Thomas Edison's Plan to Illuminate America in the Late Nineteenth Century
In October 1880, Thomas A. Edison published “The Success of the Electric Light,” in The North American Review,” to explain that the adoption of his electric light for domestic use has been delayed “due to the enormous mass of details which have to be mastered before the system can go into operation on a large scale, and on a commercial basis as a rival of the existing system of lighting by gas.” The “enormous mass of details” would include further research and development to improve the lamp, founding companies to manufacture components, and personally funding and supervising a company to build power plants. This talk will focus on the Thomas A. Edison Central Station Construction Department, a little-known entity founded by Edison himself in May 1883, to construct direct-current electric power stations in towns and cities throughout the United States. It built thirteen central stations in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania before being absorbed by the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting in October 1884, coincidently, around the time IEEE was founded. While Edison stepped away from the day-to-day central station business, he continued research in direct current and later alternating current technology. And by the late 1880s, he found himself dragged into a media war with George Westinghouse in what has become the mythical “battle of the currents.” In 1887, Edison opened a new and expanded research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey and by 1890 his research and business interests moved on to the improved phonograph, the talking doll, motion pictures, ore milling, and other technologies.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
- Date: 03 Oct 2024
- Time: 06:00 PM to 08:00 PM
- All times are (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
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- 10304 Lynnhaven Pl
- Oakton, Virginia
- United States
- Building: Oakton Library
- Room Number: Meeting Room
- Starts 28 August 2024 12:00 AM
- Ends 03 October 2024 12:00 AM
- All times are (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Dr Mary Ann Hellrigel of IEEE History Center
Thomas Edison's Plan to Illuminate America in the Late Nineteenth Century
In October 1880, Thomas A. Edison published “The Success of the Electric Light,” in The North American Review,” to explain that the adoption of his electric light for domestic use has been delayed “due to the enormous mass of details which have to be mastered before the system can go into operation on a large scale, and on a commercial basis as a rival of the existing system of lighting by gas.” The “enormous mass of details” would include further research and development to improve the lamp, founding companies to manufacture components, and personally funding and supervising a company to build power plants. This talk will focus on the Thomas A. Edison Central Station Construction Department, a little-known entity founded by Edison himself in May 1883, to construct direct-current electric power stations in towns and cities throughout the United States. It built thirteen central stations in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania before being absorbed by the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting in October 1884, coincidently, around the time IEEE was founded. While Edison stepped away from the day-to-day central station business, he continued research in direct current and later alternating current technology. And by the late 1880s, he found himself dragged into a media war with George Westinghouse in what has become the mythical “battle of the currents.” In 1887, Edison opened a new and expanded research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey and by 1890 his research and business interests moved on to the improved phonograph, the talking doll, motion pictures, ore milling, and other technologies.
Biography:
Since January 2016, Mary Ann Hellrigel, Ph.D. is the Institutional Historian, Archivist as well as the manager of the oral history program at the IEEE History Center. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including the 1993 IEEE Life Member History Fellowship. Mary Ann has a bachelor's degree in history and biology from Rutgers University (1983); a master's degree in public history from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1989); and a Ph.D. in the history of technology and science from Case Western Reserve University. She served as an editor and research faculty the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project at Rutgers University, and for more than 30 years, she taught history; history of technology, engineering, and science; women’s history; American Studies; and geography at universities in the USA, including Stevens Institute of Technology; California State University, Chico; New Jersey Institute of Technology; Iowa State University; and The State University of New York, College at Geneseo. Mary Ann has widely published and presented papers on Edison and early electric power and has consulted on related exhibits and documentaries.