Who owns coned

Gas illumination had been introduced only recently in the United States and, at first, met widespread resistance due to concerns about safety, but its economy and efficiency soon made gas the standard light source for much of the 19th century. By the last quarter of the century, New York Gas Light and five rival companies supplied gas to the great majority of New York's already vast population, much of which could not imagine a time when the city had been without gas light. An alternative source of illumination was under intense scrutiny by the s, however; this was electricity.

After years of experimentation, the first electric arc lights began appearing in U. The arc light was, nevertheless, a crude and dangerous innovation, suitable only for outdoor lighting of public space, and a host of inventors around the world continued searching for an acceptable alternative. Among the men who became interested in the future of electric light was Thomas Alva Edison, already famous for his invention of the phonograph and a series of improvements in telegraphy.

It was clear to Edison that electricity was destined to light the world, and in he focused his energies on solving the problems remaining in its development.

To make electric light truly universal, two things were needed: a sturdy and economical form of incandescent illumination; and a power grid able to distribute safe, reliable electric current from its source of generation into distant apartments and homes, something that had not yet been attempted on a large scale. Incandescence was a well-known method of illumination, but no one had yet found a material able to withstand long hours of operation without burning up.

The inventor shelved his other projects and devoted himself and his considerable staff to experiments in electric light. The scope of Edison's ambition in these ventures can hardly be overestimated. In essence, he was proposing to design and build the system of electric power distribution upon which the entire world remains dependent. Literally everything had to be created--generators, transmission lines, switching equipment, and protective devices; and, within the home or office, internal wiring, outlets, lamps, meters, and even the light source, the bulb, itself.

Such an immense project naturally would require capital, and in October Edison's group joined forces with Wall Street financiers in forming the Edison Electric Light Company. Edison's backers included J. Morgan and the Vanderbilt interests, both of whom saw the potential of the new system. With his financing in place, Edison redoubled his experiments, and by the end of , working furiously to best the efforts of Joseph Swan in England, he had devised a workable incandescent light using a filament of high-heat-and-electric-resistant "thread" in an evacuated glass globe.

Edison simultaneously had solved most of the generation and transmission problems, and by was ready to apply to the city of New York for permission to build the nation's first commercial electric power station.

At that point a legal technicality forced the creation of a subsidiary corporation, Edison Electric Illuminating Company, to act as an operating company on behalf of Edison Electric Light, which would remain only a holding company and in control of all patents. The newly formed Edison Electric Illuminating applied for and received its license--apparently with the help of liberal payments to New York's open-handed city government--and at 3 p.

London's Holborn Viaduct Station had gone on-line nine months earlier; it too was an Edison project. The Pearl Street Station, like all of Edison's later generating plants, could supply power only a mile or two in any direction from the plant before its direct-current electricity began to lose voltage, but for several years its design was unchallenged and imitations sprang up everywhere.

By the spring of there were some Edison plants in operation, most of them considerably smaller than the one at Pearl Street. The success of Edison's power system was an event of the first order; the advent of electricity changed every aspect of modern life. Locally, Edison found himself quickly enmeshed in the struggles and strategies generated by any such leap in technology.

The inventor and his associates incorporated many subsidiary manufacturing companies in order to build power stations wherever they were wanted, and by , greatly assisted by a young financial wizard, Samuel Insull, Edison had even gained control of Edison Light as well as Edison Illuminating. As an innovator in electricity, however, Edison's day was past; in the great debate that shortly arose as to the relative merits of alternating current AC and direct current DC , Edison stuck with his original conception of DC generators long after the rest of the industry had recognized AC as the wave of the future.

By the late s George Westinghouse had won the battle of the currents, and Edison had long since dropped active participation in his electrical holdings. Given this situation, Edison was more than happy to listen when a group of German financiers led by Henry Villard proposed the formation of a new electrical combination, to include all of Edison's manufacturing companies and the valuable stock of Edison Electric Light, the holding company.

