THE PASSING OF A PIONEER.
In our advertising columns this week, announcement is made of the retirement from active business of the California Electrical Works of San Francisco and the continuance of that business under the name of the Western Electric Company, which has directed its operation since it assumed control in 1901.
With this change there passes into history a name so closely identified with the pioneer days that to write the history of the California Electrical Works is to write the history of the electrical business of the early days of California.
The year 1871 witnessed the incorporation of the Electrical Construction and Maintenance Company, afterward the California Electrical Works. The officers were George S. Ladd, president, John G. Ayres, business manager, and S. B. Field, electrician and secretary. Their location was on the top floor of a small frame building at the corner of Montgomery and Jackson Streets, San Francisco.
This company absorbed all the business formerly handled by outside electrical enterprise and acquired by purchase the interests of Lundberg & Marwedell, who had been carrying on a limited business in the manufacture of telephone apparatus and supplies, including the manufacture of all telegraph instruments used by the Western Union Telegraph Company on the Pacific Coast.
Previous to the incorporation of the Electrical Construction and Maintenance Company, electrical development on the Pacific Coast had been entirely confined to the operations of the California State Telegraph Company.
In the year 1863, three telegraph circuits entered the city of San Francisco, these being composed of No. 9 iron wire supported on redwood poles and insulated with hook insulators; but two of these circuits could be worked at the same time, the “cross fire” between conductors rendering a separate pole line for each conductor a necessity. In those days every trouble on the line was attributed to the fogs which were then as now very dense at certain periods of the year.
In the year 1865 the fire alarm telegraph was introduced in San Francisco, and Mr. Field was one of the operators of this system. The following year, 1866, the first private telegraph line was constructed between the offices of Kelly, Hewston & Company and their refinery about a mile away. This circuit was made of baling wire—about No. 14 plain iron—with a joint every 150 feet. The instruments, battery and dial (“A. B. C.”) were from A. T. & J. N. Chester & Company of New York. The success of this line was so immediate that quite a demand sprang up for such installations, numbers of which were constructed and installed by the Electrical Construction and Maintenance Company under the supervision of Mr. Field. It may be of interest to know that these instruments cost $125 each in greenbacks, which were then rated at about 50 to 80 cents on the dollar, and were sold in San Francisco for $250 each in gold.
Housetop line construction cost $125 per mile and pole line construction about $250 per mile.
About 1874, the American District Telegraph System was introduced in San Francisco, the promoters being the various stockholders of the Electrical Construction and Maintenance Company, although the business was carried on under a separate incorporation.
On June 14, 1876, the company consolidated with Mr. Paul Seiler and Dr. Hirsch and incorporated under the name of the California Electrical Works, changing their location to the third floor of a brick building on Sutter Street.
In the year 1877 the telephone was introduced on the Pacific Coast, the first exchange being opened in the District Telegraph office on Sansome Street, San Francisco. In the summer of 1878 the first long-distance telephone line was constructed for the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company and various other adjacent claims commenced at French Corrall in Yuba County. It extended to nearly the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the total length of the line being about sixty miles with twenty-four stations. This line was installed by the California Electrical Works, the principal work being done by Mr. John O’Neil. In this connection it will no doubt be of interest to know that he is still in the employ of the company and we are indebted to him for much of the information contained in this article.
During these early years the California Electrical Works wired most of the principal buildings and residences in San Francisco, including the old Palace Hotel, the James B. Haggin residence, the Goad residence, the Concordia Club, General Colgan’s residence, the Mark Hopkins’ Institute, the Leland Stanford residence, the Chas. Crocker residence and many others. These names represent many of the most prominent early pioneers in California. Most of the wiring was for call bells and the wire used on the first installations was insulated with cotton braid and afterwards varnished, the work being done in the shop of the California Electrical Works.
The first drop annunciator on the Pacific Coast was installed by the California Electrical Works in the office of the Grand Hotel which was directly across the street from the old Palace Hotel. This annunciator remained in service until the earthquake and fire of 1906.
In 1877 the company installed the first electric light power station on the Coast. The old California Theater and Auction House, once so famous, was nightly illuminated with “Jarblokoff” candles. During the year 1878 the company obtained from Mr. Thos. A. Edison the first generator for incandescent lights seen in the West, this machine being one of the historical bi-polars with a capacity of about 160 lights. It was installed in the H. S. Crocker building on Bush Street, as an exhibit, and attracted a great deal of attention. The sockets for the lamps were very cumbersome and had no keys and there was only one switch on the line, this being placed on the frame of the generator. Shortly afterwards, this machine was installed as a permanent exhibit in the old Mechanics’ Pavilion on Larkin Street, and as a result the California Electrical Works installed quite a number of them during the next two years.
In 1886 the business was moved to 35 Market Street, where better accommodations and increased floor space were obtained. In 1890 they again moved to 409 Market Street, where, owing to the increased volume of the business, they occupied three floors. On December 16, 1901, the Western Electric Company acquired the controlling interest in the company and located at 547 Mission Street, where three floors and a basement were occupied for offices and stock. They remained in these quarters until the completion of their present building at 642 Folsom Street, where they moved in January, 1906, three months before the catastrophe which visited San Francisco.
Farewell to the California Electrical Works. Welcome to the Western Electric Company.