December 15, 1593 - The state of Holland granted a patent on a windmill with a crankshaft.

March 18, 1813 - David Melville, of Newport, RI, received patent for a '"Gas Lamp"; gas streetlight.

November 9, 1825 - Thomas Drummond, inventor of limelight, provided new form of bright light used in theatres, lighthouses; heated a small ball of lime to incandescent in front of a reflector, set it up at Scotland's Slieve Snaght; light was seen from Divis Mountain, over 66 miles away.

August 29, 1831 - Michael Faraday successfully demonstrated first electrical transformer; wound thick iron ring on one side with insulated wire that was connected to a battery; wound opposite side with wire connected to a galvanometer; found that upon closing the battery circuit, there was a deflection of the galvanometer in the second circuit; galvanometer needle jumped in opposite direction when battery circuit was opened; discovered that a current was induced in the secondary when a current in the primary was connected and an induced current in opposite direction when the primary current was disconnected.

May 17, 1839 - Lorenzo Dow Atkins, of Perry township, OH, received a patent for a "Spiral-Bucket Water-Wheel" ("for Propelling Mills and Other Machinery").

July 24, 1844 - Henry Rossiter Worthington received a patent for a "Steam-Boiler Water-Feeder" (new and useful improvements in the manner of constructing and governing auxiliary steam-engines for the purpose of supplying steam-boliers with water"); independent single direct-acting steam power pump, laid the foundation of the entire pump industry; July 24, 1855 - received a patent for a "Water Metre" (a new and useful Meter for Measuring the Quantity of Flowing Liquids"); one of the first practical water meters in the United States; July 19, 1859 - received a patent for a "Pumping Engine" (a new and Improved Combination of Pumping-Engines and Arrangement of the Valve Motion"); duplex direct-acting pump, perhaps the most widely used means for handling water by steam power.

1852 - Peter and James Donahue founded the San Francisco Gas Company; 1901 - California Gas and Electric Company formed as amalgamation of many smaller, scattered gas and electric operations; 1905 - merged with California Gas and Electric Corporation; formed Pacific Gas and Electric Company; 1912 - completed changeover from flat-rate billing system to installation of 116,000 meters to measure electricity used by customers; 1930 - began delivering natural gas instead of gas manufactured form oil; 1985 - Diablo Canyon nuclear facility went online; April 6, 2001 - filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization due to fallout from state's 1996 energy deregulation law ( high cost of energy purchased from outside suppliers, unable to immediately pass on price hikes to consumers, accumulated $9 billion in debt) (third largest bankruptcy filing in US history, largest ever for a utility); April 2004 - emerged from bankruptcy; oldest electric utility in the United States.

August 29, 1854 - Daniel Halladay of Ellington, CT, received a patent for an "Improved Governor for Windmills"; self-governing windmill.

May 19, 1857 - William Francis Channing (Boston) and Moses G. Farmer (Salem, MA) received a patent for an "Electromagnetic Fire Alarm Telegraph for Cities"; consisted of a circuit between a signal station, central station and alarm station, designed to give a local or general alarm in a town or city; June 1851 - city of Boston adopted system, spent $10,000 to test device; April 28, 1852 - began operation.

March 23, 1869 - W. Leigh Burton, of Richmond, VA, received a patent for an "Electro Heating Apparatus"; an electrical resistance heater.

May 16, 1872 - Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lighted for first time.

July 23, 1872 - Jonathan J. Hoyt, of Chelmsford, MA, received a patent for a "Lamp" (lamps constructed on the Argand principle - that is, with an air-passage leading to or communicating with the interior or center of the flame").

October 29, 1872 - James A. Risdon, of Genoa, IL received a patent for "Wind-Wheels"; all-metal windmill.

August 3, 1874 - Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans, of Toronto, ON, received a patent from the Patent Branch of the Canadian Department of Agriculture for an "Electric Light" ("art or process of obtaining Artificial light by means of Electricity"); 1875 - Woodward sold share of Canadian patent to Thomas Edison.

August 11, 1874 - Harry S. Parmelee, of New Haven, CT, received a patent for "Fire-Extinguishers"; sprinkler head.

September 21, 1875 - Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe received a patent for a "Process and Apparatus for the Manufacture of Illuminating and Heating Gas"; carbureted water gas process was soon most important manufactured gas in  United States of its time.

1876 - Charles F. Brush invented new type of simple, reliable, self-regulating arc lamp and new dynamo designed to power it; April 24, 1877 - Charles F. Brush, of Cleveland, OH, received a patent for "Improvement in Magneto-Electric Machines" ("apparatus for the conversion of mechanical into electrical energy...consists of improvements in the armature and in the arrangement of communicators"); May 7, 1878 - received a patent for an "Improvement in Electric Lamps" ("carbon sticks usually employed are automatically adjusted, and kept in such position and relation to each to each other that a continuous and effective light shall be had without the necessity of any manual interference"); economic, efficient source of electricity for arc light, key factor in developing commercially viable system of lighting; February 11, 1879 - received a patent for "Improvement in Electric-Light Regulators" ("by means of this simple device an electric light may be uniformly maintained for many hours, the only limit to the time being the length of carbon rods employed"); September 2, 1879 - received a patent for an "Improvement in Carbons for Electric Lamps"; received a patent  for an "Improvement in Electric Lighting Devices"; December 20, 1880 - Telegraph Supply Company (Cleveland) restructured, renamed Brush Electric Company; successfully demonstrated arc lighting along Broadway ('Great White Way'), built New York's first central lighting station; June 1882 - acquired Joseph Swan U.S. patent rights; August 22, 1882 - received a patent for an "Electric-Arc Lamp"; arc lamp and generator that produced variable voltage controlled by load and constant current; suited to applications where bright light needed (street lights, lighting in commercial and public buildings).

