An Ideal engine on display in 2014 at the Puget Sound Antique Tractor and Machinery Association fairgrounds in Lyndon, Wash. (Contributed by Chuck Berlemann)
Inventor and businessman Albert L. Ide (1841-1897) won international fame as the creator of the Ideal steam engine, which was used in early electric generation systems around the turn of the 20th century.
Albert Ide with a pet parrot that, the Illinois State Register said, “could imitate the mailman’s whistle, much to the confusion of the family.”
Born in Ohio in 1841, Ide arrived in Sangamon County with his family as a two-year-old. He grew up near Williamsville, where his father farmed and taught school.
As an adult, Ide was to be praised as “a natural genius, a mechanic of the highest order,” and he showed his mechanical bent early. As a boy he amused himself making a toy cannon out of wood (it exploded) and repairing the neighbors’ clocks. Upon leaving school at 15, he was signed as a machinist’s apprentice in the Springfield shop of Campbell & Richardson. The firm built steam engines for saw and grist mills, a training that would stand Ide in good stead.
Ide served in the Civil War with the Seventh Illinois Infantry and later the 32nd Illinois Infantry. (Enlisting as a private, he was discharged with the rank of major after being debilitated by typhoid fever.) Upon leaving the army, Ide clerked in a store, then used his savings to purchase an interest in the jewelry business of Henry C. Meyers, of which be ultimately became the sole owner.
Success in heating and ventilating
Retailing was not Ide’s forte, and he was able to again indulge his interest in mechanical systems when he superintended the building and equipment of the Fifth Street Line of the Springfield City Railway Co., where he eventually became president.
In 1870 Ide opened his own steam-fitting business in Springfield, and Ide’s Machine Works secured the contract to furnish the heating apparatus for the new Illinois statehouse. Such was the firm’s success that in 1876 he purchased the old city Market House at Fifth and Madison Streets and converted it into a machine shop and foundry. There the firm manufactured steam pumps, radiators, pipes and fittings, boilers and steam engines, as well as ornamental lamp posts and manhole covers.
The Ideal engine
Ide next turned his attention to commercial artificial lighting. In 1881, he installed the first electric light generator in Springfield to demonstrate arc lights. The results, while dazzling, were not dependable, and Ide traveled to the Menlo Park laboratory of Thomas Edison about 1880 as part of his study of the new technology.
The chief drawback of the systems then in use was fluctuations in the speed of the engine used to drive the generator, which caused the resulting light to waver in intensity. Existing systems to govern the speed of such machines were unsatisfactory, Ide concluded, so he began to perfect his own.
In 1881, Ide took the lead in forming the Springfield Steam Supply and Electric Light Company (later Springfield Electric Light & Power). As a demonstration, using an Ide-powered generator, the company that July installed 10 arc lights on the courthouse square and in several downtown businesses. The company would continue to provide most of Springfield’s power for another decade.
More tinkering led to an automatic high-speed self-oiling steam engine that Ide patented in 1884. (He would take out another 11 patents on the device over the next six years.) He named it the Ideal – a rendering of “Ide, A.L.” – because its steady operation made it perfect for electricity generation. The Albert L. Ide & Sons Engine Works was added to the Ide factory complex at Fifth and Madison and soon employed more than 100 men.
The Ideal was quickly in demand for use in power plants being installed in public buildings, streetcar lines, and large hotel and office buildings in the U.S. and abroad. While intended for light generation, the machine was adaptable to other uses; the St. Louis Globe-Democrat powered its new printing presses with Ideals.
Like so many Springfield industrialists of the period, Ide was active in a variety of enterprises. In addition to being the senior partner of A. L. Ide & Sons and president of the Light & Power Company, he was a director of the Ridgely National Bank and of the Springfield Consolidated Railway Company. Ide lived with his wife, the former Adelaide Pierce, at 1515 N. Third St. They had five children, of whom three – Harry L., Francis P. and Roy W. – worked as members of the family firm.
