USA > Connecticut > Connecticut yesterday and today : 1635-1935 : celebrating three hundred years of progress in the Constitution state > Part 3
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At that time electric light was regarded as the scientific marvel of the age, comparable today with television and flights into the stratosphere. Although electric light in those days was "the last word", it fell short of what is commonplace today. Each com- munity drew its electricity from dynamos driven by small steam engines, and each company was
J. HENRY RORABACK President
strictly a local enterprise which labored with primitive facilities. Service interruptions were una- voidable and frequent, and usually power was not furnished during daylight. Only the very wealthy could have electricity in their homes, for it was a luxury that few could afford.
Early in the century the Nor- folk Electric Company, in the northwestern corner of the state, had begun to supply electric light to Norfolk and nearby towns. For about six months all went well. Then the company failed, and the town of North Canaan was in darkness. At about that time Mr. J. Henry Roraback, a lawyer in North Canaan, had become inter- ested in the possibilities of elec- tric light. He took a hand in the affairs of the defunct Norfolk company and assisted in reorgan- izing it. Some time later this company was combined with two others, and a water power plant was built. The undertaking, known as the Berkshire Power Company, proved successful.
In 1905 Mr. Roraback, having
previously acquired important properties necessary for the pro- ject, took his first step towards making electricity available else- where in the State. In that year he obtained a charter to utilize the power resources of the Rocky River. Through charter amend- ment in 1909 he also obtained the right to utilize the power resources of the Housatonic River. While development of the water power of these rivers was the purpose of the charter, Mr. Roraback's vision saw beyond. This is evidenced by a map he drew in 1911 which fol- lows line for line the transmission line network of The Connecticut Light & Power Company of today. Thus Mr. Roraback contem- plated even at that early date a super-power system that would supply the state. Twelve years passed before he found financial backing for this project, The Rocky River Power Company.
In 1917 the name, The Rocky River Power Company, was changed to the present title, The Connecticut Light & Power Com- pany, and Housatonic Power
THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY
Company, The United Electric Light and Water Company (of Waterbury), and The Seymour Electric Light Company were acquired.
In the same year the Eastern Connecticut Power Company was formed under other auspices to bring together local plants in the castern section of the state on lines similar to the grouping that was being accomplished by The Con- necticut Light & Power Company in the western and central areas. These two companies came under common ownership in 1925; sub- sequently the Eastern Connecticut Power Company became part of The Connecticut Light & Power Company.
From 1917 on, the story re- volves around three develop- ments: the consolidation of nu- merous local enterprises into the present company; the erection of large power stations as central sources of supply; the building of a network of transmission lines
which would care for all emer- gencies. The local plants and properties which now form The Connecticut Light & Power Com- pany are:
The Branford Lighting & Water Co. The Beacon Falls Electric Co.
The Bristol Electric Light Co.
The Bristol & Plainville Tramway Co. Central Conn. Power & Light Co. The Citizens Gas Light Co.
The Colchester Electric Light Co.
The Eastern Connecticut Power Co.
The Essex Light & Power Co.
The Danielson & Plainfield Gas & Electric Co.
The Gaylordsville Electric Co.
The Housatonic Power Co.
The Meriden Electric Light Co.
The Meriden Gas Light Co.
The Middletown Gas Light Co.
The Monroe Electric Light Co.
The Naugatuck Electric Light Co. The New Milford Electric Light Co. The New Milford Power Co. The Northern Connecticut Power Co. The People's Light & Power Co.
Power Business of the Shore Line
Electric Railway Co.
The Putnam Light & Power Co.
The Rockville-Willimantic Lighting Co.
The Seymour Electric Light Co.
The United Electric Light & Water Co.
The Uncas Power Co.
The Waterbury Gas Light Co.
The Watertown Gas Co.
The Westport Electric Co.
The Winsted ,Gas Co.
The Woodbury Electric Co.
Coincident with this assimila- tion came new power houses and substations, new transmission lines with greater capacities, new service stations, and rebuilt distribution systems in the towns; it is these modern facilities which bring to- day to every community in the company's territory, from factory center to crossroads hamlet, all the electricity that the home, the farm, and the factory might use.
With the acquisition of these local electric light companies, ten l.ydro-electric plants, most of them small, were added to the
Developing Connecticut's waterfalls into major sources of electric power, which light the homes and drive the factories in many communities, epitomizes the history of The Connecticut Light & Power Company. The airview illustration on the second page preceding shows Lake Candlewood -- a man-made lake with 65 miles of scenic shoreline - one of the two reservoirs which stores flood waters of the Housatonic and Rocky Rivers. Lake Your shown above is the other reservoir. Both are central features of the engineering works which concert latent power of these streams into kilowatts.
THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY
The view above shows one section of the Company's 277 miles of main trans- mission lines which connect the principal generating stations with the centers of industry and of population. In addition, 245 miles of secondary transmission lines carry electricity to smaller towns and villages.
Company's producing capacity. These plants with one or two ex- ceptions are operated today.
Other power plants which were inadequate and least efficient were discontinued. They were followed by four principal sources of energy supply of much greater capacity. These generating stations reflect advanced engineering practice and provide for economical production of power.
In the meantime, potential power in large volume was going to waste as the waters of the Housatonic River flowed from the foothills of the Berkshires into the Sound. In 1919 a huge concrete dam was thrown across the river at Stevenson which widened the river for seven miles back and created an enormous reservoir. This project was the beginning of a long-term program which con- templates fuller use of the latent power in this water shed and a more uniform stream flow down the Housatonic River throughout the year.
Lake Zoar, as the reservoir at Stevenson is known, stabilizes the flow and holds water in reserve until the day or the hour that it is needed to make power or to fill the river down stream to the min- imum level. The rains and snows which run off the Berkshire Hills to form the Housatonic and Rocky Rivers vary with the seasons: in the spring and fall these rivers rise to flood proportions; at other times they dry up to limpid streams. Hence their natural flow varies widely. Even Lake Zoar is not large enough to care for these variations in stream flow.
Another project was completed in 1928. A huge dam was com- pleted in that year, on the Rocky River, and a reservoir of large dimensions was added. Known as Lake Candlewood, this storage ba- sin is the largest body of water in the state; its shore line extends six- ty-five miles. Unlike Lake 'Zoar, which is a very broad enlargement of the Housatonic, Lake Candle-
THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY
wood lies in the hills 230 feet above river level and its nearest shore is a mile away from the riv- er. A canal four-fifths of a mile long and a pipeline of large diam- cter and 1,677 feet in length con- nect the lake with the river. At the river's edge, is the Rocky River Hydro Station, where are housed turbines and the great pumps which lift water from the river and pour it into Lake Candlewood.
Although this power develop- ment is a remarkable engineering feat which attracts wide attention, its economic aspects are more sig- nificant. Engineers strive to ex- tract from power laden streams every kilowatt hour that can pos- sibly be produced. The waters of the Housatonic and Rocky Rivers are used twice, producing power at Rocky River Hydro Station and again at Stevenson Hydro Station farther down stream. When the two streams are flooded bank to bank in the spring and in the fall, the waters sweep down in greater volume than the tur- bines and Lake Zoar can absorb. Until Lake Candlewood was formed, this surplus was wasted. Now, part of it is saved by pump- ing it up and into the lake, where it is stored to be released at a later time when more power is needed.
Two large steam generating stations operate in unison with the hydro stations. As a matter of economy, electricity is generated from water power whenever pos- sible; coal is burned only when more power is needed. The first of these two steam plants is the Montville Steam Station on the Thames River in the eastern sec- tion of the state which has a capacity of 32,000 kilowatts.
The growth of the Company ne- cessitated the building of the sec- ond steam plant in 1924 at Devon on the Sound. Devon Steam Sta-
tion is located where tide-water coal and plenty of water for con- densing steam are at hand; both are very necessary requirements in the economical production of
Devon Steam Station (shown above ) is one of the two main steam power plants which combine their output of electricity with that of the hydro stations. The Company's plants, hydro and steam, have a capacity of 222,100 horsepower.
THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY
electricity with steam. The ca- pacity of the plant is 75,000 kilo- watts. The hydro and steam gen- erating stations described have a combined capacity of 165,690 kilowatts.
The electricity these generating stations send out is carried to the 123 cities and towns over main transmission lines - the long lines of tall galvanized steel towers that cut straight across the countryside. There are 277 miles of these main electrical highways and as many more miles of second- ary lines built for lower pressure. The course of the main lines is outlined on the pictorial map, the last page of this story. They form a' network which reaches across the state and ties together into a united electrical system the generating stations and the centers of popula- tion and of industry.
More than half of the state's area obtains its electric service from The Connecticut Light & Power Company; 2,942 square
miles out of the 5,004 in the state, to be exact. In addition, the Com- pany supplies the electricity used in 758 other square miles. Here, municipalities or other companies buy electric energy at wholesale from The Connecticut Light & Power Company and distribute it to the user. Thus directly and in- directly, seventy-four per cent of the state's area receives its electric service from The Connecticut Light & Power Company. The Company confines its operations to the State of Connecticut. Its lines, mains, properties, and cus- tomers are all within the state's boundaries.
