Electricity

Telegram

1837

In 1837 the British inventors Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone obtained a patent on a telegraph system that employed six wires and actuated five needle pointers attached to five galvanoscopes at the receiver.

First Commercially Practical Generator

1870

The first commercially practical generators of electrical current were developed in the 1870s

Phone

Mar 7, 1876

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.

Swan Light

Dec 18, 1878

Swan first publicly demonstrated his incandescent carbon lamp at a lecture for the Newcastle upon Tyne Chemical Society on 18 December 1878.

Edison Light Bulb

1879

Thomas Edison invented his first high-resistance, incandescent electric light.

First Electric Railway

1879

The first electric railway was installed in Berlin in 1879.

First Public Power Station

1881

In 1881, Britain opened the first public power station in Europe.

Radio Waves across the Atlantic

Dec 12, 1901

In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio waves across the Atlantic Ocean.

Hydroelectric Power Stations

1910

By 1910, the first hydroelectric power stations and coal-fired steam generating plants enabled districts to be tied into a single power distribution system.