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December 15, 1593 -
Cornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgees, Dutch windmill owner from
Uitgeest, received a patent from State of Holland
on a windmill with crankshaft; converted windmill's circular
motion into back-and-forward motion, powered saw; converted log
timber into planks 30 times faster.
March 25, 1639
- America's first canal to provide industrial water power began
(dug by colonists in Dedham, MA); ran from Charles River to Neponset River at Mill Creek.
July 25, 1698
- Thomas Savery received a British patent for a "New Invention
for Raiseing of Water and Occassioning Motion to all sorts of
Mill Work by the Impellent Force of Fire"; first application of
steam for pumping water, intended for draining mines, serving
towns and supplying water to mills; design had major problems
containing high-pressure steam due to the weakness of available
construction materials.
June 15, 1752
- Ben Franklin's kite-flying experiment proved lightning and
electricity were related while flying a kite with a key
attached; September 1752 - he equipped his house
with a lightning rod, connected it to bells that rang when rod
was electrified; October 19, 1752 - explained how
to perform a kite experiment in the Pennsylvania Gazette.
August 26, 1791
- James Rumsey, John Fitch, Nathan Read, John Stevens and
Englehart Cruse received patents for various uses of steam
power.
1792
-
William
Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot, invented coal-gas lighting.
1800
- Sir Humphrey Davy produced first electric light in England.
March 20, 1800
- Alessandro Volta, professors of physics at University of Pavia
(Italy), Fellow of the Royal Society, sent letter to Sir Joseph
Banks, President of the Royal Society; outlined discovery of
source of constant-current generation from "pile" of dissimilar
metals (device capable of producing electricity 'by the mere
contact of conducting substances of different species'); created
voltaic pile (first electric battery).
Alessandro Volta
- voltage
(http://nautilus.fis.uc.pt/wwwfi/figuras/fisicos/img/volta.jpg)
January 28,
1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first
street of any city to be illuminated by gaslight;
1809-1810 - Windsor
established The Gas Light and Coke Company, first public gas
company, which remained in existence until the company was
nationalized in 1948.
March 18, 1813
- David Melville, of Newport, RI, received patent for a '"Gas
Lamp"; gas streetlight.
June 11, 1816
- Rembrandt Peale and four other prominent Baltimoreans
purchased patent for Dr. Kugler's coal gas manufacturing, formed
country's first gas utility, Gas Light Co. of Baltimore. Peale
calls the new gaslight technology a "ring beset with gems of
light." A crowd gathers to watch the lighting of the city's
first gas street lamp on what is now Baltimore Street.
June 13, 1816
- Peale Museum in Baltimore, MD was first U.S. public building
to use gas lighting; installed for publicity value.
June 19, 1816
- Baltimore City Council approved laying of pipes by Gas
Light Company of Baltimore, first city ordinance of its kind in
U.S.; February 7, 1817 - company lighted first
public gas street light.
February 5, 1817
- Rembrandt Peale, others permitted by ordinance to manufacture,
distribute coal gas "to provide for more effectually lighting in
the streets, squares, lanes and alleys of the city of Baltimore;
incorporated first U.S. gas company in Baltimore, MD;
February 17, 1817 -
The Gas Light Company of Baltimore lighted first street.
May 9, 1825
- New York Post and Mirror reported first theatre lighted by gas
in New York City, Chatham Garden and Theatre; previously seen in
theatres as novelty, not illumination.
June 4, 1825
- A residence in Fredonia, NY used natural gas for illumination
for the first time for a reception for General Lafayette; house
was brightly lighted by about 30 burners.
November 9, 1825
- Thomas Drummond, inventor of limelight, provided new form of
bright light used in theatres, lighthouses; heated a small ball
of lime to incandescent in front of a reflector, set it up at
Scotland's Slieve Snaght; light was seen from Divis Mountain,
over 66 miles away.
August 29, 1831
- Michael Faraday successfully demonstrated first electrical
transformer; wound thick iron ring on one side with insulated
wire connected to battery; wound opposite side with
wire connected to galvanometer; closed battery circuit, deflected galvanometer in
second circuit (galvanometer needle jumped in opposite
direction when battery circuit opened); current was induced in secondary when
current in
primary was connected; induced current in opposite
direction when primary current was disconnected.
1838 - Investors
formed Louisville Gas and Water to provide gas-fired street
lighting mandated by Louisville's city fathers to deter crime
(fifth city in United States to have gaslights in streets,
homes); Leven Shreve as first president; sold gas from local
coal plant to fuel gaslights; 1842
- dropped plans to build waterworks, changed name to Louisville
Gas; 1890 - amended
charter to buy stock in electric companies; acquired control of
Louisville Electric Light; 1913
- Louisville Gas, Louisville Lighting (founded in 1903),
Kentucky Heating merged; formed Louisville Gas and Electric;
1989 - founded LG&E
Energy Corp.; 1944-1945
- city sought to acquire all of LG&E's physical properties;
1952 - one of 15
investor-owned utilities that formed Ohio Valley Electric
Corporation to meet most of power requirements of Atomic Energy
Commission plant in Ohio; 1957
- first general increase in electric rates in company's history;
1998 - LG&E Energy
acquired KU Energy (owned Kentucky Utilities), entered into
25-year lease of Big Rivers Electric's generating facilities;
more than doubled size of LG&E Energy;
2000 - LG&E Energy acquired by Powergen
(UK).
May 17, 1839
- Lorenzo Dow Atkins, of Perry township, OH, received a patent
for a "Spiral-Bucket Water-Wheel" ("for Propelling Mills and
Other Machinery").
July 24, 1844
- Henry Rossiter Worthington received a patent for a
"Steam-Boiler Water-Feeder" (new and useful improvements in the
manner of constructing and governing auxiliary steam-engines for
the purpose of supplying steam-boliers with water"); independent
single direct-acting steam power pump, laid the foundation of
the entire pump industry; July 24, 1855 - received
a patent for a "Water Metre" (a new and useful Meter for
Measuring the Quantity of Flowing Liquids"); one of the first
practical water meters in the United States; July 19, 1859
- received a patent for a "Pumping Engine" (a new and Improved
Combination of Pumping-Engines and Arrangement of the Valve
Motion"); duplex direct-acting pump, perhaps the most widely
used means for handling water by steam power.
1852 - Peter and
James Donahue founded the San Francisco Gas Company; 1901
- California Gas and Electric Company formed as amalgamation of
many smaller, scattered gas and electric operations; 1905
- merged with California Gas and Electric Corporation; formed
Pacific Gas and Electric Company; 1912 - completed
changeover from flat-rate billing system to installation of
116,000 meters to measure electricity used by customers;
1930 - began delivering natural gas instead of gas
manufactured form oil; 1985 - Diablo Canyon
nuclear facility went online; April 6, 2001 -
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization due to fallout
from state's 1996 energy deregulation law ( high cost of energy
purchased from outside suppliers, unable to immediately pass on
price hikes to consumers, accumulated $9 billion in debt) (third
largest bankruptcy filing in US history, largest ever for a
utility); April 2004 - emerged from bankruptcy;
oldest electric utility in the United
States.
August 29, 1854
- Daniel Halladay of Ellington, CT, received a patent for an
"Improved Governor for Windmills"; self-governing windmill.
May 19, 1857 -
William Francis Channing (Boston) and Moses G. Farmer (Salem,
MA) received a patent for an "Electromagnetic Fire Alarm
Telegraph for Cities"; consisted of a circuit between a signal
station, central station and alarm station, designed to give a
local or general alarm in a town or city; June 1851
- city of Boston adopted system, spent $10,000 to test device;
April 28, 1852 - began operation.
March 23, 1869
- W. Leigh Burton, of Richmond, VA, received a patent for an
"Electro Heating Apparatus"; an electrical resistance heater.
May 16, 1872
- Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lighted for first time.
July 23, 1872
- Jonathan J. Hoyt, of Chelmsford, MA, received a patent for a
"Lamp" (lamps constructed on the Argand principle - that is,
with an air-passage leading to or communicating with the
interior or center of the flame").
October 29, 1872
- James A. Risdon, of Genoa, IL received a patent for
"Wind-Wheels"; all-metal windmill.
August 3, 1874
- Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans, of Toronto, ON, received a
patent from the Patent Branch of the Canadian Department of
Agriculture for an "Electric Light" ("art or process of
obtaining Artificial light by means of Electricity"); 1875 -
Woodward sold share of Canadian patent to Thomas Edison.
August 11, 1874
- Harry S. Parmelee, of New Haven, CT, received a patent for
"Fire-Extinguishers"; sprinkler head.
September 21, 1875
- Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe received a patent for a "Process
and Apparatus for the Manufacture of Illuminating and Heating
Gas"; carbureted water gas process was soon most important
manufactured gas in United States of its time.
1876
- Charles F. Brush invented new type of simple, reliable,
self-regulating arc lamp and new dynamo designed to power it;
April 24, 1877
- Charles F. Brush, of Cleveland, OH, received a patent for
"Improvement in Magneto-Electric Machines" ("apparatus for the
conversion of mechanical into electrical energy...consists of
improvements in the armature and in the arrangement of
communicators"); May 7, 1878 - received a patent
for an "Improvement in Electric Lamps" ("carbon sticks usually
employed are automatically adjusted, and kept in such position
and relation to each to each other that a continuous and
effective light shall be had without the necessity of any manual
interference"); economic, efficient source of electricity for
arc light, key factor in developing commercially viable system
of lighting; February 11, 1879 - received a patent
for "Improvement in Electric-Light Regulators" ("by means of
this simple device an electric light may be uniformly maintained
for many hours, the only limit to the time being the length of
carbon rods employed"); September 2, 1879 -
received a patent for an "Improvement in Carbons for Electric
Lamps"; received a patent for an "Improvement in Electric
Lighting Devices"; December 20, 1880 - Telegraph
Supply Company (Cleveland) restructured, renamed Brush Electric
Company; successfully demonstrated arc lighting along Broadway
('Great White Way'), built New York's first central lighting
station; June 1882 - acquired Joseph Swan U.S.
patent rights; August 22, 1882 - received a patent
for an "Electric-Arc Lamp"; arc lamp and generator that produced
variable voltage controlled by load and constant current; suited
to applications where bright light needed (street lights,
lighting in commercial and public buildings).
Charles F. Brush
- Brush Electric (later part of GE)
(http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/images/c/c6/Brush.jpg)
October 15, 1878
- Thomas Edison opened Edison Electric Company in New York City;
syndicate of leading financiers (J.P. Morgan, Vanderbilts)
advanced $30,000 for research and development; created the first
incandescent lamp.
 Thomas A.
Edison
(http://edison.rutgers.edu/webimages/edison_pockets.jpg);
October, 18, 1931
Obituary:
http://www.nytimes. com/ learning/ general/onthisday/bday/0211.html
October 18, 1878
- Edison made electricity available for household usage.
December 26, 1878
- For the first time in America, electric lighting was installed
in a store at the Grand Depot, owned by John Wanamaker; eight
dynamos provided the electrical power to run 28 arc lamps.
February 3, 1879
- Joseph Wilson Swan demonstrated his invention of the first
practically usable incandescent filament electric light bulb to
an audience of 700 at the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Newcastle upon Tyne; established the world's first electric
light bulb factory at Benwell in the western suburbs of
Newcastle; Swan's bulbs were used to light up Mosley Street in
the Newcastle city centre, the first street in the world to be
lit by electric light; 1881 - Swan introduced
bulbs in London where 1,200 of them were used in the lighting
the Savoy Theatre in front of an astonished audience.
April 29, 1879
- First use of electric arc lamps (Brush
arc lamps) in U.S.
took place in Cleveland, Ohio.
June 30, 1879
- George H. Roe (27) incorporated California Electric Light
Company in San Francisco; first electric company in U.S. formed
to produce, sell electricity; September 1879
- central generating station supplied power for lighting Brush
arc light lamps;
first electric company in PG&E family
tree;
1891
- acquired by new Edison Light and Power Company (exclusive
rights to Edison patents within radius of 100 miles); Roe as
president.
September 6, 1879
- Telephone Company Ltd opened first public British telephone
exchange in Lombard Street, London using Edison's system; served
just eight subscribers with a two-panel Williams switchboard.
October 21, 1879
- Thomas A. Edison invented first durable and commercially
practical electric light bulb for home use (an incandescent lamp
with a filament of carbonized sewing thread) at his laboratory
in Menlo Park, NJ; lasted 40 hours in a vacuum inside a glass
bulb before burning out; tested over 6,000 vegetable growths
(baywood, boxwood, hickory, cedar, flax, bamboo) as filament
material - spent 1 1/2 years, $40,000, performed 1,200
experiments.
