Electrification and the Ideological Origins of Energy
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A Dissertation entitled “Keep Your Dirty Lights On:” Electrification and the Ideological Origins of Energy Exceptionalism in American Society by Daniel A. French Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History _________________________________________ Dr. Diane F. Britton, Committee Chairperson _________________________________________ Dr. Peter Linebaugh, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Daryl Moorhead, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Kim E. Nielsen, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Patricia Komuniecki Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo December 2014 Copyright 2014, Daniel A. French This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the express permission of the author. An Abstract of “Keep Your Dirty Lights On:” Electrification and the Ideological Origins of Energy Exceptionalism in American Society by Daniel A. French Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History The University of Toledo December 2014 Electricity has been defined by American society as a modern and clean form of energy since it came into practical use at the end of the nineteenth century, yet no comprehensive study exists which examines the roots of these definitions. This dissertation considers the social meanings of electricity as an energy technology that became adopted between the mid- nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth centuries. Arguing that both technical and cultural factors played a role, this study shows how electricity became an abstracted form of energy in the minds of Americans. As technological advancements allowed for an increasing physical distance between power generation and power consumption, the commodity of electricity became consciously detached from the steam and coal that produced it. This factor, along with cultural factors led the public to define electricity as mysterious, utopian, and an alternative to proximal fire-based energy sources. With its adoption occurring simultaneously with Progressivism and consumerism, electricity use was encouraged and seen as a integral part of improvement and modernity which led Americans to culturally construct electricity as unlimited and environmentally inconsequential. iii Acknowledgements It has been my pleasure to work with kind and tolerant scholars on this project. To those on my dissertation committee, I owe gratitude for the time they took making edits and suggestions and for their overall support on this project. I met Dr. Daryl Moorhead and Dr. Kim Nielsen late in my time at the university, and their kindness and willingness to help has been appreciated and refreshing. This project would not have been possible without the assistance of my dissertation advisor, Dr. Diane Britton, who has been patient and tolerant as I juggled my private sector position along with academia. I also owe deep gratitude to Dr. Peter Linebaugh, who along with Dr. Britton took me in when few others showed interest. Dr. Britton’s knowledge of technological and environmental history along with Dr. Linebaugh’s work on the commons has been the bedrock on which my work was formed. Finally, I would like to thank Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott for giving me permission to use their song title “Keep Your Dirty Lights On” in the title of my work. I have worn out a good number of guitar strings and listened to hours of music as I have worked away for the past few years, and their work has made my time more enjoyable. I remain frustrated that it took me over 200 pages of writing to express what Tim and Darrell could in these few lyrics: “If you’ve got money in your pocket and a switch on the wall, we’ll keep your dirty lights on.” iv Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v 1. Introduction 1 2. English Roots, Utopia Found and Lost 23 3. The Energy Revolution and the Ascendancy of Coal 38 4. The Conundrum of Smoke and Visible Energy 61 5. Technology and Energy in the Abstract 84 6. Of Fluids, Fields, and Wizards 111 7. Energy, Utopia, and the American Mind 140 8. Turbines, Coal, and Convenience 168 9. Conclusion 194 References 203 v Chapter 1 Introduction On October 2, 1927 the New York Times featured a bold headline, "The Electric Age: A New Utopia." Explaining history in terms of energy epochs, the author declared that the United States was facing the most remarkable transformation in history, "It began with the steam engine and the first industrial revolution. It is now closed by the electric superpower system and the new industrial revolution."1 In closing the age of steam, the author reflected an ideology of energy exceptionalism that positioned electricity as a progressive source of power that was modern, unlimited, and a clean replacement for coal and steam. Fifty-years earlier, when the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia introduced the first practical applications of electricity to the country, they were curiosities. The 1876 world's fair featured the majestic Corliss steam engine, which captivated many of those who attended. Exhibitors introduced other new technologies including the telephone, the improved telegraph, and several arc lighting systems. While the Corliss ran on steam transported to the engine via underground pipelines, the telephone, telegraph, and arc lights received power through unobtrusive strands of wire. 1 Frank Bohn, "The Electric Age: A New Utopia," The New York Times, October 2, 1927. 1 Electrical power was a new energy paradigm. At the point of consumption electricity created light and heat, or provided a backbone of current on which communications could travel. It was at once miraculous and mysterious. Electricity was antithetical to open flames and hissing steam; it was intangible, it was silent, it was quiet, and it was invisible. Where the utilization of energy from fire or steam was only possible close to the point of combustion, electricity could extend the range that useful power could travel. By injecting physical space between smoky fires, pressurized boilers, and usable power, the small dynamos present at the fair gave life to clean, silent electrons that became surreptitious energy agents for dirty, burning coal. In the years after the fair, inventors and engineers such as Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse advanced the applications and capabilities of electrical power. Embraced by the American public as a modern and progressive power source, electricity began to replace the fires of gaslights and was poised to power a variety of contrivances in homes and businesses. In a technological slight of hand, coal was converted to electricity in a process removed from the purview of the American consumer class. Writing in 1906, historian Henry Adams recognized that electricity was “but an ingenious channel for conveying somewhere the heat latent in a few tons of coal hidden in a dirty engine house kept carefully out of sight.”2 Adams’s thought identified a key attribute of how energy became conceptualized in the American mind; the roots of inconsequentiality that culture attached to electricity began when American society embraced the new technology of the Gilded Age. With his contention, Adams recognized that electricity represented invisibility, and a loss of direct contact with fire 2 Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918), 292. 2 and fuel. Although electrification did not eliminate all industrial fires or solve all of the problems of industrial smoke, it did eliminate the flames that society encountered on an up close and regular basis. As it began to be widely adopted in the early 1900s electricity eliminated the saliency of energy use by eliminating the need to handle fuel, tend to flames, or experience the detritus of smoke or soot. Clean and smoke-free, electricity fit well with deeply engrained visions of a bucolic and pastoral America. At the same time, the always-on, unlimited nature of electrical power eliminated the awareness of consumption. Coal bins, woodpiles, and lantern-cans provided a visual—and physical— indication of the amount of energy used, and electric switch did not. These two qualities of clean energy at the source and limitless on-demand power fit well with long-held attitudes about consumption and consequences. The delivery of energy via electricity, along with other forgotten infrastructures such as the sewer system, comprise what historian Martin V. Melosi has described as “hidden functions.”3 While electrification did not eliminate industrial smoke in the Progressive Era, it transformed domestic energy use into a hidden function that became innocuous and unlimited. Unlimited energy was part of an ideology of energy exceptionalism that has existed in American culture since the first European colonists arrived. In North America, where fuel sources seemed inexhaustible and the environment infallible, American attitudes toward energy use developed around ideas of inconsequential consumption. As industrialization and fire-based energy began to threaten exceptionalist visions of America's pristine nature in the second half of the nineteenth century, a new urban 3 Matin V. Melosi, Effluent America: Cities, Industry, Energy, and the Environment (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001), 14. 3 middle-class