Slide 1 Historic and ModernUtilities

Lighting and

Electrical Systems

Slide 2 American Home Utilities• 1800 — With few exceptions, American

homes were hardly technologically distinguishable from post-medieval homes– Cooking: open hearth– Heating: fireplaces– Cooling: open the doors and windows– Food storage: (relatively) cold/root cellar– Lighting: candles, oil lamps– Washing/bathing: basins, tubs– Waste: outhouse during the day, chamber

pot (stored under the bed) at night

Slide 3 American Home Utilities, cont.

• 1900 — Most homes contained modern conveniences unrecognizable to an 1800 homeowner– Cooking: kitchen range (electric or gas) – Heating: steam/hot water, or central forced air– Cooling: electric fans– Food storage: ice box– Lighting: electric or gas– Washing/bathing/waste: bathtubs, sinks, and

toilets connected to water and sewage systems

Slide 4 “Modern Conveniences”• 1800s — century of enormous progress• 1805, B. Latrobe, modern = “comfort”• 1860 huge strides; new technologies only

available to the wealthy– 1860s, # industrial firms in US increased by

80%, the largest one-decade increase in American history

• Technological changes not uniform in time or degree, but even incremental changes were significant

• Technologies interdependent

Was not until the development of mass production, spurred by the Civil War, that new technologies became available to the middle class Getting water from a pump in the yard beats a well and a bucket. But locating the pump inside the house, along with a sink, is an even greater improvement. Widespread acceptance of new technologies dependent on the creation and evolution of other technologies. A flush toilet of little use if there was a water supply, but no adequate sewerage system through which to remove the waste.

Slide 5 “Modern Conveniences”, cont.

• 1889 definition of “modern conveniences”: “those arrangements and appliances which make it possible for people to live comfortably in a larger house, without seriously increasing the cares which they had in a smaller one.”

• Home built in 1900 recognizably modern• 1920s post-WWI building boom

– Jan. 1926 House & Garden, “comfort had been brought up to perfection”

Gibson, Louis H. Convenient Houses, with Fifty Plans for the Housekeeper. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1889.

Slide 6

Ierley, p. 11

Slide 7

“Middletown” = Muncie, IN

“Major cities” = New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, & Baltimore

3 and 8. Middletown is Muncie, IN. 4. Major cities include NY, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Baltimore. Seventh Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor, WA, DC, 1894. Water closets were replacing privies in areas of concentrated population, but most, if not all, of these water closets were shared. 9. US Dept. of Commerce, Real Property Inventory 1934. Merritt Ierley, The Comforts of Home: The American House and the Evolution of Modern Convenience (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), p. 10.

Slide 8 Lighting• Until about 130 years ago, all lighting was open

flame: fire, rush, candle, oil, lard, gas

Whale oil lamp, Argand lamp, solar or astral lamp — could burn oil or lard, converted so would burn kerosene Tallow — solidified fat of cattle or sheep Spermaceti (1830s) — liquid wax from the head of the sperm whale converted to a solid Stearine (1850s) — chemically purified animal or vegetable fat Paraffin (1860s) — byproduct of the petroleum industry

Slide 9 Petroleum-based fuels for lighting

• Kerosene invented 1846 by Canadian Abraham Gesner (distilled oily coal at low temperature, but later used petroleum)

• Paraffin oil (= kerosene), 1848, James Young, Scotland, distilledparaffin oil from coal

• First U.S. oil well drilled in 1859 near Titusville, PA by E. L. Drake. Produced abundant supply of kerosene Kerosene

Lamp,1957

Simplest form of paraffin is methane, CH4, which is a gas at room temperature. Heavier members of the family are liquid at room temperature; e.g., octane (C8H18), mineral oil, and paraffin wax (C20H42 to C40H82), isolated in 1830 by Carl Reichenbach, and is a solid at room temperature. Paraffin wax is a white, odorless, tasteless, waxy solid, with a typical melting point between 115-154 degrees F. Paraffin wax is used in crayons, and in modified drywall, where the paraffin wax melts during the day absorbing heat, and solidifying at night, releasing heat. http://www.douglashistory.org.au/fileadmin/_migrated/pics/Woman_reading_magazine_by_light_of_kerosene_lamp_Port_Douglas_1957_01.jpg

Slide 10 Manufactured Gas• Coal gas manufactured in the 1600s• Coal gasified by heating it in enclosed oven

with little oxygen• Gas produced is a mixture of hydrogen,

methane, and carbon monoxide• Coal gas also contains significant quantities of

sulfur, ammonia• Coal gas has to be purified before used• Constant fuel supply, smelly, very hot• Aka “town gas”, “illumination gas”

The coal was gasified by heating the coal in enclosed ovens with an oxygen-poor atmosphere. Gases, including hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and ethylene, were generated, all of which can be burnt for heating and lighting purposes. Coal gas, however, also contains significant quantities of sulfur and ammonia compounds, as well as heavy hydrocarbons, and so the gas needed to be purified before it could be used. Town gas, a synthetically produced mixture of methane and other gases, mainly the highly toxic carbon monoxide, is used in a similar way to natural gas and can be produced by treating coal chemically. This is a historical technology, not usually economically competitive with other sources of fuel gas today. But there are still some specific cases where it is the best option and it may be so into the future. Most town "gashouses" located in the eastern US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were simple by-product coke ovens which heated bituminous coal in air-tight chambers. The gas driven off from the coal was collected and distributed through networks of pipes to residences and other buildings where it was used for cooking and lighting. (Gas heating did not come into widespread use until the last half of the 20th century.) The coal tar (or asphalt) that collected in the bottoms of the gashouse ovens was often used for roofing and other water-proofing purposes, and when mixed with sand and gravel was used for paving streets.

