EXCERPTED FROM

 ThomasEdison.com and ExceptionalBrockton.com

 © 1997 by Gerald Beals 

cool

  "The following document has been placed back up on line due to the extremely large number of recent requests..."

Please note that it has been registered and copyrighted since June of 1997.

 While all are cordially invited to read it, no one (but the author, of course)

should edit, copy, save or download it to any kind of

 a permanent electronic database or retrieval system...

 

Unfortunately; "While popular recognition of the pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough by the great Thomas Edison has changed the cultural pattern of mankind forever, because of its complexity, some elements of this achievement have still failed to widely resonate..."

Specifically, for far too long, the vast majority of historians have focused primarily upon his wonderfuul work with developing the light bulb, the phonograph, motion pictures, radio and television etc. All of which he only partially invented. Meantime, many have often misinterpreted, if not ignored entirely, the fact that in applying the following marvelous system of applications to produce affordable and safe power in abundance was "Initially standardized and culminated by Thomas Edison in the once remarkably progressive little city of Brockton, Massachusetts; And not only in the greater New Jersey and New York City area."

 

PROLOGUE 

 

 ALTHOUGH MOST OF EDISON'S CRITICS AND ADMIRERS HAVE BEEN OBLIVIOUS TO WHAT IS NOW INCREASINGLY SEEN AS "HIS MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO MANKIND," THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE TRACES THE REAL HISTORY OF THIS PARTICULAR - MORE RELEVENT THAN EVER - ACHIEVMENT AND ITS SEEMINGLY EVER INCREASING IMPACT UPON THE PUBLIC MINDSET AND THE OVERALL ECONOMY CONTINUES RE-EMERGE IN SIGNIFICANCE...

 

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"WHILE VERY FEW - IF ANY - FORMAL ENERGY ENGINEERS EXISTED IN THE EARLY 1880S, THE EXCEPTIONALLY INNOVATIVE INDUSTRIAL REGION OF GREATER BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS WAS WHERE EDISON DEVELOPED, PERFECTED -  AND FINALLY APPLIED - HIS MOST ADVANCED, DC (PRE TESLA) ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEM."

 

 

 

 

INTERESTINGLY, ALTHOUGH HE IS OFTEN JUSTLY CRITICIZED FOR HOLDING MUCH TOO FIRMLY TO SOME OF HIS ASSOCIATED DIRECT CURRENT CONCEPTS AND CONVICTIONS, "HE NEVER ABANDONDED HIS BELIEF IN THE MERITS AND ULTIMATE NECESSITY OF MOST OF HIS AMAZING BREAKTHROUGHS..."

 

IN FACT, IT WAS THE ABOVE OPERATION'S FIRST COMPLETELY SYNTHESIZED USE THAT PROVIDED ABSOLUTE PROOF THAT - ALONG WITH FEATURING THOMAS EDISON'S FIRST TRULY SUCCESSFUL THREE WIRE UNDERGROUND GRID - THE CITY OF BROCKTON WAS WHERE HE WOVE TOGETHER "THE WORLD'S FIRST SHOWCASE OF A TOTALLY STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL POWER STATION..."  

 

EQUALLY SIGNIFICANT, HAVING DESIGNED AND PERFECTED CONTROL OVER THE ELECTROMAGNETIC CURRENT FLOWING THROUGH UNDERGROUND WIRES AND THEIR ASSOCIATED BRANCHES AND INTERSECTIONS OF THIS HIGHLY EFFICIENT OPERATION'S NEWEST SYSTEM OF NON-DENDRITIC FEED, IT PAVED THE WAY TO CHANNELING AND UNIVERSALLY DISTRIBUTING VIRTUALLY UNLIMITED QUANTITIES OF - FORMERLY UNSTABLE AND UNTAMED - PRIVATE AND COMMERCIAL DC ENERGY.

ALL OF WHICH "COLLECTIVELY INFLUENCED NICOLA TESLA (AND SEVERAL OTHERS, BY THE WAY) TO LATER COMPLETE AND APPLY HIS SENSATIONAL FUNDAMENTALS FOR EFFIACIOUSLY GENERATING AND DISTRIBUTING AC ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY..."

 

 CONCLUSIVELY, IT IS HOPED THAT THE HEIGHTENED LEVEL OF AWARENESS HEREIN OF THE RELATED ACCOMPLISMENTS OF SCORES OF EARLY ELECTRICIANS WHO WERE DEDICATED TO OVERCOMING THE ABOVE OVERALL ENERGY CHALLENGE VIA THE LATEST IN DC METHODOLOGY... AS WELL AS VS THOSE ENGAGED IN TRYING TO MEET THE PRESENT DAY EXTREMELY HIGH COST OF MEETING THE POWER DEMANDS OF THE STILL STRUGGLING MASSES OF ENERGY-HUNGRY HUMANITY... BOTH THE PAST AND FUTURE USE OF AC AND DC CURRENT, WILL BE MUCH MORE UNDERSTOOD AND APPRECIATED THAN HAS THUS FAR BEEN THE CASE...  

 

I.e, "THE ENORMOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF THOMAS EDISON'S SPECIFIC ROLE IN CREATING, TESTING AND COMPLETING THE PRIMARY FOUNDATION OF "THE WORLD'S FIRST "NON-FRANKENSTEINIAN," ECONOMICALLY EFFICACOUS, CENTRALIZED, UNDER GROUND 3 WIRE, AESTHETICALLY CONSCIOUS HEART OF THE CENTRAL ELECTRICAL COMPLEX IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883

SHOULD NEVER BE DISMISSED...

======= 

 FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS ON THIS STORY, PLEASE SEE THE EVIDENCE PROVIDED TO THE AUTHOR BY HIS SON, CHARLES IN 1958. WHICH - CONTRARY TO POPULAR MISINTERPRETATION - ONCE HIS FATHER, AND OTHERS, BEGAN TO FULLY DEVELOP EARLY TRANSFORMERS AND DAMPERS ETC., HE NEVER COMPLETELY WROTE OFF THE NOW POTENTIALLY MUCH SAFER BENEFITS OF AC CURRENT...

 

© 1997 by Gerald Beals


 

Preface 

Opening Cover Images And Associated Captions  

 

 "In the fall of 1958, Charles Edison, the son of the great Thomas Alva Edison, delivered several - now nearly forgotten, extremely informative - lectures and commentaries before several scientists and electricians from the greater Boston and Southeastern Massachusetts area."  

 
 

PIC
 

 

Most of the above presentations took place specifically within the newly named - once technologically astute - and "highly prestigous  City of Brockton, Massachusetts..."

Where, in 1883, Thomas Edison finally manifested the "world's first completely harmonizedstandardized and genuinely safe centralized three wire underground electric light and power facility..." 

 

 

Miscellaneous Introductory Pictures 



ALTHOUGH THE ABOVE PICTURED ORIGINAL CENTRAL ELECTRIC POWER COMPLEX WAS "ONCE THE WORLD'S MOST COMPLETE SUCH MODEL OF ITS TIME," THIS HISTORIC BREAKTHROUGH HAS NEVER RECEIVED ANY WHERE NEAR ITS JUST DEGREE OF RECOGNITION..." THE EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT ROLE IT PLAYED IN FACILTATING THOMAS EDISON'S ELUSIVE GOAL OF PROVIDING AFFORDABLE ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER TO ALL CONTINUES TO BE PRETTY MUCH TAKEN FOR GRANTED.

(Fortunately, however, the following quotes from the above noted lectures by Edison's son, Charles - including numerous forgotten yet highly insightful details relating to the extremely challenging personal, business and marketing issues he had to deal with during what ended up being the "most successful period in his father's lifetime - have survived.")

(Most of which were gleaned specifically out of a pair of - long overlooked - presentations he delivered "while honoring the 75th anniversary of his father's epic successes" in Brockton in testing, evaluating and developing the world's most advanced and efficient centralized electric power system" of its time.)

 

 

 

PIC 

 

 

 Charles Edison details how local and regional scientific, commercial and governmental figures etc. were involved in constructing his father's "very first practical centralized electrical plant for ALL - in Brockton, Massachusetts. Where, "although still in plain sight, it remains pretty much ignored and unappreciated..." 

 

PIC

 

Charles Edison articulates how "for the first time in technological history, his father's above system proved that all of the - "much too speedily tested and therefore imperfect" - advancements he had been developing in other city's power facilities had finally been safely and seamlessly blended together into his singularly remarkable model system in Brockton." 

 

PIC 

 



PIC 


 

 IN SPITE OF THE HUGE NUMBER OF INVENTIONS THOMAS EDISON PATENTED PRIOR TO THE EARLY 1880S - WHICH REPRESENTED THE MOST ANYONE HAS EVER REGISTERED IN ANY ONE YEAR - WERE THOSE FROM LATE 1882 TO EARLY 1884.

ACCORDINGLY "THE YEAR 1883 WAS NOT ONLY THE MOST PRODUCTIVE AND CREATIVE PERIOD IN HIS LONG LIFTEIME, IT WAS ALSO THE SAME YEAR HE INTRODUCED THE MOST EFFICACOUS ELECTRICAL ENERGY MODEL CAPABLE OF SERVING ALL OF MANKIND... ACCORDINGLY, WHEN COMPARED TO THE FIVE OTHER PLANTS HE WAS STILL TRYING TO PERFECT, SAID BROCKTON OPERATION ULTIMATELY BECAME HIS MOST COMPREHENSIVNGE INVENTION EVER.

 

PIC

(IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN COMPARED TO THE FIVE OTHER CENTRALIZED PLANTS HE WAS STILL TRYING TO PERFECT, THE  BROCKTON OPERATION (SEEN BELOW) ULTIMATELY BECAME HIS MOST ECONOMICALLY CULTURALLY CONSEQUENTIAL SYSTEM

PIC

 

"CONTAINING SCORES OF NEW COMPONENTS THAT FOÇUSED UPON PROVING THE MERITS OF THE MOST SYNTHESIZED ELECTRONIC LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME, THIS MIGHTY ACHIEVEMENT ALSO  CULMINATED IN BEING FATHER'S - AND THE WORLD'S - FIRST COMPLETELY  "UNIFIED" ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER FACLITY."

 

MOST UNFORTUNATELY, IT WAS, DURING THIS INTENSELY HECTIC PERIOD, THAT A CABAL OF HIS PURPORTEDLY "MOST TRUSTWORTHY" FINANCIERS, PROMOTORS - AND ADVERTISING TYCOONS FROM THE WILD AND GILDED AGE OF THE LATE 19TH CENTURYS ROBBER BARONS" - NOW COMMENCED UNDERMINING HIM AND, OR, OTHERWISE "EXPLOITING THE ENORMOUS FINANCIAL POTENTIAL OF THOMAS EDISON'S UNIQUE BREAKTHROUGHS IN BROCKTON."

 

FOR EXAMPLE - EVEN THOUGH HE WAS NOT PERSONALLY INCLINED TOWARD WASTING HIS VALUABLE TIME ON CHICANERY, ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL, SPECULATIVE AND WEALTHY OF THOSE DEEPLY INVOLVED WITH EDISON'S  HIGHLY COMPLICATED FINANCIAL AFFAIRS CAME UP WITH A COVERT SCHEME THAT DUPED HIM INTO APPEARING TO BE THE ORIGINATOR AND MAIN PROMOTER OF THE FOLLOWING MONSTRUOUS MARKETING PLOY:

 

INITIALLY UNAWARE OF THE FACT, THESE HIGHLY AMBITIOUS ASSOCIATES WERE PITCHING AND BAMBOOZLING THE BOGUS MESSAGE THAT "EVERYTHING SIGNIFICANTLY CONNECTED WITH THE RELATIVELY SMALL - BUT FAR MORE BEAUTIFUL AND ADVANCED BROCKTON PLANT'S TECHNOGICAL AND ARCHITECTRAL - FEATURES WERE ACTUALLY CREATED IN THE PROVERBIAL BIG APPLE OF NEW YORK CITY."

MEANWHILE, THESE  FEATURES  WERE NOT ONLY NOT BEING INVENTED IN THE HASTILY AND PARTIALLY "RE-MODELED" AND DILAPIDATED FAT PROCESSING  PLANT IN THE ONCE INFAMOUS SECTION OF NEW YORK CITY (NOW REFERRED TO AS OLD MANHATTEN), BUT SOME 300 MILES AWAY IN HIS SAID VASTLY MORE BEAUTIFUL, UNIFIED AND STREAMLINED FACILITY IN BROCKTON.  

PIC

(COMPARED TO THE  UGLY BEHOMETH IN THE BIG APPLE) THE ABOVE BROCKTON FACILITY WAS NOT ONLY NOT RIDDLED WITH THE SAFETY AND ECONOMIC ISSUES RAMPANT IN THE NEW YORK OPERATION, THE SLEEK  NEW BROCKTON FACILITY HE WAS ASSEMBLING CONCURRENTLY IN THE REMARKABLE, LITTLE CITY OF BROCKTON WAS VASLTLY MORE EFFIACOUS...) 

ALSO VERY SIGNIFICANTLY, "EVEN THOUGH THE ABOVE SCOUNDRELS ACTUALLY GOT EDISON TO FINANCE PART OF THE BROCKTON SITE, A NUMBER OF GREATER BOSTON'S - EARLIEST AND MOST ERUDITE ELECTRONIC LITERATES - NEVER FORGOT THE ABOVE OVERALL FIASCO."OFTEN ARGUING, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT WHENEVER THE PUBLIC AND THE POPULAR MEDIA COMPARED HIS OVERALL (1883) INVENTION OF HIS FIRST COMPLETELY HARMONIZED, STANDARDIZED AND PRACTICALIZED MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL POWER FACILIY'S OVERALL MERITS TO THOSE  THAT WERE FAR MORE INDIVIDUALLY INHERENT IN JOSEPH SWAN'S INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULB, THE LATTER WAS ALMOST ALWAYS DEEMED AS A FAR MORE NEWSWORTHY EVENT, THAN THE FORMER..." 

 

AND ALTHOUGH THE HISTORICAL RECORD SHOWS CLEARLY THAT SEVERAL OF EDISON'S MOST SAVVY EARLY ELECTRICAL COHORTS CONTINUED TO CLAIM OTHERWISE." (PLEASE SEE FOOTNOTES) ITS IMPORTANT TO REASSERT THAT CHARLES BELIEVED THE PRIMARY REASON BEHIND THIS HISTORICAL MISPERCEPTION IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC'S MINDSET WAS NOT ONLY ROOTED IN THE SUCCESS OF THE ABOVE DECEITFUL ADVERTISING PITCH; "BUT - OF COURSE - BECAUSE SWAN'S NOBLE LIGHT BULB'S APPEAL LAY DEEPLY WITHIN THE REVOLUTIONARY FACT THAT HIS INDIVIDUAL INCANDESCENT BULBS "WERE INDEED THE VERY FIRST TO PROVIDE A PRACTICAL, AND EVENTUALLY WIDESPREAD, ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING DEVICE TO THE WORLD..."

 

NONETHELESS, ACUTELY COGNIZANT OF THE RESEARCH THAT TESLA AND SEVERAL OTHERS WERE CONDUCTING WITH ALTERNATING CURRENT, CHARLES - WHO WAS EDUCATED AT MIT - POINTED OUT THAT "WHILE FATHER OVER REACTED TO THE, THEN BARELY UNDERSTOOD, DANGERS ASSOCIATED WITH TESLA'S BREATHROUGHS WITH AC, AND HOW TO ADDRESS THEM, MANY OF HIS COHORTS OF THIS TIME WERE CERTAINLY AWARE OF THE POTENTIAL ADVANTAGES POSED BY HIS FATHER COMING UP WITH STEP DOWN DAMPERS AND ASSOCIATED NEW FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS, ETC.. THAT LATER IMPACTED THE DEVELOPMENT OF DC AND AC CURRENT."

 

IN ANY CASE, THOMAS EDISON'S "HEROIC DEDICATION TO THE ELUSIVE GOAL OF COMPLETELY FUSING TOGETHER A COMPREHENSIVE -  LIGHT AND POWER DC SYSTEM" (WHICH, OF COURSE, INCLUDED SOME OF HIS OWN - NOT YET AS PERFECT AS THE LATER EDISWAN LIGHT BULBS) WAS A SUPER ENORMOUS ACHIEVEMENT AT THIS JUNCTURE IN THE OVERALL ANNALS OF ELECTRO-TECNOLOGICAL HISTORY

 

OF EQUAL  IMPORTANCE - IT ALSO FEATURED OPTIONS FOR "REPLACING MANY LIGHTER TYPES OF EXISTING WATER AND WHEEL-DRIVEN OPERATIONS - AND STEAM AND GAS-POWERED OPERATIONS THROUGHOUT THE GREATER BROCKTON - USING HIS RAPIDLY EMERGING ARRAY OF ELECTRTRO MAGNETIC DC CURRENT- TO DRIVE SHOEMAKING MOTORS AND MACHINERY ETC. IN SAID REGION.

 

CONCLUSIVELY, "BEING AMALGAMATED INTO SUCH A SINGLULAR AND UNIQUELY WORKABLE, PATENTABLE AND THEORETICALLY UNIFIED - BUT PRACTICALLY STILL SOMEWHAT IMPERFECT ENTITY HIS DEVELOPING MODEL STSTEM) WAS HONED DOWN TO WHERE IT ALONE TRULY ENGENDERED THE WORLD'S FIRST MODEL OF A WIDELY AFFORDABLE UNIFIED AND UNI-CENTRALIZED POWER SYSTEM ALONG WITH AT LEAST THE POTENIAL OF  LEADING THE WAY TO EVENTUALLY ELECTRICALLY ENERGIZING ALMOST EVERYTHING ON OUR PLANET." 

