Testing a Plant, Wiring the Stores

By November 25, 1887, the Sunbury American was reporting two kinds of electrical work in Shamokin. A new electric-light plant had been tested, and businessmen were having their stores wired. The short notice brought the generating equipment and the preparations at customers' premises together in one sentence.

Testing a plant and wiring a shop were different steps toward service. The report places both in progress: machinery had undergone a test, while store owners were arranging the connections inside their buildings. It does not say that every store was connected or that all the intended lights were already in use.

The newspaper did not identify the company operating this new plant. It therefore cannot be assumed to describe the original Edison station under another name. What it does show is electrical service being treated as practical commercial infrastructure, with work at the plant matched by work in Shamokin's shops.