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We are fast approaching the 125th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders.
Since then, in those 123 years, the human race has undergone immense change. In 1978, I asked my grandmother, (born in 1888) on her 90th birthday what change, if any had been, in her eyes, the single most important change.
She replied, after a little thought.. "Electricity. I didn't switch on a light in a room until I was an adult. But if you look in the cupboard under the stairs, you will find a couple of old boxes of candles. You can't beat 'em, you know..."
We take electricity for granted these days. It is all around us and effects almost everything we do. The fact is that the first house in Britain (and indeed, the world) to be lit up entirely by use of electric light was Joseph Swann's (1828-1914) own house. This. happened in 1880, and the first public building in the world to be lit up by electricity was the Savoy theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, in 1881, lit by Swann using incandescent lightbulbs. Yet in Whitechapel, Spitalfields and the East End of London in general, electricity was unknown in the home.
We have Edison and Swann amongst many others to thank for this simple little thing we nonchalently turn on when it becomes dark in our houses. Whatever would we have done without electric light, one wonders?
Candles... "you can't beat 'em you know..." They have been around for 2,200 years or so.
Pass the snuffer old chap!
best wishes
Phil
Since then, in those 123 years, the human race has undergone immense change. In 1978, I asked my grandmother, (born in 1888) on her 90th birthday what change, if any had been, in her eyes, the single most important change.
She replied, after a little thought.. "Electricity. I didn't switch on a light in a room until I was an adult. But if you look in the cupboard under the stairs, you will find a couple of old boxes of candles. You can't beat 'em, you know..."
We take electricity for granted these days. It is all around us and effects almost everything we do. The fact is that the first house in Britain (and indeed, the world) to be lit up entirely by use of electric light was Joseph Swann's (1828-1914) own house. This. happened in 1880, and the first public building in the world to be lit up by electricity was the Savoy theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, in 1881, lit by Swann using incandescent lightbulbs. Yet in Whitechapel, Spitalfields and the East End of London in general, electricity was unknown in the home.
We have Edison and Swann amongst many others to thank for this simple little thing we nonchalently turn on when it becomes dark in our houses. Whatever would we have done without electric light, one wonders?
Candles... "you can't beat 'em you know..." They have been around for 2,200 years or so.
Pass the snuffer old chap!
best wishes
Phil
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