Grand Hall - Edison and Electricity
The electrolier, as early electric fixtures were called, here in the Grand Hall is exceptionally rare and even it is designed to show off that the Rogers had money.
Like all of the fixtures on the family side of the house, it was designed by another famous artist, Sigmund Bergmann. Bergmann was a friend of Edison and began designing high-end light fixtures for the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Doanes, Rogers, and others who could afford the best. Bergmann opened the first lighting showroom in New York City in 1883. The electroliers in this house served as prototypes for his manufacturing efforts. Hearthstone has the best collection of Bergmanns in North America.
This electrolier was not the most expensive in the house but it offers a good illustration of how costly they were. This fixture cost $44 when the house was new. That means the highest paid artisan in Appleton, William Van Strattum, would have had to work a month and a half just to buy this one fixture. It would be like paying $44,000 today!
The short shades are original. At the time, they were not called shades but rather “colored glass flowers.” The flowers were short because there was no need to "shade" the light as each lamp gave off so little illumination. The short flowers also helped show off the electric lamps. Electricity was so expensive and unique that if you had electric lighting, you wanted everyone to know about it… and electricity was exceptionally expensive.
Each electric lamp cost one dollar and sixty cents when Hearthstone was built (or $1600 in today’s money). Even a well-paid worker like Van Strattum could never afford an electric bulb, let alone the fixtures or the cost of electricity.
Originally there was no way to meter electrical usage so customers were charged by the number of electric lamps they had in their house. This was a fifty-lamp house. That would be $80,000 in light bulbs in today's money! A flat fee of one dollar and twenty nine cents per electric bulb each month was charged for lighting from dusk til dawn. That is the equivalent of $64,500 in electric bills each month for all-night service. Even exceptionally expensive is an understatement.
