It’s been a while since our last historical post so I want to hit you with a fun one. On December 31, 1896, smoke billowed from the 135 foot chimney atop Keating’s factory for the first time. The design and functionality of the factory had been 2 years in the making with the explicit purpose of manufacturing not just high-grade bicycles but motor vehicles as well - positioning the company well for the turn of the century. Unlike the typical mill-style structures of the time which were oriented vertically, Keating approached his new factory design with a linear layout, stretching over 1,000 feet long, allowing each stage of production to progress more efficiently (think assembly line). 4 years prior, in April 1892, electricity began to light the imagination of the public through the cutting edge work of none other than Thomas Edison and his company, General Electric. It was with GE that Keating developed this state-of-the-art factory, constructing their very own power plant, and providing Keating with one of the first fully electric powered manufacturing facilities in the United States.
On February 13, 1897, Electrical World magazine described the Keating power plant in detail:
"The engine and generating plant is located in the southeast corner of the plot, in a two-story brick and stone building. Steam is generated by a Babcock & Wilcox boiler of 250 horse-power, separated by a brick partition from the engine room. The engine, a cross-compound condensing Greene engine of 500 horse-power, built by the Providence Steam Engine Company, is erected upon the second floor upon brick and stone piers built up from the ground. On the same floor is a General Electric three-phase generator, known as an A-T 16-pole, 250-kw, 450-revolution, 60-cycle machine, also placed on piers carried up from the ground. The main belt from the engine and fly-wheel passes down to the ground floor where a countershaft runs in bearings set upon brick and stone piers. The shaft is carried the entire length of the room…. This countershaft is arranged with couplings, so that any portion may be cut in or out, as may be required. The exciter for the generator is a 4 1⁄2-kw machine of the 1.B. type, run from a pulley on the shaft of the three-phase machine. Facing the generator is a Vermont marble switchboard carrying packed Card rheostats, current indicator, voltmeter and the necessary switches for controlling the exciter and the generator. From the switchboard six wires, forming two circuits, issue from one of the windows of the powerhouse and pass to the main factory, supported on one pole only. They are carried above one of the windows on the second floor of the factory, and there three of the wires terminate, while the other three, which constitute the circuit in service, follow the center of the roof of the second story for about three-fourths of the length of the whole building. At the proper place they are tapped off, descending their respective pillars and passing through the door of the second story to the motors suspended from the ceiling of the first story."
We’re fortunate that the factory still stands today on its original foundation in Middletown, CT. Occupied by a couple brewing companies and a renewable energy company, Keating’s original spirit has not been lost, and soon we hope to add our name back to the tenant list.
For those interested in taking a deeper dive into this history, we invite you to check out my uncle, Robert Keating’s book, Wheel Man.
