Empires of Light book

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Original poster: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com 

On page 47 of the book Empires of Light: "At the centennial exposition of 
1876 in Philadelphia, Moses Farmer exhibited three of his own versions of 
the glaring arc light.  They were powered by the first dynamo designed by 
the Americans, the work of the brilliant Farmer & William Wallace, his 
partner & proprietor of the nation's foremost brass & copper foundry in 
Ansonia, Connecticut.  Within a year, a major arc light competitor emerged 
out in Cleveland: A young chemist named Charles F. Brush, he beat Wallace & 
Farmer to the market & by the fall of 1878 was installing his hissing, 
brilliant arc lights inside a Boston department store, Continental Clothing 
House".

This is a refrence to our own Charles Brush's grandfather.  Pretty cool to 
have a grandfather who was a contemporary of all those famous 
inventors.  After working for Edison for a year in New York, Tesla quit and 
formed an arc lighting company with some partners.  So Charles Brush was a 
competitor of Tesla.  Arc lighting was big in the late 1800s.  Most of the 
large cities world wide had their streets lit with arc lights.  Many small 
companies manufactured arc lighting systems, using AC generators.  Charles 
eventually sold his company to a company that eventually merged with (took 
over) the Edison General Electric company and became General Electric.


Ed Sonderman