21 December 1906: Heavy Sleet Takes Out Trolley

On this day in 1906, news of long delays in service for the Athens Electric Railway's trolley service was published in the Weekly Banner:

"Quite a while" in this case was until early January, 1907, when the company began installing new poles and stringing "heavier" and "much better" wire throughout the system. It was promised that "there would be no further delays caused by broken wire." (This promise was kept until a severe sleet storm in February, 1908.)

The first successful electric railway system was developed by Frank J. Sprague, who created the suspension and pulley system that became the standard for cities all over the world. It was installed over 12 miles of tracks in Richmond, Virginia, in 1887, and by 1895, 900 U.S. cities had electric railways, with 11,000 miles of rails. 

Most cities had privately run systems, such as Athens Railway & Electric company, which ran the trolley system until March, 1930, when they changed over to a short-lived city bus system.


Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Jan. 1906 - Dec. 1908 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• History of Athens and Clarke County by H.J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Buses, Trolleys, and Trams by Charles S. Dunbar in the general collection.
• The Electricity Story: 2,500 Years of Experiments and Discoveries by George deLucenay Leon in the children's collection.
• Electricity: From Faraday to Solar Generators by Martin J. Gutnik in the general collection.
• Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity by David Bodanis in the general collection.
• Frank J. Sprague article on the Inventor of the Week Archive on the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website.
• Richmond Union Passenger Railway, 1888 article in the Milestones section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Global History Network website.

21 June 1901: Paving Milledge Avenue

On this day in 1901, the Athens Banner reported that paving of Milledge Avenue would happen that summer, after delays of wet weather and a city full of alumni, friends, and family of graduates from the many schools in the Athens area.

MILLEDGE PAVING BEGINS MONDAY.

The Work Will be Pushed Rapidly to an Early Completion.

     The city authorities were unable, after all, to begin the paving of Milledge avenue before the commencement season.     First, the continued rains some time before prevented the beginning of the work, and when it became dry enough to start work, it was decided that inasmuch as it was so close to the commencencements, that the work be postponed until the visitors had left Athens.     Work will be started on Milledge avenue by the city next Monday morning. There is not much time left to complete the work by next winter, but the paving will be rushed as much as possible. A large force of hands will go to work at that time.

--Athens Daily Banner, 21 June 1901, p. 3, col. 5.

The work was scheduled to begin on Monday, June 24th, during a heat wave of two days that the Banner reported "brought most forcibly to mind the tales that Rudyard Kipling relas of the heat in India." Both days reached into the 90s by noon, until a strong overnight thunderstorm calmed the heat. 


This was the initial paving of Milledge, and was not completed until November. Rather than the more industrial block paving used downtown, Milledge was macadamized,  which means layers of broken stone were spread across the leveled road surface, then sealed with a binder. It was much cheaper to pave with this system, and repairs were not as expensive, as well. 


The entire length of the street was not paved, but the paper still declared it "one of the prettiest streets in the South." It was repaved in 1906, with the Athens Electric & Railway Company paying for part of the work, as they laid rail to Lumpkin Street. The costs were split between the city, the railway company, and the property owners. 


By 1914, Milledge was paved from Hill Street to Henderson Avenue. Two years later, 75 property owners petitioned to have the street paved from Springdale to Lumpkin. It was only paved to Woodlawn Avenue, so the following year, after complaints from residents about a Milledge Avenue that was "ankle deep in mud for the past three or four weeks," the city finally paved the road two blocks past Lumpkin Street. The longer paving was likely due to the new residences that had started to develop in the Five Points area on University Drive.


By 1923, Athens had spent nearly $1 million to have 105 miles of paved streets, and spent approximately $100,000.00 per year in maintenance and improvements. More than 50 miles of these streets had sidewalks, such as the brick ones recently restored along Hancock Street.




Learn More: 

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1901 - Oct. 1901 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• History of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Minutes of the Mayor and Council of the City of Athens, Georgia on Microfilm in the Heritage collection. 
• A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community by Robert R. Archibald in the general collection.
• Asphalt Nation by Jane Holtz Kay in the general collection.
• The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift in the New Books collection.
• Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling in the fiction collection.
• The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling in the fiction collection.

5 March 1904: Late Notice of First Marconigram to Athens

On this day in 1904, the Athens Banner announced that unbeknownst to anyone, the first wireless Marconigram was sent to Athens several days earlier by Miss Mildred Rutherford, who did not want her relatives to worry that her ship was running late. 


