Power station and bulb

Electric light existed in arc lamps, which were harsh and dangerous. In 1879 Edison's lab produces a carbon-filament bulb that lasts long enough to sell, and he builds a generating station at Pearl Street in New York in 1882 to feed a neighborhood. Joseph Swan in Britain has a parallel bulb. The card uses 1879 for the practical bulb and the system that follows.

The contribution is power delivered as a service. A factory no longer runs off one steam shaft and leather belts. Wires carry energy to small motors anywhere in the building. Homes get light that is not a flame. Everything electronic sits on this habit of a socket in the wall.

Edison backed direct current. Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse backed alternating current, which wins for long distances because it transforms voltage easily. The bulb starts the fight. The grid that results is mostly alternating current.

Without the generator of 1831, Pearl Street has nothing to sell.