IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2015 - 101

plates-brittle with age-cracked and
the gash, seven feet [2.1 m] across the
forward hatch, allowed the water free
access." Reportedly, a rusting boiler,
bulkhead, and other debris from the
Columbia can still be seen near the northern section of the Lost Coast hiking trail.

Epilogue
The great success of the Edison incandescent lighting system installed on
the SS Columbia quickly led to similar
systems being retrofitted on other existing ships and the inclusion of an electric
lighting system in the construction of
new ships. In the early 1880s, the SS Servia, owned by the Cunard Line, became
the first large ocean liner to be equipped
with an incandescent lighting system.

The SS Columbia even played a role
in the first demonstration of incandescent light in the entire Pacific Northwest. On 4 September 1880, the ship's
dynamos were used to light an incandescent lamp located on the porch of the
Clarendon Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
While it was ill-fated in its later years
and suffered a tragic end in 1907, the SS
Columbia and its unique Edison lighting system remain true pioneers in the
development of electric power systems.

For Further Reading
L. DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of
Innovation. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2013.
"The Columbia," Sci. Amer., vol.
42, no. 21, p. 326, May 1880.

MAY 12-14, 2015

R. W. Lobenstein and C. L. Sulzberger, "Eyewitness to dc history: the first
and last days of dc service in New York
City," IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 6,
no. 3, pp. 84-90, May-June 2008.
(2008, Aug.). Lighting a revolution,
promoting Edison's lamp. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. [Online]. Available: http://americanhistory.
si.edu/lighting/19thcent/promo19.htm
SS Columbia (1880). (2013, Dec. 24).
[Online]. Available: http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/ss_Columbia_1880
R. E. Kidd. (1936). Lighting the steamship Columbia with Edison's first commercial light plant. [Online]. Available:
http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/images/f/fe/
edison
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