during the war with marked success to take the places of men who had left for military duty, and it was decided to try out women in our stations, after first giving them an intensified course of instruction.
On March 25 a class of eighteen women was opened at the Service Buildings under the direction of P. J. Kent, and after a course of instruction in theory and operation the students were put in nominal charge of the Roslindale substation in June. This was an A. C. substation of 3,790 kw. capacity. A skeleton force of men was left in the station for about a month to supervise the work of the female operators. On July 5, 1918, the women were left in complete charge of this station, and shortly after, the Dorchester A. C. substation of about 3,300 kw. capacity was put in charge of women operators.
A second class was then started, and upon the completion of the course the Framingham A. C. substation of 220 kw. and the Stuart Street D. C. substation of 4,565 kw. were given over to the women for operation.
The third and final class was started in September, 1918, the period of instruction being of longer duration, due to the influenza epidemic, and this class was not placed in the stations until the last of November, when they took over the Congress Street D. C. substation of 2,000 kw. and the Salem Street D. C. substation of 2,180 kw. capacity"
Dennis Kirkpatrick Carl - I disagree on this image as the MTA DC Power station. The DC station for the streetcars had one large bay door on the Washington Street side. There were no such windows or doors to the rear. That was a solid wall always. If you look at this image there are three distinct arched windows at the far end of the building. It is clear this is shot along the longer axis. If so there are no dynamos displaying, and there should be 2 of them and they would be the size of an Econoline Van truck. Another giveaway is the roof support beams at center image. The MTA / MBTA station did not have such roof supports. The power measurement meters and racks for the MTA station were along the southern wall aside of Higgins Funeral Home. There was a lot of open floor space between the meters and dynamos so any stray magnetic fields would not result in false readings. There is too much equipment in this image to be the MBTA station. It also appears to be AC circuit switching equipment, be it "ancient". If you use Google Street View and look at the Edison station at South Street (at South, Washington, and Firth) you can match up the three distinct arched window bays, though now they are bricked over. As such I believe this is a shot of that Edison station and not the MTA / MBTA DC power boost station. In local terms this would also have been called a "sub station" but for a different power system, in this case AC current for homes and business.
engineeringhistory.tumblr.com/post/53194626134/a-group-of...
Roslindale EDISON Substation Most Likely the Edison Station at 669 South St- Trainee Program 1919
A little background on this 'Edison Trainee program Photo' from the 'Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston' archives:
books.google.com/books?pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Roslin...
"FEMALE EMPLOYEES AS A WAR MEASURE
AS the war progressed the Company encouraged to enlist those in its / \ employ who were fitted for service and who were not in positions JL JL which rendered their retention more valuable to the Government than service in some other capacity.
In order to make their departure easier and to provide for the continuance of the work, the Company studied the problem of replacing temporarily those who went into the service without employing others who were needed by the Government for the carrying out of its program, it being understood that those who returned from service would be reinstated if positions still existed and they were then fitted to fill them.
One of the types of positions most necessary to be filled was that of substation operators. Women had been employed in England for some time during the war with marked success to take the places of men who had left for military duty, and it was decided to try out women in our stations, after first giving them an intensified course of instruction.
On March 25 a class of eighteen women was opened at the Service Buildings under the direction of P. J. Kent, and after a course of instruction in theory and operation the students were put in nominal charge of the Roslindale substation in June. This was an A. C. substation of 3,790 kw. capacity. A skeleton force of men was left in the station for about a month to supervise the work of the female operators. On July 5, 1918, the women were left in complete charge of this station, and shortly after, the Dorchester A. C. substation of about 3,300 kw. capacity was put in charge of women operators.
A second class was then started, and upon the completion of the course the Framingham A. C. substation of 220 kw. and the Stuart Street D. C. substation of 4,565 kw. were given over to the women for operation.
The third and final class was started in September, 1918, the period of instruction being of longer duration, due to the influenza epidemic, and this class was not placed in the stations until the last of November, when they took over the Congress Street D. C. substation of 2,000 kw. and the Salem Street D. C. substation of 2,180 kw. capacity"
Dennis Kirkpatrick Carl - I disagree on this image as the MTA DC Power station. The DC station for the streetcars had one large bay door on the Washington Street side. There were no such windows or doors to the rear. That was a solid wall always. If you look at this image there are three distinct arched windows at the far end of the building. It is clear this is shot along the longer axis. If so there are no dynamos displaying, and there should be 2 of them and they would be the size of an Econoline Van truck. Another giveaway is the roof support beams at center image. The MTA / MBTA station did not have such roof supports. The power measurement meters and racks for the MTA station were along the southern wall aside of Higgins Funeral Home. There was a lot of open floor space between the meters and dynamos so any stray magnetic fields would not result in false readings. There is too much equipment in this image to be the MBTA station. It also appears to be AC circuit switching equipment, be it "ancient". If you use Google Street View and look at the Edison station at South Street (at South, Washington, and Firth) you can match up the three distinct arched window bays, though now they are bricked over. As such I believe this is a shot of that Edison station and not the MTA / MBTA DC power boost station. In local terms this would also have been called a "sub station" but for a different power system, in this case AC current for homes and business.
engineeringhistory.tumblr.com/post/53194626134/a-group-of...