 

I.e., JUST AS WAS THE CASE WHEN IT WAS FIRST DESIGNED, TESTED AND APPLIED IN BROCKTON - ONLY TO FINALLLY BE COVERTLY, SUDDELY AND VIRTUALLY TOTALLY CO-OPTED BY THE PLANT IN THE "BIG APPLE" IN 1884 - "THIS KIND OF A DRAMATICALLY FEASABLE MODEL SUDDELY INTRODUCED A NUMBER OF FEATURES, THAT - TO THIS DAY - ARE JUST AS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO THE EFFICACOUS OPERATION OF ALL COMMERCIAL AND, OR RESIDENTIAL FORMS OF ELECTRICAL CONSUMPTION ON EARTH..."

 

   

STAY TUNED 

1) MORE ON SOME OF THE "UNSEEMLY" REASONS WHY DURING, AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER, 1883, MOST OF EDISON'S GREAT WORK IN THE HIGHLY PROGRESSIVE LITTLE CITY OF BROCKTON WAS VIRTUALLY DELETED FROM ITS LEGITIMATELY STUNNING ROLE IN TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY AND - AS NOTED ABOVE - CREDITED TO NEW YORK CITY.

2) CHARLES EDISON'S "SURPRISING TAKE ON HIS FATHER'S INITIALLY BENOVOLENT INVOLVEMENT WITH YOUNG NICOLE TESLA. AFTER THE LATTER "SUDDENLY SHOWED UP SHABBILY DRESSED WITH HAT IN HAND" ON THE FORMER'S FACTORY DOORSTEP LOOKING FOR A JOB.

3) THOMAS EDISON THE ABOLITIONIST.

4) THE IRONY ASSOCIATED WITH THE ILLUSTRIOUS FACT THAT BROCKTON IS A DIRECT DECENDANT OF THE OLD BRIDGEWATER AREA. WHICH - OVER 350 YEARS EARLIER - GAVE BIRTH TO THE FIRST INDUSTRIAL CENTER IN THE ORIGINAL 13 COLONIES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA... 

PART 1:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFfaq4m8evE 

(Cut and Paste) 

PART 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFfaq4m8evE 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 TO HIS OFTEN FORGOTTEN CREDIT - WHEN  COMPARED TO ALL OF HIS OTHER INVENTIONS, IT WAS DESIGNED AND DESTINED TO GENERATE AND DISTRIBUTE THE SAFEST AND MOST EFFICACOUS ELECTRICAL ENERGY TO THE WORLD'S MASSES..."

 

ACCORDINGLY,THIS REMARKABLY ADVANCED FACLITY, WHICH WAS BUILT IN BROCKTON, MASSACUSETTS IN 1883, STOOD HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE ALL OTHERS. AND HAS TO BE CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE TRULY GREAT - IF NOT THE GREATEST - CONTRIBUTION OF HIS LIFE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE LATTER ALSO GOT SIMILAR LAUDATION FOR BEING THE FIRST COMPLETE SYSTEM OF AN ELECTRIC POWER FACILITY. I.E., WHAT - POST REFLECTIVELY - CHARLES EDISON CONTENDED WAS HIS SINGLE ALL TIME GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO MANKIND." (SEE BELOW) 

 

 

 

 EVEN MORE UNFORTUNATELY THAN THE GENERAL PUBLIC'S LACK OF AWARENESS OF THE AMAZING LEVEL OF EDISON'S SUCCESS DURING THE MOST CRITICALLY IMPORTANT YEAR IN HIS ENTIRE CAREER, THIS MIS-CHARACTERIZAION REMAINS LARGELY MISUNDERSTOOD BY MANY OF TODAY'S ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS .

 

 

 

 SO, QUITE PARADOXICALLY, ALHOUGH THE PRUGRESSIVE LITTLE CITY OF OBROCKTON WAS THE FIRST PLACE ON EARTH TO TEST, OUTFIT,  DEMONSTRATE AND PERMANENTLY UTILIZE THREE-WIRE UNDEGROUND TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION AND FEED ETC. FOR EDISON'S "PRACTICALIZED" SYSTEM OF D.C. ELECTRICITY... 

 

AS WELL MAKING IT CAPABLE OF READIILY BLENDING WITH UNTOLD THOUSANDS OF NEW APPURTANCES, ELECTRIFIED MOTORS, TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, SHOE MACHINES, ARC LIGHTS, AND MULTI-VOLT BULBS, ETC - THAT THE BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH NOT ONLY BECAME (IN RETROSPECT) "THOMAS EDISON'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT."  IT ALSO BECAME HIS LEAST WIDELY KNOWN MAJOR INVENTION...

  PIC

 

HENCE, AS A RESULT OF FINALLY FACILITATING AND "BRIEFLY SHOWCASING ITS FIRST TRULY SAFE, ECONOMICAL AND UNIVERESALY FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES, AND HAVING CREATED AND DEMONSTRATED ITS FEASAILITY IN PRODUCING THE ABOVE NOTED INFINITE VARIETY OF COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS, THE ABOVE "SHELL" OF THAT WAS ONCE AT THE VERY HEART OF THE WORLD'S MOST PERFECT AND EFFICACOUS "MODEL PLANT AND SHOWCASE" OF ITS TIME, IS NEARLY ALL THAT REMAINS OF THIS "GREAT BREAKTHROUGH..."

 

 

IT SHOULD ALSO BE REITERATED HERE, THAT SAID SHELL WAS THE FIRST TO HOUSE THE LONG AWAITED "FIRST SHOWCASE MODEL" OF A COMPLETE FACILITY; THAT INFLUENCED THE ULTIMATE SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF TODAY'S COMPLICATED MAZE OF EVER MORE D.C. COMPONENTS...  

 

 

 

 SUCH AS THOSE ASSOCIATED WITH SUPER BATTERIES, WINDMILLS, COMPUTERS AND THE EVER MORE EFFICIENT ELECTRIFIED CARS SEEN THROUGHOUT TODAY'S WORLD.

 

 

 

 SO QUIE OBVIOUSLY, WHAT LITTLE IS LEFT OF THIS FIRST SUCH TOTALLY HARMONIZED MODEL ELECTRIC PLANT AND ITS ONE TIME DARING CONSTRUCTION AND OVERALL FUNCTIONALITY DESERVES BE MORE BROADLY APPRECIATED AND PRESERVED

 

 

 

 "FINALLY, WHILE IT IS TRUE THAT MANY OF THOMAS EDISON'S SUCCESSES IN DEVELOPING, TESTING, AND APPLYING THE IDEAS OF OTHERS, HE ALONE POSESSED THE UNIQUE ABILITY TO CONJOIN THEIR ALMOST ALWAYS INCOMPLETE FEATURES WITH HIS VASTLY SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO MAKR THEM AS PERFECTABLE AS POSSIBLE;  AND FINALLY OBTAIN "LEGALLY DEFENDABLE" PATENTS ON THEM. 

 

 

 

 PIC 

 

 

 

 WHICH, OF COURSE, WAS  MUCH THE CASE WITH HIS ABOVE DESCRIBED "SENSATIONAL BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH".

 

 

 

 

Images

 
 

Edison's Electric Light and Power System - ETHW

In 1887, Edison was forced to go to court to defend the use of this aspect of his three-wire system's invention. The direct-current D.C. system generated and distributed electrical power at the same voltage (120-220 v), as that used by the electricity recipient customer's lamps and motors.

 
 

“Edison Tube” Electrical Distribution Cable - SPARK Museum

This underground cable was installed by Thomas Edison in 1883 to carry 220 volts D.C. from Edison’ first power plant located on Pearl Street in New York city to customers within a square mile area of Manhattan. It was discovered during excavation following the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. A cross section of the cable is ...

 
 

Thomas Edison DC Electrical Cables - InspectAPedia

Thomas Edison's Earliest Electrical Cables for DC Electrical Service He obtained sample segments of both the DC electrical system distribution cabling and the connecting joints that were used between these "wires" to permit lateral connections to buildings. Edison referred to these early electrical conductors as "iron tubing".

 
 

Thomas Edison First Underground Wire | Raab Collection

W.S. Andrews, one of Edison’s first employees, describes the system in great detail. “In 1880, Mr. Edison laid out a system of underground distribution.. from his laboratory in Menlo Park, to supply 1000 lamps, placed on wooden lamp-posts along the streets and roads of the village of Menlo Park and also in the dwellings.

 
 

The Underground Grid - Museum of the City of New York

Electricity cables ultimately stretched above and across city streets—until the massive snows of the blizzard of 1888 led to the placement of telephone, telegraph, and electricity cables underground, accessed primarily by an extensive network of manholes. Steam heat was introduced at roughly the same time as electricity.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

w the Stories We Believe Shape Our Success—or Failure

Nick Egan, PhD
Status is reachable

Nick Egan, PhD

Executive Coach + Managing Partner | High Performance Mindset Strategist | Author | Traveler

What we believe about ourselves—and what others believe about us—has a powerful impact on how we behave and, therefore, what we achieve. A famous study documenting this effect presented students with a fake IQ test.[1] When the “results” came through, their teachers were told that a random selection of the students were on the verge of a great intellectual blossoming.

What do you imagine happened in those classrooms? Those identified as being on the cusp of rapid intellectual growth fulfilled those expectations, simply in response to the subtle differences in the way teachers treated them. The teachers’ cues created a new reality for the students; they were expected to achieve, so they did. Of course, simply identifying kids as geniuses doesn’t make it so, but the narrative that the teachers were telling themselves shaped their reality to the extent that it significantly affected their performance.

The Genius of Thomas Edison—and the (Probably) True Story of How It Almost Went Undiscovered

Famed as the inventor of the light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, Thomas Edison is a household name. Not a single person reading this article remains unaffected by his supremely influential work. Yet, it’s surprisingly possible to imagine an alternative timeline in which Edison’s genius never came to fruition.

Gerald Beals, in his biography of Thomas Edison, relates the following tale:

When he was in grammar school, Thomas Edison came home one day with a paper for his mother. He said his teacher had told him to give it directly to her. She was the only one allowed to read it. As she read it out loud, she fought to hold back tears.

“Your son is a genius,” she said. “This school is not big enough for him and our teachers are not good enough to train him. Please teach him yourself.” That’s how Thomas Edison came to be homeschooled, and part of how he became one of the greatest inventors ever.

In his later years, as he was going through some old things, Edison discovered the letter that his old teacher had written to his mother. For the first time, he read it himself. It didn’t say he was a genius. It said, “Your son is mentally deficient. We cannot let him attend our school anymore. He is expelled.”

Two shockingly different narratives. One contributed to the life story of a man hailed as an intellectual giant. The other, which fortunately never came to pass, could have heralded a very different future, both for Edison himself and for all of us who rely on his inventions.

The key insight here is that neither story was objectively true. Perhaps Edison’s teachers were right, in some respects. Perhaps there were ways in which he exhibited signs of mental deficiency. Yet his mother took it upon herself to make the first narrative true, and we will always know Edison as a genius.

What Limiting Stories Are You Telling Yourself?

The relevance of Thomas Edison’s story is that we all absorb stories about ourselves that shape our self-perception and behavior. When we’re children, it’s hard to engage critically with them, but as adults we have the awareness to choose which stories we will adopt and which we will dismiss.

One of the most dangerous stories we tell ourselves is “I can’t.” The moment we say, “I can’t,” it becomes true. I can’t send salespeople to all our sites because we’re understaffed. I can’t bring on investors because my operation is immature. I can’t break into a new market because I don’t have enough confidence in your team.

If we think this way, we box ourselves into a corner, believing we have no options. The options may not be obvious, but they are out there, waiting to be discovered. If we commit to “I can’t” we never even look for them.

Investigating the stories we tell ourselves isn’t that complicated. It’s a matter of observing the reflexive responses that float to the surface when we’re faced with specific challenges. When we do that, we give ourselves options. We can ask which stories serve us and which we want to discard. It’s a constant process—no one ever uprooted all their negative stories in half an hour—but the sooner you make a start, the sooner you will notice the benefits.


[1] Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, “Pygmalion in the Classroom,” The Urban Review 3, no.1 (1968): 16–20. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The follwing contains several quotes

from some long overlooked, but very

 interesting lectures by Thomas Edison's son,

 Charles. Which were delivered on Oct. 2 and 3,

1958; Honoring the 75th annversary of his father's 

 landmark achievements in Brockton, Massachusetts. 

 

 

 REGISTERED, ® COPYRIGHTED, © and recorded in 1997 by Gerald Beals,

 DCvsAC.COM, Thomasedison.com, EdisonMuseum.com, EdiisonvsTesla.com etc

 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

 

 QUOTES AND COMMENTS  

 

"ALONG WITH THE LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF ELECTRICAL INVENTIONS FATHER PATENTED PRIOR TO THE EARLY 188OS, THOSE HE DEVELOPED IN THE YEAR 1883 WERE NOT ONLY FAR MORE NUMEROUS, THE MAJORITY OF THEM WERE MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN THOSE HE PATENTED DURING ANY PREVIOUS SINGLE YEAR IN HIS CAREER... 

 

 

"MOREOVER, A HIGH % OF THEM WERE RELATED TO HIS INTENSE FOCUS ON TRYING TO CREATE THE "MOST PRACTICAL CENTRALIZED ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEM IN EXISTANCE." 

 

 

ALTHOUGH THIS MIGHTY ENDEAVOR WAS  EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL, DUE TO A LOT OF (LATER DETAILED) FALSE ADVERTISING PITCHES BY SOME OF EDISON'S "CRAFTY" NEW YORK CITY FINANCIERS AND PROMOTERS," ITS PRIMARY ASSOCIATION WITH THE MODEST CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS WAS SOON CO-OPTED...

 

 

VIA BOLDLY AND SHAMELESSLY CREDITING ALL OF ITS TECHNOLOGICAL UPGRADING TO EDISON'S SLIGHYLY EARLIER, BUT SECRETLY PROBLEM-RIDDEN - AND INSTANTLY OUTDATED - POWER PLANT IN A SLUM SECTION OF NEW YORK C ITY.

 

 

 

 

 IN THE MEANTIME, THE REAL HISTORY OF THE "VASTLY SMOOTHER BROCKTON OPERATION WAS HIDDEN, AND EVENTUALLY FORGOTTEN BY ALL." EXCEPTING A FEW OF EDISON'S SAVVY FRIENDS, FAMILY AND LONG-TIME ASSOCIATES IN THE FIELD OF 19TH CENTURY TECHNOLOGY." 

 

 

 

  PIC

 

 

 MOREOVER, WHENEVER EDISON'S BROCKTON ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS COMPARED WITH HIS SECONDARY ROLE IN CREATING THE INCANDESCENT BULB, (WHICH WAS CERTAINLY NOT NEARLY AS AS REFINED AS THE ONE DEVISED BY ENGLAND'S JOSEPH SWAN) SAID SWAN BULB WAS USUALLY INACCURATELY IMPLIED AS BEING THE ONLY TRULY SIGNIFICANT NEW COMPONENT FEATURED IN EDISON'S "PERFECTLY" SYNTHESIZED OVERALL" BREAKTHROUGH IN BROCKTON."

 

 

 

IN ANY CASE, NOT ONLY DID EDISON'S REMARKABLY COMPREHENSIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF CREATING AND, OR, UPGRADING DOZENS OF SIGNIFICANT NEW INVENTIONS IN BROCKTON, NEVER GET THE KIND OF SENSATIONAL PRESS GIVEN TO HIS (STILL FAMOUS) BALKY AND INEPT MANHATTEN PLANT.

 

 

 

THE LATTER ALSO GOT SIMILAR LAUDATION FOR BEING THE FIRST COMPLETE SYSTEM OF AN ELECTRIC POWER FACILITY. I.E., WHAT - POST REFLECTIVELY - CHARLES EDISON CONTENDED WAS HIS SINGLE ALL TIME GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO MANKIND." (SEE BELOW) 

 

 

 

 EVEN MORE UNFORTUNATELY THAN THE GENERAL PUBLIC'S LACK OF AWARENESS OF THE AMAZING LEVEL OF EDISON'S SUCCESS DURING THE MOST CRITICALLY IMPORTANT YEAR IN HIS ENTIRE CAREER, THIS MIS-CHARACTERIZAION REMAINS LARGELY MISUNDERSTOOD BY MANY OF TODAY'S ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS .

 

 

 

 SO, QUITE PARADOXICALLY, ALHOUGH THE PRUGRESSIVE LITTLE CITY OF OBROCKTON WAS THE FIRST PLACE ON EARTH TO TEST, OUTFIT,  DEMONSTRATE AND PERMANENTLY UTILIZE THREE-WIRE UNDEGROUND TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION AND FEED ETC. FOR EDISON'S "PRACTICALIZED" SYSTEM OF D.C. ELECTRICITY... 

 

AS WELL MAKING IT CAPABLE OF READIILY BLEND WITH UNTOLD THOUSANDS OF NEW APPURTANCES, ELECTRIFIED MOTORS, TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, SHOE MACHINES, ARC LIGHTS, AND MULTI-VOLT BULBS, ETC - THAT THE BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH NOT ONLY BECAME (IN RETROSPECT) "THOMAS EDISON'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT."  IT ALSO BECAME HIS LEAST WIDELY KNOWN MAJOR INVENTION...

