1. ULTRA MOBILE BROADBAND
1.3 ESTRUCTURA DE DATOS COMUNES
1.3.4 REGISTRO DE INFORMACIÓN DE ESTADO DE LA SESIÓN
It started simply enough. On October 10th, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button in the White House. From there it got complicated. The push of the button sent an electric charge along telegraph lines running overland from Washington, D.C. to Galveston Texas. The electrical current was then channeled south, through the Central and South American Telegraph Company's submarine cable, before being diverted to the company's Transisthmian cable. Finally, the current traveled down a local circuit near Gamboa Dam, a dyke which prevented the waters of the artificially constructed Lake Gatun from entering the Culebra Cut. In August, over a month before the current arrived, engineers drilled holes into the Gamboa Dam and, in
preparation of the current, carefully packed these holes with explosives. When the current
reached the Gamboa dam it closed a local circuit and tripped a weight connected to a switch. The second the switch was thrown a massive explosion gouged a 125-foot opening in the dam. Water rushed into the Culebra Cut, flowing across the last stretch of land blocking the aquatic highway. The Panama Canal was finally complete… kind of.1
The official inaugural voyage through the Canal didn’t take place until August 15th, 1914, nearly a year after Wilson triggered the demolition of the Gamboa Dam.2 And yet the fact that it
was the President himself who sent the signal that destroyed the last major obstacle in the path of the Canal was telling. The complexity surrounding the detonation of the Gamboa Dam reflected the intricacy that defined the energy regimes at work in Panama. Coal remained paramount to
1 Goethals, William. “Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year
Ending June 30, 1914,” September 20, 1914. Retrieved from USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 503: Folder: Annual Reports of the Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, pg. 38.
canal construction in 1913. Part of the incentive for flooding the Cut was that coal fueled dredges could easily remove the material remaining in the Cut.3 Despite coal’s continued centrality, the
energy sources at work in Panama in 1913 were far different from those that were in place when John Stevens had left the work six years earlier. It was fitting that it was an electrical current that triggered the blast at Gamboa. Electricity now powered locomotives and cranes at Miraflores and Gatun and provided power throughout the Canal Zone. Meanwhile, oil powered fixed engines at the major machine repair shop in Gorgona and 40,000-gallon storage tanks were being
constructed at terminal sites to provide oil for passing vessels. The Canal of coal had become the site of a massive energy proliferation that saw oil and electricity join the coal and human muscle powering Panama.
As the energetic infrastructure that was installed by John Stevens expanded under the guidance of George Goethals it diversified, adding new sources of energy to deal with the variety of tasks that accompanied the expansion of excavation and the commencement of construction. This transition defined the second half of canal creation and heralded the increasing diversity that came to define energy regimes in general over the 20th century. Yet it is worth remembering that
this was by no means a revolution in which the combined forces of electricity and oil usurped the throne of coal. Instead, all three energy sources saw rapid growth in their use, plateauing only when construction was ending.4
3 Goethals, William. “Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1913,”
September 15, 1913. Retrieved from USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 503: Folder, Annual Reports of the Chairman and Chief Engineer of the ICC, pg. 41.
4 Board of Directors, Panama Railroad Company. “Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Panama Railroad
Company to the Stockholders for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1910,” July 1910. Retrieved from USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 510, pg. 22; Board of Directors, Panama Railroad Company. “Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Company to the Stockholders for the Fiscal Year Ending 1914,” July 1914, Retrieved from USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 510, pg. 33.
The increasing consumption of energy in the Canal Zone embodied what Christopher Jones has dubbed a "landscape of intensification," a location where the influx of tremendous amounts of energy allowed for the creation of an environment more capable of harnessing and deploying energy through positive feedback loops. The creation of the Panama Canal was reliant on this process and suggests further that even as fossil fuels were ascending to dominance in Panama, a complex web of supplementary energies and prime movers remained essential to canal construction. As coal, oil, electricity, and muscle shifted the earth, creating a passageway for water to flow between the seas, they also provided the energy to construct a fixed landscape of concrete capable of, at least temporarily, countering entropy in Panama.