October 15, 1878 - Thomas Edison opened Edison Electric Company in New York City; syndicate of leading financiers (J.P. Morgan, Vanderbilts) advanced $30,000 for research and development; created the first incandescent lamp.

October 18, 1878 - Edison made electricity available for household usage.

December 26, 1878 - For the first time in America, electric lighting was installed in a store at the Grand Depot, owned by John Wanamaker; eight dynamos provided the electrical power to run 28 arc lamps.

February 3, 1879 - Joseph Wilson Swan demonstrated his invention of the first practically usable incandescent filament electric light bulb to an audience of 700 at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne; established the world's first electric light bulb factory at Benwell in the western suburbs of Newcastle; Swan's bulbs were used to light up Mosley Street in the Newcastle city centre, the first street in the world to be lit by electric light; 1881 - Swan introduced bulbs in London where 1,200 of them were used in the lighting the Savoy Theatre in front of an astonished audience.

April 29, 1879 - First use of electric arc lamps (Brush arc lamps) in U.S.   took place in Cleveland, Ohio.

June 30, 1879 - George H. Roe (27) incorporated California Electric Light Company in San Francisco; first electric company in U.S. formed to produce,  sell electricity; September 1879 - central generating station supplied power for lighting Brush arc light lamps; first electric company in PG&E family tree; 1891 - acquired by new Edison Light and Power Company (exclusive rights to Edison patents within radius of 100 miles); Roe as president.

September 6, 1879 - Telephone Company Ltd opened first public British telephone exchange in Lombard Street, London using Edison's system; served just eight subscribers with a two-panel Williams switchboard.

October 21, 1879 - Thomas A. Edison invented  first durable and commercially practical electric light bulb for home use (an incandescent lamp with a filament of carbonized sewing thread) at his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ; lasted 40 hours in a vacuum inside a glass bulb before burning out; tested over 6,000 vegetable growths (baywood, boxwood, hickory, cedar, flax, bamboo) as filament material - spent 1 1/2 years, $40,000, performed 1,200 experiments.

December 20, 1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, New Jersey; December 31, 1879 - first public demonstration of incandescent light, lights up a street in Menlo Park, NJ; first lamp to be practical (solved problems with short-lived filaments with carbonized filament); socket mount - the Edison screw base - is still in use; Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains to Menlo Park to enable the public to view demonstration. 

December 23, 1879 - Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent  for a "Electro Magnetic Machine" ("increase the effectiveness and cheapen the construction of the revolving armature"); armature of cylinder made of wood with two iron heads, fine iron wire wound on cylinder between them; disks of hard rubber or other insulating material outside iron heads at end of cylinder; wires formed induction helix, wound lengthwise of cyclindres into notches in edges of disk.

January 27, 1880 - Thomas Edison, of Menlo Park, NJ, received a patent for an "Electric-Lamp" ("an electric lamp for giving light by incandescence...light-giving body of carbon wire or sheets coiled or arranged in such a manner as to offer great resistance to the passage of the electric current"); electric incandescent lamp.

March 31, 1880 - Wabash, IN turned on first electric street lights installed by a municipality; completely replaced gas lamps; four 4,000 candle-power Brush arc lamps, suspended 50 feet above the business district were powered by a small dynamo connected to a threshing machine's steam engine outside the courthouse (where one of the original lamps is still on display); strange, weird light, exceeded in power only by the sun, rendered the square as light as midday.

April 27, 1880 - James P. Mauzey, of Blackfoot MT territory, received a patent ("227,028) for "Solar-Heater" ("apparatus for concentrating and focusing the rays of the sun to utilize the heat").

May 4, 1880 - Thomas A. Edison received three patents for an "Electric Light" ("to economically apply electricity to lighting and to insure uniformity of action in the different lamps"); electricity distribution system connected lights in parallel circuit (vs. series circuit in arc lights); failure of one light bulb would not cause whole circuit to fail; company flush with profits, and competitors; J. P. Morgan advised Edison to: 1) adopt aggressive tactics of vertical integration, 2) buy his rivals, ) transform company into modern enterprise; re-christened the General Electric Company, dominated field with just one major competitor, Westinghouse Company.

July 23, 1880 - First commercial hydroelectric power plant began operations in Grand Rapids, MI.

October 1, 1880 - Edison Lamp Works opened first electric incandescent lamp factory in U.S. in Menlo Park, NJ; manufactured more than 130,000 bulbs before moving plant to Harrison, NJ. on April 1, 1882.

October 19, 1880 - Joseph W. Swan, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, received a patent  for an "Electric Lamp" ("in which light is produced by the incandescence of a continuous conductor of carbon inclosed in an exhausted glass bulb, and provides means for increasing the durability of the said kind of lamp"); carbon filament incandescent lamp; November 9, 1880 - received a second patent (#234,345) for an "Electric Lamp" ("in which light is produced by passing an electric current through a conductor of carbon, so as to render it incandescent, said conductor being inclosed in an air-tight vacuous or partially-vacuous glass vessel").

October 26, 1880 - Lester A. Pelton, of Camptonville, CA, received a patent for a "Water-Wheel" ("that class of water-wheels known as 'hurdy-gurdy' wheels...the whole reactionary force of the water is utilized"); Pelton Water Wheel increased water power almost six-fold.

December 17, 1880 - The Edison Electric Illuminating Company incorporated for purpose of providing electric light to New York City; capitalized with $1,000,000; September 4, 1882 - opened first central electric station in U.S. at 257 Pearl St. in lower Manhattan (one engine capable of generating power for 800 light bulbs); November 1883 - service had 508 subscribers and 12,732 bulbs. 

