Skip to main content

Shocking........

Thomas Edison invented a light bulb that was reliable and long-lasting in 1879.  In 1882, with the help of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, Thomas Edison installed electric lights in parts of Manhattan.  Most homes continued to use gas and candle light for many years after this. By 1925 about 50% of all American homes had installed electric lights.  

While indexing the 1919 Janesville Daily Gazette I find interesting articles.  Sometimes they pertain to family but not always.  This article does not pertain to family but it certainly illustrates how dangerous electricity was in the early days of its use.  

The article reads: The city council has awarded damages to the extent of $5,000 to Edward Draeger for the death of his wife, due to electric shocks when she attempted to turn on one of the city's incandescent lights a few weeks ago. 

After a search, I was not able to locate any more information about this accident.  I think the city got off pretty easy.

References

Thomas Edison National Historic Park, New Jersey, https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm#:~:text=In%201882%20Edison%20helped%20form,the%20U.S.%20have%20electric%20power; Accessed 28 AUG 2020.

City Council Awards Damages, Janesville Daily Gazette, 23 AUG 1919, Newspapers.com; Accessed 24 AUG 2020.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Hanging of Gainesville, Texas

Oswald J. Hitz [1] married Sarah J. Harper in December of 1883.  While researching Sarah Harper an interesting incident was discovered that involved her father, Manadier D. Harper.  The event is known as the Great Hanging of 1862 at Gainesville, Texas.    Rising tensions in Cooke county, Texas were the result of increased migration to the area following an expansion of the Butterfield Overland Mail route, a semi-weekly mail and passenger stage service that traveled from St. Louis, through northern Texas, terminating in San Francisco.  The new migrants to the area did not own slaves which caused the numbers of slave owners to dwindle.  By 1862 only 10% of the population of Cooke county owned slaves.  Cooke and surrounding counties voted against secession which focused the fears of the slave holders in the county on the residents of the county that did not own slaves.  A rumor circulated that 1,700 men had joined a Union League and were going to at...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wolves in Wisconsin

I ran across this picture while I was working on the biography of George Herbert Anderson.  George was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1897 but came to live with his grandmother, Christina Olson Long, in Stockholm township, Pepin county, Wisconsin after the death of his mother in 1901.  He lived most of his life in the Stockholm area until later in life when he moved to Minneapolis.  He is pictured here holding a dead wolf.   The wolf population of Wisconsin prior to European settlement was estimated to be from 3,000 to 8,000.  No one really knows for sure.  What we do know is that as fur trappers and farmers began to move in to the area in the 1830's, the animals that the wolves preyed on began to disappear. Typically the wolves prey included bison, elk, and white-tailed deer in the south and moose, deer, caribou, and beaver in the north. Hungry wolves began to feed on easy-to-capture livestock.  This was unpopular with farmers as one would expect...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tarred and feathered.....in 1971

 Luan Goodman, 2nd cousin once removed of mine, daughter of Aloysius and Irene Kuhl Goodman, married a man by the name of R. Wiley Brownlee during a time that he was employed in France.  I have not been able to find a marriage record for this couple but their marriage information has been passed down through family interviews.  This blog post is concerned with Wiley Brownlee. Richard Wiley Brownlee was born August 5, 1928 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He was a well educated man, receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1951.  After completing a master's degree from Michigan State University he accepted a teaching position in Newfoundland with Pepperrill Air Force Base, later transferring to administration in Spain and France.  While in France he married Luan. He returned to the US to pursue a Ph.D. at MSU.   In 1970 he accepted a high school principalship in Willow Run Community Schools.  Willow Run is located 35 miles west...
Post a Comment
Read more