Note: This post is not complete, but wanted to get what I've read on this book out there.
Notes from Chapter 7: Rural Lines of Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940 by David Nye
I.
European countries put a social value on electrification, and by the end of the 1920s 2/3 of farms had electricity.
In America, the philosphy was to let the market take care of things. as a result, by the late 20s, only 600,000 of hte 6.5 million farms had electricity. Those that had it, often paid double the urban rate.
In 1910 Theodore Roosevelt recieved the Report of the Country Life Commission, only 2% of farmers had electricity then. Roosevelt pushed for government internvention with no success.
This report claimed that 1/3 of the water power in theUS "already was under the control of a group of thirteen companies ... that had interest to seek monopoly rent"
Talks about Thomas Jefferson and Roosevelt and many other anti-modernists believing that farms should be kept rustic and pure.
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He has a chosen people, whose breasts he has made this peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue, it is the focus in which He keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from the face of the earth.
Along these lines, others questioned the need for electricity on farms... as often happens with any new societal changing technology.
In 1890 an Iowa newspaper worried that cows would not be able to sleep in an electrified town.
II.
Although farmers may have wanted electricity, utilities didn't think it was profitable.
The first farms to be electricified were the "interurbans" farms located between electrified cities. Farmers could run a line off of the transmission cables that connected the cities.
Electricity back in the day was most advantageous to dairy and poultry farmers. Electric milkers could milk a cow 50% faster then your wife could.
Around World War I, farms started to install their own generating systems. The cheapest was the water motor.
Windmills were a more common solution. The Wincharger Corporation in Sioux City Iowa sold a 32-volt windmill generating system, for only a $15 (about $290 today) down paymayent and a 60-day warranty.
Tens of thousands of farmers bought Delco-Light, a gas or kerosene driven system. It contained an engine, generator, switchboard, and a set of glass-jar batteries. This system cost $400 ($7,700 today's money) only 5% of farmers could afford.
A wide range of appliances were avaiable to farmers. A catalog in 1913 Electricyt on the Farm had everything from feed grinders, pumps, to butter churns, vacuum milers, and ice cream makers.
GE and Westinghouse were both pushing for rural electrificaiton.
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