In 1901 there were only eighteen refrigerators in all of Manhattan, and a decade later, in 1910, though there were close to 45,000 electrical appliances in Southern California, 80 percent of these were irons, all of which screwed into light sockets. Nor was the dearth of electric lamps, electrified motors, electric refrigeration, electric outlets, and the plugs that fit into them only about personal preference or technological lag.
