How electric light came to the US. Interesting but light reading.

An interesting history of how a new technology was integrated into society and how much it changed it. As light pollution becomes something we are more aware of, we can contemplate what life was like when light was a luxury that some did not have much access to.

A fairly quick read with a few core theses -- that Edison was just the tip of the iceberg of research done to invent electric light (with a role inflated by his status and perhaps Americans' desire to claim the invention as their own), that commercialization of the idea was more critical than the invention itself, and that it led to many other inventions or adaptations that changed life considerably. But it didn't feel like any of these points was developed as richly as it could have been, and it often felt like I was reading sort of random lists of what happened and how.

Some fun facts:
- Edison didn't actually invent the light bulb, but he invented the first design that would be stable and scalable enough to be widely adopted
- In 1885 some Yale students chopped down the first electric light pole on campus because they believed it ruined their privacy when going on dates in public
- Mass advertising and electric lighting came of age at the same time, leading to a massive number of gaudy lighted signs advertising stores or shows (and then a backlash against their ugliness)

I slowly read this one after purchasing it in the Kindle store. Thanks feels sort of funny within the connect of modern light technology---I spent my time reading most of the book in the near-dark because of my device's backlit screen.

I think it's a bit hard to read continuously, and worked better for me in segments. There's coverage of accidents, safely improvements, the development of the EE field and profession, and more importantly (and interestingly for me) what the introduction and later improvements of electric lighting did to people and their spaces. The street, there factory, the home. Freeburg shapes his chapters topically so you can move from one bit to another depending on your interest. I'm sure not everyone is going to want to read the professionalization chapter. There are sections within chapters examining era reformer and critical responses as well.

The book goes up until the 1930s when electric lighting became more widespread (not just a city thing). Edison himself gets a big celebration thrown by Ford, and a keynote by President Hoover.... and he is so tired of electricity, but he acknowledges that HE DID NOT INVENT THE LIGHT BULB ON HIS OWN. The competition to improve the bulb, to make it a marketable product, that was his feat. Dozens of inventors contributed to the development of the incandescent light bulb, and Edison got lucky enough to have his name written largest in history because he created a model which fit the public's need and wallet. This book is not his story, it is the electric light's history from Edison's success to his want for a nice camping trip and a nap after all the excitement.

Edison and Ford used to go on yearly "escape modern life" camping trips.....with cars full of tech.....alright then.

Critique: a bit too long, perhaps too many examples. I recommend skipping chapters that do not interest you.

Looking forward to the discussion we will have tonight at book group. It has moments of glory but somewhere in the middle it lost it's way. I like that it helped me recognize the process behind inventing something brand new and appreciate what is taken for granted everytime I walk into a dark room.

I thought the topic of this book was interesting (that is why I picked it up). I did feel like I learned about the development of electricity and how it has come to play the role it does in today's society. At times the writing tried to hard to use "light" terms, at some points the same phrases were used repetitively making me think the author should have not used those terms at all. If you are interested in electricity it could be a good read, if not, skip it.

Fascinating portrait of something everybody takes for granted today, the light bulb and electricity in general. What it must have been like to have lived in this era, where seeing everyday objects lit up for the first time, was treated like something out of science fiction. I love books like this, where we, the reader, get to travel back in time, and relive the wonder of something that was going to transform all of American society. Highly recommended.

From Amazon: "The late nineteenth century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but more than any other invention, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb marked the arrival of modernity, transforming its inventor into a mythic figure and avatar of an era. In The Age of Edison, award-winning author and historian Ernest Freeberg weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural America, tracing the progress of electric light through the reactions of everyone who saw it and capturing the wonder Edison’s invention inspired. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility in which the greater forces of progress and change are made by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects."

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So much more than I thought I would...and so much that I could probably start from the beginning right now and read the whole thing through again. There was so much to learn and imagine and I know I missed so much being distracted by surgery and a move. I will definitely be keeping it in my collection to go back to from time to time.

The advent of electric lights had such an amazing effect on society. It changed people's sleep patterns, thus changing their entire routines, traditions, and family and social lives. It served to further differentiate between social statuses. It made an impact in so many way that I never could have imagined.

I thought it was interesting that so many species of birds and bugs were discovered as they were found dead at the base of street lights in the mornings. The idea of "electro"hunting and fishing was also interesting.

I was also surprised by how late into the 20th century electricity became common in middle-class homes. Less than 15% of homes were wired for electricity in 1910---and only 70% by 1930.

Other interesting bits:

Pg. 267: "Self-evident today, the proper use of an incandescent lamp is a social practice that, according to one electrician, was misunderstood by 99 percent of Americans in the early twentieth century. Why pay so much for electric light, these customers surely wondered, only to hide it behind a shade or to place it out of the line of sight... Such an idea must have seemed like the scheme of unscrupulous electric-current salesmen eager to sell customers more light than they needed."

Pg. 283: "These changes in technology produced a corresponding change in the way middle-class American families interacted once the sun went down. Some complained that since family members felt less compelled to draw together each night around a common lamp, their bonds had weakened and the art of conversation had suffered. People talked less and read more, as cheaper books and more evening light encouraged the explosive growth of what people at the time called a new 'reading habit.'"

Lastly, I was compelled to ponder the last line of the book and wonder about the actual validity of this quote from Franklin Roosevelt: "Electricity is no longer a luxury, it is a definite necessity."

I wonder---how would our society get by if we no longer had access to electricity?