At the close of the twentieth century, electricity was so commonplace that it would be difficult to imagine an existence without light, heat, and music bowing to our command at the flick of a switch. Children who could barely stretch high enough to toggle a light switch now have dominion over phenomena that less than a century ago would have been considered inconceivable. The temptations of such power have proved hard to resist. The repercussions of the rapacious appetite for control of energy among Western industrial nations have not been confined to the lot of the individual, however. As in previous eras, when the control of mechanical or biological power carried financial, geographical, and social significance, the use and abuse of electrical energy now additionally carries environmental, political, and moral implications. Developments in energy and power in the twentieth century must therefore be considered within these broader thematic areas as the generation and consumption of energy are inextricably linked with practically the whole spectrum of human existence.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, despite the fact that many components of modern electronics such as the battery had already been invented 100 years earlier, body power was still the norm, especially in rural areas. Horses, carriages, tow paths, water mills, and the like were the standard means of transport and power for a large proportion of the population, despite the growth of electricity and the 130 supply companies that were operating by 1896 in Britain. Even in urban settings, only lighting and telegraphy were advanced to the stage where the benefits were generally enjoyed as a result of Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb in 1879 and Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone transmission in 1878. By 1900 in Britain the main features of an electricity supply industry had been established. The system was based on the generation of highvoltage alternating current (AC), with transformers stepping down voltages for local use. However, one obstacle that the industry had to overcome was the lack of standardization across local areas. In some parts, direct current (DC) equipment was still installed, and local voltage levels and frequencies varied considerably. Despite problems posed by these variations, at the start of the century most of the appliances that are now taken for granted had appeared. Space heaters, cookers, and lighting equipment were not yet in every home, but the very speed at which their use was adopted was testament to the flexibility and
popularity of electricity. In 1918 electric washing machines became available, and in 1919 the first refrigerator appeared in Britain. They had already been introduced for domestic use in the U.S. in 1913. Electricity had been firmly accepted as the energy of the future. Demand from the residential sector started to boom and spurred further research. Most importantly, perhaps, by the 1920s in Britain the domestic immersion heater began to take over the duties of coal. The use of electric trolleys and trains, which had been running since the end of the nineteenth century, also continued to expand, and underground travel developed swiftly. Electricity also made advances in communications possible, from the telegraph and the telephone, to the broadcasting boom of the 1920s. In 1928 the construction of a British national grid system began, and it took less than ten years before the system was in operation. This alacrity is partly to be explained by the influence of World War I. The war’s heavy demands on manufacturing acted as a great incentive for the rapidly evolving electricity industry, particularly with regard to improving the efficiency of supply. Thereafter, the rebuilding and expansion of industry across the industrialized world began. In Russia, Lenin was moved to state, ‘‘Communism equals Soviet power plus electrification,’’ as part of the propaganda for industrialization. Electricity took over the driving of fans, elevators, and cranes, driving coal-mining equipment, for example, and rolling mills in steel factories. The use of individual electric motors allowed astonishing advances in speed control, precision, and productivity of machine tools.
With World War II came devastation. Power stations and fuel supplies were inevitably considered as strategic targets for the bombers during the destructive aerial attacks by both the Axis powers and the Allies. By 1946, the estimated deficiency of generating capacity in Europe was 10,000 megawatts. According to anecdotal evidence, the victory bells in Paris were only able to ring out in 1945 because of electricity transmitted from Germany, where more industrial capacity of all kinds, including power stations, had survived. Whatever the truth of this may be, the security of electricity supply quickly became an issue of undisputed importance throughout Europe, and the fuels used in electrical generation were valuable resources indeed.