Electra installing new dynamos and new insulators are replacing older ones.

THE NEW WORKS AT ELECTRA.

The new machinery at Electra is being rapidly put in place. Everything is on the ground. The two new dynamos are being put in position. They are getting ready to paint the inside of the big pipe, 1200 feet long, from top to bottom. This is quite a job, as the painters will have to be lowered from the upper portion, or from manholes as the work progresses. New insulators are being placed on the pole line to San Francisco, as the present insulators are not calculated to carry the amount of current that will be generated by the new dynamos. The work is being done gradually, a shut down of the plant for about two hours each day being necessary for this work. The insulators are expensive affairs; it is reported they cost something like $12 per pole for the insulators alone, the insulators being of porcelain. They are also providing diverting gates or channels, so that in case of a break in the line the waters will be diverted from the works. It is claimed that the two new machines that are being put in will do the work of the five machines now in use; and with a great saving in water, owing to the increased fall. Some forty or fifty men are employed about the works in various ways. When the machinery is all in running order probably not more than ten or twelve will be needed to do the whole work.