  PIC

 

HENCE, AS A RESULT OF FINALLY FACILITATING AND "BRIEFLY SHOWCASING ITS FIRST TRULY SAFE, ECONOMICAL AND UNIVERESALY FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES, AND HAVING CREATED AND DEMONSTRATED ITS FEASAILITY IN PRODUCING THE ABOVE NOTED INFINITE VARIETY OF COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS, THE ABOVE "SHELL" OF THAT WAS ONCE AT THE VERY HEART OF THE WORLD'S MOST PERFECT AND EFFICACOUS "MODEL PLANT AND SHOWCASE" OF ITS TIME, IS NEARLY ALL THAT REMAINS OF THIS "GREAT BREAKTHROUGH..."

 

 

IT SHOULD ALSO BE REITERATED HERE, THAT SAID SHELL WAS THE FIRST TO HOUSE THE LONG AWAITED "FIRST SHOWCASE MODEL" OF A COMPLETE FACILITY; THAT INFLUENCED THE ULTIMATE SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF TODAY'S COMPLICATED MAZE OF EVER MORE D.C. COMPONENTS...  

 

 

 

 SUCH AS THOSE ASSOCIATED WITH SUPER BATTERIES, WINDMILLS, COMPUTERS AND THE EVER MORE EFFICIENT ELECTRIFIED CARS SEEN THROUGHOUT TODAY'S WORLD.

 

 

 

 SO QUIE OBVIOUSLY, WHAT LITTLE IS LEFT OF THIS FIRST SUCH TOTALLY HARMONIZED MODEL ELECTRIC PLANT AND ITS ONE TIME DARING CONSTRUCTION AND OVERALL FUNCTIONALITY DESERVES BE MORE BROADLY APPRECIATED AND PRESERVED

 

 

 

 "FINALLY, WHILE IT IS TRUE THAT MANY OF THOMAS EDISON'S SUCCESSES IN DEVELOPING, TESTING, AND APPLYING THE IDEAS OF OTHERS, HE ALONE POSESSED THE UNIQUE ABILITY TO CONJOIN THEIR ALMOST ALWAYS INCOMPLETE FEATURES WITH HIS VASTLY SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO MAKR THEM AS PERFECTABLE AS POSSIBLE;  AND FINALLY OBTAIN "LEGALLY DEFENDABLE" PATENTS ON THEM. 

 

 

 

 PIC 

 

 

 

 WHICH, OF COURSE, WAS  MUCH THE CASE WITH HIS ABOVE DESCRIBED "SENSATIONAL BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH".

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
cool
 
 
 
 
BE ENLIGTENED
 
 
 
 
 
"FATHER'S GREATEST INVENTION WAS 'NOT' HIS ELECTRIC LIGHTBULB "
Charles Edison September 30, 1957 Brockton, Massachusetts 
 
DURING HIS MID-SIXTIES, WHEN - THE EVER DYNAMIC - THOMAS EDISON WAS ASKED WHAT  
REPRESENTED HIS MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION, MANY WERE SURPRISED BY HIS ANSWERS...
AFTER MORETHAN 30 YEARS OF EXPLAINING WHY IT WAS "NOT" HIS EXTREMELY POPULAR "FIRST PRACTICAL 40 HOUR BULB," HE DECLARED IT ALSO WASN'T ANY OTHER SORT OF AN "INDIVIDUAL" INVENTION - (SUCH AS HIS PERSONAL FAVORITE, THE PHONOGRAPH.)
 
FINALLY, HE WOULD RECALL SOME OF THE MANY REASONS WHY HIS CREATION OF THE FIRST, STANDARDIZED, COMPLETELY UNIFIED AND SAFE CENTRALIZED MODEL SYSTEM FOR GENERATING AND DISTRIBUTING 3-WIRE DIRECT (D.C.) CURRENT  ETC, ETC. WAS ACTUALLY HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT..."
 
AND SOMETIMES, HE WOULD REVEAL THE PERSONAL HARDSHIPS THAT COINCIDED WITH HIS RESEARCH, TESTING AND PERFECTING THIS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING INVENTION...
 
FOR EXAMPLE, INITIALLY HE HOPED HIS AMAZING "BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH" WOULD FINALLY PROVIDE ENOUGH INCOME FROM ITS NUMEROUS PATENTS TO "FREE HIS (SLOWLY DYING) WIFE, AND THEIR THREE LONELY CHILDREN, FROM THE SEVERE LEVEL OF STRESS THEY WERE ALL ENDURING AT THIS TIME. 
  
BUT LATER, AFER DECADES OF POSTPONING DEALING WITH THIS - OTHERWISE TRULY NOBLE PERIOD IN HIS EXTRAORDINARILY CREATIVE AND COMPLEX LIFE - EDISON FINALLY CAME TO GRIPS WITH THE CRUSHING REALITY THAT HE HAD NOT DONE ENOUGH TO ALLEVIATE HIS TRULY BELOVED FAMILY'S HEARTBREAKING SITUATION...
SOMETIMES DURING THESE Q AND A SESSIONS , HE WAS ASKED ABOUT HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH, NICOLA TESLA. WHO, OF COURSE, WAS THE BRILLIANT, AMBITIOUS, ALWAYS DRAMATIC, AND SADLY, "OSSASIONALLY MILDLY INSANE" INVENTOR WHO EVENTUALLY BECAME EDISON'S ARCH COMPETITOR.  
 
AT WHICH TIME, IN ORDER TO CURTAIL ANY CONTROVERSY, EDISON WOULD PROMPTLY AND POLITELY MOVE ON TO A DIFFERENT TOPIC. 
 
IN ANY CASE, DURING THIS FIERCELY COMPETITIVE - IF NOT DOWNRIGHT "WILD AND CRAZY" INDUSTRIAL/COMMERCIAL MID-19TH CENTURY PERIOD - YOUNG EDISON WAS NOT ONLY LOSING SOME OF HIS LEGENDARY IDEALISTIC PERSEVERENCE, HE WAS ALSO LOSING HIS ABILTY TO RAISE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM HIS "INCREASINGLY GREEDY AND IMPATIENT COHORTS AND SPECULATORS."
  
MEANWHILE, AS HE CONTINUED TRYING TO THOROUGHLY REFINE AND PATENT HIS "BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH," HE WAS RAPIDLY DEPLETING HIS OWN RESOURCES...
 
NONETHELESS, CONFIDENT THAT HIS ALWAYS REMARKABLY THOUGHT OUT AND TESTED METHODOLOGY WOULD NOT FAIL HIM IN THIS CASE, HE WAS MORE CERTAIN THAN EVER THAT HE WOULD ULTIMATELY DEVELOP IT INTO THE SAFEST, MOST AFFORDABLE AND TECHNICALLY RELIABLE, ENERGY SYSTEM EVER CREATED FOR THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND.
 
YET, EVEN THOUGH THISRADICALLY DESIGNED, FACLITY DID INDEED FINALLY BECOME THE FIRST SUCH VENTURE TO DELIVER "PERFECT STATE-OF-ART" ELECTRIC CURRENT TO THE WORLD OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE, HIS COMBINED RESPECT FOR ALREADY EXISTING VILLAGE-ORIENTED CULTURAL ATTRIBUES AND FEATURES "NEVER RECEIVED JUST CREDIT.. 
 
WHICH WAS PARTICULARLY SO WITH RESPECT TO THE POTENTIAL THAT ELECTRIFICATION HAD TO GREATLY UPLIFT THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE STRUGGLING MASSES OF PEOPLE WHO WERE SUDDENLY MOVING INTO MANY - FORMERLY RURAL -  PARTS OF THE WORLD'S NEW 19TH CENTURY ENVIRONMENTS
 
E.G., SOME OF THE NEGATVE IMPACT ASSOCIATED WITH WHAT IS NOWADAYS "TOO READILY ACCLAIMED AS SIMPLY THE PRICE OF MODERNITY AND URBANIZATION" HAD "BEEN INTRODUCED IN BROCKTON. THE MORALITY OF WHICH "HAUNTED" HIM FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE... "
  
AT ANY RATE, THE FULL CREDIT THOMAS EDISON SHOULD HAVE - AND SHOULD STILL BE - GETTING FROM HAVING CONSTRUCTED THE WORLD'S MOST COMPLETE AND EFFICACOUS MODEL OF AN ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM - ESPECIALLY INCLUDING ITS SCORES OF CULTURALLY AND PRACTICALLY BENEFICIAL APPURTANCES - STILL GOES PRETTY MUCH UNAPPRECIATED. 
 
NOT TO MENTION HOW HIS THOUGHTFUL INTEGRATION OF THEM INTO WHAT HAD ORIGINALLY BEEN A BEAUTIFUL NATURAL SETTING, DURING THE MOST EXTREMELY HECTIC TIME IN BROCKTON'S EARLY INDUSTRIAL/TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY - IS NOW GOING TO, OTHERS - MAINLY NICOLA TESLA...
 
MANY YEARS LATER, AFTER EDISON HAD FINALLY GRANTED THAT TESLA'S (ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHER'S) INCREASINGLY IMPROVED .- BUT STILL RELATIVELY DANGEROUS BI-POLAR A.C. COMPONENTS AND FACILITIES - WERE BECOMING EVER MORE COMPETITIVE AND POPULAR - HE OCCASIONALLY COUNTERED BY PRESENTING HIS OWN PERSPECTIVE ON THIS FAMOUSLY CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE... 
 
WHILE PROUDLY RELYING ON THE CONTENTS OF AN AGED BUT "HIGHLY SUPPORTIVE NEW YORK DAILY NEWSPAPER CLIPPING...("WHICH HE ALWAYS CARRIED IN HIS VEST POCKET (ALONG WITH AN ASSORTMENT OF FANCY STOGIE CIGARS - WHICH EVEN THOUGH HE HAD GIVEN UP SMOKING SOME 25 YEARS EARLIER - "HE STILL CORDIALLY HANDED THEM OUT TO ANY MATURE FRIEND OR FOE, WHEN FIRST MEETING THEM"
 

  SUMMATON
ALTHOUGH THE ABOVE INTRODUCTION PROVIDES MERELY A GLIMPSE INTO THE WIDE VARIETY OF ADDITIONAL REFRESHING ASPECTS OF EDISON'S FASCINATING - ALL TOO OFTEN MISINTERPRETED, NATURE AND CHARACTER TO FOLLOW - THE MOST CRITICAL QUESTION - PREVAILS:
 
 FROM A PURELY HISTORICAL/TECNOLOGICAL STANDPOINT, WHICH OF THE INTRICATELY SYNTHESIZED ELECTRO-DYNAMIC SUB-CIRCUITS RELATING TO DYNAMO GENERATION (WITH WHICH BOTH EDISON'S AND TESLA'S INGENUITY WERE AT TIMES REMARKABLY ENTWINED) WERE THE KEY CREATIVE FACTORS THAT RESULTED IN THE FIRST PERFECTLY BALANCIED INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LEVELS OF SYSTEMIC ELECTRON FLOW?
 
ALL OF WHICH WAS CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL TO HIS FINAL PRODUCTION AND UNIVERSAL INTRODUCTION OF A "VIRTUALLY FLAWLESS, COMPLETE, STANDARDIZED AND BEAUTIFUL CENTRALIZED ELECTRICAL SYSTEM." WHICH FINALLY CAME TO FRUITION AS  THE PERFECT MODEL FOR BENEFITTING ALL.                                                                                                                                                                                        
Ω 
   PLEASE CONINUE READING BELOW.
 
COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED ©1988 BY GERALD BEALS 
 

 
BE ENLIGHTENED! 
 
"AFTER MORE THAN 135 YEARS, WHY IS DIRECT CURRENT SUDDENLY
GETTING AS MUCH RESPECT AS ALTERNAING CURRENT."
 
 
 ONONS

 
 F0R A COPY Of ONE OF THE WRITER'S MOST DRAMATIC PREDICTIONS  
 
ENTITLED 
 
"WILL EDISON'S GENIOUS EVER RULE AGAIN?" 
 "MANY OF HIS ORIGINAL PATENTS RELATING TO DIRECT CURRENT ARE NOW ACCEPTED AS IMPORTANT AS THOSE OF ALTERNATING CURRENT. WHILE NUMEROUS OTHERS ARE UNDERGOING EVALUATION IN THE US, CHINA AND CANADA, ETC." 
 
SEE BELOW 
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL OF THESE TOPICS
PLEASE CONTACT GERRYBEALS@VERIZON.NET 
 
OR GO TO
 
 DCvsAC.COM
 
 
 
  
 
PIC 
 
 
 
  
 

 
Be enlightened! 
 
 EDISON'S NUMEROUS "MIRACULOUS" BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE OVERALL FIELD OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY
 
- PLUS HIS (NAIVELY IDEALISTIC?) HOPE IT WOULD SOMEDAY HAVE ONLY POSITIVE IMPACTS
 
UPON THE WORLD - "ORIGINATED" LONG BEFORE THE GREAT NICOLA TESLA ENTERED THE SCENE."  
 

 
Be enlightened!  
 
WHEN THOMAS EDISON AND A FEW LESS WELL KNOWN "FELLOW" INVENTORS (LIKE ENGLAND'S GREAT JOSEPH SWAN) BEGAN PUBLICIZING THEIR SUCCESS IN DEVELOPING THEIR FIRST PRACTICAL FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT LIGHTBULBS, MANY OF THOSE IN THE EXISTING WORLD OF ILLUMINATION WERE EXTREMELY CONCERNED. MOST CERTAINLY, THE OWNERS, MANAGERS AND INVESTORS ASSOCIATED WITH OIL AND COAL- GAS COMPANIES
 

 
PREFATORY
  PART 1  
 
   WITH EQUAL RESPECT FOR BOTH EDISON AND TESLA, IT SHOULD BE NOTED AT THE OUTSET THAT THIER RESPECTIVE INGENIOUS ROLES IN DEVELOPING ELECTRICAL POWER FACILITIES CONTINUE TO BE MISINTERPRETED. PARTICULARLY WITH REGARD TO THEIR PRE-EMINENCE AND THE RELATED COVERAGE OF ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY BY THE POPULAR MEDIA ... 
BARELY TO MENTION CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMARKABLE PLETHERA OF EDISON SOURCES "AND EVEN SOME TESLA SOURCES" THAT EXIST IN MASSACHUSETTS. SOME OF WHICH HAVE BEEN TRADITIONALLY SEEN AS MERELY PERIPHERAL, OR FAVORING THE EXAGERRATED PROMOTION OF SOME OF HIS  - LESS SIGNIFIANT - ELECTRICAL PROJECTS IN THE GREATER NEW YORK CITY AND NEW JERSEY AREA.  
 
FOR EXAMPLE - CONTRARY TO THE WAY THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS COVERED MUCH OF EDISON'S EARLY CAREER - ACCORDING TO HIS SON, CHARLES, AND SEVERAL OTHER ASSOCIATES - HIS FATHER HAD A GREAT DEAL MORE TO DO WITH THE KEY PROCESSES OF CONSUMATING A SIMILAR INCREDIBLE - NEARLY FORGOTTEN, BUT EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT- EVENT IN MASSACUSETTS, THAN THE WORKINGS OF HIS" FLAWED AND SUPER HYPED" PLANT ON PEARL STREET IN THE BIG APPLE." 
 
"AT FIVE P.M., ON OCTOBER 1, 1883 - IN THE EXACT CENTER OF THE PROUD SHOETOWN OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS - EDISON SIGNALED HIS READINESS TO THROW THE SWITCH TO POWER THE "WORLD'S FIRST MODEL OF A CENTRAL ELECTRIC PLANT TO FEATURE STANDARDIZED, SAFE, UNIFIED, DIRECT (D.C.) CURRENT." AS WELL AS THE CAPABILITY OF "SMOOTHLY PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING GLOBALLY PRACTICAL, PERFECT UNDERGROUND THREE WIRE MULTI LEVEL, NON-TAPERED 3-WIRE FEED ETC., TO AN UNLIMITED NUMBER OF USERS."
 
ALL OF WHICH  - PLUS  A GREAT DEAL MORE - WAS TIED TO HIS, HARD WON FIGHT IN GUARANTEEING SUCH PURIFIED POWER. FOR NOT ONLY OPERATING A BEVY OF HIS AND OTHERS EXPERIMENTAL MULTI-WATT LIGHTBULBS, BUT - PERHAPS FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY - FOR ELECTRIIFYING SOME OF THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MOTORS, TOOLS AND MACHINERY.
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
PIC
 
 
 
 
 
NO  TO FORGET THAT "MORE THAN A FEW ASSISTANTS" WHO, FROM EDISON'S STANDPOINT, TENDED TO BECOME MUCH TOO QUICKLY AND TOO DEEPLY "INVOLVE" WITH HIS TRADE SECRETS AND DRAFTS." NAMELY AN ENGINEER GRADUATE FROM ANNAPOLIS NAMED FRANK SPRAGUE.  
 
MORE SPECIFICALLY, WITHIN A FEW WEEKS AFTER HIRING HIM EDISON HAD ACQUIRED PLENTY OF RELATED FIRST HAND EVIDENCE TO DISTRUST HIM... AS WELL AS SEVERAL OTHER SUCH "FORMALLY" EDUCATED  YOUNG COLLEGE GRADUATES. ALL OF  OF WHICH, IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER  EVENTUALLY CONVINCED HIM TO ADOPT AN OVERLY DEFENSIVE MODE WHEN DEALING WITH A CERTAIN - YET TO ARRIVE ON SCENE - EXTREMELY WELL EDUCATED, AND EAGER YOUNG EHNINEER NAMED NICOLA TESLA...
 