Ide worked until the day he died, only 56, on Sept. 6, 1897. The sons continued the firm with some success. The former Springfield High School, then located next door at Fourth and Madison Streets, had been abandoned because of train noise, and the firm acquired it and expanded the foundry. Ide & Sons made castings there for engines used by such major local manufacturers as Sangamo Electric.
However, the day of on-site steam-generated electricity was drawing to a close. In 1924, when the Ide factory was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, the sons decided not to rebuild.
Contributor: James Krohe Jr.
Note: This entry has been edited to correct the chronology of the beginning of electric lighting in Springfield. For more on that subject, see First Electric Lights.
More information
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County, edited By Newton Bateman and Paul Selby. A. M. Munsell Publishing Company, 1912; pp. 1334-36 (readable online).
Springfield Business: A Pictorial History by Edward J. Russo, Melinda Garvert, and Curtis Mann. G. Bradley Publishing, Inc., 1998
High Speed Steam Engines by William Norris, Benjamin H. Morgan, P.S. King and Son, 1902.
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Today, I was taking pictures at the Whatcom County WA Steam and Antique show and my wife pointed out that the Ideal engine we were looking at was built in Springfield. So I took a picture of it. If you were to send me a e-mail address, I would send you a copy of the photo.
Chuck: I’d love to see it: mkienzler@msn.com. Thanks for reading.
I see this an old post but what do I have to lose. I grew up in Springfield, Illinois. Many of my relative worked at the Illinois Watch Factory but my grandfather and his brother both were working in the early 1900’s at the IDE factory in Springfield.
Would you be able to send the photo to me also. Very interested. I found the actual blueprints of the “Ideal Engine” in an attic in Springfield. They are dated 1887.
Thank you
Ms. Lewis: I’m responding to you via email. Thanks for reading.
Still trying to hear from T. Lewis.
My great aunt was Mrs Roy William Ide.
Do you still have blueprints of the Ideal Engine.
Chathaway@hope.us
Mr. Hathaway,
I just saw this feed. We do have blueprints that we found in an attic. I believe we also have a work force photo of Albert Ide and his employees which was taken at some point in time.
Looks like its been a while since any one has looked at this web site. I’m hoping someone will respond to me by phone 217-851-1655. My name is Lori, my mother was a caregiver to Albert Ide’s grandaughter. I have the original picture of the parrot photo. I have some amazing stories and items gifted to my mother who has now passesd. My goal is to seek out Ide collecters to honor the family.
Lori: We here at SangamonLink would be very interested in any stories you know of about the Ide family. If you want to pass anything along, my email address is mkienzler@msn.com. Thanks for the note.
I believe your mom cared for my aunt Jess Ide
Contact me if you would like to share photos
916-759-6445
Rob
Sacramento ca
My family is direct Ide. I two have original glass slides of the steam engine and Albert’s Children, Charolette, Dorothy. I also have completed the Ide Family Tree.
I just ran across your request. My great-aunt was Mrs. Roy William IDE.
I’m interested in stories, photos, blueprints, etc.
Awesome article. Years ago, I did research on our family tree. Albert Ide’s daughter, Ruth Ide, was my maternal Grandmother. She married my Grandfather, Uhland Boyer Sr. They had 2 children, Francis Boyer and my father, Uhland Boyer Jr.
~ Adrienne (Boyer) Stitt
The Idea steam engine at Freeport Building W. M. S. T. R. Rollag, MN follows:
This Idea steam engine and generator was first installed in 1898 to furnish lights and line shaft power for small flour in the northern part of Otter Tail County, Minnesota. The exact location is Unknown. Then in 1912 it was moved to Minto, North Dakota and reinstalled for the same purpose. It was moved to Crookston, Minnesota in 1964 and then it was moved to Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion Rollag, Minnesota.
Do you know were one can find manuals for the Idea engine?
Was the mansion on Keys Street just west of 5th St. Owned by one of the Ide family. I think it was but am looking for confirmation.
Jim: A couple of the Ides had homes in that neighborhood near Lincoln Park, and I tried several years ago to look up exactly where they were. That home has been apartments for decades, but my recollection from my earlier research is that you may be correct. I’ll check again next time I get to Lincoln Library.