Alas, the headline was misplaced, so while the story appeared in the first column of the front page on March 5th, the headline was placed over the obituary of Presbyterian minister and 1851 University of Georgia graduate Dr. R. Q. Mallard in New Orleans.

Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford, aka "Miss Mille," taught literature, history, and Bible studies at the Lucy Cobb Institute from 1880 to 1928, serving as principal from 1880 to 1895, and as president from 1917-1922.  

Guglielmo Marconi would share the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 with German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy."


Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Feb. 1904 - Nov. 1905 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen in the general collection.
• Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication by Tim O'Shei via PINES.
• Guglielmo Marconi biography on the Nobel Prize website.
• Physics in the Twentieth Century by Curt Suplee in the general collection.
• A Century of Radio website by the BBC.
• The Marconi Centre website.
• My Father Marconi by Degna Marconi via PINES.
• Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood in the Heritage collection.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of Lucy Cobb Institute, 1858-1994 by Phinizy Spalding.

7 November 1913: An Angel Food Cake Recipe

On this day in 1913, the recipe for angel food cake used in the demonstration of electrical appliances and sponsor White Crest Flour appeared on the front page of the Athens Banner.

If anyone makes this cake, please share your experiences in the comment section!

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Oct. 1913 - Dec. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Images from the White Crest Flour Cook Book for cooking demonstrations.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum in the general collection.
• Cake Boss: The Stories & Recipes from Mia Famiglia by Buddy Valastro in the biography collection.
• Cool Cakes & Cupcakes: Easy Recipes for Kids to Bake by Pamela S. Price in the children's collection.
• The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn in the general collection.
• Party Cakes by Janice Murfitt in the general collection.
• Birthday Cakes: Recipes and Memories from Celebrated Bakers, edited by Kathryn Kleinman in the general collection.
• The Wedding Cake Book by Dede Wilson in the general collection.
• Ultimate Cake by Barbara Maher in the general collection.

25 June 1889: Paper Predicts Horses May Become One of "Our Rared Monsters"

On this day in 1889, the Weekly Banner published the following editorial:

The decline of the horse as transportation was not as rapid as it may have seemed in 1889. Though automobiles gained in popularity, liveries still did a good business in Athens into the 1910s, and the Athens police used mounted patrols for downtown for more than 100 years after this editorial was published.

Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, Aug. 1888 - Dec. 1889 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia's Protected Wildlife by the Game & Fish Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in the Heritage collection.
• The Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?" by Mark Stevenson in the New Books collection. 
• Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand in the general collection.
• Secretariat's Meadow: The Land, the Family, the Legend by Kate Chenery Tweedy in the New Books collection.
• The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds by Diane Ackerman in the general collection.
• The Wonderful Future That Never Was by Gregory Benford in the New Books collection.
• The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul in the general collection.
• Inevitable Surprises: Thinking Ahead in a Time of Turbulence by Peter Schwartz in the general collection.
• A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals by Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten in the general collection.
• Probable Tomorrows: How Science and Technology Will Transform Our Lives in the Next Twenty Years by Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies in the general collection.
• No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species by Richard Ellis in the general collection.
• I Live in the Future and Here's How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain are Being Creatively Disrupted by Nick Bilton in the New Books collection.
• Extinct Species of the World by Jean-Christophe Balouet in the general and Reference collections. 
• Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth by Curt Stager in the New Books collection.
• The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half Century, edited by Mike Wallace in the general collection.
• The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century by Scott Adams in the general collection.
• MountedPolice.com website.

3 June 1917: An "Astonishing" 37.4 Miles per Gallon!

On this day in 1917, Talmage Hardware Company ran the following ad in the Athens Banner:

Talmage Hardware was located at 131 East Clayton Street downtown, where Lamar Lewis Shoe Store is today.

In 1917, the cost of a gallon of gasoline in the United States 20 cents per gallon, approximately $3.22 in today's dollars. The Fuel Administration established during World War I was primarily focused on the nation's coal supplies, and urged citizens to conserve electricity and order their coal early in the winter. Gasoline rationing came in the autumn of 1918, through a voluntary action of "gasolineless Sundays." The war ended before stricter constraints were deemed necessary.