December 20, 1879
- Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light
at Menlo Park, New Jersey; December 31, 1879 -
first public demonstration of incandescent light, lights up a
street in Menlo Park, NJ; first lamp to be practical (solved
problems with short-lived filaments with carbonized filament);
socket mount - the Edison screw base - is still in use;
Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains to Menlo Park to enable
the public to view demonstration.
December 23, 1879
- Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for a "Electro
Magnetic Machine" ("increase the effectiveness and cheapen the
construction of the revolving armature"); armature of cylinder
made of wood with two iron heads, fine iron wire wound on
cylinder between them; disks of hard rubber or other insulating
material outside iron heads at end of cylinder; wires formed
induction helix, wound lengthwise of cyclindres into notches in
edges of disk.
January 27, 1880
- Thomas Edison, of Menlo Park, NJ, received a patent for an
"Electric-Lamp" ("an electric lamp for giving light by
incandescence...light-giving
body of carbon wire or sheets coiled or arranged in such a
manner as to offer great resistance to the passage of the
electric current"); electric incandescent lamp.
March 31, 1880
- Wabash, IN turned on first electric street lights installed by
a municipality; completely replaced gas lamps; four 4,000
candle-power Brush arc lamps, suspended 50 feet above the
business district were powered by a small dynamo connected to a
threshing machine's steam engine outside the courthouse (where
one of the original lamps is still on display); strange, weird
light, exceeded in power only by the sun, rendered the square as
light as midday.
April 27, 1880
- James P. Mauzey, of Blackfoot MT territory, received a patent
("227,028) for "Solar-Heater" ("apparatus for concentrating and
focusing the rays of the sun to utilize the heat").
May 4, 1880 -
Thomas A. Edison received three patents for an "Electric Light"
("to economically apply electricity to lighting and to insure
uniformity of action in the different lamps"); electricity
distribution system connected lights in parallel circuit (vs.
series circuit in arc lights); failure of one light bulb would
not cause whole circuit to fail; company flush with profits, and
competitors; J. P. Morgan advised Edison to: 1) adopt aggressive
tactics of vertical integration, 2) buy his rivals, ) transform
company into modern enterprise; re-christened the General
Electric Company, dominated field with just one major
competitor, Westinghouse Company.
July 23, 1880
- First commercial hydroelectric power plant began operations in
Grand Rapids, MI.
October 1, 1880
- Edison Lamp Works opened first electric incandescent lamp
factory in U.S. in Menlo Park, NJ; manufactured more than
130,000 bulbs before moving plant to Harrison, NJ. on April 1,
1882.
October 19, 1880
- Joseph W. Swan, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, received a
patent for an "Electric Lamp" ("in which light is produced
by the incandescence of a continuous conductor of carbon
inclosed in an exhausted glass bulb, and provides means for
increasing the durability of the said kind of lamp"); carbon
filament incandescent lamp; November 9, 1880 -
received a second patent for an "Electric Lamp" ("in
which light is produced by passing an electric current through a
conductor of carbon, so as to render it incandescent, said
conductor being inclosed in an air-tight vacuous or
partially-vacuous glass vessel").
October 26, 1880
- Lester A. Pelton, of Camptonville, CA, received a patent for a
"Water-Wheel" ("that class of water-wheels known as
'hurdy-gurdy' wheels...the whole reactionary force of the water
is utilized"); Pelton Water Wheel increased water power almost
six-fold.
December 17, 1880
- The Edison Electric Illuminating Company incorporated for
purpose of providing electric light to New York City;
capitalized with $1,000,000; September 4, 1882 -
opened first central electric station in U.S. at 257 Pearl St.
in lower Manhattan (one engine capable of generating power for
800 light bulbs); November 1883 - service had 508
subscribers and 12,732 bulbs.
February 1881
- Joseph W. Swan formed Swan Electric Light Company; 1882
- formed Swan Incandescent Electric Light Company of New York to
market Swan lamp filament system in United States under patents
of Joseph W. Swan; June 1882 - sold U.S. patent
rights to Brush Electric Company; October 1883 -
Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company ("Ediswan")
established to sell lamps made with cellulose filament that Swan
had invented after Swan successfully sued Edison over
infringements of his patent rights. 1885 - Swan
Lamp Manufacturing Company established in Cleveland, OH
(dissolved 1885); 1885 -1889 - "Brush-Swan" group
(Charles Francis Brush) manufactured lamps; 1889 -
Brush Electric Company acquired by Thomson-Houston Electric
Company.
June 14, 1881
- Thomas A. Edison received two patents for an "Incandescent
Electric Lamp" ("supporter made of glass or other insulating
material...in which the carbon [filament] loop is held erect");
received a patent for a "Magneto or Dynamo Electric Machine";
received a patent for "Electric Lighting" ("method for
connecting...in one multiple-arc or derived circuit a series of
lamps, each giving the same amount of light as the standard lamp
of the system...so that the lamps in such a circuit could be
controlled by one circuit-closer"); received a patent for
"Manufacturing Carbons for Electric Lamps"; received a patent
for an "Electric Meter" ("which shall indicate exactly the
amount [of electricity] supplied to a customer").
June 21, 1881
- Patrick Clark, of Rahway, NJ, received a patent ) for a
"Process of Cleaning Filter-Beds" ("...the novelty of the
process consists in the employment of j; ets of water for the
purpose of agitating a bed of sand or other suitable granular
material which forms the upper part of the filter bed. By this
means the silt and other impurities are separated from the sand,
and, being of inferior specific gravity, rise above the filter
bed, and are removed preferably by a natural current of water in
which, when practicable, the apparatus will be immersed";
assigned to Newark Filtering Company (incorporated by Clark,
John W. Hyatt, Albert Westervelt in December 1880); origin of
modern rapid filter; June 21, 1881
- John W. Hyatt also received a patent for a
"Filter"; could be cleaned mechanically; assigned to Newark
Filtering Company; prototype for rapid filtration concept.
September 13, 1881
- Lewis H. Latimer, of New York, NY, and J. V. Nichols, of
Brooklyn, NY, received patent for an "Electric Lamp"; electric
lamp with a carbon filament.
1882
- Western Edison Light Co. founded in Chicago; 1887
- name changed to Chicago Edison Co.; 1892 -
Samuel L. Insull became president; 1897 - Insull
incorporated Commonwealth Electric Light & Power Co.; 1907
- two companies formally merged to create the Commonwealth
Edison Co.
1882 - Sebastian Ziani de
Ferranti (18) established Ferranti, Thompson and Ince; focused
on Alternating Current power distribution;
1885 - established S.
Z. de Ferranti, new business with Francis Ince, Charles Sparks
as partners; electricity meters as key product;
October 1890 -
completed first modern power station for London Electric
Supply Corporation in Deptford, UK (building, generating plant,
distribution system); supplied high-voltage AC power that was
"stepped down" for consumer use on each street; 1903 - went into
receivership; 1905 - bought out of receivership, renamed
Ferranti Limited; 1910 - promoted effort to standardize power
supply (culminated in National Grid in 1926); manufactured high
voltage power transformers; 1979 - transformer division closed;
last link with heavy electrical engineering);
World War II -
major supplier of electronics, fuses, valves, heavily involved
in early development of radar; 1950s - developed airborne radar;
subsequently supplied radars to most of UK's fast jet,
helicopter fleets; February 18, 1958 - Ferranti Electric, Inc.
registered "Ferranti" trademark first used September 10, 1926
(electric transformers, etc.); 1960s-1970s - inertial navigation
systems became important product line; established itself in
electro-optics arena; 1987 - acquired International Signal and
Control (Pennsylvania-based defense contractor); changed name to
Ferranti International plc; restructure: Ferranti Computer
Systems, Ferranti Defence Systems, Ferranti Dynamics, Ferranti
Satcomms, Ferranti Technologies, International Signal & Control
(ISC); 1989 - UK's Serious Fraud Office started criminal
investigation of alleged massive fraud at ISC;
December 1991 -
James Guerin, founder of ISC, co-Chairman of merged company,
pleaded guilty to fraud committed both in USA and UK (illegal
arms sales); December 1993 - Ferranti entered bankruptcy.
January 17, 1882
- Engineer Lewis Latimer, of New York, NY, received patent for a
"Process of Manufacturing Carbons" ("carbonizing the conductors
for incandescent lamps"); assigned to United Sates electric
Lighting Company.
March 3, 1882
- First steam distribution plant of importance in U.S. made
first distribution of steam to United Bank Building on Broadway;
operated by consolidation of New York Steam Corporation and
Steam Heating and Power Company of New York; plant had a 225-ft
high chimney, generated steam from 48 boilers each rated
250-h.p., output served 62 customers nine months later.
September 4, 1882
- Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York City
initiated Pearl Street electric power station in New York City;
first electric central station to supply light and power; one
generator produced power for 800 electric light bulbs to 85
customers; November 1883 - 508 subscribers, 12,732
bulbs.
September 19, 1882
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for an "Electric
Distribution and Translation System" ("method of equalizing the
tension or "pressure" of the current through an entire system of
electric-lighting or other translation of electric force,
preventing what is ordinarily known as a `drop' in those
portions of the system the more remote from the central
station"); feeder system solved problem related to equal
distribution of current on large scale over extended areas.
September 30, 1882
- Paper manufacturer H.F. Rogers (Appleton, WI) opened world's
first hydroelectric power plant in U.S. at riverside paper
mill on Fox River, in Appleton, WI (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company); powered by water wheel,
provided 12.5 kilowatts, enough for 180 lights (ten candlepower
each) to light Rogers' home, plant.
October 25, 1882
- San Antonio Water Company, Mutual Water Company, incorporated
(natural waters of area part of ‘The Cucamonga Rancho', 1839
land grant, portion of original territory granted to San Gabriel
Mission); statement of purpose: "Acquiring by appropriation,
purchase, or otherwise, water, water rights, water privileges
and right of way in the Counties of Los Angeles and San
Bernardino and to furnish, lease or sell the same for
irrigation, milling, manufacturing and other purposes. To own,
hold, construct and maintain canals, ditches and all structures,
lands, easements and rights appertaining thereto for the purpose
of taking and conveying water as herein mentioned to owners of
lots and blocks in the Village of Ontario and to stockholders in
this Corporation and none others. To make improvements, borrow
money and transact any and all business and things connected
with the business of the Corporation and relating thereto";
development of water rights, delivery services initiated as
migration of people resulted in development of agriculture,
business, residency; 1890s
- irrigation by Zanjeros (ditch walkers; derived from Spanish
words "zanja", meaning "deep ditch or irrigation ditch", and "zanjon",
which means, "ditch rider or overseer"; employees who
constructed acequias (canals) to provide controlled, dependable
water supply to farmers; gave way to automated systems.
November 20, 1882
- Thomas Edison received patent for an "Incandescing Electric
Lamp", three-wire incandescent-lighting system to supercede the
distribution system used at first commercial central generating
station in New York; saved over 60 per cent in copper used in
conductors, smaller investment which made it economically
possible to build generating plants in many smaller communities.
December
22, 1882 - Edward H. Johnson, Thomas Edison's associate,
created first string of Christmas Tree lights (previously
decorated with wax candles); December 1901 -
Edison General Electric Co. (Harrison, NJ) produced first
commercial Christmas tree lamps in strings of nine sockets,
advertised in Ladies' Home Journal; average citizen didn't use
lights them until the 1920s or later; character light bulbs
became popular in the 1920s, bubble lights in the 1940s, twinkle
bulbs in the 1950s, plastic bulbs by 1955.
January 30, 1883
- Edison formally signed first contract to construct 3-wire
system in Brockton, MA (completed October 1, 1883); March
20, 1883 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a
"System of Electrical Distribution" ("system in which currents
of high tension can be used, while at the same time each lamp is
entirely independent of all the others, the lamps being also
each of the standard or usual resistance"); three-wire system
vs. feeder system (September 19, 1882 patent); resulted in
saving of 62.5% of amount of copper over that which would be
required for conductors in any previously devised two-wire
system carrying same load.
April 30, 1883
- First U.S. three-wire central station for incandescent
lighting opened in Sunbury, PA; July 4, 1883 -
started operations (built by the Edison Electric Illuminating
Co.); Armington & Sims steam engine drove two 110-volt
direct-current generators; electricity delivered by overhead
wires.