Slide 11 Worker shoveling coal at a gasworks

Slide 12 Concord Gas Light Co, Concord, NH, 1888-1952

In service from 1888-1952, is the last structure of its kind in the U.S. still containing its original gasholder. Similar structures were a common feature in the urban areas of New England and upper New York. This one was built to increase the company's storage capacity and was retired when a natural gas pipeline reached Concord. General view of site looking NW, Concord Gas Light Company, Gasholder House, South Main Street, Concord, Merrimack County, NH http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/nh/nh0100/nh0131/photos/105471pv.jpg

Slide 13 Manufactured Gas Lighting

• 1790s demonstrations of illuminating gas• 1807 gas street lighting system in London• 1816—first gas system for street lighting in

the U.S. in Baltimore; New York’s gas street lights installed in 1823

• By start of Civil War, 381 cities had some kind of gas light system, running on “town gas”

• Street lights: made city safer; shops stayed open longer; downtown became an evening entertainment center

Slide 14

Photos by L. M. Drummond

Slide 15 Atlanta Gas Light Company• April 6, 1855—First gasworks

(coal-burning gas plant) begun• Dec. 25, 1855—1st gas streetlight• 1856 –AGL Co. incorporated—Atlanta’s oldest corp. • 1864—Gasworks burned by Union Army• 1880—All city’s gas streetlights back on• 1883—Atlanta had 426 gas streetlights• 1889—Gas water heating introduced• 1890s—Gas cook stoves introduced • 1902—Anthracite coal strike made gas cooking

popular; became more profitable than gas lighting had ever been

William Helme, Philadelphia, built first gasworks in Atlanta in 1855.

Slide 16

Atlanta Gas Light Company1871 Bird’s Eye Map

Slide 17

Philadelphia Gasworks; engraving from Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, 1853

Standard Gas Machine, ca. 1892

Home production of “illuminating gas” was

only for the wealthy

Philadelphia gasworks; Ierley, p. 138;. Standard Gas Machine, ca. 1892, Ierley, p. 140.

Slide 18 Gas Production• Gas-producing (“gasification”) plants were

located in remote, industrial sectors of towns because of the smell

• Gas had to be scrubbed (filtered) to get rid of odors and noxious byproducts (ammonia, tar, sulfur gas)

• Usually the gas works was located at a low elevation relative to the rest of the city because gas is naturally lighter than air and would rise through the mains

Interstate Power Company manufactured gas plant in 1930s, Clinton IA, serving eastern Iowa and southern Minnesota. http://www.engg.ksu.edu/CHSR/outreach/tosc/sites/clintonimages.html The Center for Hazardous Substance Research, Kansas State University Cleanup and revitalization of these brownfield sites

Slide 19 Gas lighting was superior to anything that preceded it, and it was a way to

demonstrate that a city was up-to-date

The Manufactured Gas Industry in Kansas, by the Kansas Dept. of Health and Education, 2008

Slide 20 Naturally Occurring Gas• ca. 1000 B.C.—Oracle of Delphi, Mt. Parnassus,

Greece; natural gas escaping from cracks in ground, ignited by lightning

• Chinese 1st to use naturally occurring gas—bamboo pipelines

• 1626—Native Americans lit natural gases, Lake Erie• 1821—first natural gas well dug in Fredonia, NY• 1858—Fredonia Gas Light Co. formed, 1st in US• 1859—first US oil well also produced natural gas,

piped 5.5 miles to Titusville, PA• 1885—Robert Bunsen invented burner that mixed

natural gas with air, creating a flame safe for cooking and heating

Natural gas is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, with other hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and hydrogen sulfide. Before natural gas can be used as a fuel, it must undergo processing to clean the gas and remove impurities including water to meet the specifications of marketable natural gas.

Slide 21

The term Freedonia was popularized by the 1933 Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup, as a fictional country. When the film was first released, the village of Fredonia, New York complained about the possible negative impact the film might have on them. The Marx Brothers replied, in typical Marx fashion, “Change the

name of your town. It is hurting our picture.”

Images from http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/03/30/opinion/30cavett-grouchomarx/30cavett-grouchomarx-blog427-v2.jpg. In the 1960s, Woody Allen, working on Candid Camera, used Freedonia as a practical joke by asking passersby what they thought of the bid for independence for Freedonia. In the 1990s, the satirical magazine Spy pulled a practical joke on several members of the United States Congress. Impersonating a New York radio host (Henry Rose), the magazine successfully convinced several newcomers to Congress to comment on the "ethnic cleansing" in Freedonia, without their realizing that Freedonia was a fictional country. Nick Smith urged caution; James Talent supported action; Jay Inslee warned that inaction would be unacceptable.

Slide 22 Naturally Occurring Gas, cont.

• 1890s—pipelines to Chicago and other cities from natural gas wells in Texas and Oklahoma

• 1930—natural gas comes to Atlanta• Post-1945—Naturally occurring gas became widely

used with advent of improved welding techniques, pipe rolling, and metallurgical advances ability toconstruct long pipelines

• 1950s-1960s—thousands of miles of pipelines laid throughout US

• Today, US natural gas pipeline network, laid end-to-end, would stretch to the moon and back twice

Slide 23 Gas Delivery• Gas distributed via cast iron mains, 2” – 2’ in

diameter in 9’ sections laid beneath city streets• Gas passed through meter (invented in 1816) to

enter the house; meters were notoriously unreliable: “You lie like a gas meter”

Old gas meter on building in Xenia, OH; http://www.flickr.com/photos/23475878@N07/2431750431/ Man reading gas meter in basement, no place, no date; http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/BE073206/man-reading-gas-meter-in-basement The Atlanta Gas Light Pipeline Replacement Program is a 15-year project to replace more than 2,700 miles of bare steel and cast iron natural gas pipeline in Georgia, replacing them with state-of-the-art plastic and steel pipes. The program will be complete in 2013. In late summer 2011, we began environmental studies and surveying for the new Eastside Pipeline project. This pipeline will be a new 24-inch coated steel transmission line, approximately 28 miles long, that connects our Riverdale liquefied natural gas facility in Clayton County to a connection point in our transmission system near the intersection of Buford Highway and Clairmont Road in DeKalb County. Atlanta Gas Light recently received approval from the Georgia Public Service Commission for a plan to support the development of a network of privately owned compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations in Georgia and issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for interested parties to participate.

