[Trade Journal]
Publication: Electrical Age
New York, NY, United States
vol. 32, no. 5, p. 338-340, col. 1,2
Lewis Buckley Stillwell
Electrical Director of the Interborough Rapid
Transit Company, New York
WITH the near completion of the construction work of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, by which the city of New York will have one of the most perfectly designed passenger traffic systems in the world, interest will be centered largely in the men whose labors have helped in the carrying out of that enterprise, and among them Lewis Buckley Stillwell, the electrical director of the company, occupies a prominent place. Indeed, Mr. Stillwell ranks conspicuously in engineering circles generally as a man of unusual achievements, still young and yet identified since early in the nineties with the successful working out of some of the world's most important practical engineering problems,—the generation and transmission of Niagara power, for example, the electrification of New York's elevated railway system, and the electric equipment also of New York's rapid transit subway.
| |||
| Lewis Buckley Stillwell -- Electrical Director of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, New York. |
Mr. Stillwell was born in Scranton, Pa., March 12, 1863. Although a Pennsylvanian by birth, he is a descendant of an old New York family, prominent in the Colonial history of the province, this name appearing more frequently than any other save one in the lists of members of the Colonial Assembly of New York from 1691 to the time of the Revolution. His father, born in 1824, was a soldier in the Civil War, serving as captain in the 132d Pennsylvania Volunteers, and receiving a severe wound at the assault on Marye's Heights at the battle of Fredericksburg. Subsequent to the war he acted for many years as general superintendent of anthracite coal breakers of the Pennsylvania Coal Company.
On his mother's side, he is of German stock, his mother being a granddaughter of General Peter Kichlein (1722-1789), member of the Committee of Safety of the Colonies (1774-1776), and greatly distinguished at the battle of Long Island, where he commanded a regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen, which, at the cost of nearly half its numbers, held its position until the American line being broken elsewhere, practically the entire remnant of the regiment. including its colonel, was captured.
He was graduated at the Scranton High School, matriculated at Wesleyan University, and after two years' work there took up the study of electrical engineering at Lehigh University, where he completed the electrical course in 1885, taking post-graduate work at Lehigh in mechanical engineering, 1885-86. In October, 1886, he accepted the position of assistant electrician of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, of Pittsburg, Pa., where he was associated with O. B. Shallenberger, William Stanley and Nikola Tesla, particularly in the commercial development of the alternating-current systems of lighting and power distribution.
In April, 1890, he was promoted to chief electrical engineer, and in April, 1895, to chief electrical director of the Cataract Construction Company and Niagara Falls Power Company, at Niagara Falls, N. Y., having while with the Westinghouse Company directed the preparation of the plans for the electrical utilization of Niagara which were finally adopted by the Cataract Construction Company.
At Niagara he became responsible not only for the work of electrical construction in connection with the extensions of the installation, but also of the operation of the plant as completed. During his residence at Niagara many of the problems met with in electrically transmitting and distributing power at high potential and in great amount for industrial purposes, as well as for lighting and for the operation of street railways, were encountered for the first time in commercial service, and to their solution and to the organization of the operating force and methods of the company he devoted the greater part of his time for the ensuing three years. While thus engaged, he made an exhaustive study of the subject of charges for power, as fixed by cost of production and by cost of power developed by competing steam plants, and prepared a schedule of charges which was adopted by the Niagara Falls Power Company and has since served as the basis for its contracts throughout the territory supplied from its plants. He also prepared a system of classification of accounts for the operating department which has since been used by the company.
While at Niagara, he acted as consulting engineer for various enterprises other than the Niagara development, and in March, 1899, accepted the position of consulting electrical engineer to the Manhattan Railway Company, of New York City, taking charge of the design and installation of the complete electrical equipment of the elevated lines. In September, 1900, the first power plant at Niagara being completed and in successful operation, he resigned his position with the Niagara companies to give his entire time to the Manhattan Railway Company and to practice as consulting engineer in the city of New York. He subsequently received from the president of the Cataract Construction Company the Niagara medal, designed by MacMonnies and engraved by Paulin Tasset.
In November, 1900, he became electrical director of the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, now the Interborough Rapid Transit Company of New York, in addition to his other official and professional duties.
Mr. Stillwell has patented a number of important inventions having to do with the practical application and use of electricity in power transmission and railway practice. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society; the American Society of Civil Engineers; the American Institute of Electrical Engineers: the British Institution of Electrical Engineers, and of many other scientific and engineering societies. His scientific papers, presented before technical societies and in some of the leading technical periodicals, include the following:—"The Electrical Transmission of Power from Niagara Falls"; "Frequency in Alternating Current Plants for Lighting and Power- "The Relation of Size and Efficiency in Transformers"; "Possibilities E Electrical Transmission and Distribution of Power in Pittsburg"; "Electrical Equipment of the Manhattan Railway Company"; and "Electric Power Generation at Niagara," this last having been prepared specially for the Niagara Power Number of "Cassier's Magazine," published in 1895.