May 29, 1883
- Thomas Edison received two patents for a "Regulator for Dynamo
Electric Machines"; received three patents for the "Manufacture
if Incandescing Electric Lamps"; received a patent for an
"Apparatus for Translating Electric Currents From High to Low
Tension"; received a patent for a "Dynamo-Electric Machine"
("will not require in their operation and adjustment the
attention of a person skilled in the working of electrical
apparatus").
1884 - Frank J. Sprague established Sprague
Electric Railway and Motor Company (no railway, just idea to
combine electric energy, spring-loaded trolley pole,
wire-and-wheel suspension system, his electric motor to provide
horseless street transportation;
February 2, 1888 - Richmond Union Passenger
Railway (Richmond, VA), built by Sprague in 90 days, began
regular service; 1889
- acquired by Edison General
Electric (eventually became General Electric);
1890 - contracts to
build 113 street rail systems; designed multi-unit train control
system in Chicago, built first Chicago elevated "L" electric
railway; engineered electrification of Grand Central Station
(New York City), co-invented, with William Wilgus, "third rail"
system of powering electric trains for New York Central
Railroad.
February 12, 1884
- Thomas Edison received three patents for an "Electrical
Generator and Motor", "Incandescent Electric Lamp", "Electrical
Meter".
May 13, 1884
- American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) formed;
predecessor to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).
June 14, 1884
- New York first state in U.S. to enact legislation
requiring burying of utility wires (in any
incorporated city with population over 500,000 "all telegraph,
telephonic and electric light wires and cables ... be placed
under the surface of the streets, lanes and avenues");
November 1, 1885 - required that telegraph poles be removed.
July 28, 1885
- John B. Mitchell, of Portland, ME, received a patent for a
"Ready Light or Taper" (to provide a ready light which shall be
of such small cost that it may be discarded after being once
used").
1886 - James S. Kuhn, W.S. Kuhn
(brothers) founded American Water Works & Guarantee Company in
McKeesport, PA; operated 6 water works, 2 glass plants);
1917 - renamed
American Water Works & Electric Company;
1936 - reincorporated as American Water
Works Company, Inc.; 1947
- acquired by John H. Ware, Jr.;
1963 - merged with Northeastern Water Company;
1987 - Marilyn Ware
Lewis (daughter) named chairman;
1998 - surpassed billion dollars in sales
(operating revenues of $1.02 billion);
2001 - acquired by RWE Group (electric
power, natural gas public utility company based in Essen,
Gedrmany; founded 1898); April 23,
2008 - spun-off in IPO; largest publicly traded
U.S. water, wastewater utility company in U.S.; more than 7,000
employees, approximately 16 million customers in 35 states and
Ontario and Manitoba, Canada.
March 6,
1886 - George Westinghouse demonstrated transmission of
America's first alternating current power plant (vs. direct
current generated by Thomas Edison's ventures) in Great
Barrington, MA; March 20, 1886 - power came from
the first AC power plant in the U.S. to begin commercial
operation; subsequently damaged by an accident and abandoned;
ability to use transformers at the source for transmission at
higher voltage decreased energy losses so that transmission
distance could be increased by miles; November 30, 1886
- Westinghouse opened first successful A.C. generating plant in
Buffalo, NY.
April 8, 1886
- German scientist, Dr. Carl Gassner, received a German patent
for the first "dry" cell (used zinc as its primary ingredient);
1896 - Nation Carbide Company, later Union Carbide
and Eveready, produced the first consumer dry cell battery;
1898 - company made the first D cell.
June 1, 1886
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "System of
Electrical Distribution" ("to reduce the number of dynamos
necessary for such a system").
April 26, 1887-
Huntsville Electric Co. formed to sell electricity.
November 15, 1887
- Carl Gassner, Jr., of Mentz, Germany, received a
patent for a "Galvanic Battery"; dry cell battery.
February 14, 1888
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a
"Telephone-Transmitter".
May 1, 1888
- Nikola Tesla received patents for: a "Electrical Transmission
of Power" (2), a "Electro Magnetic Motor" (2), a "Method of
Converting and Distributing Electric Currents" and a
"System of Electrical Distribution"; May 13, 1890
- for a "Pyromagneto Electric Generator"; March 20, 1900
- received a patent for a "System of Transmission of Electrical
Energy" (wireless transmission of electric power).
Nikola Tesla
(http://www.croatianhistory.net/gif/tesla1p.jpg)
August 14, 1888
- Oliver B. Shallenberger, of Rochester, PA, Westinghouse's
chief electrician, received a patent for a "Meter for
Alternating Electric Currents" ("measuring electric currents and
recording the amount of electrical energy consumed in any given
circuit or portion thereof"); electric meter; critical element
in the Westinghouse AC system; received a second patent for a
"Method of Measuring Alternating Electric Currents".
September 4, 1888
- Edward Weston, of Newark, NJ, received a patent for the "Art
of Utilizing Solar Radiant Energy" ("to transform radiant energy
derived from the sun into into electrical energy or through
electrical energy into mechanical energy").
December 11, 1888
- Black American inventor, Henry Creamer, of New York, NY,
received patent for a "Steam Trap and Feeder"; 1887-1893
- received five steam trap patents.
February 12, 1889
- Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Method of Winding
Field-Magnets" ("winding the field-magnets of dynamo-electric
machines with their wire-coils whereby I am enabled to cast the
magnetic-cores with their pole-pieces and yokes in one place
instead of making them separately and afterward bolting them
together").
April 24, 1889
- Edison General Electric Company organized; April 15,
1892 - General Electric Company formed by merger of
Edison General Electric Co. (Schenectady, NY; founded 1878 as
Edison Electric Light Co.) and Thomson-Houston Company (formed
in 1883 to produce dynamos and arc lighting, succeeded American
Electric Company), incorporated in New York State.
June 2, 1889
- Willamette Falls Electric Co. (Portland, OR) hydroelectric
power plant made alternating current electricity available to
consumers for the first time at a significant distance from its
origin (made possible long-distance transmission that overcame
problems of direct current); 13 mile power line linked power
plant to Portland, OR; September 30, 1882 - first
hydroelectric power plant (without alternating current)
demonstrated in Appleton, WI; 1886 - AC generators
driven by steam power in use elsewhere.
June 11, 1889
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for an
"Electrical-Distribution System" ("main conductors are placed in
pipes or tubes and laid underground...to produce a box for
connecting the feeding-conductors with the mains").
October 15, 1889
- William Calver, of Washington, DC, received a patent for a "Solar
Reflecting Apparatus"; solar reflector.
1890
- Edison combined several businesses, established Edison General
Electric Company; April 15, 1892 - merged with
Thomson-Houston Company (formed in 1883 from merger of Elihu
Thomson's American Electric Company and interests of Edwin
Houston), renamed General Electric Company; Charles A. Coffin,
former shoe manufacturer and head of Thomson-Houston, president.
September 29, 1891
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Process of and
Apparatus for Generating Electricity."
February 16, 1892
- Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Commutator-Brush for
Electric Motors and Dynamos".
June 7, 1892
- Thomas A. Edison received series of U.S. patents for a "System
of Electric Lighting," an "Incandescent Electric Lamp," a
"System of Electrical Distribution," an "Incandescent Electric
Lamp," an "Electric-Lighting System", respectively.
June 14, 1892
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Pyromagnetic
Generator" ("generation of powerful electric currents more
economically than heretofore and more directly from the
combustion of coal"); received a patent for an "Expansible
Pulley" ("power-transmitting pulleys"); received a patent for a
"Lightning-Arrester" ("protecting electrical circuits and
instruments from the destructive effect of lightning and
abnormally-high-tension currents"); received a patent for an
"Electric Meter"; received a patent for an "Incandescent
Electric Lamp"; received a patent for an "Electric Arc Lamp".
July 11, 1892
- U.S. Patent Office decided that Joseph Wilson Swan in England,
not Thomas Edison, was inventor of electric light carbon for
incandescent lamp; 1878 - Swan received British
patent ffor first carbon incandescent lamp with side pin
twist-lock lamp base (invented by Swan's brother Alfred);
evolved with name "bayonet" base, became standard on house
lighting in Britain; used for a century in most tail lights of
every car or truck in the world; more secure with vibration than
the Edison screw base; 1879 - Edison received
patent; Swan and Edison later set up joint company to produce
first practical filament lamp.
October 11, 1892
- Thomas A. Edison received patent for an "Electrical
Depositing-Meter" ("current is measured by the weight of metal
deposited by a suitable electrolyte through which the current
measured is passed").
January 10, 1893
- Thomas W. Lane, of Boston, MA, received patent for an
"Electric Gas Lighter"; assigned to Electric Gas Lighting
Company (Portland, ME).
January 31, 1893
- Thomas A. Edison received two U.S. patents: 1) for the
"Art of Generating Electricity", described a cell made with
positive and negative electrodes in a heated chamber containing
dry chemicals which is exhausted to the point that gases
generated in the reaction become good conductors of electricity;
2) for the "Manufacture of Carbon Filaments for Electric Lamps",
described taking slips of fibrous vegetable material, such as
bamboo, to be heated in a suitable furnace until partially
carbonized, then soaked for several hours in sugar syrup to fill
the pores with more carboniferous material before reheating
until completely carbonized.
February 21, 1893
- Thomas A. Edison received three patents: 1) for a "Cut-Out for
Incandescent Electric Lamps", 2) for a "Stop Device", 3) for a
"Process of Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps".
October 9, 1894
- Melvin L. Severy, of Boston, MA, received a patent for an
"Apparatus for Generating Electricity by Solar Heat"
("utilization of the sun's heat for the production of
electricity as a source of heat, light and power").
May 10, 1949 - registered "Lincoln" trademark
first used January 1, 1915 (welding wire and metallic welding
electrodes)
January 29, 1895
- Charles P. Steinmetz, of Schenectady, NY, received a
patent for a "System of Distribution by Alternating Currents";
A/C power; assigned to General Electric Company.
February 12, 1895
- Thomas A. Edison received four patents: "Filament for
Incandescent Lamps," "Manufacture of Carbon Filaments",
"Induction-Converter", "Incandescent Electric Lamp.
August 26, 1895
- Electricity first transmitted commercially from first
large-scale utilization of Niagara Falls power (Pittsburgh
Reduction Company used current in electrolytic
production of aluminum metal from its ore);
November 15,
1896 -
Buffalo received
power for commercial use as result of
October 24, 1893 contract by which Westinghouse Electric and
Manufacturing Company (Pittsburgh, PA) agreed to install three
5,000-hp generators producing two-phase currents at 2,200 volts,
25 hertz (first tuboalternator unit completed within 18 months;
prior capacity had been limited to generators no larger than
1,000 hp).
August 11, 1896
- Harvey Hubbell, of Bridgeport, CT, received a patent for a
"Socket for Incandescent Lamps" ("to provide a practical and
inexpensive pull-socket for incandescent lamps"); electric light
bulb socket with on-and-off pull chain.
March 17, 1896
- Charles B. Brooks, of Newark, NJ, received a patent for a
"Street Sweeper" ("involves a revoluble brush, elevating
mechanism and refuse-receptacles"); May 12, 1896 -
Charles B. Brooks, of Newark, NJ, received a patent for a
"Dust-Proof Bag for Street-Sweepers".
August 11, 1896
- Harvey Hubbell, of Bridgeport, CT, received a patent for a
"Socket for Incandescent Lamps" ("a practical and inexpensive
pull-socket for incandescent lamps"); electric light bulb socket
with a pull chain.
November 15, 1896
- First long-distance transmission of hydroelectricity from
Niagara Falls Power Company (founded March 31, 1886) flowed to
Buffalo, NY, 26 miles away; August 26, 1895
- company made the first large-scale utilization for commercial
purposes when it began supplying power to an aluminum production
plant; October 24, 1893 - contract with the
Westinghouse Electric and Mfg. Co. for three 5,000 h.p.
generators.
August 17, 1897
- Harry C. Reagan, Jr., of Philadelphia, PA, received a patent
for "Application of Solar Heat to Thermo Batteries" ("to
concentrate the sun's rays to a focus and have one set of
junctions of a thermo-battery at the focus of the rays, while
suitable cooling devices are applied to the other junctions of
said thermo-battery").
1898
- Russian immigrant Conrad Hubert; salesman for Joshia Lionel
Cowen, founder of American Eveready Battery Company, bought
Cowen's idea for decorative lighting fixture for potted plants
(self-illuminating flowerpot powered by dry cell battery),
founded American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company
(AENMC) to market battery powered novelties; May 20, 1902
- received a patent for an "Electric Lamp" ("improvements in
electric lamps and in batteries adapted for use in connection
therewith"); August 25, 1903 - received a patent
for an "Electric-Circuit Closer" ("to provide a construction in
which the same part may be used at will to close a circuit
permanently or only momentarily...particularly applicable to the
class of electric lights known as flash-lights"); cylindrical
casing containing lamp, batteries, on/off switch; 1906
- sold half-interest to National Carbon Company for $200,000.