(STAY TUNED)
 
'
 
PIC 
 

 
  PART 1
 
 RARE BROCKTON PHOTOS RELATING  TO THOMAS ALVA EDISON
 
 AS SEEN HERE, SOME OF THE STILL  EXTANT- BUT NO LONGER EASILY AVAILABLE - IMAGES RELATING TO EDISON'S 
 
AMAZING BROCKTON ACHIEVEMENT ETC. - ARE  STILL PROVIDE EXTRAORDINARY INSIGHT INTO TO HIS BASICALLY MAGNANIMOUS CHARACTER.
 
PIC 
 THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE ORIGINAL FLOOR PLAN OF THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 PIC 
 
 
 
AS THE "FIRST COMPLETE AND STANDARDIZED MODEL OF A CENTRALIIZED ELECTRICAL FACILITY, THIS LAYOUT - PLUS EVERYTHING "OFF SITE" THAT WAS ELECTRICALLY CONNECTED TO IT - ENABLED EDISON TO THOROUGHLY TEST, DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY - IN THE MOST REALISTIC, UP-TO-DATE AND GLOBALLY BENEFICIAL FORM - TAT WAS THEN POSSIBLE. 
 
MOREOVER, THIS AMAZINGLY RESILIENT OPERATION INITIALLY PROVIDED ORIGNAL HOUSEHOLD AND BUSINESS "SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTING EDISON'S, AND OTHER'S, "EVER IMPROVING" 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHTBULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE. IT ALSO SUPPLIED "UNLIMITED MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..."  MEANWILE, GIVING SEVERAL BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF POWER WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOR SAVING APPURTANCES.
 PLEASE  SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBANDMOTORIZATIONHISTORY 
 
 
 
 
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
 
 
   UNFORTUNATELY, IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THIS MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS, LAWYERS AND OTHERS...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. AT THE SAME TIME, THEY HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY MINUTE DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIGN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY COMPLEX PROJECT. 
 
 
 
 
 
 WORST OF ALL, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIM, AND HIS "COUNTRIFIED" PERSONALITY.  I..E., THROUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN NOW, AT 38 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "SLIGHTLY ODD" VILLAGE TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS WORLDLY, IF NOT DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE INTERESTING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE REVEALED LATER...
 
 
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYING NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS TO THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER RELATED SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURTHER CORROBERATION.)
 
 
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK, DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA MAY HAVE WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY ERADICATED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT THE TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW "NEW," WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH NOT ONLY A BIT MORE CAPITAL, HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, QUALITY CONTROL STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY SUCH "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY BUSINESS "SHARKS AND COHORTS" WERE TOTALLY COMMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND UNTAMED PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
 PIC
 
 
RSAT THE SAME TIME, OF COURSE, SOME OF THESE THESE "RIGID PROMOTION OVERSEERS " - WITH COLD FERVOR - SEEMED TO ALWAYS WANT TO BOX HIM INTO AN EVER TIGHTENING STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN, LEST HE END UP BANKRUPT. HAD TO BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING  THEIR - "PERSONAL VALUES AND PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE INCLUDING HIS INPUT INTO ANY KIND OF MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING ON PRDUCT QUALITY...
 
THE UPSHOT WAS THAT, ACCORDING TO HIS SON CHARLES, HE NEVER COULD QUITE GRASP WHY, THEY NEVER GAVE HIM A MORE REASONABLE AMOUNT OF UNDERSTANDING, COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE WHILE PERSUEING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING A VIRTUALLY PERFECT LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE TO  "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY ISSUES INTO HARMONY.  
 
BARELY TO MENTION GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINCTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE HIS MOST TO HIS CONSUMERS - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE OF ELECTRICITY - WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TOWARDS ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING SOME OF THE 19TH CENTURY WORLD'S MOST HORRENDOUS HUMAN CONDITIONS. (WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT IN MANY BURGEONING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVERPOPULATED AREAS TODAY...)   
 
TO SUMMARIZE THE ESSENCE OF THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY HIS MANY DETRACTORS TODAY - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE STRESSFUL PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE - AND SPENT FROM CONSTANTLY FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST METHODS OF PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE WAS   FINALLY ABLE, TO SUGGEST AND  ACTUALLY BRING A LOT MORE THAN JUST THE IDEA OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF HIS LANDMARK WORK IN STANDARDIZING THE QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF HIS D.C. ELECTRICAL CURRENT, IN BROCKTON TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, IT WAS ALSO DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH IN THE ABOVE AREA OF MASSACUSETTTS..
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, FINALLY, IN THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT (BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL) - STRUCTURE. ODDLY, AS HAD OCCURRED ORIGINALLY, A MOMENTARY CARAFUCATION FOLLOWED, WHICH NEXT BECAME PERMANANT...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADES TRYING TO CONVINCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 Ω
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
 
 
 
By Gerald Beals
COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
 
 
 
Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
 
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
 
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
 
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
 
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
 
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
 
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
 
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
 
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. 
 
 
 
The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
 
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
 
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
 
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
 
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
 
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 
 
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PIC
 
 
 
Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
 
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
 
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
 
 
ENERGY SHORTAGES LEAD TO FLUORESCENT BREAKTHROUGHS
 
 
 
In the 19th century, two Germans -- glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker -- discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it, an invention that became known as the Geissler tube. A type of discharge lamp, these lights didn’t gain popularity until the early 20th century when researchers began looking for a way to improve lighting efficiency. Discharge lamps became the basis of many lighting technologies, including neon lights, low-pressure sodium lamps (the type used in outdoor lighting such as streetlamps) and fluorescent lights.
 
 
 
Both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla experimented with fluorescent lamps in the 1890s, but neither ever commercially produced them. Instead, it was Peter Cooper Hewitt’s breakthrough in the early 1900S
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT THIS EVENT, WHICH  -  UP UNTIL THE ARRIVAL OF TESLA, APPEARED TO BE THE ONLY ONE WITH ANYTHING APPROACHING EDISON'S UNIQUELY RIGOROUS AND GIFTED MINDSET THAT HAD INSTINCTLY GRASPED WHAT WOULD ULTMATELY PROVIDE RARE FUTURE INSIGHT INTO BOTH MEN'S TRUE GENIOUS AND IDENTITY.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PIC 
 
 
 
THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON,. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 
 
 
 
 
LANT 
 
AS THE "FIRST COMPLETELY STANDARDIZED MODEL, THE ABOVE BROCKTON ELECTRICAL PLANT "ENABLED EDISON TO - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY - CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY IN THE MOST UP TO DATE AND PUBLICALLY BENEFICIAL FORM THAT WAS THEN POSSIBLE. 
 
WHICH NOT ONLY INITIALLY PROVIDED HIS EARLIEST"SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTTING HIS, AND SOME OTHER'S, MARVELOUS "IMPROVED " 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHT BULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE; BUT ALSO DISPERSED UNLIMITED ""MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..." NOT TO MENTION GIVING SEVERA BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF POWER WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOEARR SAVING APPURTANCES....
 
 
 
PLEASE SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBHISTORY.COM
 
 
 
 
 
 PART 1  
 
 
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
 
 
   IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THE MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS  EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. WHILE OTHERS HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING PROJECT. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IN THE MEANTIME, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIS PERSONALITY.  I..E., THORUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN, AT 37 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "ODD" VILLAGE MORES AND TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS  WORLDLY, IF NOT OCCASIONALLY DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE FASCINATING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE MORE FULLY REVEALED LATER...
 
 
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYINGOSE OF NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURHER CORROBERATION.)
 
 
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY SUPPRESSED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT SOME TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW NEW, WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH CAPITAL,HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, FACTORY MANAGEMENT AND CONSUMER BENEFITS STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY OF HIS "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY "COHORTS" WERE DEEPLY COMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND SAVAGE PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
 
 
 
AT THE SAME TIME, SOME OF HIS "MOST RIGID OVERSEER'S" - "WITH THEIR INCREASINGLY COLD FERVOR AND DEMEANOUR - WERE PUTTING HIM INTO AN EVER TIGHTENING  STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN HE HAD TO ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING THEIR - "PERSONAL PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE BEING IN ANY WAY INCLINED TO INVOLVE HIM IN MUCH BROADER MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING...
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ESSENTAILLY SIMILAR TO WHEN HE WOULD REQUEST A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF INCREASED UNDERSTANDING COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE WHILE HE PERSUED AND FULFILLING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING THE PRACTICAL, QUALITY AND USER BENFITS ASPECTS RELATED TO "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY IN CITES INTO HARMONY.  
 
BARELY TO MENTION THUSLY GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINICTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE THE MAXIMUM OF PRODUCT BENEFITS AND USAGE TO ALL - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS RARE "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE, WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TO ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING THE HORRENDOUS CONDITIONS. ( WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT -  WORLD WIDE IN BURGEONING AND STRUGGLING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVER POPULATED AREAS...   
 
 
 
WHIC 
 
⊕ 
 
 
 
 
 
TO SUMMARIZE RELATING THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY SOME  DETRACTORS - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE IN "FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST IN PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE FINALLY BROUGHT, AT LEAST THE IDEA. OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF STANDARDIZING  QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF ELECTRICAL CURRENT TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE THAT, ON SEVERAL WELL DOCUMENTED OCCASIONS, BETWEEN 1957 AND 1962, THOMAS EDISON'S SON, CHARLES - SEEN ABOVE AT THE TIME HE WAS ATTENDING MIT - REITERATED TO THE WRITER MOST OF THE ABOVE HISTORY. AS WELL AS MANY OTHER UNPUBLISHED INSIGHTS AND PLAUDITS DEALING WITH HIS FATHER'S TRUE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
FINALLY, ON THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL - STRUCTUR
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADESTRYING TO CONNCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  1. Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
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  7. The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
    initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
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  9. By Gerald Beals
    COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

    Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
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Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
 
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
 
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
 
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
 
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
 
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
 
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
 
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
 
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
 
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
 
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
 
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
 
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
 
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 
 
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
 
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
tps://youtu.be
 
 
 
Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
 
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PERHAPS THE LEAST AMOUNT OF POPULAR APPRECIATION WAS FOR HIS STILL GENERALLY MISUNDERSTOOD, AND HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL, INVENTION OF THE
 
 
. BUT HE ALSO DEEPLY BELIEVED THAT THIS "STANDARDIZED AND CENTRALIZED (D.C.) SYSTEM OF DIRECT CURRENT" WOULD ONE DAY ALSO PROVIDE A HUGE MEASURE OF RELIEF TO THE WORLD'S STRUGGLING MASSES...
LATER REFERRED TO AS THE "GRID," EDISON'S ABOVE FOUNDATIONAL BREATHROUGH - AND THE ROLE OF HIS OLD NEMESIS NICOLA TESLA IN LATER CHAMPIONING HIS VERSION OF AN ALTERNATING (A.C.) FORM OF CURRENT - "ALMOST ALWAYS CAME UP IN THESE DISCUSSIONS." 
IN THE MEANTIME, WILLING TO GRANT THAT TESLA'S INCREASINGLY REFINED - BUT STILL RELATIVELY DANGEROUS BI-POLAR A.C. PLANTS - WERE GRADUALLY BECOMING EVER MORE "COMPETITIVE AND POPULAR," EDISON OFTEN COUNTERED WITH HIS OWN TAKE ON THIS FAMOUSLY CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE; BY REFERRING TO ONE OF THE POSITIVE NEWSPAPER CLIPS HE USUALLY CARRIED (ALONG WITH HIS WEDDING RING AND FAVORITE CIGARS ETC.) IN HIS VEST POCKETS. 
OBVIOUSLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY NEEDS FURTHER EXAMINATION AND CLARITY... WITH THE MOST RELEVANT QUESTION BEING: WHICH ONE OR MORE OF THE INTRICATELY SYNTHESIZED RESPECTIVE ELECTRO-DYNAMIC SUB-SETS OF DYNAMO POWER - DIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH EDISON'S AND TESLA'S RESPECTIVE GENIOUS - WAS MOST CRITICALLY INVOLVED WITH BRINGING THE FIRST"PERFECT, COMPLETE AND AFFORDABLE" MODEL OF STANDARDIZED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRICITY TO FRUITION.  CTD. 
COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED ©1988 BY GERALD BEALS 

BE ENLIGHTENED! 
"AFTER MORE THAN 135 YEARS, DIRECT CURRENT IS SUDDENLY
GETTING AS MUCH RESPECT AS ALTERNAING CURRENT."
 

 
 F0R A COPY Of THE WRITER'S LATEST TREATISE 
ENTITLED 
"EDISON WINS?" 
MANY OF HIS ORIGINAL BELIEFS ABOUT THE FUTURE MERITS OF DIRECT CURRENT BEING AS IMPORTANT, IF NOT EQUAL WITH, THOSE OF ALTERNATING CURRENT ARE PRESENTLY UNDEGOING SERIOUS VALIDATION AND APPROVAL IN THE US, CHINA AND CANADA
 
PLEASE CONTACT GERRYBEALS@VERIZON.NET 
OR GO TO
 DCvsAC.COM
 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  
PIC 
 
  

Be enlightened! 
 EDISON'S NUMEROUS "MIRACULOUS" BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE OVERALL FIELD OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY
- PLUS HIS (NAIVELY IDEALISTIC?) HOPE THAT IT WOULD SOMEDAY HAVE ONLY POSITIVE IMPACTS
UPON THE WORLD - "ORIGINATED" LONG BEFORE THE GREAT NICOLA TESLA ENTERED THE SCENE."  

Be enlightened!  
WHEN THOMAS EDISON AND A FEW LESS WELL KNOWN "FELLOW" INVENTORS (LIKE ENGLAND'S GREAT JOSEPH SWAN) BEGAN PUBLICIZING THEIR SUCCESS IN DEVELOPING THEIR FIRST PRACTICAL FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT LIGHTBULBS, MANY OF THOSE IN THE EXISTING WORLD OF ILLUMINATION WERE EXTREMELY CONCERNED, MOST CERTAINLY, THE OWNERS, MANAGERS AND INVESTORS ASSOCIATED WITH OIL AND COAL- GAS COMPANIES

PREFATORY
 PART 1  
   WITH ALL DUE RESPECT FOR BOTH EDISON AND TESLA, IT SHOULD BE NOTED AT THE OUTSET THAT THIER INGENIOUS ROLES IN DEVELOPING ELECTRICAL POWER PLANTS HAVE BEEN - AND CONTINUE TO BE - SOMEWHAT MISINTERPRETED. PARTICULARLY RELATIVE TO  THEIR RESPECTIVE PRE-EMINENCE AND RANKING IN OVERALL ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY. AS WELL CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMARKABLE PLETHERA OF EDISON "EVEN SOME TESLA" SOURCES AVAILABLE IN MASSACHUSETTS. I.E., CONCEPTS THAT HAVE BEEN TRADITIONALLY SEEN AS MERELY PERIPHERAL, FAVORING THE OVER-ADVERTISEMENT OF SEVERAL LESS SIGNIFIANT, ELECTRICAL HAPPENINGS IN THE GREATER NEW YORK CITY AREA.  
FOR EXAMPLE - CONTRARY TO THE WAY THE NY DAILY NEWS COVERED MUCH OF EDISON'S EARLY CAREER - ACCORDING TO HIS SON, CHARLES AND SEVERAL OTHER ASSOCIATES - HIS FATHER HAD A GREAT DEAL MORE TO DO WITH THE KEY PROCESSES OF CONSUMATING A SIMILAR INCREDIBLE - NEARLY FORGOTTEN, BUT EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT- EVENT IN MASSACUSETTS, THAN, SOME OF WESTINGHOUSE'S  "HYPED UP" PLANT IN THE BIG APPLE." 
"AT FIVE P.M., ON OCTOBER 1, 1883 - IN THE EXACT CENTER OF THE PROUD LITTLE GROWING SHOETOWN OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS - EDISON FINALLY SIGNALED HIS READINESS TO THROW THE SWITCH TO WHAT WAS TRULY THE "WORLD'S FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRIC PLANT TO FEATURE STANDARDIZED, ENTIRELY SAFE AND FULLY UNIFIED DIRECT (D.C.) CURRENT." AS WELL AS POSESSING TOTAL CAPABILITY OF "SMOOTHLY PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING GLOBALLY PRACTICAL, MULTI VOLTAGED, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY."
(INCIDENTALLY, IT WAS ALSO VERY MUCH TIED TO HIS BASIC, HARD FOUGHT, ROLE IN GUARANTEEING AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF STEP UP AND STEP DOWN POWER. FOR NOT ONLY A BEVY OF MULTI-WATT LIGHTBULBS, BUT- FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY - FOR FIRST ELECTRIIFYING SOME OF THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MOTORS, TOOLS AND MACHINERY.)
 
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NOT SURPRISINGLY, THE HIGHLY ADVANCED, "BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH" GREATLY ASSISTED EDISON (AND OTHERS LIKE THE "YOUNG TURK" FRANK SPRAGUE) IN FINALLY MAKING SENSE OUT OF THE MATHEMATICAL QUAGMIRE RELATING T0 THE MANY SCORES OF REVOLUIONARY NEW DISCOVERIES AND PRODUCT APPLICATIONS THAT BOTH HAD TO, SOONER OR LATER, COOPERATIVELY EVALUATE. MANY OF WHICH WERE AIMED AT ADDRESSING THE USE AND DIFFICULT APPLICATION ASPECTS 0F THEORETICAL ISSUES THAT HAD LONG STYMIED SOME OF THE PLANET'S TOP SCIENTISTS.  
 