It was the fusion of these various sources of energy that allowed the completion of the Canal. As the tasks necessary for the Canal’s completion grew increasingly complicated and specialized so too did the energy sources used to complete these tasks. Ironically, this process liberated canal construction from the challenges of Panama’s entropic environment, while simultaneously enslaving it to expanding energy regimes and a static structure and size. The massive energy proliferation that took place between 1907 and 1914 pointed to both the promise and challenges of energy expansion. Navigating this task was crucial to the successful
completion of the Canal and reflected a broader reliance of constantly expanding energy regimes that came to define American energy consumption in the Canal Zone and beyond.
Table 1. Fossil Fuel Consumption in Panama: 1907-1913 Year* Coal Consumed (in tons) Barrels of oil consumed Oil Consumed (in tons of coal) Total Coal and Oil (In
tons) Difference from previous year Oil % of total energy
1907 203,451** N/A Not tracked
separated
203,451 N/A N/A
1908 380,792** N/A Not tracked
separately 380,792 +177,341 N/A 1909 292,608 290,958 88,796 381,404 +612 23.3% 1910 398,719 463,186 141,292 540,011 +158,607 26.2% 1911 415,199 784,642 196,160 611,359 +71,348 32.1% 1912 401,385 876,325 219,009 620,394 +9,035 35.3% 1913 371,764 904,917 226,229 597,993 -22,401 37.8%
*Information listed in Fiscal Years (running July 1-June 31st) **Note that oil was not tracked separately from coal until 1909
Table 2: Electrical Generation in Panama: 1908-1912
Year* Electricity Produced (in
Kilowatt Hours)
Difference from Previous Year 1908 984,744 N/A 1909 3,703,407 +2,718,663 1910 9,500,000 (number not exact)** +5,800,000 1911 24,671,095 +15,171,095 1912 30,857,213 +6,186,118
*Information listed in Fiscal Years (running July 1-June 31st)
**The energy produced at the newly opened Gatun and Miraflores plants could not be tracked conclusively during the year
Inherited Energy
When George Goethals was named Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Company following the resignation of John Stevens, he inherited a force remarkably effective at the task of excavation. Steam shovels, railroads, dredges, and bodies all worked in concert with one another to dig the big ditch. Goethals also acquired a tangible plan for the construction of the Canal. In addition to restructuring the labor force, Stevens had been a staunch advocate for the
construction of a lock style canal, believing such a structure was the only way of completing the herculean task. While Stevens wasn’t the architect of the plan, his convictions eventually rubbed off on Canal Zone administrators and the American government and on June 19, 1907 the
decision was made to commit to a lock style canal once and for all.5
While the lock style canal required less excavation than a sea-level canal, it also
mandated more construction work. The Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC) had to find a way to raise boats nearly 100 feet above sea level while also creating a structure capable of withstanding the Isthmus' entropic tendencies. Goethals’ central challenge then was taking an energy
infrastructure adept at excavation and converting it to one capable of the equally demanding task of construction. The key process in this transformation was the broadening of the energy regimes at work in the Canal Zone. Human muscle, coal, and explosives were tremendously effective at destroying landscapes, but they faced limitations when it came to constructing them. To
overcome these challenges Goethals began a gradual process of energy proliferation, which relied upon the emergence of oil and electricity.
This process was already beginning during the end of Stevens’ tenure. By mid-1907 the excessive price of coal caused some to consider whether it might be more prudent to begin converting some engines to run on fuel oil instead. Coal was effective for mobile engines thanks to its portability. A fireman could easily keep a coal-fueled boiler stoked with little more than a shovel. As a liquid, oil needed to be loaded and transported in cumbersome barrels that were difficult to handle, particularly on mobile engines. When it came to fixed engines however, oil's cheap price and great efficiency made it a compelling choice, particularly considering the
5 David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914, (New York: Simon
massive quantities of energy being consumed on the Isthmus. This Culebra Division alone consumed 79,500 tons of coal in the fiscal year 1907, a total that cost $515,453.6 Due to the
difficulty of transporting coal to the interior and Pacific coast in particular, it was among the chief expenditures of the Division. Oil proved far more economical thanks to an 8-inch pipeline Union Oil constructed across the Isthmus to carry its oil from California to the east coast, precluding the exorbitant shipping costs that accompanied the importation of coal.7 Starting in 1907, oil consumption on the Canal grew rapidly. Energy proliferation was percolating in Panama.
