The trial of an electric bulb

The introduction of scientific and technological achievements into everyday practice often faced such opposition that the champions of the new sometimes had to use the form of a trial with prosecutors, defenders and judges to prove the advantages of new technology.

Surprisingly, the fact that with the help of litigation had to prove to the general public, it would seem, the obvious advantages of electric lighting.

To this end, in March 1879, the British Parliament established a commission, which was supposed to put an end to the rumors and ridiculous rumors spread by the opponents of electricity - gas companies.

The Commission had considerable powers: it had the right to call all the witnesses it deemed necessary, and on the same rights as the court called them. The inquiry was conducted in the same way as the judicial investigation. The respondent was electricity.

Witnesses gave testimony about his property and actions, stenographers recorded them. Members of the commission occupied judges' places. The table with the material evidence was filled with various electrical devices, with which experiments were immediately conducted. The walls were covered with drawings and diagrams.

The chairman of the court was elected professor of chemistry L. Pleifer. Strictly observing the procedure of the court, the commission "questioned" the witnesses of the defense - Tyndal, Thomson, Pris, Siemens , Cook and others.

The arguments of the prosecution witnesses were as follows. In the opinion of artists, the electric light is "cold and represents little expression." The English ladies found that he attaches "some kind of deadness to his face and, in addition, complicates the choice of clothes, since the light-lit suits seem different than in the evening light."

Traders of the Billingsgates market complained that "the electric light gives a bad kind of fish, and asked to remove the lighting arranged by them." Many complained of pain in the eyes and blinking of light. The witnesses of the defense patiently explained that one should not look at the lights, but on the objects illuminated by them, that it is even more painful to look directly at the sun, but no one puts this to blame for sunlight. That the deadness of the face is seen only "when mixing gas light with electric light". That "blinking" of the arc in the lamps from poorly made electrodes. Etc. etc.

In the verdict, the commission decided that the electric light came out of the field of experiments and tests and it must be given the opportunity to compete with gas lighting. The commission forbade the transmission of electric lighting to the gas companies, "as incompetent in matters of electrical engineering".

As for economy, the electrical engineering had to go a long way - to create central power plants, power lines and switchgears.