BARELY TO MENTION THE "MORE THAN A FEW ASSISTANTS" WHO, FROM EDISON'S STANDPOINT, TENDED TO BECOME MUCH TOO QUICKLY AND  DEEPLY "ENTWINED" WITH HIS TRADE SECRETS AND DRAFTS.... 
 
PERHAPS MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, FOR EXAMPLE, HE HAD PLENTY OF FIRST HAND EVIDENCE TO DISTRUST SPRAGUE AND OTHER "FORMALLY" EDUCATED  YOUNG COLLEGE GRADUATES. ALL OF WHOM COLLECTIVELY THRUST HIM INTO AN OVERLY DEFENSIVE MODE WHEN DEALING WITH ANOTHER - YET TO ARRIVE ON SCENE - EXTREMELY WLL EDUCATED, AND AN EAGER YOUNG GENIOUS NAMED NICOLA TESLA...
(STAY TUNED)
'
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 PART 1
 
 RARE BROCKTON PHOTOS RELATING  TO THOMAS ALVA EDISON
 
AS SEEN HERE, SOME OF THE STILL  EXTANT- BUT NO LONGER EASILY AVAILABLE - IMAGES RELATING TO EDISON'S 
AMAZING BROCKTON ACHIEVEMENT - CAN STILL PROVIDE EXTRAORDINARY INSIGHT INTO TO HIS BASICALLY MAGNANIMOUS CHARACTER.
 
 
 
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THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE ORIGINAL FLOOR PLAN OF THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 
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AS THE "FIRST COMPLETE AND STANDARDIZED MODEL OF A CENTRALIIZED ELECTRICAL FACILITY, THIS LAYOUT - PLUS EVERYTHING "OFF SITE" THAT WAS ELECTRICALLY CONNECTED TO IT - ENABLED EDISON TO THOROUGHLY TEST, DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY - IN THE MOST REALISTIC, UP-TO-DATE AND GLOBALLY BENEFICIAL FORM - THEN POSSIBLE. 
MOREOVER, THIS AMAZINGLY RESILIENT OPERATION INITIALLY PROVIDED ORIGNAL HOUSEHOLD AND BUSINESS "SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTING EDISON'S, AND OTHER'S, "EVER IMPROVING" 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHTBULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE. IT ALSO SUPPLIED UNLIMITED "MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..."  MEANWILE, GIVING SEVERAL BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF ENERGY WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOR SAVING APPURTANCES.
 
OTORIZATION SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBANDMOTORIZATIONHISTORY 
 
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
   IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THE MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS  EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS...
 
 
 
THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. AT THE SAME TIME, OTHERS HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY MINUTE DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIGN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY COMPLEX PROJECT. 
 
 
 WORST OF ALL, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIM AND HIS "COUNTRIFIED" PERSONALITY.  I..E., THROUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN NOW, AT 37 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "ODD" VILLAGE TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS QUITE WORLDLY, IF NOT DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE INTERESTING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE MUCH FULLY REVEALED LATER...
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYING NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS TO THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURTHER CORROBERATION.)
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK, DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY ERADICATED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT THE TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW NEW, WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH MORE CAPITAL, HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, FACTORY MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY CONTROL STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY OF HIS "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY COHORTS" WERE TOTALLY COMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND SAVAGE PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
AT THE SAME TIME, THESE "MORE RIGID OVERSEER'S" - "WITH COLD FERVOR - PUT HIM INTO AN "EVER TIGHTENING STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN HE HAD TO ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING THEIR - "PERSONAL VALUES AND PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE INCLUDING HIS INPUT INTO ANY KIND OF MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING...
HE NEVER COULD UNDERSTAND WHY, IF HE REQUESTED A MORE REASONABLE AMOUNT OF UNDERSTANDING COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE, WHILE PERSUEING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING A  SUPERIOR LEVEL OF  QUALITY CONTROL TO  "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY ISSUES INTO HARMONY.  
BARELY TO MENTION GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINCTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE THE MAXIMUM OF PRODUCT BENEFITS AND TO CUSTOMERS - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS RARE "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE, WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TO ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING SOME OF THE 19TH CENTURY WORLD'S MOST HORRENDOUS HUMAN CONDITIONS. (WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT IN MANY BURGEONING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVERPOPULATED AREAS...)   
 
 
 
 
SO, TO SUMMARIZE THE ESSENCE OF THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY HIS DETRACTORS - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE STRESSFUL PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE IN FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST IN PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE WAS   FINALLY ABLE, TO SUGGEST AND  ACTUALLY BRING A LOT MORE THAN JUST THE IDEA OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF HIS LANDMARK WORK IN STANDARDIZING THE QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF HIS D.C. ELECTRICAL CURRENT, TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
 
 
 
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, IT WAS DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH...
 
 
 
 
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
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FINALLY, ON THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL - STRUCTUR
 
 
 
NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADESTRYING TO CONNCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
 
 
 
 
 

The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
 
By Gerald Beals
COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
 
Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
PIC
 
Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
 
tps://youtu.be
 
Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
ENERGY SHORTAGES LEAD TO FLUORESCENT BREAKTHROUGHS
 
In the 19th century, two Germans -- glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker -- discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it, an invention that became known as the Geissler tube. A type of discharge lamp, these lights didn’t gain popularity until the early 20th century when researchers began looking for a way to improve lighting efficiency. Discharge lamps became the basis of many lighting technologies, including neon lights, low-pressure sodium lamps (the type used in outdoor lighting such as streetlamps) and fluorescent lights.
 
Both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla experimented with fluorescent lamps in the 1890s, but neither ever commercially produced them. Instead, it was Peter Cooper Hewitt’s breakthrough in the early 1900S
 

 
 
 
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT THIS EVENT WOULD ICH, UP TO THEN, IT APPEARED THAT ONLY EDISON'S UNIQUELY AMAZING MINDSET THAT HAD INSTINCTLY GRASPED WHAT WOULD ULTMATELY PROVIDE RARE FUTURE INSIGHT INTO HIS TRUE GENIOUS AND IDENTITY.
 
 
 
 PIC 
 
THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON,. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 
 
LANT 
AS THE "FIRST COMPLETELY STANDARDIZED MODEL, THE ABOVE BROCKTON ELECTRICAL PLANT "ENABLED EDISON TO - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY - CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY IN THE MOST UP TO DATE AND PUBLICALLY BENEFICIAL FORM THAT WAS THEN POSSIBLE. 
WHICH NOT ONLY INITIALLY PROVIDED HIS EARLIEST"SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTTING HIS, AND SOME OTHER'S, MARVELOUS "IMPROVED " 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHT BULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE; BUT ALSO DISPERSED UNLIMITED ""MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..." NOT TO MENTION GIVING SEVERA BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF POWER WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOEARR SAVING APPURTANCES....
 
PLEASE SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBHISTORY.COM
 
 
 PART 1  
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
   IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THE MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS  EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS...
 
 
 
THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. WHILE OTHERS HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING PROJECT. 
 
 
 
IN THE MEANTIME, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIS PERSONALITY.  I..E., THORUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN, AT 37 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "ODD" VILLAGE MORES AND TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS  WORLDLY, IF NOT OCCASIONALLY DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE FASCINATING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE MORE FULLY REVEALED LATER...
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYINGOSE OF NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURHER CORROBERATION.)
 
OUR%20READERS:%20Greater%20Brockton%20in%20the%20Revolutionary%20War
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY SUPPRESSED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT SOME TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW NEW, WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH CAPITAL,HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, FACTORY MANAGEMENT AND CONSUMER BENEFITS STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY OF HIS "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY "COHORTS" WERE DEEPLY COMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND SAVAGE PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
AT THE SAME TIME, SOME OF HIS "MOST RIGID OVERSEER'S" - "WITH THEIR INCREASINGLY COLD FERVOR AND DEMEANOUR - WERE PUTTING HIM INTO AN EVER TIGHTENING  STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN HE HAD TO ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING THEIR - "PERSONAL PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE BEING IN ANY WAY INCLINED TO INVOLVE HIM IN MUCH BROADER MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING...
 
WHICH WAS ESSENTAILLY SIMILAR TO WHEN HE WOULD REQUEST A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF INCREASED UNDERSTANDING COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE WHILE HE PERSUED AND FULFILLING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING THE PRACTICAL, QUALITY AND USER BENFITS ASPECTS RELATED TO "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY IN CITES INTO HARMONY.  
BARELY TO MENTION THUSLY GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINICTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE THE MAXIMUM OF PRODUCT BENEFITS AND USAGE TO ALL - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS RARE "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE, WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TO ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING THE HORRENDOUS CONDITIONS. ( WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT -  WORLD WIDE IN BURGEONING AND STRUGGLING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVER POPULATED AREAS...   
 
WHIC 
⊕ 
 
 
TO SUMMARIZE RELATING THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY SOME  DETRACTORS - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE IN "FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST IN PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE FINALLY BROUGHT, AT LEAST THE IDEA. OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF STANDARDIZING  QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF ELECTRICAL CURRENT TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
 
 
 
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH...
 
 
 
 
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE THAT, ON SEVERAL WELL DOCUMENTED OCCASIONS, BETWEEN 1957 AND 1962, THOMAS EDISON'S SON, CHARLES - SEEN ABOVE AT THE TIME HE WAS ATTENDING MIT - REITERATED TO THE WRITER MOST OF THE ABOVE HISTORY. AS WELL AS MANY OTHER UNPUBLISHED INSIGHTS AND PLAUDITS DEALING WITH HIS FATHER'S TRUE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER...
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
FINALLY, ON THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL - STRUCTUR
 
 
 
NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADESTRYING TO CONNCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  1. Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
  2.  
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  
  6.  

  7. The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
    initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
  8.  
  9. By Gerald Beals
    COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

    Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
  10.  
Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
PIC
 
Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
 
tps://youtu.be
 
Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PERHAPS THE LEAST AMOUNT OF POPULAR APPRECIATION WAS FOR HIS STILL GENERALLY MISUNDERSTOOD, AND HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL, INVENTION OF LINE REGULATORS...
 

 

cool
 BE ENLIGHTENED 
 
 "FATHER'S GREATEST INVENTION WAS 'NOT' HIS ELECTRIC LIGHTBULB "
Charles Edison September 30, 1957 Brockton, Massachusetts 
 
DURING HIS MID-SIXTIES, WHEN - THE EVER DYNAMIC - THOMAS EDISON WAS ASKED WHAT  
REPRESENTED HIS MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION, MANY WERE SURPRISED BY HIS ANSWERS...
AFTER MORETHAN 30 YEARS OF EXPLAINING WHY IT WAS "NOT" HIS EXTREMELY POPULAR "FIRST PRACTICAL 40 HOUR BULB," HE DECLARED IT ALSO WASN'T ANY OTHER SORT OF AN "INDIVIDUAL" INVENTION - (SUCH AS HIS PERSONAL FAVORITE, THE PHONOGRAPH.)
 
FINALLY, HE WOULD RECALL SOME OF THE MANY REASONS WHY HIS CREATION OF THE FIRST, STANDARDIZED, COMPLETELY UNIFIED AND SAFE CENTRALIZED MODEL SYSTEM FOR GENERATING AND DISTRIBUTING 3-WIRE DIRECT (D.C.) CURRENT  ETC, ETC. WAS ACTUALLY HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT..."
 
AND SOMETIMES, HE WOULD REVEAL THE PERSONAL HARDSHIPS THAT COINCIDED WITH HIS RESEARCH, TESTING AND PERFECTING THIS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING INVENTION...
 
FOR EXAMPLE, INITIALLY HE HOPED HIS AMAZING "BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH" WOULD FINALLY PROVIDE ENOUGH INCOME FROM ITS NUMEROUS PATENTS TO "FREE HIS (SLOWLY DYING) WIFE, AND THEIR THREE LONELY CHILDREN, FROM THE SEVERE LEVEL OF STRESS THEY WERE ALL ENDURING AT THIS TIME. 
  
BUT LATER, AFER DECADES OF POSTPONING DEALING WITH THIS - OTHERWISE TRULY NOBLE PERIOD IN HIS EXTRAORDINARILY CREATIVE AND COMPLEX LIFE - EDISON FINALLY CAME TO GRIPS WITH THE CRUSHING REALITY THAT HE HAD NOT DONE ENOUGH TO ALLEVIATE HIS TRULY BELOVED FAMILY'S HEARTBREAKING SITUATION...
SOMETIMES DURING THESE Q AND A SESSIONS , HE WAS ASKED ABOUT HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH, NICOLA TESLA. WHO, OF COURSE, WAS THE BRILLIANT, AMBITIOUS, ALWAYS DRAMATIC, AND SADLY, "OSSASIONALLY MILDLY INSANE" INVENTOR WHO EVENTUALLY BECAME EDISON'S ARCH COMPETITOR.  
 
AT WHICH TIME, IN ORDER TO CURTAIL ANY CONTROVERSY, EDISON WOULD PROMPTLY AND POLITELY MOVE ON TO A DIFFERENT TOPIC. 
 
IN ANY CASE, DURING THIS FIERCELY COMPETITIVE - IF NOT DOWNRIGHT "WILD AND CRAZY" INDUSTRIAL/COMMERCIAL MID-19TH CENTURY PERIOD - YOUNG EDISON WAS NOT ONLY LOSING SOME OF HIS LEGENDARY IDEALISTIC PERSEVERENCE, HE WAS ALSO LOSING HIS ABILTY TO RAISE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM HIS "INCREASINGLY GREEDY AND IMPATIENT COHORTS AND SPECULATORS."
  
MEANWHILE, AS HE CONTINUED TRYING TO THOROUGHLY REFINE AND PATENT HIS "BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH," HE WAS RAPIDLY DEPLETING HIS OWN RESOURCES...
 
NONETHELESS, CONFIDENT THAT HIS ALWAYS REMARKABLY THOUGHT OUT AND TESTED METHODOLOGY WOULD NOT FAIL HIM IN THIS CASE, HE WAS MORE CERTAIN THAN EVER THAT HE WOULD ULTIMATELY DEVELOP IT INTO THE SAFEST, MOST AFFORDABLE AND TECHNICALLY RELIABLE, ENERGY SYSTEM EVER CREATED FOR THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND.
 
YET, EVEN THOUGH THISRADICALLY DESIGNED, FACLITY DID INDEED FINALLY BECOME THE FIRST SUCH VENTURE TO DELIVER "PERFECT STATE-OF-ART" ELECTRIC CURRENT TO THE WORLD OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE, HIS COMBINED RESPECT FOR ALREADY EXISTING VILLAGE-ORIENTED CULTURAL ATTRIBUES AND FEATURES "NEVER RECEIVED JUST CREDIT.. 
 
WHICH WAS PARTICULARLY SO WITH RESPECT TO THE POTENTIAL THAT ELECTRIFICATION HAD TO GREATLY UPLIFT THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE STRUGGLING MASSES OF PEOPLE WHO WERE SUDDENLY MOVING INTO MANY - FORMERLY RURAL -  PARTS OF THE WORLD'S NEW 19TH CENTURY ENVIRONMENTS
 
E.G., SOME OF THE NEGATVE IMPACT ASSOCIATED WITH WHAT IS NOWADAYS "TOO READILY ACCLAIMED AS SIMPLY THE PRICE OF MODERNITY AND URBANIZATION" HAD "BEEN INTRODUCED IN BROCKTON. THE MORALITY OF WHICH "HAUNTED" HIM FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE... "
  
AT ANY RATE, THE FULL CREDIT THOMAS EDISON SHOULD HAVE - AND SHOULD STILL BE - GETTING FROM HAVING CONSTRUCTED THE WORLD'S MOST COMPLETE AND EFFICACOUS MODEL OF AN ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM - ESPECIALLY INCLUDING ITS SCORES OF CULTURALLY AND PRACTICALLY BENEFICIAL APPURTANCES - STILL GOES PRETTY MUCH UNAPPRECIATED. 
 
NOT TO MENTION HOW HIS THOUGHTFUL INTEGRATION OF THEM INTO WHAT HAD ORIGINALLY BEEN A BEAUTIFUL NATURAL SETTING, DURING THE MOST EXTREMELY HECTIC TIME IN BROCKTON'S EARLY INDUSTRIAL/TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY - IS NOW GOING TO, OTHERS - MAINLY NICOLA TESLA...
 
MANY YEARS LATER, AFTER EDISON HAD FINALLY GRANTED THAT TESLA'S (ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHER'S) INCREASINGLY IMPROVED .- BUT STILL RELATIVELY DANGEROUS BI-POLAR A.C. COMPONENTS AND FACILITIES - WERE BECOMING EVER MORE COMPETITIVE AND POPULAR - HE OCCASIONALLY COUNTERED BY PRESENTING HIS OWN PERSPECTIVE ON THIS FAMOUSLY CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE... 
 