February 1881 - Joseph W. Swan formed Swan Electric Light Company; 1882 - formed Swan Incandescent Electric Light Company of New York to market Swan lamp filament system in United States under patents of Joseph W. Swan; June 1882 - sold U.S. patent rights to Brush Electric Company; October 1883 - Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company ("Ediswan") established to sell lamps made with cellulose filament that Swan had invented after Swan successfully sued Edison over infringements of his patent rights. 1885 - Swan Lamp Manufacturing Company established in Cleveland, OH (dissolved 1885); 1885 -1889 - "Brush-Swan" group (Charles Francis Brush) manufactured lamps; 1889 - Brush Electric Company acquired by Thomson-Houston Electric Company.

June 14, 1881 - Thomas A. Edison received two patents for an "Incandescent Electric Lamp" ("supporter made of glass or other insulating material...in which the carbon [filament] loop is held erect"); received a patent for a "Magneto or Dynamo Electric Machine"; received a patent for "Electric Lighting" ("method for connecting...in one multiple-arc or derived circuit a series of lamps, each giving the same amount of light as the standard lamp of the system...so that the lamps in such a circuit could be controlled by one circuit-closer"); received a patent for "Manufacturing Carbons for Electric Lamps"; received a patent  for an "Electric Meter" ("which shall indicate exactly the amount [of electricity] supplied to a customer").

September 13, 1881 - Lewis H. Latimer, of New York, NY, and J. V. Nichols, of Brooklyn, NY, received patent for an "Electric Lamp"; electric lamp with a carbon filament.

1882 - Western Edison Light Co. founded in Chicago; 1887 - name changed to Chicago Edison Co.; 1892 - Samuel L. Insull became president; 1897 - Insull incorporated Commonwealth Electric Light & Power Co.; 1907 - two companies formally merged to create the Commonwealth Edison Co.

January 17, 1882 - Engineer Lewis Latimer, of New York, NY, received patent for a "Process of Manufacturing Carbons" ("carbonizing the conductors for incandescent lamps"); assigned to United Sates electric Lighting Company.

March 3, 1882 - First steam distribution plant of importance in U.S. made first distribution of steam to United Bank Building on Broadway; operated by consolidation of New York Steam Corporation and Steam Heating and Power Company of New York; plant had a 225-ft high chimney, generated steam from 48 boilers each rated 250-h.p., output served 62 customers nine months later.

September 4, 1882 - Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York City initiated Pearl Street electric power station in New York City; first electric central station to supply light and power; one generator produced power for 800 electric light bulbs to 85 customers; November 1883 - 508 subscribers, 12,732 bulbs.

September 19, 1882 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for an "Electric Distribution and Translation System" ("method of equalizing the tension or "pressure" of the current through an entire system of electric-lighting or other translation of electric force, preventing what is ordinarily known as a `drop' in those portions of the system the more remote from the central station"); feeder system solved problem related to equal distribution of current on large scale over extended areas.

September 30, 1882 - Paper manufacturer H.F. Rogers (Appleton, WI) opened world's first hydroelectric power plant in U.S. at his riverside paper mill on the Fox River, in Appleton, WI (later known as the Appleton Edison Light Company); powered by a water wheel, provided 12.5 kilowatts enough for 180 lights (ten candlepower each) to light Rogers' home and plant.

November 20, 1882 - Thomas Edison received patent for an "Incandescing Electric Lamp", three-wire incandescent-lighting system to supercede the distribution system used at first commercial central generating station in New York; saved over 60 per cent in copper used in conductors, smaller investment which made it economically possible to build generating plants in many smaller communities.

December 22, 1882 - Edward H. Johnson, Thomas Edison's associate, created first string of Christmas Tree lights (previously decorated with wax candles); December 1901 - Edison General Electric Co. (Harrison, NJ) produced first commercial Christmas tree lamps in strings of nine sockets, advertised in Ladies' Home Journal; average citizen didn't use lights them until the 1920s or later; character light bulbs became popular in the 1920s, bubble lights in the 1940s, twinkle bulbs in the 1950s, plastic bulbs by 1955.

January 30, 1883 - Edison formally signed first contract to construct 3-wire system in Brockton, MA (completed October 1, 1883); March 20, 1883 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "System of Electrical Distribution" ("system in which currents of high tension can be used, while at the same time each lamp is entirely independent of all the others, the lamps being also each of the standard or usual resistance"); three-wire system vs. feeder system (September 19, 1882 patent); resulted in saving of 62.5% of amount of copper over that which would be required for conductors in any previously devised two-wire system carrying same load.

April 30, 1883 - First U.S. three-wire central station for incandescent lighting opened in Sunbury, PA; July 4, 1883 - started operations (built by the Edison Electric Illuminating Co.); Armington & Sims steam engine drove two 110-volt direct-current generators; electricity delivered by overhead wires. 

May 29, 1883 - Thomas Edison received two patents for a "Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines"; received three patents for the "Manufacture if Incandescing Electric Lamps"; received a patent for an "Apparatus for Translating Electric Currents From High to Low Tension"; received a patent for a "Dynamo-Electric Machine" ("will not require in their operation and adjustment the attention of a person skilled in the working of electrical apparatus").

February 12, 1884 - Thomas Edison received three patents for an "Electrical Generator and Motor", "Incandescent Electric Lamp", "Electrical Meter".

May 13, 1884 - American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) formed; predecessor to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).

June 14, 1884 - New York was first state in the U.S. to enact legislation requiring the burying of utility wires; required that in any incorporated city with a population over 500,000 "all telegraph, telephonic and electric light wires and cables ... be placed under the surface of the streets, lanes and avenues"; November 1, 1885 - required that telegraph pole were to be removed.

July 28, 1885 - John B. Mitchell, of Portland, ME, received a patent for a "Ready Light or Taper" (to provide a ready light which shall be of such small cost that it may be discarded after being once used").

March 6, 1886 - George Westinghouse demonstrated transmission of America's first alternating current power plant (vs. direct current generated by Thomas Edison's ventures) in Great Barrington, MA; March 20, 1886 - power came from the first AC power plant in the U.S. to begin commercial operation;  subsequently damaged by an accident and abandoned; ability to use transformers at the source for transmission at higher voltage decreased energy losses so that transmission distance could be increased by miles; November 30, 1886 - Westinghouse opened first successful A.C. generating plant in Buffalo, NY.

