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c erI «THELAKE» COUNTY EXPERIMENT" >1WENTY-ONE YEARS ago. a group of tpblic utility pioneers headed by Mr. Samuel Insuil began an.experimenin north- ern Illinois. Their laboratory wasLa£ke County. Their matèrials were twenty-two towns scat- tered along the lake shore north of Chicago. Many of these. communities numbered no more than 300 families. Twelve of them had no electric service of any kind. The other ten had electric service of -a sort. Service began at fire o'cdock, in the evening- six hours later it stopped. Generating plants were locally owned and financed.- They. wete located in makeshift buildings and coal was stoked, by hand. When the weather was bad, custorners got out their oit lamps. They knew better than to expect electricity. It was the aim'of the public utiity pioneers to supply.a higher type of service by central- izing the production of electricity reqluwed by these towns. They wanted flot onty ro iinprove the service rendered the ten communities already receivi ng electricity. They wanted also to extend service tothe twetve communities that hadjno service of any kind. Extreme measures were adopted. The ten neighborhood electric plans that had been This ii ;the secoud of a inier of stories c/ro nidlig th& deloi #f Nor:ern Ilinois and t&e serice it è b iugiag t. :t& ar TWO D ECADES UN THE SERVICE people shook their heads and predicted failure. But here is ýwhat happened: Withintwo years, the ten villagesthat had formierly been getting six-hour.servio - as well as att but, two of the other twelve. towns that ha d had no service of any kind-wefreceiving -ekclricity :wentýy-four houn a day. Up to the attic went the olci itl anips. During these:saine two yas the ù sers of electricity doubled. And becauseý of quantityi production, fuel costs at the generating sta- tion were lowered 70%. Other operating cosus were reduced 84%. Custoffirs received electricity -at lower rates than ever before. More important stili, there was money to pay, interest on new capital for bettering service and expanding facilities. Th e success of this Lake County Experi- ment leinqnstrated new electric light and power possibilities in suburban and rural areas. To- repeat the original experiment on a grander scAle, four relativety sinail electric md gas companiesi northern Illinois coin- bined, in August, 191 1,toaforin the' Public Service Company of Northern Illinois. Dur-ý ing the next few years,. 18 additîonat locally- nianaged utility companies merged with it. ment of the Public Sm7ice Compay ra j,,:. w/uc/iChicago is growing, 0F MORTR £ItN 1UL LU8 N 01, A D a 8;