WHILE PROUDLY RELYING ON THE CONTENTS OF AN AGED BUT "HIGHLY SUPPORTIVE NEW YORK DAILY NEWSPAPER CLIPPING...("WHICH HE ALWAYS CARRIED IN HIS VEST POCKET (ALONG WITH AN ASSORTMENT OF FANCY STOGIE CIGARS - WHICH EVEN THOUGH HE HAD GIVEN UP SMOKING SOME 25 YEARS EARLIER - "HE STILL CORDIALLY HANDED THEM OUT TO ANY MATURE FRIEND OR FOE, WHEN FIRST MEETING THEM"
 

  SUMMATON
ALTHOUGH THE ABOVE INTRODUCTION PROVIDES MERELY A GLIMPSE INTO THE WIDE VARIETY OF ADDITIONAL REFRESHING ASPECTS OF EDISON'S FASCINATING - ALL TOO OFTEN MISINTERPRETED, NATURE AND CHARACTER TO FOLLOW - THE MOST CRITICAL QUESTION - PREVAILS:
 
 FROM A PURELY HISTORICAL/TECNOLOGICAL STANDPOINT, WHICH OF THE INTRICATELY SYNTHESIZED ELECTRO-DYNAMIC SUB-CIRCUITS RELATING TO DYNAMO GENERATION (WITH WHICH BOTH EDISON'S AND TESLA'S INGENUITY WERE AT TIMES REMARKABLY ENTWINED) WERE THE KEY CREATIVE FACTORS THAT RESULTED IN THE FIRST PERFECTLY BALANCIED INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LEVELS OF SYSTEMIC ELECTRON FLOW?
 
ALL OF WHICH WAS CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL TO HIS FINAL PRODUCTION AND UNIVERSAL INTRODUCTION OF A "VIRTUALLY FLAWLESS, COMPLETE, STANDARDIZED AND BEAUTIFUL CENTRALIZED ELECTRICAL SYSTEM." WHICH FINALLY CAME TO FRUITION AS  THE PERFECT MODEL FOR BENEFITTING ALL.                                                                                                                                                                                        
Ω 
   PLEASE CONINUE READING BELOW.
 
COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED ©1988 BY GERALD BEALS 
 

 
BE ENLIGHTENED! 
 
"AFTER MORE THAN 135 YEARS, WHY IS DIRECT CURRENT SUDDENLY
GETTING AS MUCH RESPECT AS ALTERNAING CURRENT."
 
 
 ONONS

 
 F0R A COPY Of ONE OF THE WRITER'S MOST DRAMATIC PREDICTIONS  
 
ENTITLED 
 
"WILL EDISON'S GENIOUS EVER RULE AGAIN?" 
 "MANY OF HIS ORIGINAL PATENTS RELATING TO DIRECT CURRENT ARE NOW ACCEPTED AS IMPORTANT AS THOSE OF ALTERNATING CURRENT. WHILE NUMEROUS OTHERS ARE UNDERGOING EVALUATION IN THE US, CHINA AND CANADA, ETC." 
 
SEE BELOW 
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL OF THESE TOPICS
PLEASE CONTACT GERRYBEALS@VERIZON.NET 
 
OR GO TO
 
 DCvsAC.COM
 
 
 
  
 
PIC 
 
 
 
  
 

 
Be enlightened! 
 
 EDISON'S NUMEROUS "MIRACULOUS" BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE OVERALL FIELD OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY
 
- PLUS HIS (NAIVELY IDEALISTIC?) HOPE IT WOULD SOMEDAY HAVE ONLY POSITIVE IMPACTS
 
UPON THE WORLD - "ORIGINATED" LONG BEFORE THE GREAT NICOLA TESLA ENTERED THE SCENE."  
 

 
Be enlightened!  
 
WHEN THOMAS EDISON AND A FEW LESS WELL KNOWN "FELLOW" INVENTORS (LIKE ENGLAND'S GREAT JOSEPH SWAN) BEGAN PUBLICIZING THEIR SUCCESS IN DEVELOPING THEIR FIRST PRACTICAL FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT LIGHTBULBS, MANY OF THOSE IN THE EXISTING WORLD OF ILLUMINATION WERE EXTREMELY CONCERNED. MOST CERTAINLY, THE OWNERS, MANAGERS AND INVESTORS ASSOCIATED WITH OIL AND COAL- GAS COMPANIES
 

 
PREFATORY
  PART 1  
 
   WITH EQUAL RESPECT FOR BOTH EDISON AND TESLA, IT SHOULD BE NOTED AT THE OUTSET THAT THIER RESPECTIVE INGENIOUS ROLES IN DEVELOPING ELECTRICAL POWER FACILITIES CONTINUE TO BE MISINTERPRETED. PARTICULARLY WITH REGARD TO THEIR PRE-EMINENCE AND THE RELATED COVERAGE OF ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY BY THE POPULAR MEDIA ... 
BARELY TO MENTION CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMARKABLE PLETHERA OF EDISON SOURCES "AND EVEN SOME TESLA SOURCES" THAT EXIST IN MASSACHUSETTS. SOME OF WHICH HAVE BEEN TRADITIONALLY SEEN AS MERELY PERIPHERAL, OR FAVORING THE EXAGERRATED PROMOTION OF SOME OF HIS  - LESS SIGNIFIANT - ELECTRICAL PROJECTS IN THE GREATER NEW YORK CITY AND NEW JERSEY AREA.  
 
FOR EXAMPLE - CONTRARY TO THE WAY THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS COVERED MUCH OF EDISON'S EARLY CAREER - ACCORDING TO HIS SON, CHARLES, AND SEVERAL OTHER ASSOCIATES - HIS FATHER HAD A GREAT DEAL MORE TO DO WITH THE KEY PROCESSES OF CONSUMATING A SIMILAR INCREDIBLE - NEARLY FORGOTTEN, BUT EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT- EVENT IN MASSACUSETTS, THAN THE WORKINGS OF HIS" FLAWED AND SUPER HYPED" PLANT ON PEARL STREET IN THE BIG APPLE." 
 
"AT FIVE P.M., ON OCTOBER 1, 1883 - IN THE EXACT CENTER OF THE PROUD SHOETOWN OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS - EDISON SIGNALED HIS READINESS TO THROW THE SWITCH TO POWER THE "WORLD'S FIRST MODEL OF A CENTRAL ELECTRIC PLANT TO FEATURE STANDARDIZED, SAFE, UNIFIED, DIRECT (D.C.) CURRENT." AS WELL AS THE CAPABILITY OF "SMOOTHLY PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING GLOBALLY PRACTICAL, PERFECT UNDERGROUND THREE WIRE MULTI LEVEL, NON-TAPERED 3-WIRE FEED ETC., TO AN UNLIMITED NUMBER OF USERS."
 
ALL OF WHICH  - PLUS  A GREAT DEAL MORE - WAS TIED TO HIS, HARD WON FIGHT IN GUARANTEEING SUCH PURIFIED POWER. FOR NOT ONLY OPERATING A BEVY OF HIS AND OTHERS EXPERIMENTAL MULTI-WATT LIGHTBULBS, BUT - PERHAPS FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY - FOR ELECTRIIFYING SOME OF THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MOTORS, TOOLS AND MACHINERY.
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
PIC
 
 
 
 
 
NO  TO FORGET THAT "MORE THAN A FEW ASSISTANTS" WHO, FROM EDISON'S STANDPOINT, TENDED TO BECOME MUCH TOO QUICKLY AND TOO DEEPLY "INVOLVE" WITH HIS TRADE SECRETS AND DRAFTS." NAMELY AN ENGINEER GRADUATE FROM ANNAPOLIS NAMED FRANK SPRAGUE.  
 
MORE SPECIFICALLY, WITHIN A FEW WEEKS AFTER HIRING HIM EDISON HAD ACQUIRED PLENTY OF RELATED FIRST HAND EVIDENCE TO DISTRUST HIM... AS WELL AS SEVERAL OTHER SUCH "FORMALLY" EDUCATED  YOUNG COLLEGE GRADUATES. ALL OF  OF WHICH, IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER  EVENTUALLY CONVINCED HIM TO ADOPT AN OVERLY DEFENSIVE MODE WHEN DEALING WITH A CERTAIN - YET TO ARRIVE ON SCENE - EXTREMELY WELL EDUCATED, AND EAGER YOUNG EHNINEER NAMED NICOLA TESLA...
 
(STAY TUNED)
 
'
 
PIC 
 

 
  PART 1
 
 RARE BROCKTON PHOTOS RELATING  TO THOMAS ALVA EDISON
 
 AS SEEN HERE, SOME OF THE STILL  EXTANT- BUT NO LONGER EASILY AVAILABLE - IMAGES RELATING TO EDISON'S 
 
AMAZING BROCKTON ACHIEVEMENT ETC. - ARE  STILL PROVIDE EXTRAORDINARY INSIGHT INTO TO HIS BASICALLY MAGNANIMOUS CHARACTER.
 
PIC 
 THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE ORIGINAL FLOOR PLAN OF THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 PIC 
 
 
 
AS THE "FIRST COMPLETE AND STANDARDIZED MODEL OF A CENTRALIIZED ELECTRICAL FACILITY, THIS LAYOUT - PLUS EVERYTHING "OFF SITE" THAT WAS ELECTRICALLY CONNECTED TO IT - ENABLED EDISON TO THOROUGHLY TEST, DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY - IN THE MOST REALISTIC, UP-TO-DATE AND GLOBALLY BENEFICIAL FORM - TAT WAS THEN POSSIBLE. 
 
MOREOVER, THIS AMAZINGLY RESILIENT OPERATION INITIALLY PROVIDED ORIGNAL HOUSEHOLD AND BUSINESS "SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTING EDISON'S, AND OTHER'S, "EVER IMPROVING" 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHTBULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE. IT ALSO SUPPLIED "UNLIMITED MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..."  MEANWILE, GIVING SEVERAL BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF POWER WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOR SAVING APPURTANCES.
 PLEASE  SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBANDMOTORIZATIONHISTORY 
 
 
 
 
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
 
 
   UNFORTUNATELY, IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THIS MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS, LAWYERS AND OTHERS...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. AT THE SAME TIME, THEY HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY MINUTE DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIGN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY COMPLEX PROJECT. 
 
 
 
 
 
 WORST OF ALL, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIM, AND HIS "COUNTRIFIED" PERSONALITY.  I..E., THROUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN NOW, AT 38 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "SLIGHTLY ODD" VILLAGE TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS WORLDLY, IF NOT DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE INTERESTING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE REVEALED LATER...
 
 
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYING NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS TO THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER RELATED SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURTHER CORROBERATION.)
 
 
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK, DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA MAY HAVE WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY ERADICATED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT THE TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW "NEW," WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH NOT ONLY A BIT MORE CAPITAL, HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, QUALITY CONTROL STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY SUCH "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY BUSINESS "SHARKS AND COHORTS" WERE TOTALLY COMMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND UNTAMED PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
 PIC
 
 
RSAT THE SAME TIME, OF COURSE, SOME OF THESE THESE "RIGID PROMOTION OVERSEERS " - WITH COLD FERVOR - SEEMED TO ALWAYS WANT TO BOX HIM INTO AN EVER TIGHTENING STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN, LEST HE END UP BANKRUPT. HAD TO BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING  THEIR - "PERSONAL VALUES AND PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE INCLUDING HIS INPUT INTO ANY KIND OF MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING ON PRDUCT QUALITY...
 
THE UPSHOT WAS THAT, ACCORDING TO HIS SON CHARLES, HE NEVER COULD QUITE GRASP WHY, THEY NEVER GAVE HIM A MORE REASONABLE AMOUNT OF UNDERSTANDING, COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE WHILE PERSUEING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING A VIRTUALLY PERFECT LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE TO  "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY ISSUES INTO HARMONY.  
 
BARELY TO MENTION GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINCTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE HIS MOST TO HIS CONSUMERS - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE OF ELECTRICITY - WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TOWARDS ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING SOME OF THE 19TH CENTURY WORLD'S MOST HORRENDOUS HUMAN CONDITIONS. (WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT IN MANY BURGEONING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVERPOPULATED AREAS TODAY...)   
 
TO SUMMARIZE THE ESSENCE OF THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY HIS MANY DETRACTORS TODAY - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE STRESSFUL PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE - AND SPENT FROM CONSTANTLY FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST METHODS OF PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE WAS   FINALLY ABLE, TO SUGGEST AND  ACTUALLY BRING A LOT MORE THAN JUST THE IDEA OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF HIS LANDMARK WORK IN STANDARDIZING THE QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF HIS D.C. ELECTRICAL CURRENT, IN BROCKTON TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, IT WAS ALSO DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH IN THE ABOVE AREA OF MASSACUSETTTS..
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, FINALLY, IN THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT (BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL) - STRUCTURE.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADES TRYING TO CONVINCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 Ω
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
 
 
 
By Gerald Beals
COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
 
 
 
Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
 
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
 
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
 
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
 
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
 
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
 
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
 
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
 
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. 
 
 
 
The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
 
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
 
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
 
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
 
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
 
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 
 
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PIC
 
 
 
Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
 
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
 
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
 
 
ENERGY SHORTAGES LEAD TO FLUORESCENT BREAKTHROUGHS
 
 
 
In the 19th century, two Germans -- glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker -- discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it, an invention that became known as the Geissler tube. A type of discharge lamp, these lights didn’t gain popularity until the early 20th century when researchers began looking for a way to improve lighting efficiency. Discharge lamps became the basis of many lighting technologies, including neon lights, low-pressure sodium lamps (the type used in outdoor lighting such as streetlamps) and fluorescent lights.
 
 
 
Both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla experimented with fluorescent lamps in the 1890s, but neither ever commercially produced them. Instead, it was Peter Cooper Hewitt’s breakthrough in the early 1900S
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT THIS EVENT, WHICH  -  UP UNTIL THE ARRIVAL OF TESLA, APPEARED TO BE THE ONLY ONE WITH ANYTHING APPROACHING EDISON'S UNIQUELY RIGOROUS AND GIFTED MINDSET THAT HAD INSTINCTLY GRASPED WHAT WOULD ULTMATELY PROVIDE RARE FUTURE INSIGHT INTO BOTH MEN'S TRUE GENIOUS AND IDENTITY.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PIC 
 
 
 
THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON,. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 
 
 
 
 
LANT 
 
AS THE "FIRST COMPLETELY STANDARDIZED MODEL, THE ABOVE BROCKTON ELECTRICAL PLANT "ENABLED EDISON TO - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY - CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY IN THE MOST UP TO DATE AND PUBLICALLY BENEFICIAL FORM THAT WAS THEN POSSIBLE. 
 
WHICH NOT ONLY INITIALLY PROVIDED HIS EARLIEST"SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTTING HIS, AND SOME OTHER'S, MARVELOUS "IMPROVED " 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHT BULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE; BUT ALSO DISPERSED UNLIMITED ""MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..." NOT TO MENTION GIVING SEVERA BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF POWER WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOEARR SAVING APPURTANCES....
 
 
 
PLEASE SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBHISTORY.COM
 
 
 
 
 
 PART 1  
 
 
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
 
 
   IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THE MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS  EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. WHILE OTHERS HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING PROJECT. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IN THE MEANTIME, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIS PERSONALITY.  I..E., THORUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN, AT 37 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "ODD" VILLAGE MORES AND TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS  WORLDLY, IF NOT OCCASIONALLY DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE FASCINATING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE MORE FULLY REVEALED LATER...
 
 
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYINGOSE OF NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURHER CORROBERATION.)
 
 
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY SUPPRESSED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT SOME TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW NEW, WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH CAPITAL,HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, FACTORY MANAGEMENT AND CONSUMER BENEFITS STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY OF HIS "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY "COHORTS" WERE DEEPLY COMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND SAVAGE PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
 
 
 
AT THE SAME TIME, SOME OF HIS "MOST RIGID OVERSEER'S" - "WITH THEIR INCREASINGLY COLD FERVOR AND DEMEANOUR - WERE PUTTING HIM INTO AN EVER TIGHTENING  STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN HE HAD TO ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING THEIR - "PERSONAL PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE BEING IN ANY WAY INCLINED TO INVOLVE HIM IN MUCH BROADER MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING...
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ESSENTAILLY SIMILAR TO WHEN HE WOULD REQUEST A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF INCREASED UNDERSTANDING COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE WHILE HE PERSUED AND FULFILLING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING THE PRACTICAL, QUALITY AND USER BENFITS ASPECTS RELATED TO "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY IN CITES INTO HARMONY.  
 
BARELY TO MENTION THUSLY GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINICTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE THE MAXIMUM OF PRODUCT BENEFITS AND USAGE TO ALL - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS RARE "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE, WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TO ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING THE HORRENDOUS CONDITIONS. ( WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT -  WORLD WIDE IN BURGEONING AND STRUGGLING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVER POPULATED AREAS...   
 
 
 
WHIC 
 
⊕ 
 
 
 
 
 
TO SUMMARIZE RELATING THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY SOME  DETRACTORS - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE IN "FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST IN PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE FINALLY BROUGHT, AT LEAST THE IDEA. OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF STANDARDIZING  QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF ELECTRICAL CURRENT TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE THAT, ON SEVERAL WELL DOCUMENTED OCCASIONS, BETWEEN 1957 AND 1962, THOMAS EDISON'S SON, CHARLES - SEEN ABOVE AT THE TIME HE WAS ATTENDING MIT - REITERATED TO THE WRITER MOST OF THE ABOVE HISTORY. AS WELL AS MANY OTHER UNPUBLISHED INSIGHTS AND PLAUDITS DEALING WITH HIS FATHER'S TRUE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
FINALLY, ON THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL - STRUCTUR
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADESTRYING TO CONNCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  1. Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
  2.  
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  
  6.  

  7. The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
    initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
  8.  
  9. By Gerald Beals
    COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

    Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
  10.  
 
Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
 
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
 
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
 
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
 
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
 
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
 
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
 
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
 
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
 
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
 
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
 
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
 
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
 
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 
 
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
 
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
tps://youtu.be
 
 
 
Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
 
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PERHAPS THE LEAST AMOUNT OF POPULAR APPRECIATION WAS FOR HIS STILL GENERALLY MISUNDERSTOOD, AND HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL, INVENTION OF THE
 
 
. BUT HE ALSO DEEPLY BELIEVED THAT THIS "STANDARDIZED AND CENTRALIZED (D.C.) SYSTEM OF DIRECT CURRENT" WOULD ONE DAY ALSO PROVIDE A HUGE MEASURE OF RELIEF TO THE WORLD'S STRUGGLING MASSES...
LATER REFERRED TO AS THE "GRID," EDISON'S ABOVE FOUNDATIONAL BREATHROUGH - AND THE ROLE OF HIS OLD NEMESIS NICOLA TESLA IN LATER CHAMPIONING HIS VERSION OF AN ALTERNATING (A.C.) FORM OF CURRENT - "ALMOST ALWAYS CAME UP IN THESE DISCUSSIONS." 
IN THE MEANTIME, WILLING TO GRANT THAT TESLA'S INCREASINGLY REFINED - BUT STILL RELATIVELY DANGEROUS BI-POLAR A.C. PLANTS - WERE GRADUALLY BECOMING EVER MORE "COMPETITIVE AND POPULAR," EDISON OFTEN COUNTERED WITH HIS OWN TAKE ON THIS FAMOUSLY CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE; BY REFERRING TO ONE OF THE POSITIVE NEWSPAPER CLIPS HE USUALLY CARRIED (ALONG WITH HIS WEDDING RING AND FAVORITE CIGARS ETC.) IN HIS VEST POCKETS. 
OBVIOUSLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY NEEDS FURTHER EXAMINATION AND CLARITY... WITH THE MOST RELEVANT QUESTION BEING: WHICH ONE OR MORE OF THE INTRICATELY SYNTHESIZED RESPECTIVE ELECTRO-DYNAMIC SUB-SETS OF DYNAMO POWER - DIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH EDISON'S AND TESLA'S RESPECTIVE GENIOUS - WAS MOST CRITICALLY INVOLVED WITH BRINGING THE FIRST"PERFECT, COMPLETE AND AFFORDABLE" MODEL OF STANDARDIZED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRICITY TO FRUITION.  CTD. 
COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED ©1988 BY GERALD BEALS 

BE ENLIGHTENED! 
"AFTER MORE THAN 135 YEARS, DIRECT CURRENT IS SUDDENLY
GETTING AS MUCH RESPECT AS ALTERNAING CURRENT."
 

 
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MANY OF HIS ORIGINAL BELIEFS ABOUT THE FUTURE MERITS OF DIRECT CURRENT BEING AS IMPORTANT, IF NOT EQUAL WITH, THOSE OF ALTERNATING CURRENT ARE PRESENTLY UNDEGOING SERIOUS VALIDATION AND APPROVAL IN THE US, CHINA AND CANADA
 
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Be enlightened! 
 EDISON'S NUMEROUS "MIRACULOUS" BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE OVERALL FIELD OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY
- PLUS HIS (NAIVELY IDEALISTIC?) HOPE THAT IT WOULD SOMEDAY HAVE ONLY POSITIVE IMPACTS
UPON THE WORLD - "ORIGINATED" LONG BEFORE THE GREAT NICOLA TESLA ENTERED THE SCENE."  

Be enlightened!  
WHEN THOMAS EDISON AND A FEW LESS WELL KNOWN "FELLOW" INVENTORS (LIKE ENGLAND'S GREAT JOSEPH SWAN) BEGAN PUBLICIZING THEIR SUCCESS IN DEVELOPING THEIR FIRST PRACTICAL FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT LIGHTBULBS, MANY OF THOSE IN THE EXISTING WORLD OF ILLUMINATION WERE EXTREMELY CONCERNED, MOST CERTAINLY, THE OWNERS, MANAGERS AND INVESTORS ASSOCIATED WITH OIL AND COAL- GAS COMPANIES

PREFATORY
 PART 1  
   WITH ALL DUE RESPECT FOR BOTH EDISON AND TESLA, IT SHOULD BE NOTED AT THE OUTSET THAT THIER INGENIOUS ROLES IN DEVELOPING ELECTRICAL POWER PLANTS HAVE BEEN - AND CONTINUE TO BE - SOMEWHAT MISINTERPRETED. PARTICULARLY RELATIVE TO  THEIR RESPECTIVE PRE-EMINENCE AND RANKING IN OVERALL ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY. AS WELL CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMARKABLE PLETHERA OF EDISON "EVEN SOME TESLA" SOURCES AVAILABLE IN MASSACHUSETTS. I.E., CONCEPTS THAT HAVE BEEN TRADITIONALLY SEEN AS MERELY PERIPHERAL, FAVORING THE OVER-ADVERTISEMENT OF SEVERAL LESS SIGNIFIANT, ELECTRICAL HAPPENINGS IN THE GREATER NEW YORK CITY AREA.  
FOR EXAMPLE - CONTRARY TO THE WAY THE NY DAILY NEWS COVERED MUCH OF EDISON'S EARLY CAREER - ACCORDING TO HIS SON, CHARLES AND SEVERAL OTHER ASSOCIATES - HIS FATHER HAD A GREAT DEAL MORE TO DO WITH THE KEY PROCESSES OF CONSUMATING A SIMILAR INCREDIBLE - NEARLY FORGOTTEN, BUT EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT- EVENT IN MASSACUSETTS, THAN, SOME OF WESTINGHOUSE'S  "HYPED UP" PLANT IN THE BIG APPLE." 
"AT FIVE P.M., ON OCTOBER 1, 1883 - IN THE EXACT CENTER OF THE PROUD LITTLE GROWING SHOETOWN OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS - EDISON FINALLY SIGNALED HIS READINESS TO THROW THE SWITCH TO WHAT WAS TRULY THE "WORLD'S FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRIC PLANT TO FEATURE STANDARDIZED, ENTIRELY SAFE AND FULLY UNIFIED DIRECT (D.C.) CURRENT." AS WELL AS POSESSING TOTAL CAPABILITY OF "SMOOTHLY PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING GLOBALLY PRACTICAL, MULTI VOLTAGED, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY."
(INCIDENTALLY, IT WAS ALSO VERY MUCH TIED TO HIS BASIC, HARD FOUGHT, ROLE IN GUARANTEEING AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF STEP UP AND STEP DOWN POWER. FOR NOT ONLY A BEVY OF MULTI-WATT LIGHTBULBS, BUT- FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY - FOR FIRST ELECTRIIFYING SOME OF THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MOTORS, TOOLS AND MACHINERY.)
 
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NOT SURPRISINGLY, THE HIGHLY ADVANCED, "BROCKTON BREAKTHROUGH" GREATLY ASSISTED EDISON (AND OTHERS LIKE THE "YOUNG TURK" FRANK SPRAGUE) IN FINALLY MAKING SENSE OUT OF THE MATHEMATICAL QUAGMIRE RELATING T0 THE MANY SCORES OF REVOLUIONARY NEW DISCOVERIES AND PRODUCT APPLICATIONS THAT BOTH HAD TO, SOONER OR LATER, COOPERATIVELY EVALUATE. MANY OF WHICH WERE AIMED AT ADDRESSING THE USE AND DIFFICULT APPLICATION ASPECTS 0F THEORETICAL ISSUES THAT HAD LONG STYMIED SOME OF THE PLANET'S TOP SCIENTISTS.  
 
BARELY TO MENTION THE "MORE THAN A FEW ASSISTANTS" WHO, FROM EDISON'S STANDPOINT, TENDED TO BECOME MUCH TOO QUICKLY AND  DEEPLY "ENTWINED" WITH HIS TRADE SECRETS AND DRAFTS.... 
 
PERHAPS MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, FOR EXAMPLE, HE HAD PLENTY OF FIRST HAND EVIDENCE TO DISTRUST SPRAGUE AND OTHER "FORMALLY" EDUCATED  YOUNG COLLEGE GRADUATES. ALL OF WHOM COLLECTIVELY THRUST HIM INTO AN OVERLY DEFENSIVE MODE WHEN DEALING WITH ANOTHER - YET TO ARRIVE ON SCENE - EXTREMELY WLL EDUCATED, AND AN EAGER YOUNG GENIOUS NAMED NICOLA TESLA...
(STAY TUNED)
'
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 PART 1
 
 RARE BROCKTON PHOTOS RELATING  TO THOMAS ALVA EDISON
 
AS SEEN HERE, SOME OF THE STILL  EXTANT- BUT NO LONGER EASILY AVAILABLE - IMAGES RELATING TO EDISON'S 
AMAZING BROCKTON ACHIEVEMENT - CAN STILL PROVIDE EXTRAORDINARY INSIGHT INTO TO HIS BASICALLY MAGNANIMOUS CHARACTER.
 
 
 
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THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE ORIGINAL FLOOR PLAN OF THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 
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AS THE "FIRST COMPLETE AND STANDARDIZED MODEL OF A CENTRALIIZED ELECTRICAL FACILITY, THIS LAYOUT - PLUS EVERYTHING "OFF SITE" THAT WAS ELECTRICALLY CONNECTED TO IT - ENABLED EDISON TO THOROUGHLY TEST, DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY - IN THE MOST REALISTIC, UP-TO-DATE AND GLOBALLY BENEFICIAL FORM - THEN POSSIBLE. 
MOREOVER, THIS AMAZINGLY RESILIENT OPERATION INITIALLY PROVIDED ORIGNAL HOUSEHOLD AND BUSINESS "SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTING EDISON'S, AND OTHER'S, "EVER IMPROVING" 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHTBULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE. IT ALSO SUPPLIED UNLIMITED "MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..."  MEANWILE, GIVING SEVERAL BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF ENERGY WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOR SAVING APPURTANCES.
 
OTORIZATION SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBANDMOTORIZATIONHISTORY 
 
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
   IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THE MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS  EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS...
 
 
 
THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. AT THE SAME TIME, OTHERS HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY MINUTE DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIGN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY COMPLEX PROJECT. 
 
 
 WORST OF ALL, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIM AND HIS "COUNTRIFIED" PERSONALITY.  I..E., THROUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN NOW, AT 37 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "ODD" VILLAGE TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS QUITE WORLDLY, IF NOT DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE INTERESTING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE MUCH FULLY REVEALED LATER...
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYING NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS TO THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURTHER CORROBERATION.)
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK, DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY ERADICATED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT THE TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW NEW, WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH MORE CAPITAL, HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, FACTORY MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY CONTROL STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY OF HIS "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY COHORTS" WERE TOTALLY COMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND SAVAGE PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
AT THE SAME TIME, THESE "MORE RIGID OVERSEER'S" - "WITH COLD FERVOR - PUT HIM INTO AN "EVER TIGHTENING STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN HE HAD TO ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING THEIR - "PERSONAL VALUES AND PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE INCLUDING HIS INPUT INTO ANY KIND OF MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING...
HE NEVER COULD UNDERSTAND WHY, IF HE REQUESTED A MORE REASONABLE AMOUNT OF UNDERSTANDING COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE, WHILE PERSUEING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING A  SUPERIOR LEVEL OF  QUALITY CONTROL TO  "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY ISSUES INTO HARMONY.  
BARELY TO MENTION GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINCTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE THE MAXIMUM OF PRODUCT BENEFITS AND TO CUSTOMERS - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS RARE "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE, WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TO ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING SOME OF THE 19TH CENTURY WORLD'S MOST HORRENDOUS HUMAN CONDITIONS. (WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT IN MANY BURGEONING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVERPOPULATED AREAS...)   
 
 
 
 
SO, TO SUMMARIZE THE ESSENCE OF THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY HIS DETRACTORS - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE STRESSFUL PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE IN FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST IN PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE WAS   FINALLY ABLE, TO SUGGEST AND  ACTUALLY BRING A LOT MORE THAN JUST THE IDEA OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF HIS LANDMARK WORK IN STANDARDIZING THE QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF HIS D.C. ELECTRICAL CURRENT, TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
 
 
 
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, IT WAS DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH...
 
 
 
 
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
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FINALLY, ON THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL - STRUCTUR
 
 
 
NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADESTRYING TO CONNCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
 
 
 
 
 

The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
 
By Gerald Beals
COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
 
Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
PIC
 
Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
 
tps://youtu.be
 
Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
ENERGY SHORTAGES LEAD TO FLUORESCENT BREAKTHROUGHS
 
In the 19th century, two Germans -- glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker -- discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it, an invention that became known as the Geissler tube. A type of discharge lamp, these lights didn’t gain popularity until the early 20th century when researchers began looking for a way to improve lighting efficiency. Discharge lamps became the basis of many lighting technologies, including neon lights, low-pressure sodium lamps (the type used in outdoor lighting such as streetlamps) and fluorescent lights.
 
Both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla experimented with fluorescent lamps in the 1890s, but neither ever commercially produced them. Instead, it was Peter Cooper Hewitt’s breakthrough in the early 1900S
 

 
 
 
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT THIS EVENT WOULD ICH, UP TO THEN, IT APPEARED THAT ONLY EDISON'S UNIQUELY AMAZING MINDSET THAT HAD INSTINCTLY GRASPED WHAT WOULD ULTMATELY PROVIDE RARE FUTURE INSIGHT INTO HIS TRUE GENIOUS AND IDENTITY.
 
 
 
 PIC 
 
THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE - NOW LARGELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED - CENTRALIZED D. C. ELECTRICAL POWER PLANT IN BROCKTON,. WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS - AND ITS HISTORIC 19TH CENTURY ROLE IN BEING THE FIRST SUCH STANDARDIZED ELECTRICAL ONPERATION TO "PERFECT AND ETHICALLY MARKET ELECTRO-DYNAMIC ENERGY TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF USERS - FOREVER CHANGED THE WORLD.
 
 
LANT 
AS THE "FIRST COMPLETELY STANDARDIZED MODEL, THE ABOVE BROCKTON ELECTRICAL PLANT "ENABLED EDISON TO - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ELECTRO-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY - CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND SAFELY APPLY THE MOST EFFICACIOUS ELEMENTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY IN THE MOST UP TO DATE AND PUBLICALLY BENEFICIAL FORM THAT WAS THEN POSSIBLE. 
WHICH NOT ONLY INITIALLY PROVIDED HIS EARLIEST"SUBSCRIBERS" WITH THE OPTION OF TESTTING HIS, AND SOME OTHER'S, MARVELOUS "IMPROVED " 40 TO 600 HOUR LIGHT BULBS AT VIRTUALLY NO CHARGE; BUT ALSO DISPERSED UNLIMITED ""MORALLY PURE" D.C. ENERGY TO THEM..." NOT TO MENTION GIVING SEVERA BROCKTON SHOE MANUFACTURERS THE OPPORUNITY TO FREELY EVALUATE THIS MAGNIFICENT NEW KIND OF POWER WITH A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL MOTORS, MACHINES AND OTHER LABOEARR SAVING APPURTANCES....
 
PLEASE SEE THONASEDISON.COM/LIGHTBULBHISTORY.COM
 
 
 PART 1  
 
    CHAPTER 1 
 
   IN 1882, AT THE PEAK OF THE MOST RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE PERIOD IN AMERICA'S CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNO/CULTURAL REVOLUTION, THOMAS EDISON WAS BEING SERIOUSLY "HARASSED" BY THREATS FROM A NUMBER OF HIS  EXASPERATED FINANCIAL SUPPPORTERS...
 
 
 
THE MAJORITY OF WHOM WERE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT RECEIVING PROPER AND TIMELY RETURNS FROM THEIR INVESTMENTS IN HIS LATEST PLANT. WHILE OTHERS HAD ALSO LOST PATIENCE WITH HIS UNIQUELY RE-TERATIVE STYLE OF TIRELESLY "RE-ADDRESSING" EVERY DETAIL RELATING TO THE DESIN QUALITY OF THIS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING PROJECT. 
 
 
 
IN THE MEANTIME, A FEW OF HIS "BIG CITY" ORIENTED ASSOCIATES WERE PERSISTENTLY PLAGUEING, MOCKING AND LAMPOONING HIS PERSONALITY.  I..E., THORUGHOUT MOST OF HIS EARLY ADULTHOOD, AND EVEN, AT 37 YEARS OF AGE, EDISON WAS STILL HOLDING FAST TO A NUMBER OF "ODD" VILLAGE MORES AND TRAITS THAT HAD BEEN PASSED DOWN TO HIM. NOT ONLY BY HIS DEEPLY RESPECTED MOTHER, BUT BY HIS  WORLDLY, IF NOT OCCASIONALLY DOWNRIGHT "ROGUISH," FATHER. BOTH OF WHOSE FASCINATING, OFTEN DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, INFLUENCE UPON THIER BELOVED SON WILL BE MORE FULLY REVEALED LATER...
 
RETURNING TO EDISON'S FINANCIAL BIND, HIS LIFE BECAME VASTLY MORE COMPLICATED WHEN HE WAS SUDDELY FORCED TO ATTEND TO  THE URGENTLY INTENSIFYINGOSE OF NEEDS OF HIS BELOVED, MORTALLY ILL, WIFE. AS WELL AS THOSE OF HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN (PLUS ONE OTHER SHOCKINGLY PATHETIC ISSUE THAT STILL NEEDS FURHER CORROBERATION.)
 
