Our Past Is Present September 26, 2017

September 26, 2017

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            Today’s story is titled “The Lights Came On In Junction City.”

A reporter at the “Junction City Tribune” paid a visit to the Fogarty Mill west of the Smoky Hill River in September of 1886 to see the starting of the city’s new electric lights at its source.  In the basement of the new building he found a roomful of complicated, powerful and nicely adjusted machinery.  The person in charge was Mr. J. W. Wilkins, who represented the Western Electric Company of Chicago.  The wheels were first put in motion simply on a trial run.  After a short stoppage, some adjustments were made and a pulley was replaced.  The power, which was conveyed across the river by a wire belt was then gradually applied.  The lighting appeared at once in the mill room and in two dozen businesses and houses on Washington Street a mile and a half away. This occurred all at the same moment.  The reporter stated that this was one of the most wonderful practical applications of the powers of nature put to use in the nineteenth century.  Electricity would light the business streets and houses in of the city much more perfectly than could be done with oil lamps – not to mention that it would be cheaper.  Twenty-four streetlights were installed and more were on order.  It was believed that the supply of waterpower could be expanded by three times the original size by adding more machinery and fixtures.  The “Junction City Tribune” stated that it could now date the lighting of Junction City with electricity as of ….. September 1886.

            And… that is today’s story on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.