Slide 24

The presence of the gas meter dates the photo to no earlier than 1941

Bradley, OK, maybe?

Slide 25

In Lancaster, PA, gas meters on Marion

Street were installed outside, sparking protests among

homeowners and historic

preservationists(9/3/2012)

The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission has proposed changes to the way it regulates the installation of natural gas meters and other equipment—changes that could have a dramatic impact on the visual character of Philadelphia and other historic communities across the state. Under the proposed new regulations, all gas meters and pressure regulators would be installed on the outside of customer’s properties, and interior meters (which are very common in older and historic rowhouse neighborhoods) would be relocated to the exterior within the next ten years. Placement of the new equipment would be at the sole discretion of the utility company, with little warning or consultation with property owners. The proposed new regulations include certain exemptions for historic properties, but the language used is vague and potentially ineffective. Unless these proposed regulations are revised, thousands of historic structures could be adversely impacted. Images: http://articles.philly.com/2012-09-

03/business/33549654_1_outdoor-meters-indoor-meters-steel-service-lines

Slide 26 Gas Meters on contributing building in a Savannah historic

district

Gas meters in a historic district in Savannah; 2012 image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/7720572130

Slide 27

• Pipes within houses were mostly wrought iron, later cast iron

• Smaller diameter pipes near burners were brass, tin, pewter

• Changed the treatment of interior spaces– Before, furniture was re-arranged to catch the

best light – But gas lighting was fixed, so table was

placed under the light, and chairs set in place around the table

Gas Within a Building

Slide 28 1847 & 1860 gasoliers

Open flame gasolier from http://education.gtj.org.uk/en/blowup1/19908 1847 gasolier (bottom left) in room adjacent to the Members’ Reading Room, the Athenaeum, Philadelphia. http://www.rushlight.org/reports/report_041808.html Other gasoliers and wall lamps in the reading room were electrified in 1923, and the glass has been replaced (right) http://www.philaathenaeum.org/ppexhibits/exhibit3/e30002b-1.htm

Slide 29

• Maximize light and use gas efficiently

• Very dim: 17-20 candlepower = 25-watt nightlight

• Earliest and strictly functional fixture—the inverted “T” with naked burners at each end, controlled by stop-cocks

Gas Fixtures

1883 wall gas fixture, Ivy Hall, Atlanta, GA

Slide 30 Gas lighting, late 1800s

http://officemuseum.com/Office_Man_with_Postal_Scale.jpg. Office with man, numerous small filing cabinets and boxes, a postal scale, and gas lighting. Boxes in the upper left corner are labeled "Foreign Invoices: J.E.R" and "Domestic Invoices, Sundries: J.E.R." J.E.R. may stand for Jersey Eastern Railway, which operated from 1873 to 1929 on Jersey, an island in the English Channel.

Slide 31

Gas ceiling and desk lighting. Middleton, CT,

1880s

Invention of vulcanized

rubber for tubing by Charles

Goodyear in 1843 led to

development ofgas desk lamps

http://officemuseum.com/Photo%20Gallery%201860s-1880s/1880a_OM_Two_Men_in_Office_with_Gas_Lighting_half_T_Y.jpg Two men in an office, stereoview by George Wainwright Hennigar (1832-1910), Middleton, CT. Photo includes a map of New England, gas ceiling and desk lights, a lion head seal press, and a barometric ink stand that was patented in 1861-64. George Hennigar operated the Hennigar Studio from 1861 until his retirement in 1890, when he turned the business over to his sons, Morton and Howard, who renamed the studio Hennigar Bros. The gas used for illumination was produced from coal or oil.

Slide 32 • 1885 Welsbach gas mantle

patented– Carl Auer von Welsbach

(1858-1929)– Circular Bunsen burner with a

fiber mantle– Light could be directed down

into a room– 1890 upgrade

(using thorium)• Whiter, brighter light • 15 times as much light

as a naked gas burner

Mantle—thumb-shaped mesh bag impregnated with thorium, which incandesces (produces light when heated) at high temperatures. The burning gas would heat the bag, which would glow brightly. Gas mantles, now often made with non-radioactive yttrium, are still used in propane-powered camping lanterns.

Slide 33 Problems with Gas Lighting

• Pipes made noise• Burning gas left soot on walls, ceilings• Gas had distinctive, unpleasant odor• Burners had to be properly adjusted to

provide the correct mixture of gas and air, or the gas would not burn cleanly and compounds like carbon monoxide could poison the residents

Slide 34 Problems with Gas Lighting, cont.

• If a gas pipe leaked, or a valve was left open, enough gas could build up in a room to cause an explosion

• Contaminants in gas, such as hydrogen sulfide, cyanide, and napthalene, could make residents seriously ill after inhaling them

Slide 35 Gas lighting being converted to electric in 1890s

J-style lamp, electric and gas, ca. 1908

Inman Park United Methodist Church, 1898. Gas light above; electric light below; both now

electric.

Slide 36 Compare Gas & Electric Fixtures

Gas inverted “T” arm fixture, ca. 1880 (has

been converted to electric)

Electric 2-light pendant fixture,

ca. 1905

Ca. 1880 gas inverted T arm fixture Ca. 1905 electric 2-light pendant http://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/categories/restored-antiques/lighting?&e%5Bpaging%5D%5Bper_page%5D=219

Slide 37 Office in the

Department of the Navy,

Washington, DC, ca. 1890;

Combination gas and electric

lighting

http://officemuseum.com/IMagesWWW/Navy_Dept_Strohmeyer__Wyman_NY_NY_4.jpg

Slide 38 Gas space

heater, Avary-Fulton

House, Decatur, GA

Avary-Fulton House, Decatur, GA Photo by L. M. Drummond

Slide 39

Gas space heater

connection close-up,

Avary-Fulton House,

Decatur, GA

Avary-Fulton House, Decatur, GA Photo by L. M. Drummond

Slide 40 Avary-Fulton House,

Decatur, GA

Avary-Fulton House, Decatur, GA Photo by L. M. Drummond

Slide 41 End of Manufactured Gas—Natural Gas & Electricity

• By 1870s, electric street cars in many cities• 1879: Thomas Edison perfected

incandescent bulb, competition with gas lighting

• Electricity — no odors or soot• Electricity from gas-powered generator

good for farms, far from city gas mains

Slide 42 Gas & Electric Street Lights1920, Saratoga Springs, NY

David E. Nye, Electrifying America, pg. 55.

