Library - Edison and Electricity
It is hard to overstate the revolutionary nature of electric lighting. Smokey, dim, flickering candles and lamps were now replaced by the ability to walk into a room and turn on the lights because the power was coming from somewhere else. Hearthstone was the first home in the world where this happened.
In fact, ever wonder why we say "Turn on the Lights" when we normally do not turn anything? That phrase starts in this house too.
Notice the light switch in this room. Like the others throughout the residence, it is original. These switches were the first ones you could get from the Western Edison Electric Company. They are exceedingly rare. There are only thirteen in existence. Hearthstone has eleven of them and they all still work. The other two are in museums in Canada and England. It is from these switches that we get the phrase “turn on the lights.” Edison designed them to work like gas valves or water faucets, which everyone already knew how to use.
Within a month, Rogers installed another Model K dynamo, this time in its own specially-built building, at the other end of downtown to serve his investors and other mills. This was necessary because of an inherent limitation in direct current systems - electricity could only be transmitted about a mile from the point of generation. This new plant, called the Vulcan Street Plant, opened in November of 1882. A replica of the plant, constructed in 1932, still stands.
Because of its large installed base, Appleton was one of the last cities in America to convert from direct current to alternating current in 1901.