August 9, 1898
- Henry F. Cottle, of Boston, MA, received patent for
an "Apparatus for Storing and Using Solar Heat".
1899
- Florida Power incorporated in Florida to generate, purchase,
transmit, distribute, sell electricity primarily in State of
Florida.
1899 - William Mackenzie, Frederick
Stark Pearson, others founded he São Paulo Railway, Light and
Power Company; 1904
- founded The Rio de Janeiro Tramway, Light and Power Company;
1912 - incorporated
Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited ("The
Light") in Toronto as public holding company for the two
previous companies to develop hydro-electric power operations,
other utility services in Brazil;
1916 - incorporated Great Lakes Power Company
Limited to provide hydro-electric power in Sault Ste. Marie,
Algoma District in Ontario.; 1966
- changed Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited
name to Brazilian Light and Power Company Limited;
1969 - name changed
to Brascan Limited; 1979
- transferred Brazilian assets to Brazilian ownership
(Eletropaulo and Light S.A.); 2005
- name changed to Brookfield Asset Management;
2011 - $120 billion
in assets (concentrated in office property, renewable power
generation, infrastructure, private equity).
June 6, 1899
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Filament for
Incandescent Lamps and Process of Manufacturing Same" ("will be
of a high resistance, and hence suitable for use on high-tension
currents")..
March 20, 1900
- Nikola Tesla, of New York, NY, received a patent for a "System
of Transmission of Electrical Energy"; wireless transmission of
electric power.
July 16, 1901
- Thomas A. Edison received first patent for a "Reversible
Galvanic Battery"; used insoluble active elements in an alkaline
solution which remained unchanged during all conditions of use;
made of great permanence and of remarkably light weight per unit
of power.
September 17, 1901
- Peter Cooper Hewitt, of New York, NY, received 8 patents for
an "Electric Lamp" ("methods and apparatus for electric
lighting"); mercury vapor lamp; light was produced when electric
current passed through mercury vapor; December 1902
- lamps manufactured by Cooper Hewitt Electric Company in New
York City.
February 4, 1902
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Reversible Galvanic
Battery"; design for a permanent battery with a large capacity
per unit of weight; June 3, 1902 = received a
second patent for a "Reversible Galvanic Battery"; both assigned
to Edison Storage Battery Company.
1903
- 400 gas, electric and transportation companies in New Jersey
merged, formed Public Service Corporation (Thomas McCarter named
first president); 1916
- provided more than 451 million passenger trips on its
trolleys; 1928 -
Public Service Railway Company merged with Public Service
Transportation Company, formed Public Service Coordinated
Transport (dominated trolley, later bus travel in New Jersey;
1930s - owned more
than 100 utility subsidiaries throughout Eastern, Central and
Southern United States; 1934
- Public Service engineers designed first diesel-electric bus;
1937 - operated
first diesel-electric bus fleet (27 vehicles) in world; gas and
electric interests consolidated into Public Service Electric and
Gas; transportation interests consolidated into Public Service
Coordinated Transport (later Transport of New Jersey);
1943 - Public
Service became stand-alone company;
1948 - renamed Public Service Electric
and Gas Company (PSE&G); 1985
- created Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) as holding
company; 1989 -
formed Enterprise Diversified Holdings Inc. (EDHI), now PSEG
Energy Holdings to consolidate unregulated businesses;
2000 - PSE&G split
into PSE&G, regulated gas and electric delivery company in New
Jersey, PSEG Power, unregulated US power generation company.
November
8, 1904 - Harvey Hubbell II, of Bridgeport, CT, received
a patent for a "Separable Attachment-Plug" ("so that electric
power in buildings may be utilized by persons having no
electrical knowledge or skill in the use of tools in attaching
lights. fans, motors..."; first manufactured by Harvey Hubbell,
Inc.
1905
- I.B. Perrine (Idaho farmer, rancher, businessman), other
investors constructed, developed Twin Falls Canal Company
System, country’s largest private irrigation system; paid Twin
Falls Land and Water (founded 1900) for water, developed 20
acres with irrigation water, paid state fifty (.50 ) cents per
acre, obtained patents for land; most successfully developed
Carey Act project in the West; 1909
- Twin Falls Canal Company operated canal system.
December 2, 1905
- Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab (Norsk Hydro)
founded; provides the solution to one of the most pressing
problems of the day - industrial manufacture of plant nutrients
to increase food production throughout the world; Sam Eyde,
appointed managing director for a 10-year period, Marcus
Wallenberg, elected chairman of the board, Frenchman Edmond
Moret - three most important people in the new company; managed
by a French-Scandinavian board of directors.
May 29, 1906
- Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Process of Cleaning
Metallic Surfaces" ("process of cleaning long continuous
metallic surfaces or strips preliminary to subsequent treatment
by which the surface is coated with another metal or material");
electroplating, etc.; received a patent for a "Storage Battery
Filling Apparatus"; received a patent for "Gas Separator for
Storage Batteries"; received a patent for a "Process of Treating
Alkaline Storage Batteries"; received a patent for a "Process of
Making Metallic Flakes or Scales" ("particularly for use in
connection with my improves storage battery as a conducting
substance for admixture with the positive material [nickel
hydroxid] in the positive electrode").
December 10, 1907
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Reversible Glvanic
Battery"; storage batteries using an alkaline electrolyte with
an oxygen compound f nickel as the active de-polraizing material
and in which an oxygen compound of bismith is added to the
nickel mass so as to result in a substantial increase in the
capacity.
1908 - George A.
Tuck and a partner founded small sheet metal shop; grew into
Atlas Heating & Ventilating Company; leader in converting homes
heated by pot-bellied stoves or kitchen stoves to central
heating systems; oldest heating, air conditioning, and
ventilating company in the Bay Area; family-owned, operated.
February 18, 1908
- Thomas A. Edison received patent for an "Alkaline
Storage Battery"; reduced foaming of electrolyte in such
batteries while in operation.
May 1, 1909
- First of five generating units started in power plant at
Minidoka Dam on the Snake River in Idaho; first hydroelectric
power plant built by U.S. government.
October
16, 1909
- Consolidated Light, Power and Ice Company, Spring River Power
Company, The Galena Light and Power Company, Joplin Light,
Power, and Water Company combined, formed The Empire District
Electric Company (under parent company, Cities
Services), incorporated in Topeka, KS (109 miles of transmission
line, 8 megawatts of generating capacity, 2,400 customers);
represented history of mining development in area;
1910-1943
- purchased 27 power companies, became dominate provider of
electric service in region; 1944
- separated from parent company;
1946 - listed on New York Stock Exchange; 2006
- acquired natural gas distribution rights from Aquila, Inc.,
formed The Empire District Gas Company, wholly owned subsidiary
(serves the natural gas needs of approximately 48,000 customers
in 44 communities in northwest, north central, west central
Missouri; 2009 -
over 1,200 miles of transmission line, over 1,000 megawatts of
capacity to serve over 165,000 customers.
January 18, 1910
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Storage Battery"
("the oxygen compound of bismith can be more effectively added
to the nickel mass and the addition can be under better control
than by the specific practice suggested in [1907]
patent...also...can be practiced for the addition of oxygen
compound of bismith after the original electrode elements have
been formed, and indeed, after they have been assembled in the
usual plates or grids".
March 22, 1910
- James C. Dow, of Wilkinsburg, PA, received a patent for "Insulating
Material"; insulator for electric circuits; assigned to
Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company.
1911
- Edmund O. Schweitzer, Nicholas J. Conrad, former chief testing
engineer and generator-starting engineer at Commonwealth Edison
Company in Chicago, formed Schweitzer and Conrad, Inc. in
Conrad's home (had developed Liquid Power Fuse in 1909, after
fire at company's Fisk Generating Station in Chicago;
spring-loaded fuse inside glass tube filled with
fire-suppressing liquid, carbon tetrachloride, to deal with
overloaded, under-protected electric circuits and fires at
utility substations); July 23, 1912
- received a patent for a "High Voltage Protective Device"
("...provision of an improved circuit opening device for use
preferably in connection with high voltage systems in which the
voltage may be six hundred volts or over and which is equally
applicable for circuits in which the voltage may be ten thousand
volts or even higher") - Liquid Power Fuse;
1914 - incorporated as S&C Electric
Company; 1922 -
expanded product line to transmission- and distribution-voltage
offerings; 1930 -
acquired by Cutler-Hammer, motor control manufacturer;
August 1, 1939 -
Schweitzer received a patent for a "Current Interrupting Means"
("...to provide for opening an electric circuit by the blowing
of a fusible element followed by interrupting the circuit
between two portions of a non-metallic conducting liquid");
interrupter allowed switching under load;
1946 - re-acquired by Nicholas Conrad;
1959 - introduced
transmission-voltage switch (revolutionized transformer
protection); 1961 -
developed Circuit Switcher, new product line of switchgears for
transmission breakers; 1999
- premier provider of power systems solutions;
2007 - became
employee-owned; designs, manufactures switching and protection
products for electric power transmission, distribution.
1912
- James Mitchell, formerly of Thomson-Houston Company,
predecessor of General Electric, and Massachusetts engineer with
connections to London investment house, 14 investor groups
formed Alabama Traction, Power & Light, Ltd., holding company,
in Canada to facilitate moving British funds to Alabama banks;
hired Thomas W. Martin, Montgomery, AL attorney (Tyson, Wilson &
Martin, law firm handling title work for hydroelectric
developers along Tallapoosa River in Alabama) as general
counsel; acquired Alabama Power Company from William P. Lay,
owner of site on Coosa River at Gadsden, AL (organized in
December 1906, secured congressional approval in 1907 for
construction of dam on Coosa River at U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers Lock 12 site; couldn't raise funds); raised British
capital for Lay's dam (completed in December 1913), thwarted
competition (Alabama Power Company operated as subsidiary of
Alabama Traction, Light and Power); World War I - British
capital depleted, Alabama Power overextended; British
bondholders deferred interest payments, authorized sale of new
bonds, preferred stock; 1920
- Tom Martin took over as president; acquired small electric
systems, sponsored industrial development, initiated rural
electrification program; 1924
- Martin, Eugene A. Yates (Chief Engineer for Alabama Power dam
building efforts) created Southeastern Power & Light Company,
holding company to amalgamate, integrate utilities throughout
state (folded Alabama Traction, Power & Light, Ltd. into
company; 1928 -
acquired in hostile takeover led by group backed by J. P.
Morgan; folded into Commonwealth & Southern (billion-dollar
holding company); 1935
- Public Utility Holding Company Act outlawed holding
non-contiguous operating companies (Commonwealth & Southern in
violation); 1947 -
northern utilities divested; name changed to Southern Company;
1949 - began full
operation, allowed to hold only Alabama Power, Georgia Power,
Mississippi Power, Gulf Power; 1950 - Yates became chairman;
1969 - 21
steam-electric plants, 30 hydroelectric power projects;
1977 - completed
first nuclear plant (on Chattahoochee River);
2011 - largest
generator of electricity in U.S., among largest in world.
James Mitchell
- Southern Company
(http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/media_content/m-4688.jpg)
June 18, 1912
- Peter C. Hewitt, of New York, NY, received patent for an
"Apparatus for the Electrical Production of Light";
mercury vapor arc lamp.
August 20, 1912
- Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Storage Battery";
improvement on 1907 and 1910 patents.
October 28, 1913
- William W, Coblentz, of Washington, DC, received a patent for
a "Thermal Generator" ("device whereby light rays may be
utilized to generate an electric current of such a capacity as
to do useful work").
December 30, 1913
- Dr. William D. Coolidge, of Schenectady, NY, received patent
for "Tungsten and Method of Making the Same for Use as Filaments
in Incandescent Electric lamps and for Other Purposes"; Tungsten
filament light bulb; assigned to General Electric Company.
January
19, 1915 - George Claude of Paris received a U.S. patent
for a "System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes"; led to neon
sign.
April 18 , 1916
- Irving Langmuir, of Schenectady, NY, received patent for
an "Incandescent Electric Lamp"; gas-filled incandescent lamp.
October 19, 1920
- National Carbon Company, Inc. registered "Eveready" trademark
first used May 15, 1909 (Electric Batteries, Electric
Flash-Lights, Electric Lamps for Automobiles and Flash-Lights,
Dry Cells, Storage Batteries [and Electric Starters]).
