We should limit each student to 25W

March 4, 2015 5:48 PM

Ray Perry recounts a speech by Howard Strauss (previously) that mined the discussions around the introduction of electricity to Princeton University.
posted by rhizome (7 comments total)

There are too many standards at the moment (DC, AC, 110v, 220v, etc.). We should wait till there is a just one standard

That sounds entirely reasonable.
posted by Monochrome at 6:52 PM on March 4, 2015

It will allow night classes so we will have to work more hours and it will turn universities into learning factories

You can't say they weren't prescient.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:39 PM on March 4, 2015 [7 favorites]

"mined the discussions around the introduction of electricity to Princeton University."

Well, purports to. I imagine the whole thing is fictionalized.
posted by pwnguin at 8:07 PM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yeah I feel like this is a snarky commentary on campus internet/wifi discussions, but can't really tell for sure. I will say that according to my grandparents when they first got electricity it was 24v DC, so they missed a standard. (It was a battery system, too: they'd run a gas generator in the afternoon to charge up the batteries, then drain them through the evening. No power grid to hook up to. Neighbors would come by just to see their light bulb.)
posted by traveler_ at 8:18 PM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Neighbors would come by just to see their light bulb.

I know this comment was made in all seriousness, but I am laughing my ass off imagining this situation.
posted by Literaryhero at 2:46 AM on March 5, 2015

Well, purports to. I imagine the whole thing is fictionalized.

I thought so too- the quotes are a little too perfect. However, there appears to have been at least some truth to it.

Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb just 20 miles from here at his Menlo Park laboratories in 1879, but the University was slow to catch on. Alexander Hall and the library were electrified in the 1890s, but not dormitories: The college treasurer rejected the architect’s idea of electrifying Brown Hall, saying that any students who needed that newfangled luxury could run the wires themselves.

posted by zamboni at 5:21 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

There are too many standards at the moment (DC, AC, 110v, 220v, etc.). We should wait till there is a just one standard

Glad to see that concern trolling isn't an entirely modern invention...
posted by schmod at 7:39 AM on March 5, 2015