New Orleans IEEE Section

Celebrating 75 Years John Meredith

Region 5 History Chair August 21, 2008 New Orleans

Malcolm L. (Mac) Hurstell

1927- 2007

VP of Energy Delivery NOPSI and LP&L (Ret. 1988) Mac was first Chair of New Orleans IEEE Section (1964)

Order of Presentation

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History as relating to IEEE fields of interest with focus on New Orleans

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History of Section

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Electrical engineering history in New Orleans Availability of additional information (web links) Presentation of 75 th year banner by IEEE Region 5 Director David Pierce

Introduction

New Orleans Section is celebrating its 75 th year as an IEEE Section. Section established in 1933 as New Orleans AIEE Section. New Orleans IRE Section established in 1953. Both societies merged in 1963 with AIEE/IRE Sections becoming New Orleans IEEE Section.

Origins of New Orleans IEEE Section

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AIEE Section established on 12/8/1933

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AIEE District 4

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32 members Chairman J.M. Todd; Secretary F.E. Johnson IRE Section established on 11/11/1953 IEEE Section established 7/1/1963

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IEEE Region 3 Chairman M.L. Hurstell; Secretary E.S. Dobbs 850 members Joined Region 5 January 1, 1987

AIEE Information from 1934/1936 Roster Section

Dallas Denver Houston Kansas City New Orleans Oklahoma City St. Louis San Antonio 4 7 7 7

Dist.

7

Org.

Date

5/18/1928 6 7 7 5/18/1915 8/7/1928 4/14/1916 12/8/1933 2/16/1922 1/14/1903 5/23/1930

Mbrshp. 1934

78 130 53 138 32 77 175 40

Mbrshp. 1936

87 138 65 134 44 110 182 26

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Historic Timeline

1850 - Telegraphic communication established with St. Louis and New York City 1851 - New Orleans & Jackson RR (outlet northward) 1854 - Southern Pacific RR (outlet westward) 1884 – Hosted World’s Fair called World Cotton Centennial (beginnings of tourist industry) 1886 – Electric lighting introduced 1890s – Much of city’s mule-drawn streetcars were electrified 1893 – City passed ordinance for complete and comprehensive plan for draining city 1896 New Orleans Public Library formed

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Historic Timeline (cont’d)

1910s - Engineer/inventor A. Baldwin Wood enacted plan to drain city using pumps of his own design (Wood Screw pump) 1922 New Orleans Public Service (NOSPI) established as sole provider of electricity and transit service to New Orleans 1922 – WLW commenced broadcasting from Loyola campus 1948 – WDSU-TV went on air Middle South corporate headquarters moved to New Orleans; changes name to Entergy in 1989

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Electrification of New Orleans New Orleans Gas Light Inc. provided gas for lighting in 1820s (origins of NOPSI) Southwestern Brush Electric Light and Power first company to generate and distribute electricity (incorporated 6/11/1881) Brush began operating on 1/8/1882 (12 generators and 480 brilliant arc lamps) Edison Electric Illuminating Company first to provide incandescent lighting (chartered 8/17/1886) Chaotic years into early 1900s with many companies competing in electric generating and distribution market; in 1922 city passed ordinance requiring one company (NOPSI) New company in reality 6 corporations; consolidated as a single corporation in 1926 NOPSI combined with 3 other utilities in region to form Middle South Utilities in 1949; changed name to Entergy in 1989 Entergy merged with Gulf States Utilities on 12/31/1993; NOSPI one of 5 subsidiaries of Entergy

New Orleans Mule Drawn Streetcar, circa 1890s

New Orleans Electric Streetcar, circa 1900

Site of First New Orleans Electric Plant Single story building on lake side of Dryades opposite Union housed city’s first electric plant. This plant began operation On January 7, 1882 lighting forty-five 2000-candle power lamps.

(reprint photograph from Transit Riders Digest April 20, 1959)

Details About the First Electric Plant

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Atlas Corliss steam engine (18 by 41 feet) Flywheel (14,000 pounds) Two steam boilers (5 ½ foot diameter, 13 feet long, 121 flues in each boiler) Generators (“of the largest size”) 45 arc lamps (burned a carbon pencil one foot long, lasted eight hours) Foundation in place for second engine; room for two additional generators) Brush Electric President, W.A. Bell led “christening” ceremony with engineer J.M. Powers present.