November 23, 1920
- Thomas Edison received a patent (#1,359,972) for
"Electroplating" ("electro-plating of metals on metals...to
enable a metal electro-plated on a metal to be readily stripped
or removed therefrom...to prevent the metal plated from strongly
adhering to the metal plated upon").
May 24, 1921
- Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Storage Battery" ("to
result in a greatly increased discharge rate").
December 27, 1921
- French Battery & Carbon Co. registered "Ray-O-Vac" trademark
first used April 1, 1921 (Dry-Cell Batteries).
January 10, 1922
- Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Storage-Battery
Electrode and the Production of Same".
May 23, 1922
- Thomas Edison received a patent for "Production of Thin Metal
Sheets or Foils" ("to produce thin sheets or foils of metal,
preferably nickel, of any desired length by electro-plating").
February 10, 1925
- The first waterless gas storage tank was placed in service in
Michigan City, IN.
October 21, 1925
- Westinghouse Electric and Mfg Co. publicly demonstrated first
U.S. photocell or tube (used to count objects as they passed
through and interrupted a beam of light, applied to open doors
as a person or car approached) at the Electrical Show at Grand
Central Palace in New York.
October 16, 1928
- Marvin Pipkin, of Cleveland Heights, OH (Incandescent Lamp
Department of the General Electric Company), received U.S.
patent for an "Electric-Lamp Bulb"; first electric light bulb
frosted on inside with sufficient strength for commercial
handling; advantages of frosting the inside of a bulb (versus
the outside) are less absorption of light and less collection of
dust.
June 19, 1931
- Wilcox's Pier Restaurant (West Haven, CT) completed
installation on first commercial doors operated by photoelectric
cell; a magic eye controlled automated swinging doors between
the kitchen and main dining room.
May 9, 1932
- Piccadilly Circus first lighted by electricity.
November 22, 1932
- Robert J. Jauch, Ivan R. Farnham, Ross H. Arnold, of Fort
Wayne, IN, received patent for a "Liquid Dispensing Apparatus";
first U.S. patent for a computer pump; accurately computed and
indicated exact quantity delivered in gallons and the price in
dollars and cents as the delivery was made.
June 13, 1933
- Balltown Road, in Schenectady, NY installed the first sodium
vapor lamps in the U.S.
January 8, 1935
- Arthur C. Hardy, of Wellesley, MA, received a patent for a
"Photometric Apparatus" ("particularly useful in colorimetry");
a spectrophotometer, electronic device capable of both detecting
two million different shades of color, making permanent record
chart of results; assigned to General Electric Company;
May 24, 1935 - first machine sold.
February 12, 1935
- Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, of Cambridge, MA, received a
patent for an "Electrostatic Generator" ("to produce direct
current voltages of an order substantially higher than any
previously obtained by influence machines and/or the
rectification of alternating current"); assigned to
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; direct-current voltages
much higher than 700,000-V, state of art at time.
October 2, 1936
- First alcohol power plant established in Atchison, KS.
October 9, 1936
- First generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began
transmitting electricity to Los Angeles (installed capacity of
2.08 million kilowatts from 17 main turbines over transmission
lines spanning 266 miles of mountains and deserts); Initially
named Boulder Dam, work was begun under President Herbert
Hoover's administration but completed as a public works project
during the Roosevelt administration (which renamed it for
Hoover); electricity was a secondary benefit; central
reason for the dam was the collection, preservation, and
rational distribution of water.
October 26, 1936
- First electric generator at Hoover Dam went into full
operation.
April 23, 1940
- Herman R. C. Anthony, of Madison, WI, received a patent for a
"Leakproof Dry Cell" (type of batteries "used in flash light
casings...improved protective casing for a cell which wil
prevent fluids from leaking out"); flashlight battery
(Ray-o-Vac).
April 11, 1941
- First General Electric hydrogen-cooled electrical generator
for outdoor installation in the U.S. was put into operation;
October 12, 1937 - first GE hydrogen-cooled indoor
generator started operation started; advantage of hydrogen is a
high thermal conductivity and lower friction than air-cooled
generators, more efficient, lower fuel consumption, highest
output capacity, lowest operating cost.
October 2, 1942
- First self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction demonstrated in
Chicago.
January 10, 1944
- General Electric Company delivered first mobile electric power
plant in U.S. to U.S. Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Yard,
Philadelphia, PA; built within six specially designed railway
cars oil-fired boilers powered a steam-turbine generating plant,
accompanied by the switchgear and transformer apparatus; unit
could be hauled at speeds up to 40 mph to a new destination
where it could be set up within 24 hours, capable of generating
10,00 kilowatts of electric power.
December 24, 1948
- First U.S. house completely solar heated ("Dover Sun House")
was occupied in Dover, MA; heating system, designed by Dr. Maria
Telkes from the MIT Solar Laboratory, used black sheet metal
collectors to capture solar energy, stored by the phase-change
of sodium sulphate decahydrate in "heat bins"; fans distributed
the heat as needed.
March 2, 1949
- First automatic street light installed in New Milford, CT.
November 17, 1951
- Britain reported development of world's first nuclear-powered
heating system.
December 20, 1951
- First electricity ever generated by atomic power flowed when
Walter Zinn and his Argonne National Laboratory staff of
scientists brought the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 (EBR-1)
turbine generator to criticality (a controlled, self-sustaining
chain reaction) with a core about the size of a football;
December 1963 - decommissioned; EBR-1 is a Registered
National Historic Landmark.
April 15, 1952
- Kenneth J. Germeshausen, of Newton Centre, MA, received a
patent for a "Gaseous-Discharge Device"; hydrogen thryatron for
high voltage switches.
February 11, 1954
- 75,000-watt light bulb lighted at Rockefeller Center in New
York to commemorate 75th anniversary of Edison’s first light
bulb.
June 27, 1954
- World's first atomic power station began producing electricity
in Obninsk, U.S.S.R.
September 6, 1954
-Ground breaking took place at Shippingport, PA for first U.S.
full-scale atomic electricity generating station devoted
exclusively to peaceful uses; President Eisenhower remotely
signaled a radio-controlled bulldozer.
June 1, 1955
- National Fabricated Products, Inc. (Chicago, IL) shipped a
solar energy battery; first shipped from an American commercial
factory; disc shaped, about the size of a half-dollar, with two
terminals; hermetically sealed, provided about half of a volt of
electricity.
July 17, 1955
- Arco, ID became first U.S. city lighted by nuclear power.
October 17, 1956
- The Queen opened Calder Hall, Britain's first nuclear power
station which directed into the National Grid for the first
time; March 31, 2003 - plant closed.
April 29, 1957
- First military nuclear power plant dedicated in Fort Belvoir,
VA.
August 1, 1957
- Solar Building (Bridgers and Paxton Office Building),
Albuquerque NM, first commercial building heated by sun's
energy; constructed when active solar-energy systems still
considered experimental.
December 2, 1957
- Duquesne Light Co. of Pittsburgh began operation of the first
full-scale civilian atomic electric generating station in the
U.S. in Shippingport, PA (15 years to the day after Fermi's
experiment at the University of Chicago); December 18
- fed electricity into the grid for the Pittsburgh area;
December 23
- plant reached full power, generated 60 megawatts of power for
Pittsburgh; reactor plant designed by the Westinghouse Electric
Corporation in cooperation with the Division of Naval Reactors
of the Atomic Energy Commission; May 26. 1958 -
President Dwight D. Eisenhower opened it as part of his "Atoms
for Peace" program; 1982 - Shippingport nuclear
power plant was retired.
January 28, 1958
- Indian Point nuclear generating station, the first
privately-owned thorium-uranium atomic reactor to supply power
began construction; built at Buchanan, New York, Babcock and
Wilcox Co. for the Consolidated Edison Co. at a cost of $100
million to produce 275,000 kilowatts of power.
August 19, 1960
- First commercial atomic energy reactor, third in U.S.,
achieved self-sustaining nuclear reaction at $57 million Yankee
Atomic Electric Company's plant at Rowe, MA, on Deerfield River
(company formed by twelve New England utility companies which
signed a contract with the Westinghouse Corporation as the
principal contractor); November 10, 1960 - began
producing power for distribution; pressurized light-water
reactor produced 125,000 kilowatts of electricity;
February 26, 1992 - permanently shut down due to reactor
vessel embrittlement.
November 10, 1960
- Yankee Atomic Electric Company's (formed by twelve New England
utility companies with the Westinghouse Corporation as the
principal contractor) plant at Rowe, MA, $57 million first
commercial atomic energy reactor, third in the U.S., produced
power for distribution; pressurized light-water reactor produced
125,000 kilowatts of electricity; February 26, 1992
- permanently shut down due to reactor vessel embrittlement,
after more than 31 years of service; 1993 -
decommissioning began.
February 10, 1961
- Niagara Falls hydroelectric project began producing power.
June 21,
1961 - President John Kennedy pressed a switch installed
in his office in Washington DC to dedicate first practical plant
for the conversion of seawater to drinking water; built in less
than a year at a cost of $1.5 million at Freeport, Texas by the
Dow Chemical Co.; capable of producing about a million gallons
of water a day, supplying fresh water to the city of Freeport at
a cost of about $1.25 per thousand gallons; May 8, 1961 - Office
of Saline Water, U.S. Department of the Interior opened opened
plant; reverse osmosis has replaced large-scale evaporation
method used then as scientific advances have produced special
polymers suitable for use as filtering membranes.
September 12, 1961
- Kenneth R. Eldredge, of Palo Alto, CA, received a patent for
an "Automatic Reading System"; for utilities.
January 1, 1963
- Kentucky Power Company placed first U.S. electric power plant
to use hyperbolic-shaped cooling towers in commercial service at
Ashland, KY (close to coal mines that fueled it); designed to
cool 120,000 gallons of water per minute.
May 20, 1964
- First U.S. atomic-powered lighthouse put into operation in
Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore Harbor, MD; designed and produced by
nuclear division of Martin-Marietta Corp. to supply a continuous
flow of electricity for ten years without refuelling; 60-watt
nuclear generator generated heat from strontium-90 in the form
of strontium titinate, a safe radioisotope; heat converted
to electricity by 120 pairs of lead telluride thermocouples;
complete with shielding, unit only 34.5 inches high, 22 inches
in diameter.
November 9, 1965
- Biggest electricity grid failure in U.S. history caused
13.5-hour blackout in northeast America, parts of Canada. At
about 5:15 pm, a transmission line relay failed, insufficient
line capacity for New England and New York (inter-connected on a
power grid); affected - some 80,000 square miles, 25 million
people, 800,000 trapped in New York City subways.
November 26, 1966
- President Charles de Gaulle opened the world's first tidal
power station at Rance estuary, in Brittany; most powerful
tidal power plant in the world, generates 500 million kWh
annually.
February 16, 1968
- Nation's first 911 emergency telephone system inaugurated, in
Haleyville, AL.
April 4, 1972
- First electric power generated in U.S. fueled by municipal
solid waste produced at Meramec Plant of Union Electric Company,
St. Louis, MO; cooperative effort with city of St. Louis, with
financial support from Environmental Protection Agency; May -
plant generated 200,000 kW-hr of electricity, wastes consumed at
rate of 12.5 tons/hour or 300 tons/day.
March 28, 1979
- America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside
the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power
Plant (three-months-old) near Middletown, PA (on an island in
the Susquehanna River about 11 miles south of Harrisburg);
released above-normal levels of radiation into the central
Pennsylvania countryside; officials of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said radiation outside the plant was far less than
that produced by diagnostic X-rays; some of the 60 employees on
duty were contaminated, did not require hospitalization; 15,000
people living within a mile of the plant were not evacuated,
'general emergency' was declared.
June 7, 1980
- First U.S. solar power plant, joint venture with MIT's Lincoln
Laboratory and the Dept. of Energy., was dedicated at the
Natural Bridge National Monument, Utah; over 250,000 solar cells
arrayed in 12 long rows, 100-kilowatt output could provide the
power needs for the buildings and facilities of that National
Park.
July 25, 1983
- Washington Public Power Supply System defaulted $2.25 billion.
April 26, 1986
- World's worst civil nuclear catastrophe as one of the reactors
at Chernobyl nuclear power plant (near
Kiev in Ukraine)
exploded;
plant, which had four 1,000-megawatt reactors, in
the town of Pripyat; one of the largest and oldest nuclear power
plants in the world. Workers at the plant were performing tests
on the system; shut off the emergency safety systems and the
cooling system, against established regulations; failed to stop
the test even when warning signs of dangerous overheating
appeared; Xenon gases built up; three explosions eventually blew
the 1,000-ton steel top right off of the reactor. Pripyat’s
40,000 people were not evacuated until 36 hours after the
explosion. Potentially lethal rain fell as the fires continued
for eight days. Dikes were built at the Pripyat River to contain
damage from contaminated water run-off and the people of Kiev
were warned to stay indoors as a radioactive cloud headed their
way.
