British Electrical Industry Lag: 1882-1888

Abstract

IN 1888 a comparison of central station electric lighting in the United Kingdom and the United States suggested two definitions of inertia: resistance to motion and resistance to stopping.? Not only did an outstanding British engineer so characterize the state of affairs before a British audience, but a leading British technological journal in 1888 noted the paradox of a nation lagging behind in the use of its own electrical inventions and perfections, of the leading industrial nation falling behind in an area where recent scientific discoveries were proving most beneficial for society.2 British engineers learned that on America's primitive frontier the town fathers of an Alaskan village debated the questions simultaneously of how to remove Indians from, and place electric lights on, the streets.3 The House of Lords was given to understand that electric light was more common in the South Sea Islands than in London in 1888.4 Statistics support the contention of contemporaries that the British central station industry 6 lagged considerably behind the American.6 In view of these statements and the statistics supporting them, the question arises: under what circumstances did this great industrial nation fall behind during the eighties in the application of an important new technology? Although 1882 witnessed the inauguration of the central stationincandescent light era as pioneer stations began operation on London's Holborn Viaduct and New York City's Pearl Street,' the buildup of interest, enthusiasm, capital, and technology had begun in 1879 when Thomas Edison publicized his discovery of the incandescent light8 and intensified on the occasion of the great International Electrical Exhibition held in Paris in the late summer and fall of 1881.

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