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SS Columbia (1880)

SS Columbia Undated Photograph.png
Photograph of the SS Columbia under way.
History
United States
Name: Columbia
Owner:
Operator:
  • Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company
  • 1880-1904
  • San Francisco and Portland Steamship Company San Francisco and Portland Steamship Company
  • 1904-1907
Port of registry: United States Portland, Oregon, United States of America
Route: San Francisco, California to Portland, Oregon via Astoria, Oregon
Ordered: July 1879
Builder: Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works (Chester, PA)
Cost: US $450,000 in 1880
Yard number: 193
Laid down: September 1879
Launched: 24 February 1880
Completed: May 1880
Maiden voyage: June 1880
In service: 1880 - 1907
Out of service: 21 July 1907
Fate: Sunk, 21 July 1907, Shelter Cove, California
Notes: Collided with the lumber schooner San Pedro
General characteristics
Tonnage: 2,721 tons
Length: 332 ft (101 m) (309 ft (94 m) below the waterline)
Beam: 38.5 ft (12 m)
Draft: 18 ft (5.5 m)
Depth: 23 ft (7.0 m)
Decks: 4
Installed power: Six cylindrical 12 ft (3.7 m) diameter 12.5 ft (3.8 m) long boilers, powering two 42.5 in (1,080 mm) and 82 in (2,100 mm) by 54 in (1,400 mm) stroke compound condensing engines
Propulsion: Single four bladed 16 ft (4.9 m) diameter Hirsch propeller
Sail plan: Brigantine
Speed: 16 kn (18 mph; 30 km/h)
Capacity: 382 to 850 first class and steerage passengers
Notes:

The first ship to use electric light bulbs, and the first use besides Edison's lab of electric light.Columbia was equipped with four watertight bulkheads. It also featured eight metal lifeboats, one wooden lifeboat, one wooden workboat, five life rafts and 537 life preservers.

Columbia (steamship 1880) 02.jpg

The first ship to use electric light bulbs, and the first use besides Edison's lab of electric light.Columbia was equipped with four watertight bulkheads. It also featured eight metal lifeboats, one wooden lifeboat, one wooden workboat, five life rafts and 537 life preservers.

SS Columbia (1880–1907) was a cargo and passenger steamship that was owned by the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company and later the Union Pacific Railroad. Columbia was constructed in 1880 by the John Roach & Sons shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.

Columbia was the first ship to carry a dynamo powering electric lights instead of oil lamps and the first commercial use of electric light bulbs outside of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory. Due to this, a detailed article and composite illustration of Columbia was featured in the May 1880 issue of Scientific American magazine.

Columbia was lost on 21 July 1907 after a collision with the lumber schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California with the loss of 88 lives.

After attending Thomas Edison's New Year's Eve lighting demonstration in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Henry Villard, president of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, became enthusiastic of Edison's work. Villard subsequently ordered an Edison Lighting System to be installed on his company's new passenger steamer, Columbia. Although met with hesitation by Edison himself, the project moved forward, making the installation onboard Columbia Edison's first commercial order for the light bulb.Columbia would also be the first ship to utilize a dynamo. The success of Columbia's experimental dynamo system led to the system being retrofitted on to other vessels.


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