Butte County
Biographies
FRANK W. CAIN
The superintendent in charge of the great generating plant of the Great Western Power Company, at Las Plumas, Butte County, F. W. Cain has been a resident of this county since Christmas Day, 1908, and from that time until the present he has been an important factor in the development of the plant. A native of New York, he was born in Niagara County, in the township of Porter, August 23, 1871, a son of J. C. Cain, a farmer. Young Cain obtained his education in the public schools of his home district. At an early age he entered the mechanical field, becoming a machinist for the Niagara Silver Company, now William Rogers Company, silversmiths at Niagara, N. Y., and for two years worked at perfecting his trade. He next entered the employ of the United Community Limited, and remained with that concern a like period, when he turned his attention to another branch of mechanics, and worked in a shop devoted to the bicycle industry, where he remained until 1899.
His knowledge of machinery secured him a position with the General Electric Company, and here he rose rapidly, each advancement bringing with it added responsibilities. He was finally sent out to install machinery in various electrical plants in the East, and it was while so employed that he was sent to California, in 1908, to install the second, third and fourth generators for the Great Western Power Company’s plant at Las Plumas. Up to the time of his arrival here only one generator had been installed. After he had completed the important work he had been sent to do, his general knowledge and thorough workmanship attracted the attention of those in authority and he was called upon to enter the employ of the power company. In June, 1910, he was made assistant superintendent, and in March, the following year, he was made superintendent, the position he now holds. He has supervision of some fifty men, all skilled in their particular lines and ambitious to meet the approval of their superintendent.
Mr. Cain was married in Buffalo, N. Y., to Miss Susan Nighthart, and they have a daughter, Gladys. The family was comfortably located in a commodious residence erected by the Great Western Power Company on their property at Las Plumas.
A brief mention of this important institution that has added fame to Butte County is appropriate in connection with the biography of the superintendent. This plant is the largest electric plant on the Pacific Coast, and there are but two of this particular kind in the United States that are larger. There was but one turbine water-wheel and generator installed at the plant when Mr. Cain arrived, and during 1908 and 1909 he installed three others, and in 1914, added two more. There are now six units in operation, and room for two more. The lay of the land and the fall of the water are such that when there shall be sufficient demand for electric current, this company can build five additional plants similar to the one already in operation, thereby using the same water six times, for generating power.
The Western Canal Company is auxiliary to the Great Western Power Company, and has constructed a system of irrigation ditches which extend to Chico. Its distributing offices are at Oroville.
The Great Western Power Company sells its “juice” at nearly every point in the Sacramento Valley. It has three cables to San Francisco, and its terminal distributing station is at Oakland. What benefits are in store for mankind by the use of electricity for cooking may be gained from considering the fact that, at the rates charged in the Bay Cities, it costs only $.0083 for the heat necessary to cook one meal for one man. There are hundreds of uses for electric current in this day and age.
The water-wheels in the Big Bend station are the highest-powered wheels in the world, and are applied to the highest head ever used for reaction turbines. Each is rated at twenty thousand horsepower, and tests have proved them to be the most efficient water-turbines in existence. The electrical equipment likewise represents the acme of engineering skill, and probably the limit in size for generations to come. In efficiency the machinery stands without a peer, and from the water at Big Bend, to the small incandescent light in Oakland, the actual losses are so small that the entire generating system has a percentage of efficiency unequalled anywhere on the face of the earth.
There is a very contented and democratic spirit among the employees of the Great Western Power Company. They have erected a dancing-floor by poplar subscription, where they hold frequent dances, movie shows, etc. The “Club” is also democratically controlled. Here the best of food is served, cooked by electricity. Water for domestic purposes and for bathing, is heated by the same agency. The club-house is a two-and-one-half-story-and-basement building, constructed of wood, and it is heated and lighted by electricity. The nicely-kept buildings, garden, lawns and drives are located on a bench, high above the lines of the Western Pacific Railway tracks. The works are located on the east side of Feather River, sixteen miles north of Oroville, on the Western Pacific Railroad. A massive hoist of thirty-five tons’ capacity, supported by two-and-one-half-inch steel cables, caries all the machinery and material to the plant across the chasm of the river.
Mother Nature can hardly be accused of partiality, and yet it cannot be denied that she has bestowed her bounties lavishly upon the land of promise and enchantment, California. Here it is that the Great Western Power Company operates, wresting from the crystal waters of her rushing streams the energy wasted for years, and converting it into electricity. Like a weaver’s network are transmission lines extending from the snow-capped Sierras to the shimmering waters of the Golden Gate. Here is power unabated. Coal mines may fail and oil wells run dry, but California’s mountain streams roar down their course forever, and the enormous power available in these mountain streams is beyond calculation.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 871-873, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies