Let There be Light!

Light Plants Revolutionized Farm Life, and Delco-Light Led the Way

By Richard Backus

As the 20th century opened, the promising power of electricity was in full swing. Cities across the country set up electric generating plants and extended power lines, and industrial and residential customers in urban locales lined up to take advantage of clean electric power. Delivery of that power to the surrounding countryside was slow in coming, however.

In 1909, the U.S. Congress released its Country Life Commission Report in which it stressed the need for rural electrification and laid out options for achieving the goal. Unfortunately, little resulted from the report. By 1930 an estimated 90 percent of urban America benefited from electricity, compared to only 10 percent of rural America. But in 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Rural Electric Administration, and from that point on the process of rural electrification moved forward in earnest. In between, however, was the electric light plant.

The Delco Light Plant

Advertising for the Delco-Light line was aggressive, with ads such as this one from the mid-1920s that equated Delco-Light products with health and happiness.
Missing the standard direct-coupled generator, this unusual circa 1934 2-1/2 HP Model 1250 was instead equipped for belt duty.

By the 1920s the stationary gas engine was revolutionizing life in rural America. Reliable, portable power for the farm and small industry was changing the American landscape. Electricity presented yet another set of power options, and it didn't take a genius to realize there was money to be made supplying electric power to rural America.

Commercially viable electric-generating units were on the market by the 1900s, and by the early teens small, portable units became available. In 1909 Charles F. K..to clinch the deal. And if he sold the light-plant to Dad at night, he'd return the next day to sell Mom some 32-volt appliances. The phrase "Delco-Light Sells Best at Night" effectively summed up the Delco-Light marketing strategy.

Competition

Delco-Light reached the heyday of its production in the 1930s, selling more than 350,000 units by 1935. Not surprisingly, Delco-Light wasn't alone in the market for home light plants. General Gas & Electric Co. actively pursued the home-lighting market, as did Westinghouse Machine Co., Kohler Co. and engine giant Fairbanks-Morse. Curiously, International Harvester Corp. stayed out of the home light plant market.

According to Wayne Sphar, an avid collector of all things Delco-Light, by the mid-1920s more than 150 manufacturers produced home light plants. Wayne (who prefers to be called "Dr. Delco") says many companies sold component-built light plants, matching an engine from company A with a generator from company B. But Delco-Light clearly led the field, and its extensive line gives ample evidence to this assertion.

Delco-Light manufactured some 100 different models throughout its production of light plants, changing output specs and modernizing its engines as the company saw fit to make light plants smaller, lighter and more powerful. Although 500-watt and 600-watt units were offered, by far the most popular Delco-Light plant was the 850-watt, 32-volt DC (direct current) unit. Some 110-volt AC (alternating current) models were also built, but 32-volt DC units constituted perhaps 75 percent of production.

One of the most interesting engines made by Delco-Light was a little four-cylinder air-cooled unit. Rated at 3 HP and driving a 1,500-watt generator, the engine was DELCO founder Kettering's brainchild. Although designed in 1918, the engine wasn't put into light plant service until 1928, and it was phased out by 1934. Wayne says Kettering originally designed the engine (which he called the Corvair) for Chevrolet, but its automotive application was purposefully undermined through the use of high rear-end gear ratios that over-stressed and over-heated the engine. Kettering is thought to have lost $6 million dollars on the ill-fated venture with Chevrolet.

With the outbreak of World War II, Delco-Light — like many companies — devoted its energies to the war effort, producing units to meet military specifications. Civilian light plant production commenced again after the war, but by that time the massive rural electrification process launched by President Roosevelt in 1935 had brought electricity to a majority of rural areas. The writing was on the wall for mighty DELCO, and in 1947 production of electric plants ceased.

Richard Backus is editor of Gas Engine Magazine. Contact him at: 1503 S.W. 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609-1265, or e-mail: rbackus@ogdenpubs.com