According to a story run on the same page as the ad, demand for automobiles was high in Clarke County thanks to "premium prices" for food crops brought on by the war. All the dealers interviewed had sold out of their stock and had waiting lists for a variety of models. According to Mr. Griffeth, the local Ford agent, "Farmers are buying these handy little machines to haul their produce into town and carry their supplies out." 

The article noted that "with the products of the farm soaring there is no reason why the farmer for once in his life should not ride and ride comfortably," and asserted that such purchases were patriotic support of American industry during a time of war. 

The automobile was also touted as a modern way to improve well-being, with the author quoting famous New York Evening Journal editor Arthur Brisbane, who likened riding in a car to indoor plumbing: "you pay for running water as a matter of course. Just as important...to health is the running air that fills your lungs and clears your blood as your car rushes through it. To call a car a 'luxury' ...is trivial nonsense. As well call running water and a bathtub in your house luxury."

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Apr. 1917 - Oct. 30, 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 1909 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• 1912-1913 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• The American Automobile: A Brief History by John Bell Rae in the general collection.
• Those Wonderful Old Automobiles by Floyd Clymer in the general collection.
• The Automobile Age by James J. Flink in the general collection.
• America on Wheels: The First 100 Years, 1896-1996 by Frank Coffey in the general collection.
• Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, 1903-2003 by Douglas Brinkley in the general collection.
• Over Here: The First World War and American Society by David M. Kennedy in the general collection.
• The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century by Jay Winter and Blaine Baggett in the general collection.
• Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein in the general collection.
• Fuel in the DVD collection.
• Measuring Worth website.
• U.S. Economy in World War I web page from the Economic History Association website.
• Automotive Industries, Volume 39, in Google Books.
• Stromberg Carburetors website.
• Model T Facts web page.

21 April 1869: Power and Potential of Water in Athens

On this day in 1869, the Southern Watchman published this inventory of horse power availalbe in the Athens area:

Water Power in and Around Athens, Ga.

   We are indebted to JAMES D. PITTARD, ESQ., for the following useful information, which we are assured is perfectly reliable: 

     Athens Factory Shoals, Athens, on Oconee River; 200 horse power; 100 in use.

     Georgia Factory Shoals, 4 miles from Athens, on Oconee River; 300 horse power; 125 in use.

     W. A. Carr's Shoals, Athens, on Oconee River; 125 horse power; none in use.

     S. J. Mays' Shoals, 3 miles from Athens, on Oconee River; 150 horse power; none in use.

     Cook's Armory Shoals, Athens, on Trail C'k; 75 horse power; 10 in use.

     Smith's Shoals, 6 miles from Athens, on Oconee River; 100 horse power; none in use.

     Wm. A. Carr's Creek Shoals, Athens; 10 horse power; none in use.

     Elijah Carr's Creek Shoals, one mile from Athens; 25 horse power; none in use.

     Barnett's Shoals, 4 miles from Athens, on Nocatchie Creek; 10 horse power.

     John Saye's Shoals, on Little Sandy Creek; 14 horse power.

     W. P. Talmadge's two Shoals, on Sandy C'k, 4 miles from Athens; 12 and 25 horse power.

     Wm. Patman's Shoals, on Middle Oconee River, 8 miles from Athens; 150 horse power; none in use.

     Fowler's Shoals, on Middle Oconee River, 7 miles from Athens; 200 horse power; none in use.

     Mitchell's Shoals, 4 miles from Athens, on Middle Oconee River; 150 horse power; none in use.

     Epps' Shoals, 2 1/2 miles from Athens, on Middle Oconee River; 90 horse power; none in use.

     Princeton Factory Shoals, 3 miles from Athens, on Middle Oconee River; 400 horse power; 40 in use.

     Simonton's Bridge Shoals, 4 miles from Athens, on Middle Oconee River; 100 horse power; none in use.

     Mar's Hill Factory Shoals, 7 miles from Athens, on Barber's Creek; 50 horse power; none in use.

     Epps' Shoals, on Barber's Creek, 4 1/2 miles from Athens; 50 horse power; none in use.

    Paper Mill Shoals, 4 miles from Athens, on Barber's Creek; 75 horse power; 50 in use.

     Colt's Mill Shoals, 7 miles from Athens, on Big Sandy Creek; 50 horse power, 25 in use.

     Jennings' Mill Shoals, 6 miles from Athens, on McNut's Creek; 30 horse power, 20 in use.

     Epps' Shoals, on McNut's Creek, 3 1/2 miles from Athens; 25 horse power; none in use.

