Pearl Street Station Central Power Plant, 1880s
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The dynamo room. Pearl Street Station was the first central power plant in the United States. It was located at 255-257 Pearl Street in Manhattan on a site measuring 50 by 100 feet and fired by coal. It started generating electricity in 1882, serving an initial load of 400 lamps with 82 customers. By 1884, it was serving 508 customers with 10, 164 lamps. The station was built by the Edison Illuminating Company and powered by custom-made Porter-Allen high-speed steam engines designed to provide 175 horsepower at 700 rpm, but were removed and replaced with new engines from Armington & Sims that proved to be much more suitable for Edison's dynamos. Pearl Street Station was also the world's first cogeneration plant. While the steam engines provided grid electricity, Edison made use of the thermal byproduct by distributing steam to local manufacturers, and warming nearby buildings on the same Manhattan block. The station burned down in 1890, destroying all but one dynamo.