The Science and Art of Electricity, 1914 [Slide Show]
Illuminating insights into electricity from a century ago from the Archive of Scientific American
By Daniel C. Schlenoff
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Between 1910 and 1930 the number of homes wired for electricity in the U.S. skyrocketed from 10 to 70 percent. It wasn’t just electric lights: there were electric versions of vacuum cleaners, irons, washing machines and that pinnacle of modern living, the toaster.
The science of electricity had advanced in step with its applications. Among the advances, “wireless telephony” (now called radio), x-rays (discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895) and superconductivity, discovered in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes.
Here’s a look at a few images of electricity for work, for play and in nature, from our pages of 1914.
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