March 1, 1990
- Seabrook, NH nuclear power plant won federal permission to go
on line after two decades of protests, legal struggles.
June 1, 1992
- Pierre Villere announced creation of the E-Lamp, an electronic
electrodeless 20-year lightbulb; technology licensed from Diablo
Research Corporation (developed it in late 1980s, not approved
for residential use in the U.S.); illuminated when radio waves
excite a phosphor coating, an efficient process that can save as
much as 75% of lighting costs. April 1994 -
General Electric (G.E.) Lighting announced that "the world's
first practical compact high-tech induction reflector lamp"
would be on the market in Europe within weeks, used trade name
Genura (smaller than incandescent reflector lamp it replaced).
November 7, 1997
- Chinese engineers completed blocking of Yangtze River, first
step toward what will be the world's largest hydroelectric dam
project.
July 24, 1998
- Enron Corporation, electricity and gas company in Houston, TX,
signed deal to acquire British-based Wessex Water, PLC for $2.2
billion--which was reportedly paid in cash; signaled Enron's
first move towards creating a global water subsidiary.
December 15, 2000
- Chernobyl nuclear plant permanently shut down in Ukraine; had
provided Ukraine with around five percent of its electricity
from its last working reactor. One by one, Chernobyl's reactors
have shut down over the years; 1986 - reactor
exploded; 1991 - fire stopped one of the remaining
reactors; 1996 - third reactor shut down.
January 17, 2001
- Faced with electricity crisis, California used rolling
blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people.
March 19, 2001 -
California officials declared a power alert, ordering first of
two days of rolling blackouts.
April 6, 2001 -
Pacific Gas and Electric filed for bankruptcy.
June 20, 2002
- Agreement signed to establish seawater desalination, heating
plant (using atomic reactors) at coastal city of Yingkou, China;
designed to address severe water shortages, burns used fuel from
nuclear power stations under normal pressure giving 200
megawatts; initial phase, costing 35 million yuan ($4 million),
would provide heating for a building area of 5 million sq.
meters during winter; can also desalinate 3,000 tons of sea
water daily when no heating is required; daily capacity is
expected to amount to 80,000 tons; reactor in theory is able to
replace about 130,000 tons of coal burned every year, reducing
immensely waste gases.
May 29, 2009 -
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/05/29/business/global/29nukegraph.jpg)
January 26, 2010 -
American wind power industry
added 39% more capacity
in 2009 (9,900
megawatts, largest on record, 18% above capacity added in 2008,
also banner year); close to 2% nation's electricity comes from
wind turbines (vs. about 5% in Europe).
 (http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/01/26/business/energy-environment/26windgrfx/articleInline.jpg)
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The Canadian Niagara Power Company Story. (Erin, ON:
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Carolina Power & Light Company, 1908-1958: A Corporate
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(Centerior Energy Corporation), Larry K.
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Death Spiral: The Brief Rise and Rapid Decline of Centerior
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(Westlake, OH: L.K. Leonard, 237 p.). Centerior Energy
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Power: The Story of China Light. (New York, NY: Oxford
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Sam Insull -
Commonwealth Edison
(http://www.chicago-l.org/figures/insull/insull02.jpg)
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Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti -
Ferranti International plc (http://www.todayinsci.com/F/Ferranti_Sebastian/FerrantiSebastianThm.jpg)
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(KeySpan Corporation), Robert B. Catell and
Kenny Moore with Glenn Rifkin (2004).
The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and
Purpose. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 246 p.). Chairman and CEO
(Catell); Former Monk, Corporate Ombudsman (Moore). KeySpan
Corporation History; Energy industries United States History.
(Lake Hemet Water Company), Mary E. Whitney
(1999).
Valley, River and Mountain: Revisiting Fortune Favors the Brave:
A History of the Lake Hemet Water Company. (Hemet, CA:
Hemet Area Museum Association, 376 p.).
Dams--California--Hemet--History;
Water-supply--California--Hemet--History; Hemet
(Calif.)--History.
(Long Island Lighting Company), Karl Grossman
(1986).
Power Crazy. (New York, NY: Grove Press, 372 p.). Long
Island Lighting Company.
(Maine Public Service Company), C. Hazen
Stetson (1984).
From Logs to Electricity: A History of the Maine Public Service
Company. (Presque Isle, ME: The Company, 232 p.). Maine
Public Service Company--History.
(Merlin Guerin), Bruno Lefebvre
(1998).
La Transformation des Cultures Techniques: Merlin Guerin,
1920-1996. (Paris, FR: Harmattan, 265 p.). Merlin Guerin
(Firm)--History; Corporate culture--France--Case studies.
(Mid-Continent Area Power Pool), Bill Beck
(1988). Interconnections: The History of the Mid-Continent
Area Power Pool. (Minneapolis, MN: The Pool, 164 p.).
Mid-Continent Area Power Pool--History; International
interconnected electric utility systems--Middle West--History;
International interconnected electric utility systems--Prairie
Provinces--History.
(Midwest Energy), Bill Beck (1991).
The Service People: An Illustrated History of Midwest Energy
Company. (Sioux City, IA: Iowa Public Service Co., 489
p.). Midwest Energy Company--History; Electric
utilities--Iowa--History; Gas companies--Iowa--History.
(Minnesota Power), Bill Beck (1986).
Northern Lights: An Illustrated History of Minnesota Power.
(Duluth, MN: Minnesota Power, 451 p.). Minnesota Power
(Firm)--History; Electric utilities--Minnesota--History.
(Nebraska Public Power District), Don
Schaufelberger, Bill Beck (2009). The Only
State: A History of Public Power in Nebraska. (Virginia
Beach, VA Donning Co., p.). Nebraska Public Power
District --History; Electric utilities --Nebraska --History.
(Newcasatle and Gateshead Water Company),
Robert William Rennison (1979).
Water to Tyneside: A History of the Newcastle and Gateshead
Water Company. (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: The Company,
361 p.). Newcasatle and Gateshead Water Company -- History; Tyne
and Wear (Metropolitan County) Water supply industries;
Northumberland Water supply industries.
(Norsk Hydro), Ketil Gjølme Andersen (2005).
Flaggskip i Fremmed Eie: Volume 1: Hydro 1905-1945.
(Oslo, Norway: Pax forlag, 500 p.). Norsk Hydro; power resources
-- Norway.
Sam Eyde
- Norsk's first President (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Sam_Eyde_photographed_1910.jpg)
(Norsk Hydro), Finn Erhard Johannessen, Asle
Rønning og Pa°l Thonstad Sandvik (2005). Nasjonal Kontroll og
Industriell Fornyelse: Hydro 1945-1977. (Oslo, Norway: Pax
forlag, 468 p.). Norsk Hydro; power resources -- Norway.
Practically a Norwegian company,
restructuring process, oil and gas.
(Norsk Hydro), Einar Lie (2005).
Oljerikdommer og Internasjonal Ekspansjon: Hydro 1977-2005.
(Oslo, Norway: Pax forlag, 486 p.). Norsk Hydro; power resources
-- Norway. Rapid oil and
gas revenue growth; internationalization.
(Northeast Utilities Company), Paul W. MacAvoy
and Jean W. Rosenthal (2005).
Corporate Profit and Nuclear Safety: Strategy at Northeast
Utilities in the 1990s. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 176 p.). Williams Brothers Professor of
Management Studies, Former Dean of the Yale School of Management
(Yale); Former Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric, Senior Olin
Research Fellow (Yale School of Management). Nuclear
industry--Northeastern States--Management--Case studies; Nuclear
industry--Deregulation--Northeastern States; Nuclear
industry--Northeastern States--Cost control; Nuclear power
plants--Northeastern States--Management--Case studies; Nuclear
power plants--Northeastern States--Cost of operation; Nuclear
power plants--Northeastern States--Safety measures; Nuclear
power plants--Northeastern States--Risk assessment; Nuclear
power plants--Environmental aspects--Northeastern States.
(Northern Ohio Traction and Light Company),
James M. Blower and Robert S. Korach (1966). The NOT&L Story.
(Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 268 p.).
Northern Ohio Traction and Light Company;
Street-railroads--Ohio--History; Local transit--Ohio--History.
(Northern States Power), Herbert W. Meyer
(1971). Builders of Northern States Power Company.
(Minneapolis, MN: Northern States Power, 161 p.). Northern
States Power Company.
(Northwestern Public Service), Bill Beck
(1989).
Light Across the Prairies: An Illustrated History of
Northwestern Public Service Company. (Huron, SD:
Northwestern Public Service Co., 256 p.). Northwestern Public
Service Company--History; Electric utilities--Northwestern
States--History; Rural electrification--Northwestern
States--History.
(NY Steam), New York Steam Service (1932).
Fifty Years o New York Steam Service. (New York, NY: New
York Steam Corporation, 135 p.). Heating from central stations.
(Ontario Hydro), Merrill Denison (1960).
The People's Power; The History of Ontario Hydro.
(Toronto, ON: McClelland and Stewart, 295 p.). Ontario.
Hydro-electric Power Commission; Electric utilities--Ontario.
(Ontario Hydro), Paul McKay (1983).
Electric Empire: The Inside Story of Ontario Hydro.
(Toronto, ON: Between the Lines, 300 p.). Ontario
Hydro--History--20th century; Electric
utilities--Ontario--History--20th century. A project of the
Ontario Public Interest Research Group.
(Ontario Hydro), Lawrence Solomon (1984).
Power at What Cost?: Why Ontario Hydro Is Out of Control, What
Needs To Be Done about It. (Toronto, ON: Energy Probe
Research Foundation, 191 p.). Ontario Hydro; Electric utilities
-- Ontario.
(Ontario Hydro), Keith R. Fleming (1992).
Power at Cost: Ontario Hydro and Rural Electrification,
1911-1958.
(Montreal, QU: McGill-Queen's University Press, 326 p.). Ontario
Hydro; Rural electrification--Ontario--History.
(Ontario Hydro), Neil B. Freeman (1996).
The Politics of Power: Ontario Hydro and Its Government,
1906-1995. (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press,
252 p.). Ontario Hydro--History; Electric utilities--Government
policy--Ontario.
(Ontario Hydro), Jamie Swift & Keith Stewart
(2004).
Hydro: The Decline and Fall of Ontario's Electric Empire.
(Toronto, ON: Between the Lines, 240 p.). Ontario Hydro --
History; Electric utilities -- Government ownership -- Ontario
-- History.
(Pacific Enterprises), Douglas R. Littlefield
and Tanis C. Thorne (1990).
The Spirit of Enterprise: The History of Pacific Enterprises
from 1886 to 1989. (Los Angeles, CA: Pacific
Enterprises, 198 p.). Pacific Enterprises--History; Pacific
Lighting Company--History; Pacific Lighting
Corporation--History; Holding companies--California--History;
Gas companies--California--History.
(Pacific Gas and Electric Company), Charles M.
Coleman (1952).
P.G. and E. of California; The Centennial Story of Pacific Gas
and Electric Company, 1852-1952. (New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill, 385 p.). Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
Peter Donahue
- PG&E
(http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2000/05_May_June/Dillon_article_--_Peter_Donahue.jpg)
James Donahue
- PG&E
(http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2000/05_May_June/Dillon_article-James_Donahue.jpg)
(Pacific Gas & Electric Company), Richard H.
Dillon (1984).
Iron Men: California’s Industrial Pioneers, Peter, James, and
Michael Donahue. (Point Richmond, CA: Candela Press, 334
p.). Donahue, Peter, 1822-1885; Donahue, James, 1824-1862;
Donahue, Michael, 1816-1884; Businesspeople--California--San
Francisco--Biography; Irish Americans--California--San
Francisco--Biography; San Francisco (Calif.)--Biography.
(Pacific Gas and Electric Company), David Roe
(1984).
Dynamos and Virgins. (New York, NY: Random House, 218
p.). Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Electric
power-plants--California; Electric utilities--California.
(Pacific Power), John Dierdorf (1971).
How Edison's Lamp Helped Light the West: The Story of Pacific
Power & Light Company and Its Pioneer Forebears.
(Portland OR: Pacific Power & Light Co., 313 p.). Pacific Power
& Light Company.