April 8, 1886 - German scientist, Dr. Carl Gassner, received a German patent for the first "dry" cell (used zinc as its primary ingredient); 1896 - Nation Carbide Company, later Union Carbide and Eveready, produced the first consumer dry cell battery; 1898 - company made the first D cell.

June 1, 1886 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent  for a "System of Electrical Distribution" ("to reduce the number of dynamos necessary for such a system").

April 26, 1887- Huntsville Electric Co. formed to sell electricity.

November 15, 1887 - Carl Gassner, Jr., of Mentz, Germany,  received a patent for a "Galvanic Battery"; dry cell battery.

February 14, 1888 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Telephone-Transmitter".

May 1, 1888 - Nikola Tesla received patents for: a "Electrical Transmission of Power" (2), a "Electro Magnetic Motor" (2), a "Method of Converting and Distributing Electric Currents" and a  "System of Electrical Distribution"; May 13, 1890 - for a "Pyromagneto Electric Generator"; March 20, 1900 - received a patent for a "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy" (wireless transmission of electric power).

August 14, 1888 - Oliver B. Shallenberger, of Rochester, PA, Westinghouse's chief electrician, received a patent for a "Meter for Alternating Electric Currents" ("measuring electric currents and recording the amount of electrical energy consumed in any given circuit or portion thereof"); electric meter; critical element in the Westinghouse AC system; received a second patent for a "Method of Measuring Alternating Electric Currents".

September 4, 1888 - Edward Weston, of Newark, NJ, received a patent for the "Art of Utilizing Solar Radiant Energy" ("to transform radiant energy derived from the sun into into electrical energy or through electrical energy into mechanical energy").

December 11, 1888 - Black American inventor, Henry Creamer, of New York, NY, received patent for a "Steam Trap and Feeder"; 1887-1893 - received five steam trap patents.

February 12, 1889 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Method of Winding Field-Magnets" ("winding the field-magnets of dynamo-electric machines with their wire-coils whereby I am enabled to cast the magnetic-cores with their pole-pieces and yokes in one place instead of making them separately and afterward bolting them together").

April 24, 1889 - Edison General Electric Company organized; April 15, 1892 - General Electric Company formed by merger of Edison General Electric Co. (Schenectady, NY; founded 1878 as Edison Electric Light Co.) and Thomson-Houston Company (formed in 1883 to produce dynamos and arc lighting, succeeded American Electric Company), incorporated in New York State.

June 2, 1889 - Willamette Falls Electric Co. (Portland, OR) hydroelectric power plant made alternating current electricity available to consumers for the first time at a significant distance from its origin (made possible long-distance transmission that overcame problems of direct current); 13 mile power line linked power plant to Portland, OR; September 30, 1882 - first hydroelectric power plant (without alternating current) demonstrated in Appleton, WI; 1886 - AC generators driven by steam power in use elsewhere.

June 11, 1889 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for an "Electrical-Distribution System" ("main conductors are placed in pipes or tubes and laid underground...to produce a box for connecting the feeding-conductors with the mains").

October 15, 1889 - William Calver, of Washington, DC, received a patent for a "Solar Reflecting Apparatus"; solar reflector.

1890 - Edison combined several businesses, established Edison General Electric Company; April 15, 1892 - merged with Thomson-Houston Company (formed in 1883 from merger of Elihu Thomson's American Electric Company and interests of Edwin Houston), renamed General Electric Company; Charles A. Coffin, former shoe manufacturer and head of Thomson-Houston, president.

September 29, 1891 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Process of and Apparatus for Generating Electricity."

February 16, 1892 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Commutator-Brush for Electric Motors and Dynamos".

June 7, 1892 - Thomas A. Edison received series of U.S. patents for a "System of Electric Lighting," an "Incandescent Electric Lamp," a "System of Electrical Distribution," an "Incandescent Electric Lamp," an "Electric-Lighting System",  respectively.

June 14, 1892 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Pyromagnetic Generator" ("generation of powerful electric currents more economically than heretofore and more directly from the combustion of coal"); received a patent for an "Expansible Pulley" ("power-transmitting pulleys"); received a patent for a "Lightning-Arrester" ("protecting electrical circuits and instruments from the destructive effect of lightning and abnormally-high-tension currents"); received a patent for an "Electric Meter"; received a patent for an "Incandescent Electric Lamp"; received a patent for an "Electric Arc Lamp".

July 11, 1892 - U.S. Patent Office decided that Joseph Wilson Swan in England, not Thomas Edison, was inventor of electric light carbon for incandescent lamp; 1878 - Swan received British patent ffor first carbon incandescent lamp with side pin twist-lock lamp base (invented by Swan's brother Alfred); evolved with name "bayonet" base, became standard on house lighting in Britain; used for a century in most tail lights of every car or truck in the world; more secure with vibration than the Edison screw base; 1879 - Edison received patent; Swan and Edison later set up joint company to produce first practical filament lamp.

October 11, 1892 - Thomas A. Edison received patent for an "Electrical Depositing-Meter" ("current is measured by the weight of metal deposited by a suitable electrolyte through which the current measured is passed").

January 10, 1893 - Thomas W. Lane, of Boston, MA, received patent for an "Electric Gas Lighter"; assigned to Electric Gas Lighting Company (Portland, ME).

January 31, 1893 - Thomas A. Edison received two U.S.  patents: 1) for the "Art of Generating Electricity", described a cell made with positive and negative electrodes in a heated chamber containing dry chemicals which is exhausted to the point that gases generated in the reaction become good conductors of electricity; 2) for the "Manufacture of Carbon Filaments for Electric Lamps", described taking slips of fibrous vegetable material, such as bamboo, to be heated in a suitable furnace until partially carbonized, then soaked for several hours in sugar syrup to fill the pores with more carboniferous material before reheating until completely carbonized.

