POWERGRAMS

multisources of generation to provide continued operation and backup – or reserve – power in case of an outage. Just as Mitchell feared, the market for English capital dried up as soon as war began in Europe in August 1914. Technically, Great Britain joined the conflict over the German violation of Belgian neutrality, which Britain and Prussia had agreed to uphold in 1839. The "The Great War" was eventually called "World War I." Hostilities in Europe forced Mitchell to go to the American market for funds to complete his projects. During the development of his Alabama properties, he routinely had crossed the Atlantic, desperately trying to hold his investments together, while finding adequate capital to continue his plans of promoting and providing Alabama electricity to towns, industry and homes. As the European war escalated, the U.S. military became deeply concerned over the inadequate U.S. source of nitrates for the manufacture of explosives. Nitrates were also used for making fertilizers. Since the 19th century, the United States had imported guano from South America to obtain nitrates for explosives, but the activities of German U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico endangered this supply. Frank Washburn, whose American Cyanamid Co. was organized to manufacture nitrates, was elected to the board of directors of Alabama Power Company on Aug. 5, 1913. On Aug. 20 with Mitchell's support, Washburn became president of Alabama Power. Washburn's knowledge of nitrate production and German experiments in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen to manufacture fertilizer and explosives was significant. These processes took a large quantity of cheap electricity and were more feasible using hydroelectricity. Washburn originally envisioned that the Alabama Power dam to be constructed at Wetumpka would produce hydroelectricity for nitrates, and he planned to construct a nitrate plant there; however, there were problems obtaining congressional approval and the war came too quickly. As the Birmingham Industrial District's iron and steel industries began to gear up to service the large orders coming from Britain and France, the 1913-1914 national recession came to an end. Alabama Power took steps to ensure an adequate supply of electricity by the construction of a coal-fired generation plant where Bakers Creek flowed into the Black Warrior River in Walker County. Construction began in 1916 on the Warrior Reserve Steam Plant, which was later named for Gen. William Crawford Gorgas, an Alabama military hero. When war came to Europe in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the neutrality of the United States and campaigned for his second term in 1916 on the U.S. staying out of the European war; however, that proved impossible when German submarines continued to attack and sink unarmed merchant vessels. The lifeblood for Britain had always come from the sea. Germany anticipated knocking Great Britain out of the war by destroying the island's supplies and bringing Britain to its knees before the Americans could enter the war. But the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915, angered Americans, as did the actions of German spies in the United States. For Alabama Power, the Lusitania sinking hit close to home. Mitchell and Washburn sailed to England on the Lusitania in March 1914 with British financier E. Mackey Edgar of Sperling & Company. Edgar accepted the challenge of raising $30 million for Alabama Power, specifically for a dam and a nitrates plant at Muscle Shoals and the electricity to operate it. In 1915, Mitchell booked passage on the Lusitania, which was sailing from New York on May 1. When the luxury liner was sunk by a German submarine, Mitchell's name appeared in The London Times among those who were lost. His wife, Carolyn, in London was distraught. However, Mitchell did not board the ship in New York City because of the death of his nephew, Nathaniel Tileston, on April 7, 1915. Tileston was working at the Gadsden Steam Plant and was electrocuted. Mitchell elected to meet a train in New York to escort his nephew's body to Mitchell's sister in Massachusetts. The sinking of the Lusitania, as well as other unarmed merchant Allied troops, before donning gas mask gear, pose outside their trenches on the Western Front. Sinking of the Lusitania. Engraving by Norman Wilkinson, The Illustrated London News, May 15, 1915. 3

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