Slide 43 End of Manufactured Gas; Switch to Natural Gas & Electricity• 1960 — U.S. had nation-wide system of

natural gas pipelines• Europe continued to use manufactured gas

until 1980s when natural gas discovered in the North Sea

• Some gasworks converted to production of electricity

• Some gasholder buildings converted to office, living, retail spaces

Slide 44 Environmental Legacy of Manufactured Gas

• Although relatively clean-burning at the consumer end, gas was anything but clean to make. By-products included:– Coal, ash, clinkers, coal and oil tars,

lampblack, ammonia, cyanide compounds, and emulsions of oil and tar in water

Slide 45 Environmental Problems with Manufactured Gas

• Some manufacturing by-products could be sold or re-purposed

• Others were stored or disposed of on site contamination of water and soil with ammonia, tar, coal tar, lime, iron shavings, contaminated wood chips and ground corn cobs from purification process

Coal tar, lampblack, sulfur, and ammonia could be used as feedstock for the chemical industry. Coal tar could also be used as fuel in the furnaces. Coal ash and cinders were often used as inexpensive construction fill or to treat icy roads in the winter.

Slide 46 Manufactured Gas Making a Comeback

• “Syngas” being considered as America seeks energy independence

• Gasification of coal, oil, or biomass to make hydrogen, which burns without releasing pollutants or greenhouse gases

• Companies now developing technologies to make syngas economical and “clean”

• If biomass, rather than natural gas or coal, is used, gasification can be made carbon neutral

Slide 47 Natural Gas in the U.S. today• Shale gas = natural gas trapped within

shale formations • Production of shale gas has rejuvenated

the natural gas industry in the U.S.• Supplies of natural gas 77

billion cubic feet for the week ending 10/11/2013

• Total stocks now stand at 3.654 trillion cubic feet

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/natural-gas-prices-slip-after-us-supply-data-2013-10-22?link=MW_latest_news (from Wall Street Journal) Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that can be rich sources of petroleum and natural gas. http://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/ US Energy Information Agency

Slide 48

Electrical Lighting

Slide 49 Home Technology Evolution• House evolved during 1800s

– Small structure with a few rooms – Larger, multi-storied building with rooms

segmented by function• Home was industrialized before electricity

– By 1880s, normal to receive water, gas, and (for some) steam heat from outside the home

– Electricity was just another addition• In 1910, only 1 in 10 American homes had

electricity• By 1930, most urban homes were wired

Number of rooms increased while family size shrank. Three distinct kinds of spaces in the late Victorian house: (1) space for presenting the ideal home to guests and family; (2) spaces for the production of domestic goods; and (3) spaces for privacy. Each family member should have their own bedroom (except small children).

Slide 50 Carbon Arc Lamps—1st electrical lighting

• Carbon arc lamp demonstrated ca. 1807 by Sir Humphrey Davy– Two charcoal sticks approx. 4” apart with a

2000 cell battery to create electrical arch

– Produced harsh, brilliant light 200 times more powerful than contemporary filament lights

– Not practical for small interior spaces

Slide 51 Carbon Arc Lamps

• Not practical until a reliable source of electricity existed — best was Charles F. Brush’s electrical dynamo (1876)

• 1879 — Brush lit 20 arc lamps in Monumental Park in Cleveland, OH. City quickly added arc street lighting—first electrical street lighting in the U.S.

• 1880 Brush Electric Company provided street lighting on Broadway in New York City

Slide 52

Ca. 1895 image of man changing a carbon arc lamp, unknown location, General Electric Corporation.

Slide 53 Electric Incandescent Lighting• 1875—Woodward and Evans patent light

bulb; Thomas Edison purchases patent• December 1879—Edison’s first public

demonstration of incandescent light bulb– Carbonized bamboo filament sealed in pear-

shaped bulb of clear, evacuated glass with a tip where it had been sealed

– Gave off orangey light about same brightness as incandescent Christmas tree lights

• July 21, 1881—Atlanta City Council contracts for electric streetlights

• Sept. 4, 1882—Edison’s Pearl Street Station (lower Manhattan) goes online; provides light to customers within area of one square mile

• 1883—Georgia Electric Light Company installs 1st electric streetlights in Atlanta

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Edison_bulb.jpg

Slide 54 Electric Incandescent Lighting, cont.

• Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), disgruntled Edison employee, developed alternating current motor in 1883– Invented high tension power transmission lines – Designed first great hydroelectric power plant at Niagara

Falls, NY• 1886—George Westinghouse installed first alternating

current system in Great Barrington, MA • 1889—first electric street cars in the U.S.: Joel Hurt’s

line from Edgewood Avenue to Inman Park in Atlanta• 1892—Edison Electric merges with other companies to

become General Electric• 1897—National Electrical Code (NEC) established

Slide 55 • Edison’s direct current distribution system required power to

be generated close to where it was consumed. Voltage throughout the system was the same, therefore safer, but separate lines are needed to serve appliances of different voltages (e.g., motors and electric lights)

• Alternating current allowed high voltage transmission to go through a transformer to allow low voltage usage (e.g., home lighting) as well as high voltage usage (e.g., industrial motors). Fewer and larger generating plants could serve an area. However, higher voltages were unsafe

• 1887—State of New York asked Edison about best way to execute condemned criminals; he advised using AC, and gave public demonstrations executing animals

• 1888—George Westinghouse hired Tesla as consultant• War of the Currents won by Westinghouse when he got the

contract to provide AC electric lighting to 1893 Columbia Exposition in Chicago

War of the Currents

Slide 56 Grimmestad Land and Loan Office, Belview, MN, ca. 1895

http://officemuseum.com/Photo%20Gallery%201890s/1899b_Minnesota_1895_pf026901_Y.jpg "Grimmestad Land and Loan Office," Belview, Minn., c. 1895. Photograph includes desk phone, seal presses, wall clock, wall safe containing ledgers, kerosene lamp, and stuffed deer head.

