Electrical Beginnings


Machine shop, Portland Company, ca. 1890

Machine shop, Portland Company, ca. 1890
Item 8070   info
Maine Historical Society

As Maine and the nation industrialized in the nineteenth century, engineers and entrepreneurs increased the scale of their projects and, hence, the size of dams and waterpower systems. Soon, textile mills, paper mills, and sawmills, and a variety of other industrial efforts sprang up along rivers.

By the nineteenth century, effective steam power was available and could supplement water-powered machinery, or provide an alternative to it.

Before electricity, industrial shops and workspaces relied on mechanical power to drive their machines. Whether powered by water, or as in this case, steam, machines had to be arranged in rows so that power could be transmitted by a system of overhead shafts and belts.

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