The hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls was thus the closing bell on the effervescent, chaotic, immensely creative and inventive activity of the previous seventeen years: 1879, the first arc light grid in San Francisco; 1882, the first low-voltage direct current grid in New York; 1887, the first alternating current grid; 1891, proven long-distance high-voltage transmission. And in 1896, the completion of the first large-scale generating station at Niagara Falls, together with the first long-distance transmission wires in constant use, the total adoption of parallel circuits, incandescent
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