Slide 57 Electrical Systems

• Electric generators would not work 24/7, so gas and electric lighting combined; in use through World War I

• Bare, clear-glass light bulbs at first; frosted bulbs and shades in use by 1920s

• Historic electric fixtures, like gas, were lower than today’s ceiling fixtures– Gas had to be lit and extinguished– Electric had to be turned on (fewer wall

switches)

Slide 58 Norfolk and Western Railway Office, 1890s

http://officemuseum.com/Photo%20Gallery%201890s/1899d_Virginia_Tech_nw3845_Y.jpg. Norfolk and Western Railway office. Picture includes Remington typewriter, rubber stamp rack, and electric lighting.

Slide 59 Electric lighting in the National Weather Service Office, Buffalo, New York, 1899

http://officemuseum.com/Photo%20Gallery%201890s/NOAA_1899_wea01304_.jpg "The Local Forecast Office," National Weather Service, Buffalo, NY, 1899. The U. S. national weather service was set up in 1870. Picture includes typewriter and electric lighting.

Slide 60 Second floor hallway, First

National Bank of Philadelphia, 1910

Note floor heating grate, cast iron radiator, electric

lighting, electric fan

http://officemuseum.com/IMagesWWW/1910_Phila_Bank_by_Wm_H_Rau_19.jpg

Slide 61 Incandescent Lamps

Variety of bulb shapes, glass types, & bulb

bases1888 Edison bulb, 16 cp 1900 Edison

outside frosted, 10 cp

Westinghouse 1889, 16 cp

General Electric, 1906, wattage unknown

Philips, 1920, 25 watts

CP=candlepower

Slide 62

Edison Westinghouse Thompson Edison

-Houston T-H Adapter

Most Common Pre-1900 Sockets

Note key switches

Slide 63 Early GE ads; 1911 and 1924

MaxfieldParrish cover for 1931 GE

Mazda Lamps calendar

“Mazda ”— chief deity of

Zoroastrianism; source of light and

embodiment of good

1911 ad; http://www.amazon.com/General-Electric-Mazda-Lamps-Light/dp/B005DGUBR8 1924 Saturday Evening Post ad in color; http://www.ebay.com/itm/1924-GE-Edison-Mazda-lamp-bulb-color-AD-/200454896002 1931 Maxfield Parrish calendar cover art; http://www.sappho.com/art/maxpar01.html

Slide 64 • Easy to retrofit electricity into existing building, esp. wood

frame• Exposed system on the wall/ceiling surface using wood

cleats– Wires were easily abraded, broken

• Snake wires through existing iron or steel gas piping, or install metal piping – Rigid conduit was excellent barrier, but difficult and

expensive to install– Had to be grounded and coated on interior to inhibit rust – Pipes often contained moisture and rust degraded the

insulation• Wiring in plaster

– Good concealment– Difficult to locate faults– Messy to repair– Lime from plaster corroded insulation creating shorts

Wiring Systems in the 1800s

Slide 65 1920s advertisement for wiring an “already built” house

Slide 66 1914 advertisementLeila Ross Wilburn plan book, Southern Homes

and Bungalows, p. 57

Slide 67

• Knob-and-tube wiring system, 1890s-1930s– Two-wire concealed system– Non-conducting porcelain knobs hold wires 1”

off surface– Porcelain tubes used when wires penetrated

joists, studs, or crossed other wires

Wiring Systems

Slide 68

Knob Tube Cleat

Slide 69 General Office of the Consumers Biscuit Company, New Orleans, 1917. Note electric lights, ceiling fan,

surface ceiling wiring system.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Office_of_Consumers_Biscuit_Co_New_Orleans_1917.jpg

Slide 70 • Surface wiring system, 1900-1930s

– Cheaper and easier to install than knob-and-tube– Wood molding carried 2-3 wires in grooved strip

attached to the wall; covered with decorative cap that looked like picture molding

– Not for use in concealed or damp locations– Wood moldings not allowed in most places by

1930s

Wiring Systems

Slide 71 • Modern Surface

Raceways– Metal and non-metallic

channels, boxes, connectors

Wiring Systems

Power from inside-the-wall line from receptacle via interior wiring to outside-the-wall extension box, up the surface channel to the surface mounted light switch. Wall studs prevent an electrical box from being mounted inside the wall. Instead, surface-mount channel attaches to a special box mounted directly on the wall, and wiring in the channel connects the switch to power. http://photos.mlive.com/muskegonchronicle/2011/08/channelwebzip_2.html Metallic channel http://www.hubbellcatalog.com/hubbellpremise/datasheet.asp?PN=HBL2000B

CAIV&FAM=Mraceway Wire-hider non-metallic raceways; http://www.newtechindustries.com/products/1%22-Non%252dMetallic-Wire-Hider-Raceway-Base.html

Slide 72 Wire & Insulation Types• Earliest insulation was fibrous wrap (paper,

cloth, yarn); later treated with oil, varnish, gum to make impervious to water

• In 1892 Thomas Edison patented “electric conductor” to insulate wire so it would be waterproof and fireproof– a) the conducting wire– b) a cotton braid separator over the wire – c) an outer covering of rubber compound