Although the latter had come under the managing direction of Edison's group in an proxy fight, its largest block was controlled by the interests of J. In the complex negotiations leading to the creation of Villard's new company--later to be known as General Electric--Morgan used his stock position and financial muscle to demand and win 40 percent of General Electric's stock, while Edison settled for 10 percent and enough cash to make his fortune.

Meanwhile, the creation of General Electric led to Edison Illuminating being spun off on its own in a utility market increasingly crowded with efficient AC competitors and the newly roused gas companies. New York's gas companies were hardly pleased by the success of electric lighting.

Edison's earliest announcements on the subject had sent gas stocks reeling, and in the city's six largest gas concerns joined forces in a new utility giant called Consolidated Gas Company of New York. This merger initiated a long process whereby the scores of small electricity, gas, and steam companies operating in the greater New York area would be melded into the single and far more efficient entity known since as Consolidated Edison Company of New York.

At first, the electric and gas concerns faced each other as rivals, each side augmenting its forces by annexation or combination with neighboring firms.

Thus the gas companies themselves became providers of electricity, and by controlled, under the name of New York Edison, most of the electricity generated in Manhattan and the western portion of the Bronx. By that time, of course, electricity had become the standard source of power not only for illumination but for a widening variety of household gadgets and industrial tools.

Alternating current had won the day, allowing the construction of very large central generators capable of serving vast numbers of customers at long distances. New York Edison gradually replaced its last few small DC-generating stations, and the city's power network began to assume its modern structure.

In particular, as it became apparent that large-scale power distribution was by nature a type of monopoly, utility companies came under the regulatory control of the state legislature in Albany, New York.

The power of the legislature to fix rates of return for utilities was tested in a landmark court case arising out of its attempt to limit Consolidated Gas's price for its gas to 80 cents per 1, cubic feet. The United States Supreme Court eventually ruled that while governmental bodies had a clear right to oversee the operation of utilities, they could not set rates so low as to prevent the utilities from earning a reasonable rate of return on investment; in the case of Consolidated Gas, however, the rate of 80 cents was not found to be excessively low.

The long process of unifying New York's various power companies continued, and by Consolidated Gas was the largest company in the world providing electrical service. The consecutive, sweeping power failures have prompted the usual attacks on Con Edison, as well as questions about what it means that, even with advanced notice, our aging energy infrastructure cannot handle the sort of heat wave that will soon be a weekly feature of summers in New York City.

Thus far, Governor Andrew Cuomo has mostly focused on the short term consequences, lashing out at the privately-owned utility and threatening to revoke its license to operate as a monopoly in New York City. You can change a utility company if they don't perform. A quick scan of the alternative power companies is less than reassuring.

The most likely replacement would be National Grid, a privately-owned monopoly gas provider for the region with a reputation for unannounced shut-offs. Free-market advocates see a promising future in smaller electricity suppliers known as ESCOs, but since arriving in the city in the early s, the industry has been plagued by allegations of price gouging and fraud. Meanwhile, a growing coalition of New Yorkers are making the case that the best successor to Con Ed is neither a private company nor a collection of them, but the public itself.

Proponents of public power say a decades-long trend of deregulation has allowed investor-owned utilities like Con Ed to maximize profits at the expense of ratepayers, as bodies tasked with oversight roll over to their demands and slow-walk green energy solutions. Currently, less than a quarter of New Yorkers' electricity comes from renewable sources. The group is chaired by John B. Unlike many states, New York does not mandate that the utilities oversight board include a consumer representative.

A recent study found that dues paid to EEI by traditional utility companies are often passed onto customers as general operating expenses. Courtesy Library of Congress. All provided gas from their nearby plants distilling coal. Manufacturing gas from coal, in the Manhattan Gas Light Company began to provide service to Manhattan above Grand and Canal streets.

In , the Metropolitan Gas Light Company got a city-wide charter and went into direct competition with the existing gas companies. Just as company executives were looking forward to the financial stability and profitability the agreement would bring, a new problem was just beginning.

In December , Thomas Edison had demonstrated his newest invention — the incandescent light bulb. As electric lamps quickly became the light of choice replacing gas and kerosene lamps , the New York gas companies countered by finding new uses for their product, especially using gas for heating and cooking.