     Barnett's Shoals, on Oconee River, 8 miles from Athens--two Shoals, 500 horse power each; 60 feet fall; none in use.

   It will thus be seen that there is a vast amount of water-power running to waste in the vicinity of this town.

Southern Watchman, 21 April 1869, p. 3, col. 1

James D. Pittard served as Intendant of Athens for two one-year terms, in 1867 and 1868, and was Mayor in 1873. (Athens did not have a mayor until 1872, when the state legislature granted Athens a city charter.)  He died in 1884 after a long illness, and is buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery.

Though still somewhat impoverished by the war, the Athens industry was growing and expanding rapidly throughout the 1860s. By the end of the century, water would power not just the local mills and factories, but would electrify Athens homes, businesses, government, schools, and transportation options.

Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, Jan. 1868 - Feb. 1871 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Transition to an Industrial South: Athens, Georgia, 1830-1870 by Michael J. Gagnon in the Heritage and general collections.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery of Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections. 
• History of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 in the Heritage collection. 
• Chicopee Mill History by Olivia Bloomfield Carlisle in the Heritage collection.
• Paper Town/Cord Mill: A 150 Year Old Community by Larry Parr in the Heritage collection.
• Scull Shoals: The Mill Village That Vanished in Old Georgia by Robert Skarda in the Heritage collection.
• The Power of Water: Four Early Mill Sites on Georgia's Oconee River by Karen G. Wood in the Heritage and general collections.
• Hydropower for the Future: New Ways of Turning Water into Energy by Allison Stark Draper in the children's collection.
• Producing Your Own Power: How to Make Nature's Energy Sources Work for You by Carol Hupping in the general collection.

20 February 1888: Aviator Ben Epps Is Born

On this day in 1888, Georgia aviation pioneer Benjamin Thomas Epps was born in Oconee County, the first of 10 children. After dropping out of Georgia Tech in 1904, he came to Athens and started a garage business at 120 E. Washington Street, where he repaired bicycles and automobiles, worked as an electrical contractor, and began to design and build airplanes.


In 1907, just a few years after the Wright Brothers' flight in North Carolina, Ben Epps took his first flight, believed to be the first in Georgia.  He was 19 years old. The plane had a 15-horsepower engine and a 35-foot wingspan. Epps launched the plane off a hill, and flew between Prince Avenue and Boulevard, approximately 100 yards at an altitude of 50 feet.

Over the years he would continue to build planes as a hobby while running his garage business, which had the first filling station in Athens.  He was married to Omie Williams Epps, and the father of 10 children; due to his family commitments, he was not drafted to serve in World War I.  

In 1917, he opened the Epps Flying Field, the first civilian airport in Georgia. He started the Rolfe-Epps Flying Service with L. Monte Rolfe, offering charter air service, aerial photography, and flight lessons to the general public. Epps also performed in airshows.

All of his sons, and most of his daughters, learned how to fly. Sometimes he would let his oldest daughter, Evelyn, skip a day at the Lucy Cobb Institute to buzz downtown Athens in his latest plane. When his oldest son, Ben, Jr., was the youngest person to fly solo at age 13, father and son were invited to the White House to meet President Herbert Hoover. 


Though he had several crashes, or "crack ups" over the years, nothing could dissuade Epps from flying. As his wife told a WPA interviewer less than two years after his death, "He was doing this before we married--how could I change him?" His children were largely cut from the same adventurous cloth. 

Ben Epps, Sr., was killed in plane crash in 1937 at the Athens airfield in a plane he'd built seven years earlier while giving a test ride. Mrs. Epps said that "his death has had no effect on us as to our belief in aviation. We are as interested in it now as we were in his lifetime. I am sure if Ben had known that was his last flight, he would have been happy to know he died or was killed in what he loved best, no matter how far he had to fall."


In 1989, Ben Epps was one of the inaugural members of the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame. A replica of his 1912 monoplane is on permanent exhibit at the United States Air Force Aviation Museum in Warner Robins, Georgia. 

The Athens Airport is on the same site as his Flying Field, and was later named the Athens-Ben Epps Airport. His grandson is raising money for a statue of Ben Epps, Sr. on Washington Street, across from his old garage, where the club 8e's is currently located.

