Lighting Companies May Be Consolidated

Kings County People Said to Be After the Edison.

ELECTRIC STOCK’S RAPID RISE.

It Is Stated on Apparently Reliable Authority That a Plan for the Purchase of the Edison Company by the Kings County Company Is Under Discussion — If Consolidation Is Not Brought About the Kings County Company Will Become a Formidable Rival of the Edison Concern, as It Possesses the Right to Use Tesla’s Inventions — Stock in Demand.

Sensational advances in the stock of the Kings County Electric Company and the Edison Electric Illuminating Company have created some excitement in Brooklyn financial circles during the past few days. The stock of the former has advanced from an indefinite 50 to an active demand of 90, and on par, and that of the Edison Company has gone up from 102 to 120, with none in sight at the higher figure. In the brokers’ offices on Montague street the war tax and the advance in electric lighting stocks are the chief topics of conversation.

It would appear, according to all accounts, as was indicated on the Eagle’s financial page yesterday, that there is a movement on foot for the combination of the two companies. An Eagle reporter learned to-day on apparently reliable authority that a plan for the consolidation of the two companies is actually under discussion and that it is favored by the majority of the stockholders of both corporations.

The plan is said to include the purchase of the Edison plant by the Kings County Company. This is contrary to general expectations, inasmuch as the Edison Company is the older and the wealthier of the two, and its newly equipped Edison plant in South Brooklyn is said to be one of the best electric lighting establishments on the western hemisphere.

The Kings County Company is the lowest bidder for the public lighting, and it is quite probable that the company will get the contract in case it can demonstrate to the Commissioner of Buildings, Lighting and Supplies that it has a plant large enough to undertake the work.

The Edison and the Municipal companies now hold the contracts for the public lighting in the borough of Brooklyn. The majority of the stockholders of the Municipal company recently entered into a plan for the absorption of that company by the Edison people, and those who are more or less familiar with the affairs of the Brooklyn electric lighting companies were somewhat surprised that the deal was not carried out.

In case the combination between the Kings County and the Edison Company is not made the Kings County concern will, provided it secures the public lighting contract and completes the changes now being made in the plant, become a formidable rival to the Edison Company. The Edison Company has already reduced its price for lights at least 25 per cent, and it is said that canvassers for the Kings County Company are offering lights for 40 per cent less than the present price charged.

Experienced electricians contend that the plant of the Kings County Company will when completed even be superior to that of the Edison Company, inasmuch as it is equipped with Tesla’s latest inventions. The new Edison plant, however, has the benefit of all of Edison’s latest devices, but many electricians claim that Tesla’s scheme for furnishing and transmitting light is superior to the Edison plant. Important developments are looked for within a short time.