The types of communities served by the Company differ widely. In the southwest, at Greenwich, Norwalk and New Canaan are the outposts of Metro- politan New York's suburban area notable for the many attractive homes of the well-to-do. In the western section of the state, cen- tering in New Milford, is the
summer playground, which ex- tends from Lake Candlewood northward into the foothills of the Berkshires. Along the south, at Branford, Guilford, Westbrook, and Niantic are shore summer re- sorts. In the eastern section, cen- tering at East Hampton, and in the northeastern corner, notably at Pomfret, are other vacation areas. In' these sections, and al- most everywhere that the Com- pany supplies electric service, are thousands of farm homes and many small factories. The latter are situated usually in small towns. They evidence decentral- ized industry, a healthful aspect of Connecticut's industrial life.
In the heart of the state, the Company's lines bring electric power to the large industrial cen- ters and electric service to their working populations. Many of the manufactured products that give Connecticut its industrial preeminence are made in factories driven by electricity which is sup-
Over one-fourth of the homes in Connecticut that use gas service obtain it from The Connecticut Light & Power Company. The Company's facilities in this field include: 24 gas holders, daily manufacturing capacity to supply 70,000 homes, 58 miles of high pressure gas line, and 687 miles of distribution mains. A large water gas plant of advanced design was completed in 1935 at Waterbury. This is shown above.
THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY
plied "by the Company's hydro and steam stations: brass products made at Waterbury; rubber foot- wear at Naugatuck; silverware at Meriden; hardware at New Bri- tain; woolens at Rockville; auto- mobile bearings at Bristol; elec- tric switches at Plainville; curtains at Danielson; textiles at Putnam; hats at Norwalk.
The Secretary of the State of Connecticut lists 192 firms and corporations as the largest manu- facturers in the state, based on number of employees; eighty- three per cent of these operate their factories with electricity which is supplied by The Connec- ticut Light & Power Company. In addition, 2,267 other industrial establishments obtain their elec- tric power from the Company.
One hundred years ago, Con- necticut was fundamentally an agricultural state, but the suc- ceeding years have brought social readjustments in consequence of the industrialization of the nation.
Today the rehabilitation of ag- riculture as part of the national economy is receiving much atten- tion. Over sixty per cent of the 86,000 people who engage in agri- culture in this state live on farms which are supplied with electricity by The Connecticut Light & Power Company. For fourteen years this company has actively promoted rural electrification. l'oday it continues to urge the use of electricity to make farm life more profitable and attractive.
A large part of the State's pop- u'ation uses gas for cooking and for the hot water supply in the home. One-fourth of the gas- using population of Connecticut obtains its gas service from The Connecticut Light & Power Com- pany. The manufacturing centers of Waterbury, Bristol, Meriden, Middletown, Naugatuck and Nor- walk and other communities are supplied from this source.
The Company's plant facilities are extensive. Its twenty-four
gas holders have a combined stor- age capacity of seven million cubic feet and its total daily man- ufacturing capacity approximates sixteen million cubic feet. A new water gas manufacturing plant of advanced design was erected at Waterbury in 1935, re- placing works whose useful life was ended. While a large propor- tion of the Company's gas require- ments is manufactured in its own works, a substantial part is drawn from New Haven and delivered through its own high pressure gas line which runs fifty-eight miles by way of Hartford to Thompson- ville near the northern boundary of the state.
The employees of The Con- necticut Light & Power Company number slightly over 2,100.
This company recognizes that electric and gas service is an im- portant social medium and strives to interpret its benefits to the 1 52,- 000 homes, farms, and factories which look to it for this service.
THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT & POWER COMPANY
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One of the Company's service stations. Behind the scenes and unknown to most customers are the man power and the facilities which make possible high-grade electric and gas service: the engineers, the electricians, the line crews, the trouble men, the meter specialists, and other technicians. They and the equipment they operate are housed in the service stations.
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THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY
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UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
UNITED
AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
T is entirely fitting that there be chronicled here the vitally im- portant part which the State of Connecticut has played in the comparatively new but rapidly expanding aviation industry; for the fame of Connecticut as the home of aeronautical equipment -planes, engines and propellers -has been spread to every corner of the civilized Earth.
Scarcely a decade ago there was formed in Hartford the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Company, or- ganized for the purpose of devel- oping and producing an aeronauti- cal engine of high horsepower and low specific weight. The outstand- ing success of the Wasp and its sister engines, the Wasp Junior and the Hornet, are tributes to the engineering genius responsible for their conception, and to the far- sightedness and ability of the Executives responsible for the ‘ formation of the organization. To Hartford there came in succession the Chance Vought Corporation and the Hamilton Standard Pro- peller Company, and to Bridge- port, there came the Sikorsky Air- craft Corporation, manufacturers of the famous "Clipper" seaplanes which have been responsible in no small way for making possible the rapid passenger, mail and express communication which today links the two Americas.
