A hundred years ago today, October 21, 1914, by Act of Congress, it was Edison Day in America, marking the 35th Anniversary of the perfection of the incandescent light bulb. Street cars paused in his honor, light bulbs were lit during the day, and many “Edison concerts” of music being played on phonographs took place.
It was also a time for some commercial promotion. Even though electric lighting had been almost completely adopted by 1914, especially in cities, it was not yet universal. The utility shown here encourages readers to wire their houses before Edison Day. And many retailers of phonographs encouraged readers to buy a phonograph in honor of the day.
I graduated from Minneapolis Edison High School, which opened in 1922, a full nine years before Edison’s death. In fact, the school’s early yearbooks contain a dedication signed by Edison himself. It always struck me as odd that a living person was so glorified during his lifetime. And the modern-day cynic will undoubtedly point to Edison’s faults.
But the fact that the country was no completely electrified only 35 years after Edison’s invention of the light bulb is remarkable. The world of 1914 was very different from the world of 1879. The world of 1914 is recognizable. The world of 1879 was a very different place.