The growth of oil occurred because of coal, however, not in spite of it. As excavation expanded in 1907 Stevens, and later Goethals, constantly augmented their mechanical labor force. The Excavation and Dredging Division had 39 shovels on the work in July of 1906. A year later that number jumped to 63.8 The additional shovels paid immediate dividends. In August of 1907, shovel No. 211 appeared on the front page of the Panama Canal Record, celebrated for moving a record 29,604 cubic yards of soil.9 The addition of more mechanical energy, however, also added additional challenges, namely, the need to maintain and service more machines. In the fall of 1907 Shovel No. 222, which was damaged in an explosion. Interestingly, Shovel No. 222 was not described as “damaged” but instead “injured,” anthropogenic terminology which
6 Gaillard, D.D. “Annual Report of the Department of Dredging and Excavation for FY Ending June 30, 1907,” August
21, 1907. Retrieved from USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 505: Folder: Annual Reports of the Department of Excavation and Dredging for Fiscal Years 1907-1908, pg. 45.
7Ibid, pg. 45. 8Ibid, pg. 39.
9 Isthmian Canal Commission, The Panama Canal Record vol. 1 No. 2. September 11th, 1907, (Ancon: Isthmian Canal
suggested a degree of empathy with the machine itself.10Doctoring these new industrial patients forced the ICC to broaden its support facilities and the energy they consumed.
The Division of Municipal Engineering, Motive Power, and Machinery expanded its facilities to deal with this task. The principal facility on the Isthmus remained in Gorgona (or as it was known prior to December 24, 1906, Bas Matachin); however, the Division began
renovating its facility at Empire to deal with the influx of new shovels. The installation of an expanded power station formed a key component of this overhaul. The power facility contained two 100-kilowatt generators direct connected to a 160-horsepower tandem compound ball engine, as well as a 200-kilowatt generator connected to a Harrisburg engine, all of which were fueled by oil.11 In fixed locations like the Empire shop, it was far easier to use oil-fueled
generators to create electricity and rely on wiring to deploy the electricity to machines as it was needed. The same principle held true for providing the power to light the townsites constructed throughout the Canal Zone.
Powerplants were springing up throughout the Isthmus in 1907, providing a more stable and accessible form of energy for those individuals working in fixed facilities. Of particular importance during 1907 was providing lighting for the townsites constructed in the Panamanian interior. In addition to powering the Empire shop, the power plant at Empire also provided enough electricity to power roughly 4000 lights. Ten miles of transmission lines ran from the Empire station, powering nearly all the lights in Empire and in the surrounding communities of Culebra, Rio Grande, Enterprise, Cerro, and Lirio. Meanwhile, the ICC constructed a
10 Isthmian Canal Commission, The Panama Canal Record, Vol. 1 No. 13, November 27, 1907, pg. 98.
11 ICC “Annual Report of the Department of Municipal Engineering, Motive Power and Machinery, and Building
Construction for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1907,” July 1907. Retrieved from USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 509: Folder: Annual Reports of the Department of Municipal Engineering, Motive Power and Machinery, and Building Construction for Fiscal Years 1905-1907, pg. 22-24.
supplementary lighting plant at Gorgona which was placed in operation in May of 1907. This plant sustained 2000 lights and was connected to a three-mile transmission line which provided lighting throughout Matachin and Gorgona.12 While these two shops were modest, they pointed
to a broader trend of energy diversification in Panama.
This is not to suggest, however, that the energy proliferation in Panama was relegated to fossil fuels and electricity. The adoption of novel sources of energy in Panama was predicated on expanding organic energy sourced as well. In addition, the previously discussed human labor that came to the Isthmus in 1907, pack animals grew increasingly commonplace. In June of 1907, a force of 600 mules and horses provided a reliable means of transportation across the Isthmus. Pulling wagons, carts, and even ambulances, these animals engaged in tasks ranging from the transportation of goods and materials to the construction of roads and other public utilities.13 While their labor was highly specialized and far less voluminous than the power provided by mechanical prime movers, horses and mules remained integral to the broadening energy regime at work in the region. The fact that they remained relevant while oil and coal consumption increased suggests that they were not subsumed by the energy proliferation taking place in Panama, but rather were part of it.
