Insull: The Rise and Fall of a Billionaire Utility TycoonThis is a reprint of a previosly published work. It dewals with Samuel Insull, who was Thomas Edison's private secretary and founded the business of centralized electric supply. He organized the Edison General Electric Company. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 56
Page vii
... bank- ruptcy acts . Chances are you don't remember — though most of this was in the papers , too — that Insull had been in the electric business as long as there had been an electric business ; that he had started as Thomas Edison's ...
... bank- ruptcy acts . Chances are you don't remember — though most of this was in the papers , too — that Insull had been in the electric business as long as there had been an electric business ; that he had started as Thomas Edison's ...
Page ix
... banking houses in the world , bar none . Do you know the Duchess , Bertha Baur ? Bertha ruled Gold Coast society as subtly and absolutely as Pompadour ruled the society of Louis XV . Do you know Max McGraw ? Maybe you've never heard of ...
... banking houses in the world , bar none . Do you know the Duchess , Bertha Baur ? Bertha ruled Gold Coast society as subtly and absolutely as Pompadour ruled the society of Louis XV . Do you know Max McGraw ? Maybe you've never heard of ...
Page xii
... banking , investment , and financial houses as they were during the period with which this study is concerned . Very few , if any , of the men who ran these establishments during the days of Insull are now in control and in some cases ...
... banking , investment , and financial houses as they were during the period with which this study is concerned . Very few , if any , of the men who ran these establishments during the days of Insull are now in control and in some cases ...
Page 16
... banking at all ; he was the European representative of Thomas Edison . On learning what he had stumbled into , Insull's heart , imagination , and ambition leaped all at once . Gouraud found young Insull useful for all manner of duties ...
... banking at all ; he was the European representative of Thomas Edison . On learning what he had stumbled into , Insull's heart , imagination , and ambition leaped all at once . Gouraud found young Insull useful for all manner of duties ...
Page 19
... Bank of England . Furthermore , who was Edison ? Doubtless a clever fellow , but what future was there in the kind of tinkering he was doing ? Besides , had not the world's foremost electrical scientists denounced Edison's alleged ...
... Bank of England . Furthermore , who was Edison ? Doubtless a clever fellow , but what future was there in the kind of tinkering he was doing ? Besides , had not the world's foremost electrical scientists denounced Edison's alleged ...
Contents
1 | |
25 | |
Chicago | 55 |
Intimates | 74 |
The Big Shot | 102 |
Or The Short Happy Life of Samuel Insull | 133 |
The War | 162 |
191723 | 188 |
Common terms and phrases
alternating current annual reports April bank bankers became began bonds Budd cent central station Chicago Daily Chicago Edison Chicago Herald Chicago newspapers Chicago Tribune coal committee Commonwealth Edison Company Commonwealth Electric cost customers Eaton Edison directors Edison G.E. Edison Illuminating Companies Edison Laboratory National Electric Company Electric Light employees franchise friends Gas Company Gladys Herald and Examiner History of Commonwealth holding company Illinois Council industry Insull companies Insull Papers Insull's interview investment J. P. Morgan John Josephson July June June 11 June 25 Junior labor Laboratory National Monument Libertyville Light Company Martin meetings Memoirs Middle West Utilities minute books Munroe operating organization pany passim plant political politicians Power Company previously cited Public Service Public Utilities rates Samuel Insull Scheel securities sell Sept Stilwell stockholders Stuart tion traction Utility Corporations Villard West Corporation Wisconsin Yerkes York
Popular passages
Page v - I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill ; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Page 2 - I have erred, but my greatest error was in underestimating the effect of the financial panic on American securities and particularly on the companies I was working so hard to build. I worked with all my energy to save those companies. I made mistakes, but they were honest mistakes. They were errors in judgment, but not dishonest...
Page 21 - I was naturally prepared to accept him as a hero. With my strict English ideas as to the class of clothes to be worn by a prominent man, there was nothing in Edison's dress to impress me. He wore a rather seedy black diagonal Prince Albert coat and waistcoat, with trousers of a dark material, and a white silk handkerchief around his neck, tied in a careless knot falling over the stiff bosom of a white shirt somewhat the worse for wear. He had a large wide-awake...
Page 23 - If he were exhausted he might more likely be asleep in the middle of the day than in the middle of the night, as most of his work in the way of inventions was done at night. I used to run his office...