February 21, 1893 - Thomas A. Edison received three patents: 1) for a "Cut-Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps", 2) for a "Stop Device", 3) for a "Process of Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps".

October 9, 1894 - Melvin L. Severy, of Boston, MA, received a patent for an "Apparatus for Generating Electricity by Solar Heat" ("utilization of the sun's heat for the production of electricity as a source of heat, light and power").

January 29, 1895 - Charles P. Steinmetz, of Schenectady, NY, received a patent for a "System of Distribution by Alternating Currents"; A/C power; assigned to General Electric Company.

February 12, 1895 - Thomas A. Edison received four patents: "Filament for Incandescent Lamps," "Manufacture of Carbon Filaments", "Induction-Converter", "Incandescent Electric Lamp.

August 26, 1895 - Electricity was first transmitted commercially from the first large-scale utilization of Niagara Falls power (Pittsburgh Reduction Company used the current in the electrolytic production of aluminum metal from its ore). Buffalo received power for commercial use on November 15, 1896 as a result of an October 24, 1893 contract by which Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company (Pittsburgh, PA) agreed to install three 5,000-hp generators producing two-phase currents at 2,200 volts, 25 hertz (first tuboalternator unit completed within 18 months; prior capacity had been limited to generators no larger than 1,000 hp).

August 11, 1896 - Harvey Hubbell, of Bridgeport, CT, received a patent for a "Socket for Incandescent Lamps" ("to provide a practical and inexpensive pull-socket for incandescent lamps"); electric light bulb socket with on-and-off pull chain.

March 17, 1896 - Charles B. Brooks, of Newark, NJ, received a patent for a "Street Sweeper" ("involves a revoluble brush, elevating mechanism and refuse-receptacles"); May 12, 1896 - Charles B. Brooks, of Newark, NJ, received a patent for a "Dust-Proof Bag for Street-Sweepers".

August 11, 1896 - Harvey Hubbell, of Bridgeport, CT, received a patent for a "Socket for Incandescent Lamps" ("a practical and inexpensive pull-socket for incandescent lamps"); electric light bulb socket with a pull chain.

November 15, 1896 - First long-distance transmission of hydroelectricity from Niagara Falls Power Company (founded March 31, 1886) flowed to Buffalo, NY, 26 miles away; August 26, 1895 -  company made the first large-scale utilization for commercial purposes when it began supplying power to an aluminum production plant;  October 24, 1893 - contract with the Westinghouse Electric and Mfg. Co. for three 5,000 h.p. generators.

August 17, 1897 - Harry C. Reagan, Jr., of Philadelphia, PA, received a patent for "Application of Solar Heat to Thermo Batteries" ("to concentrate the sun's rays to a focus and have one set of junctions of a thermo-battery at the focus of the rays, while suitable cooling devices are applied to the other junctions of said thermo-battery").

1898 - Russian immigrant Conrad Hubert; salesman for Joshia Lionel Cowen, founder of American Eveready Battery Company, bought Cowen's idea for decorative lighting fixture for potted plants (self-illuminating flowerpot powered by dry cell battery), founded American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company (AENMC) to market battery powered novelties; May 20, 1902 - received a patent for an "Electric Lamp" ("improvements in electric lamps and in batteries adapted for use in connection therewith"); August 25, 1903 - received a patent for an "Electric-Circuit Closer" ("to provide a construction in which the same part may be used at will to close a circuit permanently or only momentarily...particularly applicable to the class of electric lights known as flash-lights"); cylindrical casing containing lamp, batteries, on/off switch; 1906 - sold half-interest to National Carbon Company for $200,000.

August 9, 1898 - Henry F. Cottle, of Boston, MA, received  patent for an "Apparatus for Storing and Using Solar Heat".

1899 - Florida Power incorporated in Florida to generate, purchase, transmit, distribute, sell electricity primarily in State of Florida.

June 6, 1899 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Filament for Incandescent Lamps and Process of Manufacturing Same" ("will be of a high resistance, and hence suitable for use on high-tension currents")..

March 20, 1900 - Nikola Tesla, of New York, NY, received a patent for a "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy"; wireless transmission of electric power.

July 16, 1901 - Thomas A. Edison received first patent for a "Reversible Galvanic Battery"; used insoluble active elements in an alkaline solution which remained unchanged during all conditions of use; made of great permanence and of remarkably light weight per unit of power.

September 17, 1901 - Peter Cooper Hewitt, of New York, NY, received 8 patents for an "Electric Lamp" ("methods and apparatus for electric lighting"); mercury vapor lamp; light was produced when electric current passed through mercury vapor; December 1902 - lamps manufactured by Cooper Hewitt Electric Company in New York City.

February 4, 1902 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Reversible Galvanic Battery"; design for a permanent battery with a large capacity per unit of weight; June 3, 1902 = received a second patent for a "Reversible Galvanic Battery"; both assigned to Edison Storage Battery Company.

November 8, 1904 - Harvey Hubbell II, of Bridgeport, CT, received a patent for a "Separable Attachment-Plug" ("so that electric power in buildings may be utilized by persons having no electrical knowledge or skill in the use of tools in attaching lights. fans, motors..."; first manufactured by Harvey Hubbell, Inc.

December 2, 1905 - Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab (Norsk Hydro) founded; provides the solution to one of the most pressing problems of the day - industrial manufacture of plant nutrients to increase food production throughout the world; Sam Eyde, appointed managing director for a 10-year period, Marcus Wallenberg, elected chairman of the board, Frenchman Edmond Moret - three most important people in the new company; managed by a French-Scandinavian board of directors.

