Electricity
Firsts in Pennsylvania
1752
- Philadelphia
Benjamin
Franklin uses a kite and a key to prove that lightning
is electricity
1846 - Philadelphia
An
office of the Magnetic (Morse) Telegraph company is
established
1868 - Cumberland Valley
Daniel
Drawbaugh invents an electric clock
1875 - Philadelphia
The
world's first radio operates, invented by Boys' Central
High School professor Elihu Thomson
1877
- Philadelphia
Professor
Thomson becomes the first cook to use electricity, boiling
an egg using a coil of silver wire immersed in water
1878
- Philadelphia
Shoppers
browse under electric lights for the first time, at
the John Wanamaker store
1880
- Chester
The
world's first ship with an electric lighting system,
the S.S. Columbia, is launched
1883
- Sunbury
The
first central power station using the Edison three-wire,
double-voltage system begins operating
1885
- Pittsburgh
Westinghouse
Electric develops the alternating current, allowing
long-distance transmission of electricity for the first
time
1891
- Bessemer
The
Carnegie Steel Company installs the first electrical
steel mill equipment at its Edgar Thomson Works
1903
- Scranton
A
breakthrough in mass transit - the first experimental
trolley coach line, with cars powered by a two-wire,
overhead system, is installed
1920
- Pittsburgh
The
electronic mass media debuts when radio station KDKA
begins broadcasting regularly scheduled programs
1924
- Pittsburgh
Television
is born, with the first complete system developed by
Vladimir K. Zworykin in the Westinghouse research laboratories
1928
- The Mid-Atlantic
The
first major electric utility power pool, the Pennsylvania-New
Jersey-Maryland Interconnection, is formed
1941
- Philadelphia
Medical
science leaps forward when a University of Pennsylvania
electron microscope magnifies the influenza virus 65,000
times, allowing it to be photographed for the first
time
1957
- Shippingport
America's
first commercial nuclear power plant begins generating
electricity
1977
- Shippingport
The
first water breeder reactor begins operation
|
