Electric Lighting - Urbanization and Its Challenges

Electric Lighting

Urbanization and Its Challenges - Aiden C

 
    The light-bulb was invented in 1879 by Thomas Edison in order to serve as a replacement for candles, which were inefficient for lighting and needed to be constantly replaced. The addition of light-bulbs in large cities and homes allowed people to keep areas around them lit at all times, which would allow for full day productivity, rather then the great decrease in productivity that cities would normally see at night. Following the introduction of light-bulbs came into the general public, cities immediately jumped on them and they were installed on almost every major city street that had access to electricity. Sadly, despite how helpful this new addition was, there raised some major problems in the process of transporting electricity to the lights in order for them to run. First of all was the issue of distance, as currently, direct current technology could only travel relatively short distances. With this arrived the issue of covering the entire city with lighting, as power plants had to be near to where their output would be. Until innovations were made in the travel of electricity, many cities only had lighting on small, central roads that were near to large energy production facilities. Also due to the use of direct current, electricity would need be run through the wires leading to each light bulb at extremely high voltages, as there was no way to lower the voltage mid-wire, and if the power plants outputted lower voltages they would not be able to cover long distances. The downside to doing this was that many workers and normal citizens were getting shocked and commonly killed apon touching any form of exposed electricity. That's why alternating current was invented in 1886. 

 

 A slowed-down diagram of a light bulb being powered by alternating current

    Alternating current allowed power plants to output electricity in extremely high voltages, but also allowed them to send that electricity farther. Furthermore, alternating current could be stepped-down into lower voltages when it came time for it to enter a home, business, or street, and so it had a far lower risk of lethally shocking someone. Once light bulbs and other electrical devices were fully adapted for alternating current, it took the world like wildfire, enabling entire cities to sustain their night life and boost productivity throughout the night.


Works Cited


Bulbs. “History of the Light Bulb.” Bulbs.com, 2019, www.bulbs.com/learning/history.aspx.

Dharan, Gokul, et al. “Alternating Current - Energy Education.” Energyeducation.ca, 2018, energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Alternating_current.

Stiftung, Siemens. Direct Current for Long-Distance Transmission. 2017, medienportal.siemens-stiftung.org/view/101614.
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