Seattle's Early Electric Power Wars
As rival power companies rush to wire the city, a price war breaks out, forcing residents to choose between competing arc-light contracts.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Things bid fair to be lively in the electric business in this city. The Union Electric had not long enjoyed a monopoly in the business section by the consolidation of the Home and Seattle General when new competition sprang up. The Washington Electric Company has until recently confined itself to the territory near the Washington end of Yesler avenue and Jackson street, and the Rainier Power and Railway Company had not gone outside the Lake Union district. Now that Fred E. Sander has bought the Washington, he has ordered additional generators and is extending the lines into the heart of the city. His wires run down Washington street, up South Third and along Second. The Rainier is stretching its light and power wires on the same poles, as its trolley wires run for the Third street electric road. The contest for business has already begun on the part of the Washington, although its down-town line is not yet finished. One-year contracts for arc lights are being solicited at $8 up to midnight and $10 for all night, while the Union's rates are $12 and $15 respectively. The cut is not being made openly, but the Union officials say they are not meeting it.
“The contest for business has already begun on the part of the Washington, although its down-town line is not yet finished.”
The fierce competition for utility dominance in the 1890s echoes Seattle's modern struggles with internet service providers and energy monopolies. What began as a tangle of rival wires on shared poles eventually evolved into the centralized public and private infrastructure we rely on today.
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