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Show Progress of 25 Years In Chicago last month was celebrated :he 25th anniversary of the installation of the first steam turbine electric generator gen-erator in the United States. That unit was a 5,000 kilowatt affair, put into service on October 2, 1903. Developments since that time have culminated in a 200,000-kilowatt unit now being erected on Lake Michigan by the State Line Generating Company a machine with 40 times the capacity capac-ity of its early fore-runner, or about 230.000 horsepower. In dedicating a memorial tablet on the site of first turDine installation one of the speakers stated that while the demand for electricity in the entire en-tire Chicago area was only about 34,-ooo 34,-ooo kilowatts 25 years ago, the present demand is more than 1,500,000 kilowatts, kilo-watts, with no signs of reaching the "Saturation point." The most modern steam plants for the generation of electricity are so efficient that they are close competitors compet-itors of waterpower, so far as economy of operation is concerned. In fact, as Mr. Edison recently pointed out, several sev-eral electric companies have abandoned abandon-ed sites for waterpower projects in favor of steam generation. A few years ago three pounds of coal were required to produce a kilowatt kilo-watt hour of electricity at the switchboard, switch-board, while the best plants today do it with less than one pound, with further improvements in sight.. |