Slide 73 Wire & Insulation Types• Rubber insulation in use by 1900

• Armored cable – Flexible steel conduit developed 1903 by Harry Greenfield of Sprague Electric Company of New York– Galvanized steel strips wrapped in a tube– Carried 2-3 cloth-insulated wires – BX not in wide use

until 1930s

Beginning in Edison’s time, the original residential wiring systems used conductor insulation made of gum-rubber. This “rubber” insulation was actually a mixture of ingredients including vulcanizing agents containing sulfur for curing. These various additives, especially sulfur, had a very corrosive effect on the copper conductor, so the copper had to be tinned. Rubber was also very soft when first vulcanized, so a cotton braid or wrap was added as an outer covering for mechanical protection. When rubber insulated conductors were suitable for outdoor use they had

to incorporate three of these braids or wraps that were saturated with a weatherproofing compound. Greenfield had two experimental versions, called AX and BX, with X standing for “experimental”. The BX was the one that eventually was produced, and the name stuck.

Slide 74 Wire & Insulation Types

• Synthetic rubber insulation introduced in 1930s

• Non-metallic sheathed cable, invented ca. 1926 by General Cable in Rome, NY, trade name Romex®

Early cloth braid non-metallic cable

Modern jacketed non-metallic cable

Beginning in Edison’s time, the original residential wiring systems used conductor insulation made of gum-rubber. This “rubber” insulation was actually a mixture of ingredients including vulcanizing agents containing sulfur for curing. These various additives, especially sulfur, had a very corrosive effect on the copper conductor, so the copper had to be tinned. Rubber was also very soft when first vulcanized, so a cotton braid or wrap was added as an outer covering for mechanical protection. When rubber insulated conductors were suitable for outdoor use they had to incorporate three of these braids or wraps that were saturated with a weatherproofing compound.

Slide 75 • Armored cable (BXL) containing lead, for use in

damp locations• 1950s—National Electric Code required domestic

wiring to be grounded with dedicated third wire• 1960s—Aluminum wiring, fire hazard• 1950s—transition of residential wire insulation from

rubber to thermoplastics (PVC)• Non-metallic cable with thermoplastic insulation

standard since 1960s

During the 1950s, the wire industry began transitioning residential wire insulation from rubber to the newly developed thermoplastics (PVC). PVC had advantages in that it did not suffer from the brittleness and cracking with age that was typical of the older rubber insulation. It also did not have sulfur additives that could damage the conductor, so the copper did not have to be tin-coated.

Slide 76

Knife (blade) switch

Ceiling rosette & bulb, ca. 1910

Brass and Bakelite wall

receptacle, c. 1920

Wall key switch, ca.

1890

Sign; reportedly, they still display these at the historic National Hotel in Jamestown, CA; http://www.roadsideresort.com/tags/weird-science

Slide 77

Plugs

Wooden plug, 1915

Edison attachment plugs, 1880s-1915

Hard rubber 2-prong Spartan plugs, 1915-

1930

Ca. 1930 Bakelite plug

Slide 78 1905 GE Electric Appliance Demo

Nye, 251.

Slide 79 Fuses• First used in 1847 to protect telegraph

stations from lightning strikes• Contain piece of metal through which

electricity must pass• During unsafe overload, metal will melt,

stopping flow of electricity• When fuse is tripped, must be thrown

away and replaced

Ceramic GE fuses with removeable brass caps. One on left is 1882-1892; one on right is 1911-1919; http://www.lite-a-ray.com/products.html

Slide 80 Fuses & Fuse Boxes

Fusebox, probably late 1950s-1960s; http://inspectapedia.com/electric/Old_House_Wiring.htm Josiah Wallis House fusebox, ca. 1947 1941 tamper-resistant fuses. The Edison fuse base design also made it easy to use a penny to bridge a plug fuse, and that could be very dangerous.

Slide 81 Fuses & Circuit Breakers

• Distribution boards, fusebox, breaker panel, service panel—where fuses or circuit breakers are installed in the building

• Both fuses and circuit breakers will automatically block against an incoming surge of electrical power past a certain safety limit, but use different technology

Slide 82 Circuit Breakers• Invented in 1836, but modern circuit

breaker patented in 1924• Switches that are tripped when electric

flow passes a certain limit• Do not have to be replaced; can be reset• First “resettable fuse” sold in US by GE in

1945 after end of WWII• By 1955, had become smaller, faster• 1985 new design, communicable circuit

board

History info from: http://www.electriccontrol.com/blog/the-history-of-ge-al-circuit-breakers-ge-ak-circuit-breakers-and-ge-akr-circuit-breakers/

Slide 83

Circuit Breakers

1898

Ca. 1945Ca. 1945

Pre-1950

1980s

Oldest, 1898 circuit breaker Single toggle, 15-amp circuit breaker, obsolete; http://www.breakeroutlet.com/xo115.htm Ca. 1945 Circuit breaker, inside the tower of the Clocktower Building, the original Met Life headquarters at 5 Madison Ave., built in 1909; http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=1808 Pre-1950 circuit breaker, four connected toggles; http://www.breakeroutlet.com/mb.htm 1980s circuit breaker box; http://www.philadelphia-electricians-

how-to.com/2011/07/when-to-upgrade-your-electrical-service.html

Slide 84 Grounding• 1913 grounding required• Most common method use

building’s metal pipes• 1925-1971 — code allowed for, then

required external grounds, metal rods, at least 8 feet long

http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Electrical/Electrical-Safety/top-10-electrical-mistakes/View-All

Slide 85 • Homes built before 1960 had 125-volt 2-prong (non-grounding) receptacles

• 1947—3-prong grounding receptacles required for laundry appliances (washers and dryers)

• 1956—expanded to basements, garages, outdoors• 1962—expanded to all circuits• 2000—NEC required 4-prong outlet for all 220-volt

residential circuits

National Electric Code

Slide 86

Electrical wall outlets at 491

Auburn Avenue,built in 1911

Photo by L. M. Drummond

Slide 87 Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI)

