Abstract
This chapter examines the identification and assessment of the risk construction of electrical power systems, an essential foundation of modern industrial society. When electric power systems were first introduced in the 1880s, they presented a threat of physical injury and fire. Electricity was an invisible, mysterious force, and the risks associated with its use were not fully understood at the time. The dangers were identified by electrical pioneers who were constructing the first electrical power systems. Men like Thomas Edison and Elihu Thomson made the first risk assessments and then quickly took the issue of risk into a broader environment; the debate was then carried into the public domain and the eventual management of electrical risk was carried out by inventors, engineers, businessmen, and legislators.
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Notes and References
On the general history of electric lighting, see Thomas P. Hughes, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983); Harold C. Passer, The Electrical Manufacturers, 1875–1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953 ); and Percy Dunsheath, A History of Electrical Power Engineering ( Cambridge: MIT Press, 1962 ).
Marshall Fox, ‘Edison’s Electric Light. The Great Inventor’s Triumph in Electrical Illumination,’ New York Herald, December 21, 1879.
Robert Friedel and Paul Israel, Edison’s Electric Light: Biography of an Invention ( New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1986 ).
Edison Electric Light Company, ‘The Edison Light’ [sales brochure], circa early 1880s, Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, New Jersey (hereafter these archives will be cited as ENHS).
Edison’s efforts to improve his lighting system are recorded in a Scrapbook, Cat. 1151, 1885–1886 and Charles Batchelor, Journal, Cat. 1336, 1886–1887, ENHS.
HughesNetworks of Power,69–105; Bernard Drew and Gerard Chapman, William Stanley (Pittfield, Massachusetts: Berkshire County Historical Society, 1986); for an early description of the ZBD system, see ‘Alternating Electric-Current Machines,’ Electrical World, May 31, 1884, 3, 173–174.
Edison was able to use his European contacts to provide information on the first a.c. systems in use. For example, Edison received in November 1886 a report on a.c. technology from Siemens &Halske, the leading German electrical manufacturing company and an Edison licensee. This report can be found in 1886 Electric Light, Edison Electric Light Company file, ENHS. For Edison’s high-voltage d.c. system, see ‘A New Edison System of Electrical Distribution,’ Scientific American, July 23, 1887, 10, 42.
W.K.L. and Antonia Dickson, The Life and Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison ( New York: Thomas Crowell, 1894 ), 326.
Thomas Edison, ‘The Dangers of Electric Lighting,’ North American Review, November 1889, 49, 632.
Hughes, Networks of Power, 106–139.
Albany Journal, July 24, 1889.
Edison, ‘The Dangers of Electric Lighting,’ 625.
Robert Conot, A Streak of Luck: The Life and Legend of Thomas Alva Edison (New York: Seaview Books, 1979), 253–255; and Forrest McDonald, Insull ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 ), 45.
The Edison companies advertised their incandescent lighting system as “the only one that is not absolutely injurious to the people using it.” See untitled sales brochure, 1888 Electricity file, ENHS.
Thomas P. Hughes. ‘Harold P. Brown and the Executioner’s Current: An Incident in the AC—DC Controversy’, Business History Review, 1958, 32, 143–165.
Edison, ‘The Dangers of Electric Lighting,’ 634.
Hughes, ‘Harold P. Brown,’ 155.
The removal of overhead wires was carried out in New York in 1889 under court order. The process of removal caused a number of accidents and injuries, thus reinforcing the belief that overhead wires were extremely dangerous. See ‘Cutting Down the Poles and Wires in New York City,’ Scientific American, April 27, 1889, 13, 250.
For background on Thomson’s career, see W. Bernard Carlson, ‘Invention, Science, and Business: The Professional Career of Elihu Thomson, 1870—1900,’ Ph.D dissertation, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, 1984.
Passer, The Electrical Manufacturer, 30.
For background on Thomson’s career, see W. Bernard Carlson, ‘Invention, Science, and Business: The Professional Career of Elihu Thomson, 1870—1900,’ Ph.D dissertation, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, 1984.
For a detailed discussion of these different groups and mindsets within Thomson- Houston, see Carlson, ‘Invention, Science, and Business,’ 373–404 and 428–430.
W. J. Foster, ‘Early Days in Alternator Design,’ General Electric Review, February 1920, 23, 80–90 on 81; ‘System of Electric Distribution by means of Induction Coils, March 5, 85,’ Exhibit No. 12, ‘Testimony on behalf of Elihu Thomson and Edwin J. Houston…,’ Interference No. 13,761, Elihu Thomson Collection, GE Hall of History, Schenectady; Elihu Thomson (cited as ET) to H. C. Townsend, April 10, 1885, LB 5/83– 8/85, 65–67 and 110–112; ET to J. A. Fleming, October, 12 1885, LB 8/85–3/86, 82–83; ET to Townsend &MacArthur, January 6, 1887, LB 9/86–3/87, 223, Elihu Thomson Papers, Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia (hereafter cited as TP).
ET to G. Cutter, October 7, 1885, LB 8/85–3/86, 76–80 and ET to H. C. Townsend, October 23,1885, LB 83–11/85,249–250, TP.
ET, ‘Electric Induction Apparatus,’ June 11, 1886, LB 3/86–2/89, 168–172; ET to Coffin, February 5, 1887, LB 9/86–3/87, 334–337; ET to Townsend &MacArthur, January 6, 1887, LB 9/86–3/87, 223; ET to Townsend &MacArthur, March 1 and 19, 1888, LB 3/87–4/88, 884 and 921–922, TP; ‘Extracts (or summaries) of testimony in patent infringement suit of General Electric Co vs Butler Company,’ John W. Hammond File, J457–459, General Electric Company, Schenectady, New York; and ‘Catalogue of Parts of Apparatus Manufactured by the Thomson-Houston Electric Co.…’ 1886, Elihu Thomson Collection, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Frank L. Pope in Discussion, ‘The Distribution of Electricity by Secondary Generators,’ Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review, April 15, 1887, 19, 349–354 on 349; E. W. Rice, Jr., ‘Missionaries of Science,’ General Electric Review, July 1929, 32, 355– 361; L. Gaulard and J. D. Gibbs, [‘System of Electrical Distribution’], U.S. Patent 351,589 (October 26, 1886); Rankin Kennedy, ‘Electrical Distribution by Alternating Currents and Transformers,’ Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review, April 15, 1887, 19, 346–347; ‘Specification of Elihu Thomson, Lynn, Mass. Distribution of Electric Currents,’ October 9, 1886, LB 3/86–2/89, 232–240; ET to Thomson-Houston Elec. Co., September 28, 1886, ET to Townsend &MacArthur, November 19, 1886, ET to H. N. Batchelder, December 8, 1886, and ET to Townsend &MacArthur, December 10, 1886, LB 9/86- 3/87,18–19,95–96,133–134, and 141, TP.
ET to Coffin, February 5, 1887 and ET to E. F. Peck, March 22, 1887, LB 9/86– 3/87, 334–337 and 470–471, TP.
Frank L. Pope to ET, March 23, 1887, Collected Letters; ET to C. A. Coffin, March 24, 1887, LB 3/87–4/88, 1, TP; and Passer, The Electrical Manufacturers, 145–147; ET to Townsend &MacArthur, January 18, 1887, LB 9/86–3/87, 265–266; ET to Coffin, November 20, 1889, LB 4/89–1/90, 729–730, TP; Walter S. Moody to J. W. Hammond, April 15,1927, Hammond File, L2598–2599.
Exhibit. The Following List of Thomson-Houston Plants…,’ circa 1888, Notebooks, TP.
ET to T. F. Gaynor, March 7, 1888, LB 3/87–4/88, 900-901; see also ET to Coffin, December 11,1888, LB 4/88–4/89, 547–550, TP.
Quote is from ET to Coffin, February 13, 1889, LB 4/88–4/89, 761–766. See also ET to Coffin, February 16, 1889, LB 4/88–4/89, 780–782; ET to John J. Moore, October 19, 1889, LB 4/89–1/90, 594-596; ET to Narragansett Elee. Light Co., April 22, 1890, LB 1/90–11/90, 443–444, TP; ET, ‘Insulation and Installation of Wires and Construction of Plant,’ Electrical Engineer, March 1888, 7, 90–91.
A. C. Bernheim to Coffin, October 16, 1889 and ET to Coffin, November 6, 1889, LB 4/89–1/90, 589 and 658–661, TP.
First quote is from ET to Coffin, October 19, 1889, the second from ET to Coffin, December 20, 1889, and the third from ET to Coffin, December 24, 1889 in LB 4/89– 1/90,579–583,867–878, 903–908, TP.
J. W. Gibboney to Bentley &Knight, June 6, 1890, LB 1/90–11/90, 597; ET to Robert C. Clapp, October 23, 1889, LB 4/89–1/90, 602–603; ET to Fish, October 1, 1889 and ET to Capt. E. Griffin February 21,1890, LB 1/90–11/90,185–187, TP.
ET, ‘Safety and Safety Devices in Electrical Installations,’ Electrical World, February 22, 1890, 15, 145–146; ET to Chas. C. Fry, October 7, 1887 and ET to Prof. S. W. Holman, October 21, 1887, LB 3/87–4/88, 522–523 and 572–575; ET to Lynn Elee. Lighting Co., May 8, 1888, LB 4/88–4/89, 13–14, TP; ET, ‘Systems of Electric Distribution,’ Scientific American Supplement, No. 603, July 23,1887,9632–9633.
Passer, The Electrical Manufacturers, 167–174.
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Carlson, W.B., Millard, A.J. (1987). Defining Risk within a Business Context: Thomas A. Edison, Elihu Thomson, and the a.c—d.c. Controversy, 1885–1900. In: Johnson, B.B., Covello, V.T. (eds) The Social and Cultural Construction of Risk. Technology, Risk, and Society, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3395-8_11
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