(Parisian Gas Company), Lenard R. Berlanstein
(1991).
Big Business and Industrial Conflict in Nineteenth-Century
France: A Social History of the Parisian Gas Company.
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 348 p.).
Compagnie parisienne de l'éclairage et du chauffage par le gaz
-- History; Gas industry -- France -- History -- 19th century;
Big business -- France -- History -- 19th century.
(Pennsylvania Power & Light), Bill Beck
(1995).
PP&L: 75 Years of Powering the Future: An Illustrated History of
Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. (Allentown, PA:
Pennsylvania Power & Light, p.). Pennsylvania
Power & Light,.
(Philadelphia Electric), Nicholas B.
Wainwright (1961).
History of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 1881-1961.
(Philadelphia, 416 p.). Philadelphia Electric Company.
(Philadelphia Suburban Water Company), Jerry
A. Sacchetti (1986). Reflections on Water: A Centennial
History of Philadelphia Suburban Water Company. (Bryn Mawr,
PA: The Company, 188 p.). Philadelphia Suburban Water Company
(Pa.)--History; Water-supply--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
Suburban Area--History.
(Portland General Electric), Craig Wollner
(1990).
Electrifying Eden: Portland General Electric, 1889-1965.
(Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 325 p.).
Portland General Electric Company--History; Electric
utilities--Oregon--Portland Region--History.
(Potomac Electric Power Company), William O.
Beck. (1996). 100 Years of Matchless Service: Potomac
Electric Power Company, 1896-1996. (Washington. DC: The
Company, 204 p.). Potomac Electric Power Company--History;
Electric utilities--Washington Metropolitan Area--History.
(Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.), R.P. Singh (2009).
Grids of Change: Managing Power Games and
Power Lines. (New Delhi, India: Penguin Enterprise, 155
p). Former Chairman of PowerGrid Corporation of India.
Executives -- India -- Biography; Singh, R. P. (Rajendra
Prasad), 1948-; Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. --
Biography.
(Public Service Company of Colorado), Ellen
Kingman Fisher (1989). One Hundred Years of Energy: Public
Service Company of Colorado and Its Predecessors, 1869-1969.
(New York, NY: Garland Pub., 517 p.). Public Service Company of
Colorado--History; Electric
utilities--Colorado--Denver--History; Gas
companies--Colorado--Denver--History.
(Public Service Electric and Gas Company),
Marian Calabro (2003).
Making Things Work: PSEG’s First Century. (Lyme, CT:
Greenwich Pub. Group, 127 p.). Public Service Enterprise
Group--History; Public Service Electric and Gas
Company--History; Public utilities--New Jersey--History.
(Puget Sound Power and Light Company), Arthur
Kramer (1986).
Among the Livewires: 100 Years of Puget Power. (Edmonds,
WA: Creative Communications, 141 p.). Puget Sound Power and
Light Company--History; Electric utilities--Washington
(State)--History.
(Puget Sound Power and Light Company), Robert
C. Wing, editor; Robert C. Cumbow, associate editor (1987).
A Century of Service: The Puget Power Story. (Bellevue,
WA: Puget Sound Power & Light Co., 178 p.). Puget Sound Power
and Light Company--History; Electric utilities--Northwest,
Pacific--History.
(Salem Electric), John R. Ross (1991).
Salem Electric: Against the Odds! (Portland, OR:
Carolina Pacific Pub., 121 p.). Salem Electric (Salem,
Or.)--History; Electric utilities--Oregon--Salem--History.
(Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation),
Muzaffar Tate. (1999). The Power Behind the State: A History
of the Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (SESCO) and of
Electricity Supply in Sarawak. (Kuching, Malaysia: Sarawak
Electricity Supply Corp., 488 p.). Sarawak Electricity Supply
Corporation--History; Electric power
systems--Malaysia--Sarawak--History; Electric
utilities--Malaysia--Sarawak--History.
(Saskatchewan Power), Clinton O. White (1976).
Power for a Province: A History of Saskatchewan Power.
(Regina, SK: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of
Regina, 370 p.). Saskatchewan Power Corporation; Electrification
-- Saskatchewan; Natural gas -- Saskatchewan.
(Seattle City Light), David W. Wilma, Walt
Crowley & the HistoryLink staff (2010).
Power for the People: A History of Seattle City Light.
(Seattle, WA: HistoryLink in association with University of
Washington Press, 131 p.). Seattle (Wash.). Dept. of Lighting;
Electric utilities -- Washington (State) -- Seattle.
1889 - privately owned water company failed to deliver
enough water to quell Seattle's Great Fire of 1888-89; voters
approved municipal water system, laid groundwork for
electric utility, began campaign of dam
construction that provided Seattle with cheapest electricity of
any major city in country for most of 20th century.
(Siemens Aktiengesellschaft), von Gerhart
Jacob-Wendler (1982). Deutsche Elektroindustrie in
Lateinamerika: Siemens und AEG, 1890-1914. (Stuttgart,
Germany: In Kommission bei Klett-Cotta, 376 p.). Siemens
Aktiengesellschaft--History; AEG-Telefunken--History; Electric
industries--Germany--History; Electric power transmission
equipment industry--Germany--History; Germany--Commerce--Latin
America--History; Latin America--Commerce--Germany--History.
(Southern California Edison), William A. Myers
(1983).
Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern
California Edison Company. (Glendale, CA: Trans-Anglo
Books, 256 p.). Southern California Edison Company--History;
Electric utilities--California, Southern--History.
(Southern California Edison), David H.
Redinger (1998).
The Story of Big Creek. (Tucson, AZ: Ironwood Press, 272
p.). Southern California Edison Company--History; Hydroelectric
power plants--California--Big Creek Region--History.
(Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company),
Frederick Dalzell; Foreword by W. Bernard Carlson; Afterword by
John Sprague (2009).
Engineering Invention: Frank J. Sprague and the U.S. Electrical
Industry, 1880-1900. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 304
p.). Researcher at Harvard Business School. In burst of
innovation over less than 20 years, Sprague (pioneered work in
self-governing motors, developed first full-scale operational
electric railway system, commercialized, promoted his
inventions) and contemporaries, transformed
technologies of electricity, reshaped modern life; established
Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company; designed, built
electric railroad system for Richmond, VA; went into field of electric elevators; started third
company to commercialize multiple-control system that could equip electric train systems
for mass transit; framed technology as invention, cast himself as
hero, staged technologies as dramas.
Frank Sprague - Sprague
Electric (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Frank_j._sprague.jpg)
(Superior Water, Light and Power Co.) ,Bill
Beck (1989). From the Foot of Winter Street: The History of
Superior Light and Power. (Duluth, MN: The Company,
p.). Superior Water, Light and Power Co.
(Texas Power & Light), Robert L. Johnson
(1973).
Texas Power & Light Company: 1912-1972; A Brief Account of the
Company's First Sixty Years ... Its Origin and Development, and
Its Impact Upon the Area It Serves. (Dallas, TX: Texas
Power & Light Co., 209 p.). Texas Power & Light
Company--History; Electric utilities--Texas.
(Twin Falls Canal Company), Niels Sparre
Nokkentved, Foreword by John Keys, former Commissioner of
Reclamation A Forest of Wormwood: Sagebrush, Water and
Idaho’s Twin Falls Canal Company. (Boise ID: N.S. Nokkentved,
240 p.). Twin Falls Canal Company; Irrigation.
Country’s largest private irrigation
system; Idaho canal company, development of water rights, how
irrigation affects communities, today’s water crisis in Idaho.
(Washington Gas Light Company), Robert R.
Hershman and Edward T. Stafford (1948).
Growing with Washington, The Story of our First Hundred Years,
1848-1948. (Washington, DC: The Company, 91 p.).
Washington (D.C.)--History.
(Washington Public Power Supply System),
Daniel Jack Chasan (1985).
The Fall of the House of WPPSS: The $2.25 Billion Horror Story
That Haunts the Nuclear Industry, the Bond Market, and the
Northwest. (Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Pub., 111 p.).
Washington Public Power Supply System--Finance; Electric
utilities--Washington (State)--Finance; Nuclear power
plants--Washington (State)--Design and construction--Finance;
Default (Finance)--Washington (State); Bond market.
(Western Power Products), Bill Bright (2000).
Two Bills from Boston: Making the American Dream Come True.
(Wilsonville, OR: BookPartners, 225 p.). Bright, Bill, 1917- ;
Wild, Bill, 1917?-1983.; Western Power Products--History;
Electric industries--United States--History;
Industrialists--United States--Biography;
Entrepreneurship--United States--Case studies; Success in
business--United States--Case studies.
(Wisconsin Electric Power Company), John Gurda
(1996).
Path of a Pioneer: A Centennial History of the Wisconsin
Electric Power Company. (Milwaukee, WI: Wisconsin
Electric Power, 282 p.). Wisconsin Electric Power Company.
(Wisconsin Power and Light), Bill Beck;
foreword by Erroll B. Davis, Jr. (1990).
Transforming the Heartland: The History of Wisconsin Power &
Light Company. (Madison, WI: Wisconsin Power & Light
Co., 231 p.). Wisconsin Power and Light Company--History;
Electric utilities--Wisconsin--History; Gas
companies--Wisconsin--History.
Bernard C. Beaudreau (1996).
Mass Production, the Stock Market Crash, and the Great
Depression: The Macroeconomics of Electrification.
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 182 p.). Industrialization --
United States -- History -- 20th century; Mass production --
United States -- History -- 20th century; Electrification --
United States -- History -- 20th century; Depressions -- 1929 --
United States; Stock Market Crash, 1929. Series Contributions in
economics and economic history.
William Beaver (1990).
Nuclear Power Goes On-Line: A History of Shippingport.
(New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 204 p.). Shippingport Nuclear
Power Station -- History; Nuclear power plants -- Pennsylvania.
Series Contributions in economics and economic history.
David Bodanis (2005).
Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity.
(New York, NY: Crown, 308 p.). Teaches Survey of Intellectual
History (University of Oxford). Electricity; Force and energy.
How electricity works,
affects daily lives; electrical innovations with minibiographies of their developers.
Ian C. R. Byatt (1979).
The British Electrical Industry, 1875-1914: The Economic Returns
to a New Technology. (New York, NY: Oxford University
Press, 228 p.). Electric industries--Great Britain--History;
Electric utilities--Great Britain--History.
Richard B. DuBoff (1979).
Electric Power in American Manufacturing, 1889-1958.
(New York, NY: Arno Press, 245 p.). Electrification--United
States; Electric engineering--United States--History;
Industries--United States--History.
Scott Fenn (1984).
America's Electric Utilities: Under Siege and in Transition.
(New York, NY: Praeger, 158 p.). Electric utilities--United
States.
Charles Fishman (2011).
The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.
(New York, NY: Free Press, 400 p.). Former Metro and National
Reporter (The Washington Post). Water resources development;
Water supply; Water use; Water consumption.
Four states of water—liquid, ice, vapor, "molecular water” (fused
into rock 400 miles deep in Earth, where most of planet’s water
is found); water runs worl, yet taken
completely for granted; era of easy water is over; new era of
high-stakes wate; no good reason to be overtaken by global
water crisis; have more than enough water, don;t think about it,
or use it, smartly.
Seth Fletcher (2011).
Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric cars, and the New
Lithium Economy. (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 272
p.). Features Editor (Popular Science magazine). Lithium cells;
Lithium industry; Electronic industries. Rise of lithium
batteries, impications of new energy economy; third element on
periodic table may hold key to environmentally sustainable, oil
independent future (electric cars to "smart" power grid that can
harness powers of sun and wind store electricity, use them when
needed); path toward carbon-free future; from salt flats of
Bolivia to labs of MIT and Stanford, from turmoil at GM to
cutting-edge lithium-ion battery start-ups; key players, ideas
in industry with power to reshape world.
Ann Norton Greene (2008).
Horses at Work: Harnessing Power in Industrial America.
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 322 p.). Lecturer and
Administrator in History and Sociology of Science University of
Pennsylvania). Draft horses --United States --History --19th
century; Working animals --United States --History --19th
century. Use of living,
breathing horses to power technology in development of
industrial America - single most significant energy transition
of antebellum era; critical contribution to history of American
energy, rise of American industrial power; Americans’ social,
political choices about power consumption sealed animal’s fate.
Leslie Hannah (1979).
Electricity Before Nationalisation: A Study of the Development
of the Electricity Supply Industry in Britain to 1948.
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 467 p.).
Electric utilities--Great Britain--History;
Electrification--Great Britain--History.
Chris Harris (2006).