NEC GFCI requirements (and effective date):

• Underwater pool lighting (since 1968) • Receptacles: • Outdoors (since 1973) • Bathrooms (since 1975) • Garages (since 1978) • Kitchens (since 1987) • Crawl spaces and unfinished basements

(since 1990) • Wet bar sinks (since 1993) • Laundry and utility sinks (since 2005)

The National Electric Code (NEC) typically only applies to new construction/major renovations. The coverage of GFCI protection has gradually increased over the years. US Consumer Public Safety Commission; http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/099.pdf

Slide 88 Electrical Advertising

Times Square 1900

Top left: Broadway at night from Times Square, 1900, Detroit Pub. Co.; http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/det/4a20000/4a25000/4a25600/4a25603v.jpg Bottom right, Times Square at night, 1900, Detroit Publishing Company; http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/det/4a20000/4a25000/4a25600/4a25604v.jpg

Slide 89 Times Square, 1920s

Times Square ablaze with lights in the 1920s. In the Broadway theatre district in 1927 there were electric marquees on seventy-six theatres. http://blog.thunderbaybooks.com/2011/09/picture-of-the-day-times-square-1920s/

Slide 90 Times

Square, 2012

Photo by L. M. Drummond

Slide 91 Accounting office, Brooklyn, NY, 1925. Note electric lighting and electric adding machines.

Wiring is concealed.

http://officemuseum.com/IMagesWWW/1925_Accounting_Office_Brooklyn.JPG

Slide 92

Home of a Hundred Comforts

advertising booklet by

General Electric, 1925

Nye, p. 269.

Slide 93 Distribution of Rural Electrification in 1935

Nye, p. 299. City people, who had larger incomes, never had large startup costs, and instead were able to invest in ever-larger numbers of appliances. By 1930, electrification had decidedly increased the gap between the farm and the city. While a majority of city dwellers had electric lights, an iron, a vacuum cleaner, and the prospect of adding many more appliances, the farm family had none of these and could not reasonably expect o have them any time soon. In the 1930s, rural electrification became a social program. FDR said electricity was no longer a luxury, it was a definite necessity. TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) created in 1933. A comprehensive electrification program that affected the southern states drained by the Tennessee River. Environmental as well as social concerns: dependable navigation called for flood control; flood control called for dams and reservoirs. Reservoirs could not fill with silt otherwise their function vanished. Silt prevent only by control

of erosion on agricultural lands, which mean cover crops, both forest and grass, and scientific methods of tillage and crop rotation. Cover crops require cheap fertilizers can best be made with electric furnaces and cheap power. So the cycle returns on itself. REA (Rural Electrification Administration) created in 1935. A decentralized electrification program and eventually operated in 46 states. Its sold purpose was getting transmission lines to the farms. By end of 1937, had constructed 73,000 miles of electrical lines, reaching more than 300,000 farms. Collectively, electrical appliances lengthened the day, eliminated much of the heaviest labor, improved family health, and spruced up the farm’s general appearance.

Slide 94

Rural Electrification Administration posters by Lester Beall – 1934; http://www.vis-atk.com/2010/08/09/excellence-in-achievements-2-tf2/ Hayti, MO, 1942, annual meeting of the US REA cooperative; http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8d07000/8d07400/8d07495v.jpg REA promo photo of a modern wash machine on a US farm, 1940-1946; http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b20000/3b29000/3b29700/3b29798r.jpg It’s Coming—Electricity for you; http://thamanjimmy.blogspot.com/2011/02/history-of-rural-electrification.html

Slide 95 Tenant farmer’s house in Green County, GA with REA electric meter on the house, 1941

Doing laundry in Home, LA, pre-electrification,

ca. 1930

1941 Tenant farmer’s house in Greene County, GA with REA electric meter on the house http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8c05000/8c05700/8c05719v.jpg Housework in the 1930s was truly a chore, Homer, LA http://www.our.coop/content/rich-history-claiborne-electric

Slide 96 Dead Ox Flat, OR,1939

Extension of REA beyond 1946, publicity poster

Alexandria, MN,1937

Caswell County, NC,1940

REA across the nation

Poster: in 1944, Congress approved the Pace Act, which, among other things, extended the mission of the federal Rural Electrification Administration indefinitely beyond its targeted 1946 expiration date. https://remagazine.cooperative.com/About/PastIssues/November2011/Pages/PostWarBoom.aspx Ca. 1937, raising pole, coming of electricity to Alexandria, MN; http://www.runestoneelectric.com/about_history.cfm Electric line going to a farmer’s house in Caswell County, NC, 1940; http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/

8c13000/8c13700/8c13724v.jpg Entrance to dug-out home, Dead Ox Flat, Malheur County, OR, 1939; http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b35000/8b35000/8b35036r.jpg

Slide 97 1933 bookkeeping office

Bookkeeping office, 1933. Photograph shows 17-column Burroughs electric adding and listing machines, possibly Duplex Adding and Listing or Duplex Subtractor Bookkeeping Machines; http://www.officemuseum.com/IMagesWWW/cb000186_1933_Office_with_Burroughs_Machines_OM.JPG

Slide 98 Fluorescent Lighting• Gas-discharge lamp filled with mercury vapor• More efficient use of electricity than

incandescent lamps• Lamp fixture expensive due to ballast needed

for current regulation• Lower energy cost offset greater initial

expense of fluorescent over incandescent lighting

• Last 10-20 times longer than incandescent, unless switched on and off frequently

