Electricity

Benjamin Franklin

He was the first person who conducted an experiment involving conducting electricity (the key and the kite experiment) in 1752.

Direct Current vs Alternating Current

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Nikola Tesla became a big player in the game of studying electricity. Tesla found himself in direct competition with Edison. Tesla is well known for his work with alternating current (AC). The distinguishing aspect of direct current (DC) was that you couldn't economically send electricity much more than about a mile, while AC changes directions periodically.

Light Bulbs

Thomas Edison patented his incandescent bulb in 1879 and 1880 with the filament made from bamboo that gave the lamps a lifetime of up to 1,200 hours -- this filament became the standard for the Edison bulb for the next 10 years. There was one electric light bulb that existed slightly before the incandescent. This was the carbon arc lamp. The first installation in a home of residency was in Europe in 1875. The first home installation in the United States occurred in 1879 in Cleveland, OH. This had actually inspired Thomas Edison to work on his own electric light. The arc lamp became very popular because it was cheaper than using oil because the oil came from whales which were almost pushed to extinction from overhunting.

Getting on the Grid

Getting on the grid was not simple: You had to wait for the grid to get to you. It was expensive and more of a luxury at first. By 1907, only 8 percent of Americans lived in homes with electricity nationwide. Again, it was a bit of a luxury. It was not dispersed super swiftly because the infrastructure had to be built. Once that was in place, the question was whether you could afford it. In 1881, JP Morgan's house became the world's first electrified residence, when Thomas Edison wired the structure with incandescent lights and installed a steam engine and dynamo in the back yard to provide power.