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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (6925)	9/6/2003 6:24:24 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793776

A very good new book! The Reading File (NYT) THOMAS EDISON'S BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY It was one thing to invent the light bulb. For Thomas Edison, it was quite another to persuade investors to foot the huge expense of burying electric wires in downtown Manhattan. In "Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World," published this month by Random House, the author Jill Jonnes describes Edison's ambitious project. "By the 1880's, anyone lifting his or her gaze above street level in the commercial blocks of American cities could barely see the sky for the ugly maze of hundreds of electric wires strung higgledy-piggledy between towering wooden poles. The wires crisscrossed the streets and were festooned from windows and rooftops as if huge crazed spiders had run amok." Edison wanted a safer, more reliable alternative, and in April 1881, his company received city permission to start digging. Edison's partner, the Swiss machinist John Kruesi, soon discovered that the work was more of a technical headache than they bargained for. As Ms. Jonnes recounts, "Edison and Kruesi personally had to install the connector boxes located every twenty feet." It rained virtually every day, and the suppliers of copper wiring and iron pipe stopped their deliveries. Winter came, and the big dig came to a stop. Finally, on Sept. 4, 1882, Edison joined other members of his company on Wall Street for the formal start of his generating system. Ms. Jonnes writes: "It was a wondrous vindication, for all around them some one hundred incandescent bulbs had glowed softly to life. Three hundred more glowed in nearby offices, delivering an energy visibly superior to flickering, odorous gaslight. It was not until darkness fell, wrote The New York Times , whose Edison lights also came on that day, that the electric light really made itself known and showed how bright and steady it is."