The Introduction of Electrical Power

Today, most people take electricity for granted. Asked where it comes from, most would respond, "out of the wall." Yet before the 1880s, no one had access to electrical power, and until the 1930s very few Wisconsin farms had electricity. Constructing power lines and generating the energy that flowed over them were costly investments that few farmers could afford. Power companies were reluctant to subsidize rural electrification because it was more profitable to provide service to cities. The Depression only emphasized the large disparity between urban and rural life in Wisconsin. Electric power not only helped with farm work, but... more...

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	Electricity is sold for the first time anywhere (Appleton, 1882)
	The story of Wisconsin's first electric light.
	An electric mixer from the 1920s
	Wisconsin waterways spell the future of electric power, 1918
	Electric stoves and heaters made by a Milwaukee firm, 1929.
	The virtues of electric appliances described in verse and pictures, 1916
	Rural electrification is given a boost in 1937.
	Catalogs of electrical equipment, 1920-1925
	Images of Wisconsin's first electrical generating plant and its successors
	Early fixtures in the first Wisconsin home to use electricity.
	The nation's first unified electric power utility in Milwaukee
	Madison Gas and Electric Company Powerhouse

Primary Sources Available Elsewhere

	The progress and problems of rural electrification in 1937
	An 1890 plan for an electric rail system in Milwaukee
	A scientist brings his traveling electricity show to schoolchildren
	Wisconsin Blue Books
	An electrification cooperative in Westby, 1942

Related Links