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Electricity In The Late 19th Century

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The late 19th century was home to the pinnacle of technological advancement. With the Industrial Revolution in full swing, America was taking its first steps into entering the modern age. With this came the harnessing, development, and implementation of electricity to power the ever growing advancements of the time. All of this started with Thomas Edison’s invention of the first practical light bulb in the late 1870’s (History), giving light and paving the way for electricity’s entrance into our homes. Despite this, Edison’s method of transferring electricity with Direct Current was limited how far power could travel from the power plant,and how it could be adjusted to fit the needs of the average consumer. Enter Nikola Tesla, a student of …show more content…

The spectacle took place at the New York Auburn State Prison, and used an illegally bought Westinghouse Generator to power the show. Those who witnessed it considered it to be “an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging” (PBS). It had such an impact that not only did it receive the nickname “Westinghousing” but also became the prefered method of killing those sentenced to death until the late …show more content…

The Chicago World’s Fair was to be held in 1983. They needed to contract a company to power the fair with electricity, and planned to pay whoever could power the fair for the cheapest. Of course, this lead to Edison and Tesla vying for the chance to put an end to their squabble. Of course now all this came down to price, and with Tesla’s bid of $399,000 to power the world’s fair versus Edison $554,000, Tesla won the opportunity to power the fair, with everything ending in complete success, AC power won the approval of the people, and finally put to rest the feud between Edison and Tesla for good. After this, AC power finally became the standard for both consumer and economic use. Tesla, along with help from Westinghouse, developed an AC power plant at Niagara Falls, and used the hydroelectric power to bring electricity to New York City. After some time, power plants began to spring up in most other major cities in the United States, but it wasn’t until the passing of the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 as part of Roosevelt's New Deal that electricity became a commodity for everyone to

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Morgan adopted a vision: to have every home in New York City have electric lights. However, there was one problem there was a new electric giant: Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. With Edison’s popularity depleting with the invention of the electric chair and Westinghouse and Tesla AC current winning the chance to be featured in Chicago’s World Fair and the Niagara Falls contract - this would be a huge hit for Morgan. Morgan thinking fast bought the majority shares in Edison’s company changing the named to General Electric and used fear and intimidation of a lawsuit to scare Westinghouse in to hanging over the rest of his company. Through this merger he would go to light every house in America rich and poor (though the average American did not get electricity until much later from the elite Americans).

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At the prison, there was once an inmate that killed another inmate and for the maltreatment, he was hung

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There have been steam engine trains trailing the United States in the early 1800’s. Many of the early ones ran only a few dozen miles. When the railways ran longer distances, the cost to build and later ride them were be extremely high. However, long distances were what Minnesota needed to keep up with the competitive and growing nation around it. “Construction began on the first track in 1861 in St. Paul and was completed in 1862.”

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Interchangeable parts were considered one of the most groundbreaking inventions during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Defined as identical components that can be substituted for one another (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016), the invention cannot be traced back to an exact date. Interchangeable parts were popularized in America when Eli Whitney began using them to assemble muskets during the first years of the 19th century (History.com Staff, 2010). Interchangeable parts played such a vital role towards the developmental growth of the country at the time because it revolutionized the manufacturing and effectiveness of weapons. Mass production of the parts allowed relatively unskilled workers to quickly produce and repair low cost weapons in large numbers.

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Automobiles. Telephones. Lightbulbs. These were some of the major technological innovations created during 1865 to 1920. These creations impacted many Americans, even to this day.

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Later they could send the electricity to Buffalo which was 20 miles away. Niagara Falls turned into one of the world’s leading centers of electro-process corporations. A treaty was passed between Canada and the United States that certain cubic feet of water per second would constantly

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In this hanging, three individuals are condemned to die, one of them was a young child with “the face of a sad angel,” for sabotaging an electric power station (Wiesel 60). The

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The “criminal” was taken out of solitary confinement and brought out in front of all the inmates. Then the inmates were offered another ration of soup if they wanted to be the executioner and then the head of the camp read the verdict of why the hanging occurred. Then they pull the chair out from under whomever the victim of the hanging was. After the Germans yelled “caps off, now cover your heads.” Lastly the “Kapos forced everyone to look him squarely in the face” (63).

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The United States in the early 1930s saw nearly ninety percent of its urban population with access to electricity, which allowed them more efficient uses of machines like electric stoves, coffee makers, waffle irons, hot plates, electric roasters, and Waring Blenders. At that time, it was financially difficult for private companies to supply urban areas with electricity for numerous reasons, primarily because farmers were often too poor, too widespread, and too few to actually produce a real profit from. Still, rural life without electricity was hard. Farmers had to rely on dim kerosene lanterns just to do their work, the absence of electricity in opposition to cities aided in their isolation, and the general standard of living was dangerously

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o In the toon, the wires shock guiltless walkers as a policeman keeps running for help. The skull in the wires connected to the electric light cautions this new innovation can be fatal. Despite the fact that the immediate current (DC) Edison championed was less hazardous to handle, it could achieve just a one-mile range from a force station. o

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Thanks to tungsten lights, which began standardization in mid 1920’s, allows them to run directly to AC power instead of a generator. Director

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Perhaps the single most important legacy of this period of electrification was the democratization of electricity, as access to this essential resource was transformed from being a luxury available only to the wealthy to a widespread utility that was accessible to people of all classes. This democratization of electricity had far-reaching impacts on both the natural and built environments in America. On the one hand, the widespread use of electricity led to the growth of new industries and the creation of new job opportunities, as well as improved quality of life and productivity. On the other hand, the electrification of America also had some environmental impacts, such as air pollution, water pollution, and temperature in cities increasing as a result of the amount of electricity being used thus making people use more electricity to cool themselves

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In both the early and late 19th century there were a lot of things that contributed to the growth of America. Economically, during this point in time there was extreme growth. Up to the end of the Civil war, the way people went about life was about to change even more than what has already changed in the last fifty years. Post-Civil war, over 4 million slaves were freed. They migrated and assimilated towards the pacific coast and towards northern states.

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Edison believed AC to be too dangerous to put in homes, and Tesla wanted to prove him wrong and left the company. Tesla finds George Westinghouse to invest and he tells people that it isn't dangerous and can light a house for a quarter of what Edison and Morgan can. Tesla and Edison found themselves in a battle when Niagara Falls was building the largest power station in the world but, was unable to decide whether it should be run on AC or DC. Eventually the company picks DC and Morgan immediately wanted to take revenge. Morgan threatens Westinghouse with a lawsuit knowing he cant afford it and begins buying shares of the company until he has complete control.

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The Roaring Twenties were full of dramatic, social, political, and economic changes ("The Roaring Twenties,1). Post World War I, the era marked the beginning of modern times with new and worthy developments. More and more people were abetted to live in the cities, most people had jobs, therefore money to spend, and they spend it by “having a good time” (McNeese,88). While the society got rid of their miseries; sciences, arts, and businesses renewed themselves by evolving. This research paper briefly gives examples from advances in technology, transportation, and entertainment while discussing their benefits to the United States.

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