POWERGRAMS

AGRICULTURAL 39 Founded in 1919 to improve the lives of those working in agriculture, which at the time included about 80 percent of Alabama's population, Auburn University's Biosystems Engineering Department is celebrating its centennial. The program got a boost in its early days from Alabama Power, which was itself in its infancy. The history of both is intertwined. Alabama Power recognized that rural electricity could be mutually beneficial to farmers and the development of the company. However, to reach rural areas, Alabama Power had to first connect towns and communities to the transmission lines. During the 1920s, only one in three urban homes had service available, so the use of electricity and electrical appliances was still a new concept, and it was practically unheard of rurally. Recalling those "exciting" years, then-retired superintendent of meters, A.C. Wade, said, "We were working with mysterious stuff, don't forget that. We thought we were very fortunate to be into the development of something that interesting." Alabama Power built its first rural line in 1920 to serve several farms along a 5-mile stretch of Whitesburg Pike in Madison County. Over the next few years, the company began to examine the logistics for increasing rural electric service – including issues with line construction, availability of electric farm equipment and how rates should be levied for rural electric use. The goal was to increase farm profits, as well as improve the comforts and convenience of life on the farm. To investigate these issues, Alabama Power and Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API), with the involvement of the Alabama Farm Bureau Federation, entered into a three-year agreement in 1923. This is believed to be the first such cooperative agreement. Agricultural engineers studied sites throughout Alabama, with those deemed most apt to receive benefits from electricity included in the study. Alabama Power erected rural lines to these locations and provided partial funding for experiments led by API's State Agricultural Experiment Station. The Experiment Station system included the main station, established at API in 1883, seven substations, seven experimental fields, five forestry units and a plant breeding unit. The Experiment Station was one of the first in the country to lead farm-sized experiments, ranging from 30 acres to 202 acres. Alabama Power and API recognized that for farm electrification to be successful, electricity needed to provide a convenience as well as a net income increase for farmers. "Profitable uses of power readily available are little understood by the Southern farmer, and development of uses of current along these rural lines must be brought about by the slow process of education," said M.L. Nichols, the first head of Auburn's Agricultural Engineering Department. For many farmers, there was a significant doubt about the benefits of electricity. To abate this uncertainty, Alabama Power established a rural division within its Commercial Department. The division had six employees, four of whom were agricultural engineers, whose duty it was to help farmers develop wiring plans for farms and acquaint them with electrical equipment. The late historian Marie Bankhead Owen said, "By 1930, this work had Electric hot flower beds from 1955. Kaylor holds plaque presented to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in recognition of collaboration between AU and APC.

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