In was on October 22, 1879 that Thomas Edison conducted the first successful test of his new electric light bulb. He was not the first inventor to think of running electricity through a fiber held within a vacuum to create light, however, Edison’s experiment was the first to exhibit the traits of long life, effectiveness and the ability to be reproduced at a price that would make it easily reached by the average American family. The next challenge was to provide American families with the electricity to run this new invention, as well as the thousands of other electrical appliance which followed in its wake.
In a shockingly small period of time, electricity was as all-perva