Electrification

     Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and is usually associated with changing over from another power source.Broadly speaking, electrification was the build out of the electrical generating and distribution systems which occurred in the United States, Britain and other countries from the mid-1880s until around 1950 and is in progress in rural areas in some developing countries. This included the change over from line shaft and belt drive using steam engines and water power to electric motors.

In 1870, Thomas Alva Edison succeeded in producing a working prototype of the electric incandescent lamp. source

In the 1830's Michael Faraday discovered the operating principle of electromagnetic generators. The principle, later called Faraday's law, is that an electromotive force is generated in an electrical conductor that is subjected to a varying magnetic flux, as for example, a wire moving through a magnetic field. His innovations, like the first electromagnetic generator (seen below), offered vast contribution to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry, and kick-started a series of experimentation and invention in electric power.

Faraday disk, the first electric generator. The horseshoe-shaped magnet (A) created a magnetic field through the disk (D). When the disk was turned, this induced an electric current radially outward from the center toward the rim. The current flowed out through the sliding spring contact m, through the external circuit, and back into the center of the disk through the axle. source

The steam turbine generator developed in 1884 by British engineer Charles Algernon Parsons provided a smaller and more efficient alternative to the steam reciprocating engine. Parson's generator lead to a revolution in marine propulsion, and was a predecessor to today's turbo-generators. source 

 

 

 

 

In 1913, a company using Edison as it namesake secured rights with his patent on electricity transmission technology and built 83 mile long power line from Santa Ana to Los Angeles and carried electricity across Southern California. source

The City of Los Angeles saw its first municipal electricity on March 30, 1916 when the Bureau of Power and Light installed its first power pole on the corner of Pasadena Avenue and Piedmont Street. source

The Brush postmill in Cleveland, Ohio, 1888. The first use of a large windmill to generate electricity. source

Advertisements for the Paris-Dunn Manufacturing Co. wind power technology. In the 1930's and 40's the business found an eager market across the U.S., powering everything from farm generators to motor-driven washing machines. source

First REA pole setting on John Hammans farm, May 15, 1938. source

Christening 100th Electric Irrigation Well. Left to right: Ruby Snyder, Dorothy Oliver, Charles A. Palmer, Superintendent, Buffalo County REA. source

By the 1930's, 90% of urban dwellings were powered by electricity, but in rural areas, only 10% had access. Electric power was controlled by private business, and thus much of the rural population either could not afford or were too isolated from urban power lines to get power. In 1935, the Rural Electric Administration (REA) was formed in the hope that government involvement would provie elctricity, and thus improved lifestyles for rural peoples. By 1939 the REA had helped to establish 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served 288,000 households. The actions of the REA encouraged private utilities to electrify the countryside as well. By 1939 rural households with electricity had risen to 25 percent. While the REA  undoubtedly had its benefits in rural areas, they were not able to stop the large amounts of families relocating to the cities, or the evolving culture of family farms.