The Struggle to Keep the Lights On
A local electric utility faces receivership as debt and equipment failures threaten to leave the city's businesses in the dark.
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.
On application of the Seattle National Bank, Judge Langley yesterday appointed Frank W. Hawkins receiver of the Blaine Electric Light and Power Company and issued an order restraining the sheriff from selling its property. In the complaint filed it is claimed that the electric company became indebted to L. H. Griffith for $5,000. Last January, the defendant moved from Rialto to Seattle and placed the plant in the premises occupied by the Rialto Company. The bank sets forth that since the plant has been in the Rialto building it has not been able to earn the full amount expected, owing to being out of order and idle at times, but that if a receiver is appointed who had power to borrow enough money to put the plant in working order, it will soon earn sufficient money to pay off the claims.
“It has not been able to earn the full amount expected, owing to being out of order and idle at times.”
The precarious nature of early 1890s infrastructure investment—where one faulty piece of equipment could tank an entire company—foreshadows the modern challenges of maintaining and financing essential public utilities.
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