Early Safety Measures

Electrical systems were a brand-spanking-new technology in the late nineteenth century, and no small amount of trepidation was associated with them. Wouldn’t there be fires? Electrical shocks? Government officials, especially fire departments, took electrification very seriously.

The New York Board of Fire Underwriters, meeting in October 1881, called for standards such as the following:

• “Wires to have 50 percent conductivity above the amount calculated as necessary for the number of lights to be supplied by the wire.”
• “Wires to be thoroughly insulated and doubly coated with some approved material.”
• “Where electricity is conducted into a building from sources other than the building in which it is used, a shut off must be placed at the point of entrance to each building and the supply turned off when the lights are not in use.”
• “Application for permission to use electric lights must be accompanied with a statement of the number and kind of lamps to be used, the estimate of some known electrician of the quantity of electricity required, and a sample of the wire at least three feet in length to be used, with a certificate of said electrician of the carrying capacity of the wire.”

These guys were serious! It’s no wonder: They weren’t about to take chances with a new technology that was potentially dangerous, despite its useful prospects.