The growth of oil, electricity, and animal labor between 1906 and 1907 was modest. Coal and human labor dwarfed these initial forays into energy diversity, and yet they served as a harbinger for what was to come. The economic benefits of oil made themselves readily apparent by early 1907 and the ease of deploying and utilizing electricity suggested that it too had a key
12 Goethals, William. “Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1907,”
October 17, 1907. Retrieved from USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 503: Folder Annual Report of the Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, pg. 12.
role to play in the coming years. While a bit of a statistical outlier, animal muscle also fulfilled specific tasks along the Canal Zone. As the work expanded over the summer of 1907 so too did the consumption of oil and electricity. Indeed, these two forces played crucial roles in the completion of the Canal, particularly as construction became more prevalent.
Tipping the Scales: 1908-1909
When George Washington Goethals took charge of the work on March 31, 1907, he was focused on only one thing: growth. Starting in June of 1907, the Isthmus saw a marked uptick in energy consumption across all fronts as coal, oil, electricity, and human labor were brought to the Isthmus in remarkable quantities. Stevens had crafted an infrastructure that could excavate the Canal. Goethals initiated an energy explosion that expanded excavation and constructed the facilities that would make up the Canal. The early years of this process were still dominated by coal energy, but electricity and oil left their mark in increasingly tangible ways as electrical lights, fixed motors, and the expansion of electrically powered facilities brought modernization and convenience to workers on the Isthmus.
Goethals’ appointment to the position of Chief Engineer was emblematic of Roosevelt’s frustration with his inability to maintain consistent leadership. While Stevens’ tenure as Chief Engineer had been quite successful, Roosevelt took his decision to leave the work as a personal affront. Goethals, a Colonel in the Corps of Engineers, already had a distinguished career by 1907, having overseen coastal construction projects for nearly two decades before being named a member of the inaugural General Staff in 1903. Goethals’ keen unyielding resolve and
consummate professionalism drew the attention of William Taft who recommended the young officer to Roosevelt. Roosevelt, impressed by Goethals directness and sheer force of will, and still smarting from what he perceived as Stevens’ betrayal, believed he had found in Goethals the
man who could complete the Canal. Goethals possessed a singular vision and an incessant demand for perfection, and while he was an engineer first and a soldier second his organizational skills were remarkable. Perhaps most importantly, Goethals wasn’t a civilian. Unlike Stevens, he could not leave Panama even if he wished to. The work was now his for better or worse.14
Goethals quickly put his logistical prowess to work, radically increasing the energy stores available on the Isthmus. Over the course of his first year as Chief Engineer, he nearly doubled the volume of coal consumed on the Isthmus and began gradually relying more on oil as a source of fuel.15 While Goethals never explicitly stated a desire to specifically increase Panamanian energy reserves, he actively increased both the size and scale of the work. That energy would increase simultaneously was a foregone conclusion. This drastic escalation marked the initiation of several years of energy expansion in Panama. From the time Goethals took charge of the work, the total amount of energy imported to the would continue to rise before declining as work approached its conclusion in late 1913.
The escalation in energy use was unsurprising. Coal, which remained the most common source of energy on the Isthmus throughout the Canal’s construction, was crucial to the
successful removal of material and by the end of 1907 there were over 100 shovels at work on the Isthmus.16 Over the course of the year shovels removed nearly 14,000,000 cubic yards from the canal bed while dredges at work on the Atlantic and Pacific terminals were able to remove
14 McCullough, The Path Between the Seas, pg. 509-510.
15 Board of Directors, Panama Railroad Company. “Annual Report of the Panama Railroad Company to the Board of
Directors for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1908,” July 1908. USNA, RG 185, Collection PL 153 31, Box 510: Folder: