The Electricity Revolution
Discover the electricity revolution — how the harnessing of electrical power transformed industry, cities, and daily life from the 1880s onward.
The electrification of society was the most transformative technological development of the Second Industrial Revolution. The ability to generate, transmit, and use electrical power remade industry, cities, communications, entertainment, and daily life in ways that no previous technology had matched.
The key breakthroughs came rapidly in the 1870s–1890s. Thomas Edison developed the practical incandescent light bulb (1879) and built the first commercial power station (Pearl Street, New York, 1882). Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse championed alternating current (AC), which could be transmitted over long distances. The 'War of Currents' between Edison's DC and Tesla's AC systems ended with AC's victory, enabling the creation of large-scale electrical grids.
Electrification transformed everything. Factories switched from steam-driven belt systems to individual electric motors, revolutionizing industrial design. Electric lighting extended productive hours and made streets safer. Electric trams and subways transformed urban transportation. The telephone, radio, and cinema — all electrically powered — created mass media and mass culture. Electrification was also profoundly democratic: electric light, refrigeration, and household appliances improved quality of life across social classes, though access remained unequal globally.