May 29, 1906 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Process of Cleaning Metallic Surfaces" ("process of cleaning long continuous metallic surfaces or strips preliminary to subsequent treatment by which the surface is coated with another metal or material"); electroplating, etc.; received a patent for a "Storage Battery Filling Apparatus"; received a patent for "Gas Separator for Storage Batteries"; received a patent for a "Process of Treating Alkaline Storage Batteries"; received a patent for a "Process of Making Metallic Flakes or Scales" ("particularly for use in connection with my improves storage battery as a conducting substance for admixture with the positive material [nickel hydroxid] in the positive electrode").

December 10, 1907 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Reversible Glvanic Battery"; storage batteries using an alkaline electrolyte with an oxygen compound f nickel as the active de-polraizing material and in which an oxygen compound of bismith is added to the nickel mass so as to result in a substantial increase in the capacity.

1908 - George A. Tuck and a partner founded small sheet metal shop; grew into Atlas Heating & Ventilating Company; leader in converting homes heated by pot-bellied stoves or kitchen stoves to central heating systems; oldest heating, air conditioning, and ventilating company in the Bay Area; family-owned, operated.

February 18, 1908 - Thomas A. Edison received patent for an  "Alkaline Storage Battery"; reduced foaming of electrolyte in such batteries while in operation.

May 1, 1909 - First of five generating units started in power plant at Minidoka Dam on the Snake River in Idaho; first hydroelectric power plant built by U.S. government. 

January 18, 1910 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Storage Battery" ("the oxygen compound of bismith can be more effectively added to the nickel mass and the addition can be under better control than by the specific practice suggested in [1907] patent...also...can be practiced for the addition of oxygen compound of bismith after the original electrode elements have been formed, and indeed, after they have been assembled in the usual plates or grids".

March 22, 1910 - James C. Dow, of Wilkinsburg, PA, received a patent for "Insulating Material"; insulator for electric circuits; assigned to Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company.

June 18, 1912 - Peter C. Hewitt, of New York, NY, received  patent for an "Apparatus for the Electrical Production of Light";  mercury vapor arc lamp.

August 20, 1912 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Storage Battery"; improvement on 1907 and 1910 patents.

October 28, 1913 - William W, Coblentz, of Washington, DC, received a patent for a "Thermal Generator" ("device whereby light rays may be utilized to generate an electric current of such a capacity as to do useful work").

December 30, 1913 - Dr. William D. Coolidge, of Schenectady, NY, received patent  for "Tungsten and Method of Making the Same for Use as Filaments in Incandescent Electric lamps and for Other Purposes"; Tungsten filament light bulb; assigned to General Electric Company.

January 19, 1915 - George Claude of Paris received a U.S. patent for a "System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes"; led to neon sign.

April 18 , 1916 - Irving Langmuir, of Schenectady, NY, received  patent for an "Incandescent Electric Lamp"; gas-filled incandescent lamp.

October 19, 1920 - National Carbon Company, Inc. registered "Eveready" trademark first used May 15, 1909 (Electric Batteries, Electric Flash-Lights, Electric Lamps for Automobiles and Flash-Lights, Dry Cells, Storage Batteries [and Electric Starters]).

November 23, 1920 - Thomas Edison received a patent (#1,359,972) for "Electroplating" ("electro-plating of metals on metals...to enable a metal electro-plated on a metal to be readily stripped or removed therefrom...to prevent the metal plated from strongly adhering to the metal plated upon").

May 24, 1921 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Storage Battery" ("to result in a greatly increased discharge rate").

December 27, 1921 - French Battery & Carbon Co. registered "Ray-O-Vac" trademark first used April 1, 1921 (Dry-Cell Batteries).

January 10, 1922 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Storage-Battery Electrode and the Production of Same".

May 23, 1922 - Thomas Edison received a patent for "Production of Thin Metal Sheets or Foils" ("to produce thin sheets or foils of metal, preferably nickel, of any desired length by electro-plating").

February 10, 1925 - The first waterless gas storage tank was placed in service in Michigan City, IN.

October 21, 1925 - Westinghouse Electric and Mfg Co. publicly demonstrated first U.S. photocell or tube (used to count objects as they passed through and interrupted a beam of light, applied to open doors as a person or car approached) at the Electrical Show at Grand Central Palace in New York.

October 16, 1928 - Marvin Pipkin, of Cleveland Heights, OH (Incandescent Lamp Department of the General Electric Company), received U.S. patent for an "Electric-Lamp Bulb"; first electric light bulb frosted on inside with sufficient strength for commercial handling; advantages of frosting the inside of a bulb (versus the outside) are less absorption of light and less collection of dust.

June 19, 1931 - Wilcox's Pier Restaurant (West Haven, CT) completed installation on first commercial doors operated by photoelectric cell; a magic eye controlled automated swinging doors between the kitchen and main dining room.

May 9, 1932 - Piccadilly Circus first lighted by electricity.

November 22, 1932 - Robert J. Jauch, Ivan R. Farnham, Ross H. Arnold, of Fort Wayne, IN, received patent for a "Liquid Dispensing Apparatus"; first U.S. patent for a computer pump; accurately computed and indicated exact quantity delivered in gallons and the price in dollars and cents as the delivery was made.

June 13, 1933 - Balltown Road, in Schenectady, NY installed the first sodium vapor lamps in the U.S.

January 8, 1935 - Arthur C. Hardy, of Wellesley, MA, received a patent for a "Photometric Apparatus" ("particularly useful in colorimetry"); a spectrophotometer, electronic device capable of both detecting two million different shades of color, making permanent record chart of results; assigned to General Electric Company; May 24, 1935 - first machine sold.

February 12, 1935 - Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, of Cambridge, MA, received a patent for an "Electrostatic Generator" ("to produce direct current voltages of an order substantially higher than any previously obtained by influence machines and/or the rectification of alternating current"); assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology; direct-current voltages much higher than 700,000-V, state of art at time.

