Utilities
The city provided utilities for residential and commercial buildings such as AC electrical power, coal gas for heating and lighting plus coal and/or oil for heating purposes. Also, wood burning stoves played a role early on in the 19th century, but were soon replayed by more modern approaches. See description of homes in the early Centralville portions of these files.
Some DC electrical generators, located within the early textile plants themselves, powered production-line machinery early on, which created the finished textile fabrics. Later, however, these power sources were replaced by AC generators located near the plants that used coal and coal gas fired furnaces to create the necessary steam- powered generators driving the AC power source.
Jobs and Employment
Workers having the necessary skills needed for the daily maintenance of the electromechanical machinery within the mills were clearly at a big advantage in gaining meaningful employment in the city. However, those job-seekers devoid of these technical qualifications found themselves in tight, constant competition with hundreds of others, who were equally as unskilled in this line of work.
The Favored Few
A person seeking employment in the textile factories of the late 19th and even of the early 20th century might find himself/herself in a favored position for some job security and long-time employment if only he/she possessed the required calling card of an electrician, steamfitter, machinist, plumber, tool and dye maker, etc. An ambitious person seeking industrial training and the needed technical background could obtain the sought after credentials of a first-level electrician, machinist, etc. by attending a set of courses that were advertised in trade magazines found on the shelves of magazine racks in book and drug stores. Typical examples are listed below.
