How the world’s first electric grid was built

32 pointsposted 4 days ago
by zdw
(worksinprogress.co)

4 Comments

floathub

44 minutes ago

The power generated from Niagara river stations was traveling on an international "grid" between Canada and the US in the late 1890s.

detourdog

an hour ago

I think Great Barrington, MA. might also be able to claim the title of first. It seems to predate this system by a year.

https://www.edisontechcenter.org/GreatBarrington.html

Carrok

11 minutes ago

> Stanley's system was however an experimental system designed to be proof of concept. It was short lived as the weak points in the system in the system eventually shut the system down (Westinghouse's steam engine was unreliable and the Siemens generator was 'unsatisfactory').

detourdog

2 minutes ago

March 6th, 1886 Stanley lit the downtown and rejoiced along with the townspeople. The system lit both businesses and the street with 150, 50, and 16 candlepower incandescent lamps. Stanley remarked how people were happy however maintained some distance from the lights as they were afraid of them!

They had growing pains but it was a grid system.