BUT, NOT TO WITHOLD HOW HIS AMAZING RECORD OF HAVING PATENTED AT LEAST TWO NEW ESSENTIAL - MOSTLY POWER PLANT RELATED - INVENTIONS PER WEEK DURING THE PREVIOUS  SIX MONTHS, HAD COME TO AN ABRUPT END. WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE, "WAS A FEAT THAT IS STILL YET TO BE EQUALED.". 
 
 
IN ANY CASE, EVEN THOUGH EDISON'S LEGENDARY PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STAMINA WAVERED AT TIMES, IT WAS NEVER TOTALLY SUPPRESSED. NOT ONLY DID HE FINALLY EKE OUT SOME TIME AND ENERGY TO IDENTIFY AND PERSUADE A FEW NEW, WELL HEELED, FINANCIERS TO PROVIDE HIM WITH CAPITAL,HE CAJOLED THEM INTO ORALLY GRANTING HIM A MODICUM OF INPUT INTO SERIOUSLY APPLYING HIS OWN - RELATIVELY MUCH HIGHER MINDED, FACTORY MANAGEMENT AND CONSUMER BENEFITS STANDARDS... VS THE WEAK "BUSINESS ETHICS" THAT MANY OF HIS "CLASSICAL MID TO LATE 19TH CENTURY "COHORTS" WERE DEEPLY COMITTED TO, DURING THIS MOST CORRUPT AND SAVAGE PERIOD IN AMERICAN CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY.  
 
 
AT THE SAME TIME, SOME OF HIS "MOST RIGID OVERSEER'S" - "WITH THEIR INCREASINGLY COLD FERVOR AND DEMEANOUR - WERE PUTTING HIM INTO AN EVER TIGHTENING  STRAIGHTJACKET." WHEREIN HE HAD TO ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT OPENLY ADDRESSING THEIR - "PERSONAL PROFIT ORIENTED" - CONCERNS BEFORE BEING IN ANY WAY INCLINED TO INVOLVE HIM IN MUCH BROADER MORAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING...
 
WHICH WAS ESSENTAILLY SIMILAR TO WHEN HE WOULD REQUEST A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF INCREASED UNDERSTANDING COOPERATION AND INDEPENDENCE WHILE HE PERSUED AND FULFILLING HIS DREAM OF ULTIMTELY BIRTHING THE FIRST MODEL OF AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM TO BRING THE PRACTICAL, QUALITY AND USER BENFITS ASPECTS RELATED TO "PRODUCING AND DELIVERING" LIGHT AND MACHINE ENERGY IN CITES INTO HARMONY.  
BARELY TO MENTION THUSLY GETTING THEM TO STOP INTEFERING, WITH HIS INSTINICTIVELY INHERITED INSTINCT TO ALWAYS GIVE THE MAXIMUM OF PRODUCT BENEFITS AND USAGE TO ALL - ESPECIALLY WHEN APPLYING HIS RARE "GIFTS" OF SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE, WHENEVER FEASIBLE, TO ULTIMATELY ALLEVIATING THE HORRENDOUS CONDITIONS. ( WHICH OF COURSE ARE STILL EXTANT -  WORLD WIDE IN BURGEONING AND STRUGGLING VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES IN GROSSLY OVER POPULATED AREAS...   
 
WHIC 
⊕ 
 
 
TO SUMMARIZE RELATING THE ABOVE, CONTRARY TO THE MANY "MODERNE" MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THOMAS EDISON'S OVERALL CHARACTER BY SOME  DETRACTORS - IT WAS DURING THE ABOVE PERIOD - "WHEN HE WAS PRETTY MUCH MORALLY. SOCIALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY ALONE IN "FIGHTING FOR THE VERY BEST IN PRODUCTION DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL QUALITY ETC. - THAT HE FINALLY BROUGHT, AT LEAST THE IDEA. OF PROVIDING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS OF STANDARDIZING  QUALITY, SAFETY AND AFFORDABILITY OF ELECTRICAL CURRENT TO THE FOREFRONT."
 
 
 
 
 
OF EQUAL OR GREATER IMPORTANCE, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1883, AFTER FAILING TO OVERCOME SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A "NEARLY FLAWLESS" MODEL OF THE ABOVE FACILITY- WHICH INCLUDED PARTS OF HIS (STILL) FAMOUS, PROMPTLY OUTMODED, CENTRALIZED ELECTRIC PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY - EDISON SUDDENLY MADE HIS ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH...
 
 
 
 
 
FEATURING THE FIRST COMPLETELY TROUBLE-FREE INTEGRATION OF HIS LATEST 3, 4 AND 5-WIRE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES - PLUS THEIR CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL NEW FEEDERS, SOON AFTER HIS REVOLUTIONARY MODEL PLANT WAS ROLLED OUT IN BROCKTON, MOST OF HIS TECHNOLOGICALLY ASTUTE ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS AT BOSTON TECH, (NOW MIT) BEGAN REFERRING TO IT AS “THE MOST UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL SYSTEM OF INVENTIONS, THOMAS EDISON HAS YET COME UP WITH..."
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE THAT, ON SEVERAL WELL DOCUMENTED OCCASIONS, BETWEEN 1957 AND 1962, THOMAS EDISON'S SON, CHARLES - SEEN ABOVE AT THE TIME HE WAS ATTENDING MIT - REITERATED TO THE WRITER MOST OF THE ABOVE HISTORY. AS WELL AS MANY OTHER UNPUBLISHED INSIGHTS AND PLAUDITS DEALING WITH HIS FATHER'S TRUE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER...
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
FINALLY, ON THE LATE AFTERNOON OF OCTOBER 01, 1883, FOUR MONTHS AFTER HE HAD PROUDLY WON LOCAL APPROVAL TO SITE HIS HERETOFORE ELUSIVE "PERFECT SYSTEM" AT THE EXACT CENTER OF THE NEWLY INCORPORATED LITTLE SHOE CITY OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS,   tps://youtu.be A HOST OF DIGNITARIES, ARRIVED TO WATCH EDISON HIMSELF THROW THE "ALMIGHTY" SWITCH THAT FORMALLY OPENED THIS MAGNFICENT LITTLE - STILL EXTANT BUT NO LONGER OPERATIONAL - STRUCTUR
 
 
 
NOT SURPRISINGLY, FOR MANY YEARS THEREAFTER, EDISON OFTEN EXPRESSED HIS DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE - STILL SHOCKING - STATISTICS (DETAILED BELOW) RELATING TO ACCIDENTAL ELECTRICAL INJURIES AND EXECUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A.C.
 
 
 
 
 
ALSO NOT VERY SURPRISINGLY, HE ALSO REGULARLY RECALLED HOW HIS, AND OTHER'S, COINCIDING EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH A.C. CURRENT, HAD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHOUT THE COMBINED INTEGRATION OF - THEN, YET TO BE INVENTED - REFINED AND HARMONIZED - REGULATORS, CAPACITORS, FEEDERS AND ALTERNATORS ETC.
 
 
 
 
 
ULTIMATELY, AFTER HAVING AMASSED A HORDE OF SUCH ALARMING INFORMATION, AND PRETTY MUCH ESTABLISHING THAT HIS ONCE MIGHTY LITTLE SUB-REGIONAL D.C. SYSTEM IN BROCKTON HAD THOROUGHLY PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE FIRST "VIRTUALLY HARMLESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR USE BY EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN... - AND ALSO BECAUSE EDISON WAS PRIVY TO THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECTLY THE REAL DANGER OF A.C. -  WHICH WERE RAPIDLY RISING - ALTERNATING CURRENT WAS GAINING EVER MORE FORMER CRITICS WHO WERE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE, MAIM AND KILL.
 
 
 
 
 
WHICH WAS ALSO CAUSING SOME OF EDISON'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUES TO AGREE WITH HIS BOLD CONCEPT THAT ITS IN-HOME USE, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EXISTED AT ITS FOUNDING - AND WAS SOME 30 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN THAT FROM AN EQUIVALENT D.C. SYSTEM - WAS INDEED A CALLOUS ACT BY THOSE WHO WERE OVERLY ANXIOUS TO GAIN CONTROL OF IT, AND QUICKLY ENJOY GREATER PROFITS FROM IT.
 
 
 
 
 
BUT, AFTER "LOSING" THE BATTLE WITH TESLA, EDISON  SPENT DECADESTRYING TO CONNCE HIS CRITICS THAT FOR, FAR MORE THAN A BRIEF TIME, MANY ASPECTS OF THE NOW WELL ESTABLISHED ALTERNATING CURRENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE REMAINED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF USE BY THE PUBLIC FOR A MUCH LONGER TIME THAN WAS THE CASE... PLEASE SEE EDISON'S FASCINATING "SEVEN SAFETY GUIDELINES" FOR THE USE OF ALL FORMS OF ELECTRICITY, BELOW.
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
PIC 
 
 
 
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STILL STANDING BUILDING WHICH - ALONG WITH ITS ORIGINAL CONTENTS  - CHANGED THE WORLD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  1. Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 140 years
  2.  
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  7. The former John Whipple House at 42 Green St. in Brockton, Massachusetts was i
    initially supplied electricit by none other than Thomas Edison in the late 19th century.
  8.  
  9. By Gerald Beals
    COPYRIGHT Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 - Updated Sep 29, 2008 at 12:54 PM

    Officially opened by Edison at 60 School St. on Oct. 1, 1883, this landmark facility featured the first fully calibrated and standardized array of conductors, mains, regulators, feeders, meters, etc. It was not only civilization’s most sophisticated engendering up to that time, its unique upgrades still shape the lives of untold billions of people.
  10.  
Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.
 
Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.
 
One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.
 
The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.
 
The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.
 
Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.
 
Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory″ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.
 
At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.
 
Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s″ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”
In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.
 
As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”
 
The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”
 
Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.
 
In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...″
 
He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”
 

Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in 1914.
 
 
 
PIC
 
Janos Stone, left, and Jack Alfonso of Riverside Stone Co. in Seekonk put the finishing touches on a monument to Thomas Edison on School Street in Brockton in this 2004 file photo. The sculpture is located in the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce building, the former power plant where Edison sometimes slept. Edison built the 
 
 
 
ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THOMAS EDISON'S - AND OTHERS - PARTLY SHARED WORK IN PERFECTING AND PATENTING THE FIRST LONG LASTING FILAMENTS FOR INCANDESCENT BULBS SHOOK UP THE "OLD WORLD" OF ILLUMINATION TO ITS CORE, HIS MOST UNIVERSALLY IMPACTFUL INVENTION WAS HIS "HARMONIOUSLY UNIFIED SYSTEM" OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING PRACTICAL ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY.
 
SPECIFICALLY, HIS DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL PREMATUE ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS EMERGED OUT OF HIS EARLY YEARS OF METHODICALLY SYNCHRONIZING AND REFINING SCORES OF IMPERFECT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS. ALL OF WHICH STEMMED FROM HIS STATE-OF-THE-ART UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENTIRE FIELD OF EARLY ELECTRONICS; AND WHICH COLLECTVELY REPRESENTED THE "MOST BROADLY BENEFICIAL TECHNOLOGICAL GIFT ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAS EVER PRESENTED TO MANKIND." PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THE PREFATORY BELOW.
 
 
 
CONSTRUCTED IN BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN 1883, HIS FIRST COMPLETE MODEL TO HARMONIOUSLY INCORPORATE ALL OF THE ABOVE PERFECTED ELEMENTS INTO ONE PRACTCAL SYSTEM THAT EVINCED FAR MORE EFFICACY THAN ALL PREVIOUS MODELS... AND WHICH FINALLY ENABLID HIM TO FULFILL HIS LONG HELD DREAM OF FACILITATING THE PROFITABLE MASS PRODUCTION OF THE MOST COMPLETE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL MODEL OF A DIRECT CURRENT (DC) LIGHT AND POWER PLANT OF ITS TIME. 
 
 
  • BY OUR READERS: Edison’s Brockton facility celebrates 125 years

    Gerald Beals
     
     

    Nothing provides as much insight into the creativity of Thomas Edison’s megawatt brain as his first standardized central power plant and its innovative three-wire distribution system.

    Nonetheless, popular recognition of this pivotal 19th century scientific breakthrough, which dramatically changed the cultural pattern of mankind, remains long overdue.

    One of the reasons this achievement has failed to widely resonate is because of its very complexity. The vast majority of today’s sci-tech historians focus upon Edison’s popular work with the light bulb, phonograph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television — all of which were at least partly invented by him. Meanwhile, they misinterpret and overlook his most significant invention, or system of inventions, which was culminated in Brockton.

    The official opening of this unique facility took place 125 years ago this Wednesday. Under Thomas Edison’s direct supervision, it introduced the first fully calibrated and standardized array of generators, conductors, mains, feeders, regulators, meters, etc. It was civilization’s most sophisticated electrical creation up to that time.

     

    The background leading to the development of its dozens of original attributes, which continue to improve the lives of untold billions of people, is one of the most interesting sagas in history.

    Soon after Edison came up with his world-shaking version of a practical incandescent light bulb, he realized that making its benefits economically available to all, in a “real world” setting, was going to be far more challenging than perfecting it in a laboratory. In order to compete with arc and gas lighting, he had to forge a new industry capable of mass producing hundreds of safe and affordable electrical components that the world had never seen.

     

    Among the major products from his ensuing “world’s first invention factory’’ were the special steam engines and dynamos needed to generate three-wire electricity from central plants and the complementary outlets, switches, lamps, sockets, etc. used inside commercial and residential buildings — plus everything in between. No invention had ever demanded such a variety of materially exacting and perfectly integrated components.

    At about the time he conceived the Brockton system, Edison opened his famous two-wire lighting facility in what was then the worst slum section of New York City. Patterned after his experimental plant in London, this venture was fraught with cost overruns, inefficiency and more than a modicum of danger. Unfortunately, while its financiers regularly obfuscated these issues, the great “wizard” himself was occasionally pressured to give the media its most positive spin.

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    Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to capturing the worldwide market for electrical energy, which is now more than 10 trillion kilowatts per year and the most consumed product in existence. And he next addressed the “Manhattan leviathan’s’’ fundamental shortcomings. His contemporary diaries are peppered with statements tersely emphasizing his unfinished mission to “replace lighting by gas with lighting by electricity.”

    In fall 1882 — as British and German light and power engineers were nipping at his heels on the one hand and gigantic gas industry “sharks” were smelling his blood on the other — Edison hired an ingenious engineer-assistant named Frank Sprague. The primary role of this honor graduate from Annapolis was to make certain that the design of the Brockton Edison Illuminating Light and Power Company’s revolutionary three-wire-feeder operation and planned community-wide web of sub-stations, was mathematically sound. During this time, Sprague also designed the world’s first electric motors for centrally powering shoe machines, trolley cars, elevators etc. — all of which were first tested in Brockton.

    As Edison continued to pacify, if not downright bluff, his ravenous New York backers and the general public, he furtively perpetuated the idea that everything he had promised to do with electricity “was already accomplished” in that great metropolis. Meanwhile, after testing a few crude three-wire lighting systems elsewhere, he began to quietly construct his most advanced light and power system ever in the relatively tiny village of Brockton. To this city’s eternal credit, its prescient leaders ultimately cooperated in sanctioning “the world’s first truly complete and perfect model of centralized generation and distribution.”

     

    The Brockton facility masterfully integrated the highly efficacious electrical elements Edison developed during the most arduous and creative period of his heroic life. For example, in the five months prior to its opening, he registered over 20 related patents. They still stand as “the greatest quantity ever issued to any individual or corporation in such a short span of time.”

    Under the aegis of his associated three-wire patent, they became more culturally omnipotent than the early technology associated with Bill Gates and Microsoft. This energy-based 1883 document also provided Edison with control over almost every aspect of producing and distributing three-wire, state-of-the-art electric light and power.

    In a visit to Brockton in 1958, Edison’s son Charles said, “Along with its other extraordinary features, the Brockton facility’s unique conservation and aesthetically oriented underground advantages — which saved millions of trees throughout the world — made it the most sagacious invention of father’s career ...’’

    He added that, “In spite of the strong sentiment he felt toward the success of his ground-breaking work in New York City, Father always referred to his streamlined Brockton facility as his first complete model and his first showcase system.”

    Not surprisingly, the essential upgrades that were original to Edison’s Brockton efforts were gradually incorporated into the multi-thousands of new central plants that followed. They were also retrofitted into Edison’s old style two-wire facilities and his notorious New York City plant — which burned down in1914.

     
     
     
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Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.
 
While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PERHAPS THE LEAST AMOUNT OF POPULAR APPRECIATION WAS FOR HIS STILL GENERALLY MISUNDERSTOOD, AND HIGHLYSUCCESSFUL, INVENTION OF LINE REGULATORS...
 
 

Margaret "Marmee" MarchCharacter Analysis

Mother of MegJoBeth, and Amy, and wife of Mr. MarchMrs. March runs the household in the first half of the book, when Mr. March is away at war. She is calm and collected, deeply moral, and teaches her girls to see the proper way to behave and the value of their poverty.

Margaret "Marmee" March Quotes in Little Women

The Little Women quotes below are all either spoken by Margaret "Marmee" March or refer to Margaret "Marmee" March. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: 
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Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

“Our burdens are here, our road is before us…Now, my little pilgrims, suppose you begin again, not in play, but in earnest, and see how far on you can get before Father comes home.”

Page Number: 16 
Explanation and Analysis:

Unlock explanations and citation info for this and every other Little Women quote.

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