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Dec. 17, 2002
"Big Jim" Goes Back to Work
He'll "report back to work" tomorrow at 12:05 p.m.
"Big Jim," the 32-inch steam whistle that for more than 110 years kept the city on schedule with four daily blows at 7 am, noon, 1 pm and 5 pm, has been on an extended vacation that began last October. That's when JEA's Southside Generating Station was decommissioned and demolition began.
JEA has completed his new accommodations at the JEA water plant at First and Main streets. JEA has chosen an innovative new steam generator to power Big Jim. The new technology harnesses the phenomenon of "hydrodynamic cavitation" rather than burning fuel to create heat to generate steam. The hydrodynamic cavitation method saves more than 70% of the energy costs normally required to generate the steam and requires less maintenance, too. JEA will monitor the steam production and maintenance associated with the new technology to determine if we can use it elsewhere in our operations.
On Wednesday, Dec 18, at 12:05 p.m., Big Jim will announce his return to duty. He will resume his normal schedule of sounding the same day.
Before settling on relocating Big Jim to the Springfield area, JEA surveyed residents and found overwhelming support for bringing him back to his historic original home. Some of the survey responses suggested giving Big Jim Saturdays off (no sounding on the weekends). So JEA is making that change to the whistle's historical daily schedule.
Big Jim began his career at the water plant at First and Main more than 100 years ago. In 1966, the whistle was moved to the top of JEA's Southside Generating Station on the Southbank, where he sounded until the demolition of the power plant began last year.
According to a 1990 City of Jacksonville Proclamation, "Big Jim, whose bold sound can be heard for more than ten miles, has been a clarion of good news and bad, … announcing the end of two world wars, and ushering in every New Year since 1892 …" Big Jim, named for its builder, James Patterson, was invented by Mr. John Einig in 1882.
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