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Supplying Electricity and C Two decades have produced this change. Believing that a review of these twenty years will disclose many facts of interest to its customers, the Public Service Company is beginning this series of stories that will appear in these pages from week to week. They will make up a kind of autobiography. The story of gas and electric service in northern Illinois really begins about five years before the Civil War when the Ottawa Gas This was 1911. In August of that year, the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois was organized. Today, in the territory surâ€" rounding Chicago there are 318 cities and towns andâ€"nearly 7,000 intervening farms receiving gas and electric service twentyâ€"four hours a day. Wmm andâ€"coming outlying communities. In northâ€" ern Illinois, outside the city limits of Chicago, there were probably 100 towns receiving elecâ€" tricity. Their service was timed by the clock and subject to the whims of the weather. At five in the evening lights were turned on. At eleven o‘clock lights blinked a curfew warnin gâ€" â€"and service was discontinued for the night. Storms cut off service indefinitely. inâ€"metropolitan centers Automobilists wore goggles and wrapped themselves up in linen dusters. Flying was a stunt for daredevils. o South Pole. Goethals for the Panama Canal Electric lights were only for families living OW well can you remember back twenty years? Amundsen was discovering the Pole. Goethals was gouging the way N‘ORTHERN ILLIN O 1s$ PusBLic SEervice Company sas tt 6,000 OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS qguare miles, 8 ER VC & Chaprer including the Metropolitan Even after twenty years of development â€" this service was very etratic. Progress was restricted not so much by lack of engineering equipment as by lack of money. The local _ companies were always just a jump ahead ofâ€" the sheriff. Frequently the sheriff caught up. Machinery for producing electricity was inâ€" stalled in whatever abandoned building could be leased. Usually the company selling the equipment had to share in the financing of the local plant. Managerships changed often. Bankruptcies were numerous. For days at a â€" time service would be interrupted. At the end of the year there was never money left over for improvement of facilities. f Thus was northern Illinois before 1911. The "Lake County Experiment" which first demonstrated the economies of transmitting electricity produced in a centrally located plant to scattered suburban and rural commuâ€" nitiesâ€"which was directly responsible for the organization of the Public Service Company of Northern Illinoisâ€"is the subject of next week‘s story. 3. s s tali y $oe‘ practical for homes companies were org: service of a sort. O Company was founded to manufacture gas for lighting purposes. Its two miles of gas mains served 150 customers. In 1867 a second gas company was granted a charter in Evanston. Later a few others began operations. _ Area into w mesâ€"a few scattered local organized to supply electric hich CGiago,:’:M 191 1 Â¥ aner»