Misc.: Retirement of Mr. A. H. Manwaring (1927): Philadelphia Co., PA

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January 15, 1928            CURRENT NEWS                              7

						 Mr. Manwaring Retires

  On December 31, 1927, Mr. A. H. Manwaring, Engineer of Transmission
and Distribution, retired from active service with the Philadelphia
Electric Company, after forty-five years and five months of continuous
work with our Company and its predecessors.  In point of service, Mr.
Manwaring is the third oldest living employee, the senior being Mr. A.
J. DeCamp, and the second being Mr. T. Allen Crowell, both of whom
preceded him by a few months in the Brush Electric Light Company of
Philadelphia, the organization which first furnished electric service
to the public in this city.
  Mr. Manwaring was born August 8, 1859, at Mexico, Oswego County, New
York, his parents being Artemus H. and Susan Louise Manwaring.  As a
boy he lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and was educated in the public
schools, and graduated from Bryant & Stratton's Business College in
that city.  In August, 1879, Mr. Manwaring entered the employ of the
Brush Electric Company of CLeveland, manufacturers of arc lamps,
carbons and electric lighting plants.  Charles F. Brush, founder of
that Company, was the first inventor who succeeded in burning more
than one lamp in an electric circuit.
  The Brush Company sent Mr. Manwaring to Philadelphia to superintend
the installation of eflectric lighting plants.  Among them were the
lighting systems of the Continental Hotel, which stood on the site of
the present Benjamin Franklin Hotel, Thomas DOlan's Mills, and Wm.
Sellers & Co.'s machine shops.
  In August, 1880, Mr. Manwaring entered the employ of the Thompson-
Houston Electric Co., and installed electric lighting plants in the
Girard House, and at Ridgway Park (on Smith's Island in the Delaware
River).  Many Philadelphians will remember this island, which was
removed by the national government in 1894.
  Meantime, the Brush Electric Light Company of Philadelphia had been
organized, and in August, 1882, Mr. Manwaring became Assistant
Superintendent.  This Company burned the first electric street lights
in this city, lighting CHestnut Street from the Delaware River to
Broad Street free of charge for one year, following which
demonstration the City entered into a lighting contract.
  Other electric companies were organized during the succeeding years
and operated in various sections of the city.  In the natural growth
of business they were consolidated, becoming The Philadelphia Electric
Company, standardizing equipment and methods, and Mr. Manwaring became
Engineer of Arc Lighting.
  In 1918, Mr. Manwaring became Engineer of Transmission and
Distribution, from which position he now retires.
  He developed the broad carbon arc lamp; the electrically-operated
tower wagon for trimming lamps; the electrically-operated pole truck;
and the cable plow for rapidly installing underground cable.
  He is a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers;
the Illuminating Engineering Society; the National Electric Light
Association; the Franklin Institute; the Manufacturer's Club; the
Engineers' Club; the Philadelphia Automobile Club; the Ohio Society of
Philadelphia (of which he served as Treasurer for seven years); the
Penn Athletic Club; the Manufacturers' Country Club; and the Old York
Road Country CLub of Jenkintown, Pa.
  Mr. Manwaring's innumerable friends and associates will keenly miss
him, and unanimously wish him many happy years to come.

           Character is what we are when nobody's looking