Electricity Markets: Pricing, Structures and Economics.
(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 584 p.). Head of Industry, Networks and
Agreements in the Retail Division of RWE power in the UK, has
held senior positions in the generation and trading sectors of
the Electricity Supply Industry. Electric utilities; Electric
utilities--Costs; Electric utilities--Rates. Electricity supply
industry. Relationship between policy
objectives, free markets, technicalities of electricity
production, network flow, supply and consumption.
William J. Hausman, Peter Hertner, Mira
Wilkins (2008).
Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and
International Finance in the History of Light and Power,
1878-2007. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press,
487 p.). Chancellor Professor of Economics (College of William &
Mary);. Electric utilities --History; Electrification --Economic
aspects --History; Power resources --History.
How multinational enterprises,
international finance influenced electrification around world
from 1870s through 1930s; "domestication" over time (buy-outs,
confiscations, other withdrawals); 1978 - multinational
enterprises disappeared, replaced by electrical utility
providers with national business structures; vigorous revival in
recent years.
Mark Hertsgaard (1983).
Nuclear Inc.: The Men and Money Behind Nuclear Energy.
(New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 339 p.). Nuclear industry--United
States.
Richard F. Hirsh (1989).
Technology and Transformation in the American Electric Utility
Industry. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 274
p.). Electric utilities--United States--Technological
innovations.
--- (1999).
Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the
American Electric Utility System. (Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 406 p.). Electric utilities--Deregulation--United States;
Electric utilities--Government policy--United States--History;
Electric utilities--Law and legislation--United States--History;
Competition--United States--History--20th century; Pressure
groups--United States--History--20th century.
Thomas P. Hughes (1983).
Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930.
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 474 p.).
Historian of Technology (University of Pennsylvania). Electric
power systems--United States--History; Electric power
systems--Great Britain--History; Electric power
systems--Germany--History.
Edward Hungerford (1972).
The Story of Public Utilities. (New York, NY: Arno
Press, 384 p. [Reprint of 1928 ed.]). Public utilities--United
States.
Leonard S. Hyman, Andrew S. Hyman, Robert C.
Hyman (2000).
America's Electric Utilities: Past, Present, and Future.
(Vienna, VA: Public Utilities Reports, 442 p. [7th ed.]).
Electric utilities--United States; Electric
utilities--Government policy--United States.
Leonard S. Hyman...[et al] (1998).
The Water Business: Understanding the Water Supply and
Wastewater Industry. (Vienna, VA: Public utilities
Reports, 513 p.). Water utilities--Management;
Water-supply--Management; Sewage--Purification; Sewage disposal.
Jill Jonnes (2003).
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to
Electrify the World. (New York, NY: Random House, 432
p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Tesla, Nicolai,
1956-1943; Westinghouse, George, 1946-1914; Electric
engineering--History; Electrification--History; Electric
power--History; Competition--United States.
Maury Klein (2008).
The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented
Modern America. (New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press, 560
p.). Professor Emeritus (University of Rhode Island).
Inventions--United States--History; Inventors--United
States--Biography; Force and energy--United States--History.
"Power revolution" turned
America from agrarian society into technological superpower in
19th century; dynamic, fiercely competitive inventors and
entrepreneurs who made it happen - steam engine, the
incandescent bulb, the electric motor.
Gary D. Libecap (2007).
Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the West's First Great
Water Transfer. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 209 p.). Donald Bren Professor of Corporate Environmental
Management, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management
and Economics Department (University of California, Santa
Barbara). Water transfer--California--Owens Valley--History;
Water transfer--Law and legislation--West (U.S.);
Water-supply--California--Los Angeles; Water rights--West
(U.S.); Owens River Watershed (Calif.)--Water rights--History. Water
politics, importance of distributional issues in water trades; water transfer from Owens Valley to Los Angeles still plays
important role in perceptions of how water markets work; memory
of theft, environmental destruction.
Forrest McDonald (1957).
Let There Be Light; The Electric Utility Industry in Wisconsin,
1881-1955. (Madison, WI: American History Research
Cente, 404 p.). Electric utilities -- Wisconsin.
Tom McNichol (2006).
AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War. (San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 208 p.). Contributing Editor (Wired
magazine). Electric currents, Alternating--History; Electric
currents, Direct--History; Electricity--Standards--History;
Electricity--History. How
Thomas Edison bet wrong in fierce war between supporters of
alternating current and direct current.
Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr (2007).
The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century.
(Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 242 p.).
Professor of History (Northeastern University); Richard S.
Caliguiri University Professor (Carnegie Mellon University).
Draft horses --United States --History --19th century; Urban
animals --United States --History --19th century.
Indispensable
horse provided power for vehicles that moved freight,
transported passengers, fought fires, installed equipment in breweries,
mills, foundries, machine shops; critical role that horse played
in growing nineteenth-century metropolis; municipal challenges of maintaining safe,
productive living environment for both horses, people; rise of
organizations like American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals.
Richard Munson (1985).
The Power Makers: The Inside Story of America's Biggest
Business-- and Its Struggle To Control Tomorrow's Electricity.
(Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 260 p.). Electric utilities--United
States.
--- (2005).
From Edison to Enron: The Business of Power and What It Means
for the Future of Electricity. (Westport, CT: Praeger,
206 p.). Director of the Northeast-Midwest Institute. Electric
utilities--United States--History.
Controversial
history of $210 billion power industry (nation's largest).
David E. Nye (1990).
Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology,
1880-1940. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 479 p.). Professor
of American Studies (Odense University, Denmark).
Electrification--United States--History; Electrification--Social
aspects--United States.
--- (1998).
Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies.
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 331 p.). Professotr of American
Studies (Odense University, Denmark). Power resources--Social
aspects--United States; Energy consumption--Social
aspects--United States.
David E. Nye (2010).
When the Lights Went Out: A History of Blackouts in America.
(Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 304 p.). Professor of American
History (University of Southern Denmark). Electric power
failures --United States --History; Electrification --United
States --History; Electrification --Social aspects --United
States. American condition - community increasingly bound with
electrical wires and signals. Power outages in America from 1935
to present - as technical failures, military tactic, social
disruption, crisis in networked city, outcome of political and
economic decisions, sudden encounter with sublimity, memories
enshrined in photographs; America's development of electrical
grid (made large-scale power failures possible; military
blackouts before and during World War II; New York City's
contrasting 1965 and 1977 blackout experiences; growth in
consumer demand that led to rolling blackouts made worse by
energy traders' market manipulations; blackouts caused by
terrorist attacks and sabotage; "greenout", voluntary reduction
organized by environmental organizations.
Harold C. Passer (1953). The Electrical
Manufacturers, 1875-1900; A Study in Competition,
Entrepreneurship, Technical Change, and Economic Growth.
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 412 p.). Electric
industries -- United States.
Richard Rudolph and Scott Ridley (1986).
Power Struggle: The Hundred-Year War Over Electricity.
(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 305 p.). Electric
utilities--Government policy--United States--History.
Phillip F. Schewe (2007).
The Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World.
(Washington, DC: J. Henry Press, 311 p.). Chief Science Writer
at the American Institute of Physics. Interconnected electric
utility systems--History; Electric power distribution--History;
Electric power production--History. Largest industrial investment in
history of humankind; operates on rapidly shrinking margin for
error.
Michael Brian Schiffer (2008).
Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the Creation of
Practical Electricity before Edison. (Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 420 p.). Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor of
Anthropology (University of Arizona). Electrical engineering
--United States --History. Why, how emerging electrical
technologies formed foundation of modern industrial world,
became commercial products in context of evolving corporate
capitalism in which conflicting judgments of practicality
sometimes turned into power struggles;
earlier efforts that paved way for Edison; case
studies of pre-Edison electrical technologies; claims of "practicality",
"impracticality"; central role of
scientific authority in determining fate of technologies.
Wolfgang Schivelbusch; translated from the
German by Angela Davies (1988).
Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the
Nineteenth Century. (Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 227 p.). German Historian. Lighting--Social
aspects; Street lighting--History--19th century;
Industrialization--History--19th century; Lamps--History--19th
century. History of electricity.
Henry Schlesinger
(2010). The
Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution. (New
York, NY, HarperCollins/Smithsonian, 320 p.). Journalist
Specializing in Science and Emerging Technologies. Batteries;
technological innovations --history. Battery powers all handheld
electronic devices that pervade high-tech culture; device whose
enormous influence has been downplayed or misunderstood; battery's evolution, from Italian Alessandro
Volta's early 19th-century copper and zinc model
through 21st-century advances in
nanotechnology.
Sam H. Schurr...[et al] (1990).
Electricity in the American Economy: Agent of Technological
Progress. (New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 443 p.).
Electric power consumption -- Economic aspects -- United States;
Electric utilities -- United States; Industries -- Energy
consumption -- United States. Series Contributions in economics
and economic history. Published under the auspices of the
Electric Power Research Institute.
Sam H. Schurr and Bruce C. Netschert, with
Vera F. Eliasberg, Joseph Lerner [and] Hans H. Landsberg (1960).
Energy in the American Economy, 1850-1975; An Economic Study of
Its History and Prospects. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
Press, 774 p.). Power resources -- United States.
_________________________________________________________
Business History Links
Boston Gas Company Photographs,
1880s-1970s (400 items)
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/ulib/Burns/bgas.html
Boston Gas Company photos, about 400 images from the 1880s to
the 1970s, documenting both the company and the city of Boston =
fascinating views of pre-1900 Boston, including over 200
cyanotypes that reproduce beautifully on the Web.
Chernobyl
http://www.chernobyl.info/
Brought online in 1978, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was
considered a model plant throughout the USSR. Eight years later,
that same plant experienced an explosion and meltdown that had
disastrous consequences for local residents. This terrible
incident caused serious damage to the global cause of
establishing nuclear power as a viable alternative source of
energy. This very thorough and well-designed site serves as an
excellent gateway to information about the events surrounding
that date, and more importantly, about the long-term effects of
the event and the organizations that are intimately concerned
with these affairs. The "Facts" section is a good place to
start, as it contains an overview of the incidents of 20 years
ago, along with information about the consequences for the
health of local residents and the environment. Another useful
section is in the right-hand corner of the homepage provides
news updates about projects, events, and meetings related to the
events at Chernobyl. One of the most powerful areas of the site
contains first-hand recollections about the events at Chernobyl,
and it should not be missed.
The Chernobyl Catastrophe: Consequences
on Human Health
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/
reports/ chernobylhealthreport.pdf
This detailed April 2006 report evaluates the current and
potential health consequences of the April 1986 Chernobyl
nuclear disaster. Topics include cancer (thyroid, leukemia, and
other cancers), and non-cancer illnesses (immune functions,
endocrine status, premature aging, and more). Includes a report
summary and many data tables and graphs. Opens directly into a
PDF document. From Greenpeace.
EDF
Electropolis Museum
http://www.electropolis.tm.fr/eng
Collections
have a scientific, technical, industrial, historical,
economical, sociological and artistic nature... and concern
electro-technical machines such as engines, alternators and
transformers ; measuring devices ; computer, medical and
communication equipment ; small and large household appliances
(cookers, irons ....); audio-visual, lighting and telephone
equipment ; toys, advertising articles and works of art.There
are more than 12,000 items in the Museum's collections, ranging
from the electrical battery to the hydraulic turbine including
an electrostatic machine from the 18th century, electronic games
from the 20th century and household appliances.
Thomas Alva Edison Patent Collection
http://www.mall-usa.com/uspat/edison/1.html
Patent Numbers 1 (06/01/1869) - 1084 (05/16/1933).
Edison Electric Institute
www.eei.org
Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is the association of United
States shareholder-owned electric companies, international
affiliates, and industry associates worldwide. Our U.S. members
serve 97 percent of the ultimate customers in the shareholder
owned segment of the industry, and 71 percent of all electric
utility ultimate customers in the nation. They generate almost
60 percent of the electricity produced by U.S. electric
generators.
Seattle Power and Water Supply Collection
http://content.lib.washington.edu/ww-spwsweb/
This collection of photographs "showcases images of
hydroelectric power and water supply facilities built in
Washington State from the late 1890s to the 1950s. Many of these
dams, power plants and reservoirs were built in some of
Washington's most rugged terrain and had features that
represented significant engineering feats of their time." Also
includes an excerpt from the book "Building Washington: A
History of Washington State Public Works." From the University
of Washington Libraries.
The Utility Connection
http://www.utilityconnection.com
The Utility Connection provides links to 4,032 electric, gas,
water and wastewater utilities, utility associations,
organizations, news, magazines, utility financial resources, and
related state & federal regulatory and information sites.
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