Edison: Genius. Showman. Executioner.Episode 81:59
The Power Station Beneath Manhattan
Edison attempts his greatest systems test by delivering commercial electricity from Pearl Street to real customers.
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Transcript
In September 1882, one station sent electricity through lower Manhattan.
The first commercial station opened on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan in September 1882.
Pearl Street supplied light and power to customers in a 1-square-mile area.
Edison’s electric-light work sought an economical bulb to rival candles, gas, and oil.
Edison examined metal wire, human hair, and coconut husks before choosing a carbon filament.
One carbonized sewing-thread filament burned for 13.5 hours.
A lamp patent covered an improvement in electric lamps and their manufacture.
Its carbon filament and design changes made electric lighting reliable, safe, and practical.
Operators engaged the station’s dynamos as the system came alive.
Once the station was running, electricity moved outward through the neighborhood.
The distribution network carried light and power from the station into buildings.
The Pearl Street system initially lit 400 lamps.
A year later, 513 customers used 10,300 lamps across the system.
Edison’s electric-light system had the elements needed for practical, safe, and economical incandescent lighting.
For Edison, invention had become a machine that other people depended on.
I never quit until I get what I’m after. Negative results are just what I’m after.
A station, distribution network, and customers made electric light a business.
In 1889, Edison’s electric companies combined into Edison General Electric.
But Edison never controlled the company that carried his name.
In 1892, Edison General Electric merged with Thomson-Houston and became General Electric.
Where it leaves off
Edison General Electric carried his name, but forces beyond his control were about to erase even that from the company.
Sources
- Edison Biography - Thomas Edison National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)nps.govsecondary
- November 2017: Thomas Edisoncensus.govsecondary
- Thomas Edison's Patent Application for the Light Bulb (1880) | National Archivesarchives.govsecondary
- Life of Thomas Alva Edisonloc.govsecondary
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