These various manufacturing units, together with the United Airports, are affiliated to form the United Aircraft Manufactur- ing Corporation, which in turn is a subsidiary of the United Air- craft Corporation. The United
DONALD L. BROWN President
Aircraft Exports Corporation is also a United Aircraft subsidiary. Through such organization these units may cooperate in such a way as to better serve the rigid requirements of military and com- mercial aviation throughout the world.
Donald L. Brown, United Air- craft's president, has long been identified with practically every phase of the aeronautical industry.
It is not coincidental that Con- necticut should have been selected as the home for this group of companies. Famous since the early days of her History as the seat of this Country's industrial leader- ship, she has pioneered many of its most outstanding industries which, since their infancy, have been destined to play an important part in the development of the Country and have largely been
responsible for the present status of its social and economic life. She is noted for her wealth of skilled labor. Her proximity to the large commercial centers of the Eastern seaboard and to the Nation's Capitol; her geographic location, all insure her adaptabil- ity for the needs of industry. In Aviation, too, Connecticut has led the way. First to boast of an or- ganized Aeronautical Department of her state government with reg- ulatory statutes for the control of and for the advancement of commercial aviation, she continues to perform her part toward the promotion of the Aeronautical Sciences.
Into such a setting the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Company was born, and into such surround- ings came those other manufac- turing units which now form the
UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
United Aircraft group, probably the most outstanding combine of aviation equipment units in the world. Aircraft products from Connecticut are now used in every quarter of the globe, and their trademarks bearing the name of their origin have come to be known as insignias of excellence in every Aeronautical circle.
In the field of achievements, Pratt and Whitney engines now hold twelve world's records for speed and altitude. It was a Wasp that powered the "Winnie Mae" on her two remarkable globe gird- ling adventures; a Wasp that took Soucek to a world's altitude mark for both land and sea planes; a Hornet which powered Turner's racer when he established both transcontinental speed records; a Wasp with which Wedell flew to a new speed record for land planes. Many of the outstanding
feats of Doolittle, Hawks, Pang- born, Earhart, Nichols, Lind- bergh, Bayles, Sergievsky, Byrd, Balchen and Ellsworth have been accomplished with Pratt and Whitney power. Airlines through- out the world are using either Wasps or Hornets or both, and the military and naval services of many lands rely upon them for outstanding performance and de- pendable operation.
Corsairs manufactured by Chance Vought Aircraft are used extensively by the United States Navy and by the Marine Corps as reliable scouting and observa- tion equipment for land or sea operation. They are seeing ser- vice in far off China, in Mexico, and with the air forces of many of our Central and South Ameri- can neighbors. If the experiences of some of these famous ships could but be related in chronolog-
ical order from the day they left their native Connecticut, tales of untold romance would be un- folded.
In the propeller field the achievements of Hamilton Stand- ard Propellers are significant and outstanding. Always prom- inent in the, production of all metal propellers, this unit is now credited with the development of the controllable pitch mechan- ism for which it was awarded America's stamp of highest Aero- nautical merit, the Collier Tro- phy. This device alone has made possible the outstanding performance of present day Amer- ican transport planes. Hamilton Standard engineers have likewise made practical a unit which pro- vides for the automatic control of propeller pitch, and by so doing have led the world with this in- vention.
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UNITED
AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
Sikorsky Aircraft, located in Strat- ford, Connecticut, has long been re- nowned for the production of out- standing seaplanes and amphibians. Her huge "Clipper" ships, capable of carrying forty and more passengers, have blazed the airline trail to Cen- tral and South American capitals, and today are being used to pioneer uncharted trans-oceanic sea lanes which will become tomorrow's regu- lar routes for this country's inter- course with foreign lands. One of her great ships, the Pan American "Brazilian Clipper", has just recently brought back to this country ten world's records for speed and altitude. Hornet-powered Sikorskys have seen, more than 1,000 hours in the service of North China Airways. Inter Island Airways in Hawaii depend upon them for rapid communication between the islands of that territorial group. The Military and Naval air services of this country use them extensively as utility ships. It is no wonder then that Sikor- sky, a Connecticut manufacturer, has contributed admirably to the world
wide recognition which the State may claim as the home of outstanding aeronautical products.
The United Aircraft Exports Cor- poration acts as the foreign sales force for all of the manufacturing units of the United Aircraft Corporation. Through its representatives in all parts of the world Connecticut products, their merits and their accomplishments, are placed directly before foreign oper- ators. The extent of the use of Con- necticut engines, planes and propellers in foreign lands testifies to their de- pendable performance under the many and varied operating conditions to which they must be subjected. Notable among the large foreign airlines using Pratt and Whitney engines and Ham- ilton Standard propellers is K. L. M., The Royal Dutch Airlines, which operates the longest single airline in the world between Holland and the Dutch colony of Java. This 9,000 mile route is flown punctually on weekly schedule, carrying passengers, mail and express in Wasp-powered airliners.
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