October 2, 1936 - First alcohol power plant established in Atchison, KS.

October 9, 1936 - First generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles (installed capacity of 2.08 million kilowatts from 17 main turbines over transmission lines spanning 266 miles of mountains and deserts); Initially named Boulder Dam, work was begun under President Herbert Hoover's administration but completed as a public works project during the Roosevelt administration (which renamed it for Hoover); electricity  was a secondary benefit; central reason for the dam was the collection, preservation, and rational distribution of water.

October 26, 1936 - First electric generator at Hoover Dam went into full operation.

April 23, 1940 - Herman R. C. Anthony, of Madison, WI, received a patent for a "Leakproof Dry Cell" (type of batteries "used in flash light casings...improved protective casing for a cell which wil prevent fluids from leaking out"); flashlight battery (Ray-o-Vac).

April 11, 1941 - First General Electric hydrogen-cooled electrical generator for outdoor installation in the U.S. was put into operation; October 12, 1937 - first GE hydrogen-cooled indoor generator started operation started; advantage of hydrogen is a high thermal conductivity and lower friction than air-cooled generators, more efficient, lower fuel consumption, highest output capacity, lowest operating cost.

October 2, 1942 - First self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction demonstrated in Chicago.

January 10, 1944 - General Electric Company delivered first mobile electric power plant in U.S. to U.S. Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA; built within six specially designed railway cars oil-fired boilers powered a steam-turbine generating plant, accompanied by the switchgear and transformer apparatus; unit could be hauled at speeds up to 40 mph to a new destination where it could be set up within 24 hours, capable of generating 10,00 kilowatts of electric power.

December 24, 1948 - First U.S. house completely solar heated ("Dover Sun House") was occupied in Dover, MA; heating system, designed by Dr. Maria Telkes from the MIT Solar Laboratory, used black sheet metal collectors to capture solar energy, stored by the phase-change of sodium sulphate decahydrate in "heat bins"; fans distributed the heat as needed.

March 2, 1949 - First automatic street light installed in New Milford, CT.

November 17, 1951 - Britain reported development of world's first nuclear-powered heating system.

December 20, 1951 - First electricity ever generated by atomic power flowed when Walter Zinn and his Argonne National Laboratory staff of scientists brought the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 (EBR-1) turbine generator to criticality (a controlled, self-sustaining chain reaction) with a core about the size of a football; December 1963 - decommissioned; EBR-1 is a Registered National Historic Landmark.

April 15, 1952 - Kenneth J. Germeshausen, of Newton Centre, MA, received a patent for a "Gaseous-Discharge Device"; hydrogen thryatron for high voltage switches.

February 11, 1954 - 75,000-watt light bulb lighted at Rockefeller Center in New York to commemorate 75th anniversary of Edison’s first light bulb.

June 27, 1954 - World's first atomic power station began producing electricity in Obninsk, U.S.S.R.

September 6, 1954 -Ground breaking took place at Shippingport, PA for first U.S. full-scale atomic electricity generating station devoted exclusively to peaceful uses; President Eisenhower remotely signaled a radio-controlled bulldozer.

June 1, 1955 - National Fabricated Products, Inc. (Chicago, IL) shipped a solar energy battery; first shipped from an American commercial factory; disc shaped, about the size of a half-dollar, with two terminals; hermetically sealed, provided about half of a volt of electricity.

July 17, 1955 - Arco, ID became first U.S. city lighted by nuclear power.

October 17, 1956 - The Queen opened Calder Hall, Britain's first nuclear power station which directed into the National Grid for the first time; March 31, 2003 - plant closed.

April 29, 1957 - First military nuclear power plant dedicated in Fort Belvoir, VA.

August 1, 1957 - Solar Building (Bridgers and Paxton Office Building), Albuquerque NM, first commercial building heated by sun's energy; constructed when active solar-energy systems still considered experimental.

December 2, 1957 - Duquesne Light Co. of Pittsburgh began operation of the first full-scale civilian atomic electric generating station in the U.S. in Shippingport, PA (15 years to the day after Fermi's experiment at the University of Chicago); December 18 - fed electricity into the grid for the Pittsburgh area; December 23 - plant reached full power, generated 60 megawatts of power for Pittsburgh; reactor plant designed by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in cooperation with the Division of Naval Reactors of the Atomic Energy Commission; May 26. 1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower opened it as part of his "Atoms for Peace" program; 1982 - Shippingport nuclear power plant was retired.

January 28, 1958 - Indian Point nuclear generating station, the first privately-owned thorium-uranium atomic reactor to supply power began construction; built at Buchanan, New York, Babcock and Wilcox Co. for the Consolidated Edison Co. at a cost of $100 million to produce 275,000 kilowatts of power.

August 19, 1960 - First commercial atomic energy reactor, third in U.S., achieved self-sustaining nuclear reaction at $57 million Yankee Atomic Electric Company's plant at Rowe, MA, on Deerfield River (company formed by twelve New England utility companies which signed a contract with the Westinghouse Corporation as the principal contractor); November 10, 1960 - began producing power for distribution; pressurized light-water reactor produced 125,000 kilowatts of electricity; February 26, 1992 - permanently shut down due to reactor vessel embrittlement.

November 10, 1960 - Yankee Atomic Electric Company's (formed by twelve New England utility companies with the Westinghouse Corporation as the principal contractor) plant at Rowe, MA, $57 million first commercial atomic energy reactor, third in the U.S., produced power for distribution; pressurized light-water reactor produced 125,000 kilowatts of electricity; February 26, 1992 - permanently shut down due to reactor vessel embrittlement, after more than 31 years of service; 1993 - decommissioning began.

February 10, 1961 - Niagara Falls hydroelectric project began producing power.

