First Light
The years before PSNH

Think of electricity as the "Internet" of the late 1800's. Suddenly there was this incredible new technology with the ability to light lamps without gas. It could also rotate motors and heat buildings without the use of steam. And it was all done with this invisible force that moved electrons through a wire.

Just like dot.coms, power companies began springing up like weeds all over the Northeast. But in 1881 people were just as hesitant to make quick changes as they are today. "An electric iron? I'll use the one I heat with coal fire, thank you," said the average housewife. "And you can keep your electric lights too. I like the gas ones, just fine."

Late 19th and early 20th century power companies got going in fits and starts. They had to compete with gas companies for street lighting contracts. They had to convince manufacturers that electric motors could improve productivity. At the same time they had to convince investors that putting large amounts of money into a new, untested technology would give them good returns.

To a large extent, startup electric companies had to invent their own innovative uses for electricity and convince people of its worth. Simply put, they had to create demand. To do this, power companies bought horse-drawn streetcar companies and converted the cars to electricity. Power companies merged with gas companies. Electric generating companies began consolidating in great numbers to create generating efficiencies and improve the financial numbers for stockholders.

In the late 19th century, startup utilities electrified horse-drawn trolley lines which increased electrical usage and contributed to their bottom line.

It is in this highly competitive, highly innovative market that electrification came into existence. It is this market that would set the stage for Public Service Company of New Hampshire to come into being in Manchester some 50 years later.

New Hampshire's first electric company was the Manchester Electric Light Company, incorporated in August 1881. In January of the following year, the company organized itself and arranged for a generating station on the property of Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, but efforts to sell stock to raise the $25,000 of needed capital were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the New England Weston Electric Light Company of Boston had made arrangements to build a generating station on the Amoskeag property. Prior to that, however, it used power from Amoskeag to turn its generator. Thus, on the evening of April 23, 1882, the first electric-arc streetlights in Manchester were turned on - two weeks before the startup of Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. The generating equipment of the first Manchester station consisted of six, ten-light Weston dynamos, with two more standing by for emergencies. In 1885, Manchester Electric Light Company purchased the New England Weston Electric Light Company. In 1891, the first electric motor was installed to run the press of the Saturday Telegram newspaper in Manchester.

The pioneering Manchester Electric Light Company did not go long without competition. In 1886, the Ben Franklin Electric Company was organized, launching the career of J. Brodie Smith, its manager, who was to be a dominant figure in the New Hampshire electrical industry until his death in 1947, 61 years later. Smith was inventive and interested in electricity from his early years. He took out a number of patents on electrical devices. His home was rich in gadgets which he created in his elaborate home workshop.

The Franklin Company operated its plant, consisting of two, 30-light Thompson-Houston 2,000-candlepower dynamos, at the works of the Manchester Gas Light Company. In 1892, Manchester Electric Light consolidated operations with Franklin, and Smith was appointed superintendent of the Brook Street Station, where the Franklin Company's dynamos were moved. When PSNH was organized, Smith became vice president and general manager. He held the position until 1940 and thereafter served as vice president until his retirement in 1946.