Slide 99 History of Fluorescent Lighting• 1857—Heinrich Geissler invented

electrical glow gas discharge tube• 1897—Thomas Edison invented a

fluorescent lamp, but did not pursue it• 1901—Cooper Hewitt patented mercury-

vapor lamp, forerunner to fluorescent light

Late-1800s Geisslertube Cooper Hewitt tube

Geissler tube image; http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/G/Geissler_tube.html Cooper Hewitt tube image; http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/20thcent/prec20.htm Geissler tubes have had a large impact on the development of many instruments and devices all of which use related vacuum and discharge principles: Xenon flash lamps (for flash photography), Xenon arc lamps (for automobile headlights), X-ray tubes, sodium vapor lamps of low and high pressure, "Neon" signs (both using visible light discharge from neon and other gases and indirectly through phosphor excitation from ultraviolet light) Mercury vapor lamps, Mass spectrometry devices, Cathode ray tube (employed in the oscilloscope and later as a television, radar, and computer display device), Electrotachyscope (an early moving picture display device), and Fluorescent lamps

Slide 100 Neon Lighting Detour

• 1898—discovery of inert gas, neon, which glowed bright red in a Geissler tube

• 1910—Neon in production in France, used for general illumination

• 1926—fluorescent coating on neon lighting tubes patented in France

• Advances in neon lighting overcame impediments to gas-based lighting; all the components for successful fluorescent lighting in place by end of 1920s

Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers, Englishmen, first isolated neon in 1898. George Claude, Frenchman developed a technology and a successful business for air liquefaction, and was obtaining enough neon as a byproduct to support a neon lighting industry by 1910. Claude developed a new electrode to use in neon lighting which eliminated sputtering—a problem with fluorescent lamps. Jacques Risler, Frenchman, patented fluorescent coating in 1926. All the major features of fluorescent lighting were in place at the end of the 1920s. Decades of invention and development had provided the key components of fluorescent lamps: economically manufactured glass tubing, inert gases for filling the tubes, electrical ballasts, long-lasting electrodes, mercury vapor as a source of luminescence, effective means of producing a reliable electrical discharge, and fluorescent coatings that could be energized by ultraviolet light. At this point, intensive development was more important than basic research.

Slide 101

All images by L. M. Drummond

Slide 102 Fluorescent Lighting History cont.

• 1934—General Electric engineer, George E. Inman, developed fluorescent lamp prototype

• Patent disputes between GE and others went on for decades

• 1938—GE first marketed “fluorescent lumiline lamps”

• Fluorescent lighting led to experiments with "windowless factories”

Slide 103 GE fluorescent sign, lamp, and

packagingca. 1945

Mazda lamp sign; http://uv201.com/Promo_pages/decals.htm GE 1945 fluorescent lamp; http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec%20Sheets/GE%20F14.htm

Slide 104 Fluorescent Lighting History cont.

• 1939—Fluorescent tubes introduced simultaneously at the New York World's Fair and the (San Francisco) Golden Gate Exposition

• 1951—more light produced in US by fluorescent than by incandescent lamps

• 1970s—compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) designed, but most were considered too expensive to mass-produce

Slide 105

Fluorescent Lighting

Mid-1940s

1950s gas range with

fluorescent light

Desk lamp, date ca.

1950

Early to mid-1940s, http://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=794&pos=24&pid=32516 Fluorescent light on 1950s Western Holly gas range; http://www.antiquegasstoves.com/pages/yellowwh.html Desk lamp, date unknown; http://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=1217&pos=94&pid=35205

Slide 106 Office with fluorescent lights, radiator, electric clock, electric adding machines, post-WWII.

No date, no place; http://www.officemuseum.com/Office_with_typewriters_and_adding_machines.jpg

Slide 107

1950s office pool

1960s records storage room (below left);

1960s office décor ad (below right)

1950s-1960s Fluorescent

Office Lighting

1950s office pool with rows of fluorescent lighting; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439723695579664.html 1960s office interior with majority fluorescent ceiling lighting (not visible), and some low-hanging lamps in break room and receptionist’s desk; http://mikkipedia.net/?p=1414

Slide 108 Lighting System Dates

• 1620 – 1850 Candle holders• 1783 – 1839 Whale-oil, lard-oil, burning

fuel lamps and fixtures• 1854 – 1934 Kerosene lamps/fixtures• 1817 – 1907 Gas lighting• 1879 – present Electric lighting

From R. W. Moss, Lighting for Historic Buildings (1988)Note from LD: I would modify these somewhat; e.g., gas lighting lasted

longer in some places, so did candles.

from Young, Historic Preservation Technology, p. 378

Slide 109 Light Source CandlepowerWhale-oil lamp 0.9Coal gas, No. 0.5 jet 1.0Stearine candle 1.1Tallow candle 1.25Sperm-oil lamp 1.306Paraffin candle 1.49Coal gas, No. 1 jet 3.0Kerosene lamps (various types) 6.0-12.0 Coal gas, No. 2 jet 7.8Incandescent light bulb, 15-watt 8.8Whale-oil Argand lamp 9.8Coal gas, No. 3 jet and

Sperm-oil Argand lamp 13.0Incandescent light bulb, 25-watt 15.9Coal gas, No. 4 jet 20.0Coal gas, No. 5 jet 28.0Incandescent light bulb, 40-watt 39.8Incandescent light bulb, 60-watt 67.6Incandescent light bulb, 75-watt 95.5Incandescent light bulb, 100-watt 135.2Incandescent light bulb, 200-watt 310.3Incandescent light bulb, 300-watt 493.2

Slide 110

1905 – electric iron1905 – Christmas tree lights1907 – motor-driven phonograph1909 – vacuum cleaner1911 – electric toaster1921 – refrigerator1924 – blender1925 – electric mixer1927 – coffee percolator1927 – electric saw1930 – heat lamp1935 – electric fan1937 – washing machine1938 – garbage disposer1939 – television set

1947 – room air conditioner1951 – hand-held hair dryer1956 – electric can opener1959 – lighted telephone1967 – microwave oven1972 – drip-type coffeemaker1973 – garage door opener1975 – video game system1975 – videotape recorder1978 – personal computer1982 – CD player1984 – phone answering machine1997 – DVD player1999 – plasma TV2002 – wireless router

Chronology of Electric Home Appliances