The Power Makers Quotes

“The key element, which had escaped Wright but not Insull, was load factor. All customers used their equipment only a fraction of the time, but not all of them at exactly the same time. Given that fact, a single investment in plant could supply many users, any two of whom could always be supplied more cheaply than one alone. It also followed that two competing stations could not serve these same customers as cheaply as one station because of the higher investment cost. Competition would create higher costs in areas of heavy usage and most likely no service in other areas that lacked enough business to pay. Put another way, monopoly was the surest road to driving down costs and rates.34”
― Maury Klein, The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America

“When I want newspaper advertising,” he growled, “I will order it and pay cash.”
― Maury Klein, The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America