Learn More:

• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Memories: The WPA Federal Writer's Project Interviews, edited by Albert Hester in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Daily News, Jan. 10, 1969 - Feb. 22, 1969 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Ben Epps Vertical File in the Heritage collection.
• The Ben T. Epps Statue website.
• Dictionary of Georgia Biography by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage collection.
• Aviation: A Smithsonian Guide by Donald S. Lopez in the Reference collection.
• Flying Machine by Andrew Nahum in the children's collection.
• The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950 by Robert Wohl in the general collection.
• Early Air Pioneers, 1862-1935 by James F. Sunderman in the general collection.
• Barnstormers and Daredevils by K. C. Tessendorf in the children's collection.
• Mastering the Sky: A History of Aviation from Ancient Times to the Present by James P. Harrison in the general collection. 
• Skyward: Why Flyers Fly by Russell Munson in the general collection.
• The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge by Paul E. Illman in the general collection.
• Airplane Maintenance and Repair: A Manual for Owners, Builders, Technicians, and Pilots by Douglas S. Carmody in the general collection.
  

21 January 1890: "Shaking off the yoke of fogyism"

On this day in 1890, the following editorial ran in the Weekly Banner:

Learn More:

• Athens Weekly Banner, Jan. 1890 - Dec. 1890 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 1889 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• History of Athens and Clarke County by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes in the general collection.
• America Enters the World: A People's History of the Progressive Era and World War I by Page Smith in the general collection.
• A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era by Steven J. Diner in the general collection.
• The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century by Peter Watson in the general collection.
• Atlanta in 1890: The Gate City by the Atlanta Historical Society in the Heritage collection.
• The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters by Rose George in the general collection.
• It's Your Community! A Guide to Civic Development and Beautification by Henry Bond Raymore in the general collection.
  

9 December 1916: "A Brilliant Finale" to America's Electrical Week

On this day in 1916, Athens Railway & Electric Company, located at the corner of College and Hancock Avenues, advertised the last day of demonstrations and programs for America's Electrical Week:

America's Electrical Week was an outreach campaign by the Society for Electrical Development, a trade industry organization formed in 1912 to "establish co-operative relations among the different electrical interests in the United States." The celebration week was intended to show "what electricity has accomplished abroad and in the United States since the European war began," with a goal to "electrify the entire country with special illuminations, parades, and pagentry." 

As part of the 1916 promotion, a poster contest was held during the summer. Of the 800 designs submitted, 125 were chosen as finalists for a traveling exhibition to allow the public to vote for the poster to use in the campaign. The winning logo was part of many window displays around the nation, and is in the upper corners of this ad, showing a genie summoned not from an oil lamp but with an electric light button. The Banner explained the theme as "Aladdin's lamp accomplished wonderful things, but the electric button does everything the lamp did and much more. Instead of the genie serving one person, the up-to-date genie, electricity, serves everybody everywhere."

The official celebration started in New York on December 2nd, with President Woodrow Wilson pushing the button to "bathe" the Statue of Liberty in electricity-powered light, stating, "I light this statue as a symbol of our purpose to throw upon our life as a nation the light which shall reveal its dignity, serene power, benignant hope, and its spirit of guidance."

All week in Athens, the Banner ran front page stories about the crowds that gathered to see the demonstrations of various electrical products for the home at the Athens Railway & Electric Company, noting that "most of the ladies were especially interested in the vacuum cleaner." The store also offered special sale items, and served "delicious luncheons from the elegant electric kitchen."

Other local retailers of electric appliances also had sales during the week:  Talmadge Hardware Company offered two electric stoves for sale at $18.50 each, and these ads were run by Athens Engineering Company throughout the week:

At the end of America's Electrical Week, the Banner declared the enterprise "a great success" because "interest has been aroused in the intelligent selection of the various forms of appliances which will lessen drudgery, advance cleanliness in the home, make the dark places lighter and the light places even brighter."

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Nov. 1916 - Mar. 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes in the general collection.
• America Enters the World: A People's History of the Progressive Era and World War I by Page Smith in the general collection.
• How Electronic Things Work and What to Do When They Don't by Robert L. Goodman in the general collection.
• The Science Book of Electricity by Neil Ardley in the children's collection.
• The Electricity Story: 2,500 Years of Experiments and Discoveries by George deLucenay Leon on the children's collection.
• The Electric Railway Journal available through Google Books.
• Fall 1916 Sears, Roebuck, & Co. Catalog in the Historic Catalogs of Sears, Roebuck, and Company collection in Ancestry Library Edition via GALILEO. (available at any library computer)