Powers was presented a handsome nickel-plated oil service with the inscription: “We’ve oft read the Word of God, The child is spoiled to save the rod; therefore take heed and while you toil, Don’t hesitate to use the oil.”

NOPSI advertisement 1930

Drainage of City

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Drainage major concern since founding city in early 18 th century Original city built on natural levees of Mississippi River; artificial levees and canals used initially to drain water into lower areas As city grew built more canals and used steam-driven pumps In 1893 city formed Drainage Advisory Board to define better solutions to drainage problem Work commenced; city hired A.B. Wood who supervised plans and developed improvements in pumps Wood famous for developing Wood Screw pumps; Wood pumps were very successful; designed 12 and 14 ft. models Constant speed powered by 6000 volt, 3-phase, 25 Hz synchronous motors (up to 600/1200 HP, can lift up to 9,600 cps) City’s today has 22 main and 10 underpass pump stations with capacity of 47,500 cfs under peak operating conditions (50 of A.B. Wood’s old pumps are still in service)

Archimedes Screw (click to observe operation)

Interior of Drainage Pumping Station #6 (showing 14’ Wood Screw pumps)

Wood Screw Pump (14 ft. dia. 1929)

WWL History

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Started broadcasting as a 10 watt station on 833 kHz on March 31, 1922 Located on Loyola campus In 1924 increased power to 100 watts; moved to 1070 kHz After several frequency changes and power increases ended up with 50 kW (1937) and 870 kHz (1946) Several historic photographs on Region 5 web community courtesy of Joseph Pollet, WWL Director of Engineering

WWL photos from the past (slide show)

Television Broadcasting

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12/18/1948 WDSU-TV commences broadcasting 9/1/1953 WJMR (now WVUE) goes on air 1955 first color broadcast by WDSU-TV 9/7/1957 WWL-TV on air; owned by Loyola University for many years.

Congratulations

To members of New Orleans IEEE Section on your 75

th

Anniversary!

Acknowledgements

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Donna McClelland – IEEE MGAB staff Dan Toland – IEEE MGAB staff Robert Colburn – IEEE History Center Joseph Pollet – WWL Director of Engineering Don Preston – Region 5 IEEE Treasurer Francis Grosz – Region 5 Charlie Scheffler - Entergy Stephen Bourg – New Orleans Section Chair

New Orleans History Web Links

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drainage_in_New_Orleans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes'_screw http://appl003.lsu.edu/cperc/cperc.nsf/$Content/News/$File/Press-release-TPP-pump-12 16-05.pdf

http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/levees/Ch%204 HISTORY%20OF%20THE%20NEW%20ORLEANS%20FLOOD%20PROTECTION%20SYSTE M-5-20-06-embedded_figures.pdf

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/history/NO_Drainage/NO_Drain_chap4a.pdf

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/history/NO_Drainage/NO_Drain_chap4c.pdf

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/history/NO_Drainage/NO_Drain_chap5.pdf

http://blog.nola.com/stormwatch/2007/05/no_pump_stations_ready_to_face.html

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/05/outage_reveals_pumping_system.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumping_station http://www.collectstocks.com/neworpubseri.html

http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/EXECDIV/TECHASMT/electricity/electric_vol1_1994/003b.htm

New Orleans History Web Links (cont’d)

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http://www.entergy.com/about_entergy/history.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_Orleans http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/EXECDIV/TECHASMT/electricity/electric_vol1_1994/001.htm

http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/EXECDIV/TECHASMT/electricity/electric_vol1_1994/002.htm

http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/EXECDIV/TECHASMT/electricity/electric_vol1_1994/003e.htm

http://www.bmen.tulane.edu/pdfs/biomedattulane.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong_New_Orleans_International_Airport http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_New_Orleans#Historic_lines http://tulane.edu/about/history.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulane_University http://www.uno.edu/history.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWL_(AM ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWL-TV http://www-sal.cs.uiuc.edu/~friedman/canal/Canal.htm

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tel/morse/morse.htm

http://www.atlantic-cable.com/Article/1861ORielly/ http://historywired.si.edu/detail.cfm?ID=324