June 21, 1961 - President John Kennedy pressed a switch installed in his office in Washington DC to dedicate first practical plant for the conversion of seawater to drinking water; built in less than a year at a cost of $1.5 million at Freeport, Texas by the Dow Chemical Co.; capable of producing about a million gallons of water a day, supplying fresh water to the city of Freeport at a cost of about $1.25 per thousand gallons; May 8, 1961 - Office of Saline Water, U.S. Department of the Interior opened opened plant; reverse osmosis has replaced large-scale evaporation method used then as scientific advances have produced special polymers suitable for use as filtering membranes.

September 12, 1961 - Kenneth R. Eldredge, of Palo Alto, CA, received a patent for an "Automatic Reading System"; for utilities.

January 1, 1963 - Kentucky Power Company placed first U.S. electric power plant to use hyperbolic-shaped cooling towers in commercial service at Ashland, KY (close to coal mines that fueled it); designed to cool 120,000 gallons of water per minute.

May 20, 1964 - First U.S. atomic-powered lighthouse put into operation in Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore Harbor, MD; designed and produced by nuclear division of Martin-Marietta Corp. to supply a continuous flow of electricity for ten years without refuelling; 60-watt nuclear generator generated heat from strontium-90 in the form of strontium titinate, a safe radioisotope;  heat converted to electricity by 120 pairs of lead telluride thermocouples; complete with shielding, unit only 34.5 inches high, 22 inches in diameter.

November 9, 1965 - Biggest electricity grid failure in U.S. history caused 13.5-hour blackout in northeast America, parts of Canada. At about 5:15 pm, a transmission line relay failed, insufficient line capacity for New England and New York (inter-connected on a power grid); affected - some 80,000 square miles, 25 million people, 800,000 trapped in New York City subways.

February 16, 1968 - Nation's first 911 emergency telephone system inaugurated, in Haleyville, AL.

April 4, 1972 - First electric power generated in U.S. fueled by municipal solid waste produced at Meramec Plant of Union Electric Company, St. Louis, MO; cooperative effort with city of St. Louis, with financial support from Environmental Protection Agency; May - plant generated 200,000 kW-hr of electricity, wastes consumed at rate of 12.5 tons/hour or 300 tons/day.

March 28, 1979 - America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (three-months-old) near Middletown, PA (on an island in the Susquehanna River about 11 miles south of Harrisburg); released above-normal levels of radiation into the central Pennsylvania countryside; officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said radiation outside the plant was far less than that produced by diagnostic X-rays; some of the 60 employees on duty were contaminated, did not require hospitalization; 15,000 people living within a mile of the plant were not evacuated, 'general emergency' was declared.

June 7, 1980 - First U.S. solar power plant, joint venture with MIT's Lincoln Laboratory and the Dept. of Energy., was dedicated at the Natural Bridge National Monument, Utah; over 250,000 solar cells arrayed in 12 long rows, 100-kilowatt output could provide the power needs for the buildings and facilities of that National Park.

July 25, 1983 - Washington Public Power Supply System defaulted $2.25 billion.

April 26, 1986 - World's worst civil nuclear catastrophe as one of the reactors at Chernobyl nuclear power plant (near Kiev in Ukraine) exploded; plant, which had four 1,000-megawatt reactors, in the town of Pripyat; one of the largest and oldest nuclear power plants in the world. Workers at the plant were performing tests on the system; shut off the emergency safety systems and the cooling system, against established regulations; failed to stop the test even when warning signs of dangerous overheating appeared; Xenon gases built up; three explosions eventually blew the 1,000-ton steel top right off of the reactor. Pripyat’s 40,000 people were not evacuated until 36 hours after the explosion. Potentially lethal rain fell as the fires continued for eight days. Dikes were built at the Pripyat River to contain damage from contaminated water run-off and the people of Kiev were warned to stay indoors as a radioactive cloud headed their way.

March 1, 1990 - Seabrook, NH nuclear power plant won federal permission to go on line after two decades of protests, legal struggles.

June 1, 1992 - Pierre Villere announced creation of the E-Lamp, an electronic electrodeless 20-year lightbulb; technology licensed from Diablo Research Corporation (developed it in late 1980s, not approved for residential use in the U.S.); illuminated when radio waves excite a phosphor coating, an efficient process that can save as much as 75% of lighting costs. April 1994 - General Electric (G.E.) Lighting announced that "the world's first practical compact high-tech induction reflector lamp" would be on the market in Europe within weeks, used trade name Genura (smaller than incandescent reflector lamp it replaced).

November 7, 1997 - Chinese engineers completed blocking of Yangtze River, first step toward what will be the world's largest hydroelectric dam project.

July 24, 1998 - Enron Corporation, electricity and gas company in Houston, TX, signed deal to acquire British-based Wessex Water, PLC for $2.2 billion--which was reportedly paid in cash; signaled Enron's first move towards creating a global water subsidiary.

December 15, 2000 - Chernobyl nuclear plant permanently shut down in Ukraine; had provided Ukraine with around five percent of its electricity from its last working reactor. One by one, Chernobyl's reactors have shut down over the years; 1986 - reactor exploded; 1991 - fire stopped one of the remaining reactors; 1996 - third reactor shut down.

January 17, 2001 - Faced with electricity crisis, California used rolling blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people.

March 19, 2001 - California officials declared a power alert, ordering first of two days of rolling blackouts.

April 6, 2001 - Pacific Gas and Electric filed for bankruptcy.

June 20, 2002 - Agreement signed to establish seawater desalination, heating plant (using atomic reactors) at coastal city of Yingkou, China; designed to address severe water shortages, burns used fuel from nuclear power stations under normal pressure giving 200 megawatts; initial phase, costing 35 million yuan ($4 million), would provide heating for a building area of 5 million sq. meters during winter; can also desalinate 3,000 tons of sea water daily when no heating is required; daily capacity is expected to amount to 80,000 tons; reactor in theory is able to replace about 130,000 tons of coal burned every year, reducing immensely waste gases.

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