The introduction of gas and electricity to the US
Until the late 1700s, illumination in US households was limited to candles and whale oil lamps, but both were inefficient - it would take a hundred candles to create as much light as a single modem lightbulb - and so expensive as to be beyond the means of most households. For the middle classes, illumination improved dramatically with the invention, in 1783, of the Argand lamp (named after its Swiss creator), which had greater intensity and less flicker. The next step forward was the invention of the oil-based fuel kerosene in 1858, and of petroleum a year later.
But the big transformation came with gas. Initially, gas was used to light streets - Baltimore had gas lamps as early as 1816, before Paris or Berlin - but the dirt, odours and volatility of gas meant it could not be relied on for domestic purposes until the late 1860s. Once some attempt to deal with these problems had been made, gas swept the nation. Each gas outlet provided as much light as a dozen candles. By 1895, the average middle-class home was twenty times better lit than it had been at mid-century. But, even cleaned up and made more stable, gas remained dirty and dangerous. It emitted unpleasant, potentially lethal fumes that required special vents to clear the air. Even then, the carbonic acid and smoke that the lamps produced were harmful to books, curtains, wallpaper and soft furniture, as well as the eyes, lungs and clothes of the inhabitants.
In 1882, domestic electricity at last became a possibility when Thomas Edison's company started providing electricity on a commercial basis. By mid-decade, 200 ofNew York City's grandest households were enjoying the illumination from lightbulbs manufactured by the company. Only the very wealthiest could afford such an indulgence. It was unsurprising, therefore, that household electricity was not an immediate hit with everyone.
Outdoors, however, it was another matter. Almost overnight, the US became the most illuminated country in the world. By the 1890s, Broadway in New York was already being described as 'the Great White Way' because of its dazzling theatre lights and advertising signs. People came from all over just to see the lights, which included the world's first flashing sign, for Manhattan Beach and its hotels. In 1910, Broadway got a sign that was a wonder of electrical engineering. Rising the equivalent of seven storeys above the rooftop of the Hotel Normandie and incorporating 20,000 coloured lightbulbs, it offered in intricate detail the illusion of a 30-second chariot race, complete with cracking whips and flying dust. People were so amazed by it that police had to be assigned to the area to keep pedestrians and traffic moving.
By 1896, electricity had become such an accepted part of life that people began referring to it as 'juice'. By 1930, 70 per cent of US households, some 20 million homes, were electrified-up from ten per cent in 1910, and more than the rest of the world combined at that point in time. The proportion would have been higher still except that rural electrification took so long to complete; even by 1946, as little as half of US farms had electricity.
As electricity became more widely available, electrical products began to come onto the market, starting with the electric sewing machine in 1889. The electric iron appeared in 1893, the electric vacuum cleaner in 1901, the electric washing machine in 1909, and the electric dishwasher in 1918. By 1917, the US householder could choose between 50 types of electrical appliances - and eagerly did so. In that year, people spent $175 million on them. Within a little over a decade, that figure would rise to no less than $2.4 billion a year.
The new and fast-changing market for electrical appliances often gave small companies a chance to thrive. After a major manufacturing rival turned down the idea of a washing machine which ran automatically, a small outfit named Bendix, which had no experience of manufacturing household appliances, took up the idea in 1937 and within a decade had become one of the US's biggest manufacturers of appliances. Much the same happened with a small company called Frigidaire, founded in 1918, which saw an opening for a refrigerator designed for the home and so successfully seized the opportunity that the name almost became generic, although it took until 1927 for General Electric to produce the first million-selling model. However, no product was more successful in this period than the radio. In just three years, beginning in 1922, over four million were sold, at a typical cost of $55. By 1926, there was a radio in five per cent of homes, and by the end of that decade, with almost every household owning at least one, market saturation was practically complete.
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Question 1 - 6
Choose YES/NO/NOT GIVEN
1.
In the late 1700s, the majority of families used candles and whale oil lamps regularly.
Yes
No
Not given
2.
The light created by the Argand lamp was superior to that of a candle.
Yes
No
Not given
3.
Gas was unsuitable for use in homes when it was first developed as a source of light.
Yes
No
Not given
4.
By 1895, a number of different companies competed to provide domestic gas.
Yes
No
Not given
5.
Gas lighting was found to damage the contents of the home.
Yes
No
Not given
6.
The electric lightbulbs manufactured by Edison's company in the 1880s broke very easily.
Yes
No
Not given