The Dangers of Electrical Devices in Edwardian Britain | Hidden Killers | Absolute History

[Music] this is a fairly early massage machine electric massage machine it's a bit like a ray gun I think that one it does look a bit like a ray gun or a sort of a microphone you think helvis and this is for massage ostensibly from massage it was often used for more instrument sorts of purposes as well but it was sold as a right in the first five years of Edward the seventh reign over a hundred and forty thousand British patents were granted like the Victorians before them the new Edwardian middle classes have the spare cash to purchase products that would make their home lives more comfortable the most exciting new invention on the market was electricity it would not only transform every room of the Edwardian house but it would make possible a whole host of new domestic inventions and gadgets if there's one thing we take for granted it's that this works but imagine how incredible it must have been when it was introduced this clean invisible magical energy that transformed the Edwardian evening in today so what problems could there possibly be electricity in our modern homes is subject to all kinds of regulations for the unsuspecting Edwardian had no idea what damage it could do when it was first invented it was considered to be quite magical it was clean of course and it was they thought I guess they thought it was safe and it meant they could do things that they couldn't do before they could put on a light on the sole of a switch it completely transformed the amenities within the ordinary domestic house it was in the late 19th century that the components needed for electrification began to be developed the vital invention was made by both Joseph Swan in Britain and Thomas Edison in America the incandescent light bulb street lights came first and then in the Edwardian period individual companies began to produce electricity to offer to domestic households gas lighting and heating had become popular in Victorian times but it was a dirty source as well as being potentially explosive it left a residue of grime electric light seemed to offer the perfect alternative it might seem an obvious thing that electricity should replace gas but at the time electricity companies and gas companies were very much in competition people that just got used to gas lighting and now they're faced with a new technology something else which they've been told to sort of take on and adopt in their lives this is an instructions about how you'd use your Edison Electric Light and it says do not attempt to light with match simply turn key on wall by the door sounds quite Volkers to us today that you have to explain it in that way we know how we operate our electricity we know I go to the light switch but then that wasn't so obvious how the turn of the century electricity was far more expensive than gas but it was heavily marketed by the supply companies who could see the possibilities and the profits we get key figures like Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill choose to have it in their homes and this is sort of widely reported in the press so it becomes a more attractive in almost glamorous for some of the middle classes to take it on the newspapers were full of the wonders of electricity for example the Dundee courier in December 1906 praised its romantic story and said that its rapid advance is more wonderful than any tale of wild arabian fiction it seemed chic modern and desirable if you are a sophisticated urban up to date family you needed electricity in your house needed electric lamps and those who didn't have it simply seen as behind the times so if you really wanted to show off to your business associates that you were the right type of person you brought in the electric light and so gradually Edwardian homes began to be lit by electricity but it was a completely new little understood force and electricity cables were just that naked bear cables one touch and you could be electrocuted early cases the elect the the cables weren't actually insulated at all they used to just run through wooden runners and then they just through bear running around the properties when they did catch on to insulation they used the wrong material originally they were made just lined in paper and led a fantastic fire accelerant brilliant they even tried wrapping it in cloth they wrapped up in wood they wrapped out the neck basically anything they thought might stop the electricity getting through and somebody inadvertently touching them and earthing the ability to make a 40 circuit safe by redirecting it to the earth simply didn't exist there's no way there is nothing at all so if you had a small child they could just you know run ramekin and touch one of these things that absolutely Delita lethal or not The Fearless Edwardian skeptic venting and found the new power source could be used for all sorts of domestic appliances its full potential could be seen in the electric house the centerpiece of the 1908 Manchester electrical exhibition the tomorrow's world of its day and on display were all the must-have items for the ideal Edwardian home one excited visitor wrote a postcard about their visit I went to the electrical exhibition last week and spent a very enjoyable afternoon kettles boiling and frying pans on the go all on a clean table without a speck of dust what sort of items were available a whole range of things that we see now we find a commonplace in our homes today but also a whole other range of things which maybe we're not so familiar with all sorts of weird and wonderful appliances appeared some of which had not been seen before or since a suppliers tried to generate a demand for electricity beyond the electric light what's this is actually an early electric curling Tong and you just put your curling Tong in there to heat up and this must have been quite a breakthrough to having an electric iron for the first time up until now irons had been heated on coal stoves in many ways I guess that is quite a breakthrough and one of the appliances that people probably were most fond of in the early days a look at the magazines and papers of the time reveals a fundamental lack of understanding about how to use electricity safely even by some manufacturers in the Evening Telegraph of December 1908 it recommended the use of an electric tablecloth a device which it says up-to-date hostesses will not be long in taking advantage of one of the most unusual items is probably this one here this is a tablecloth it's an illuminating tablecloth and the idea is that you turn it the other way around so you'd have this side showing my duck inside here I just bare wire connectors you'd lay it down you'd cover it with your cloth basically plug your lamp on the base even to the table there so I wrecked the into the tablecloth you're pulling through and making that connection I can see that's quite fun but Brazilians also really dangerous I mean if you have it yes yes yes extremely dangerous whoever in the right mind thought up of putting the tablecloth which stores water and food and all the rest of it and run electricity through it was beyond me but it was it was new it was it was that's what you should need to do and it was sold and marketed there's been the new technology lamps that are on the table [Music] thankfully despite the marketing this electrical wonder did not catch on they have the goods but they didn't have the infrastructure we have today and here lay the problem they would use the light socket so there are all sorts of pieces of equipment possibly even electric heaters now from the wires going to that's right yes they would put an adapter into the light socket they would then run a bold plus another piece of equipment off that and in extreme cases they would add a number of adapters and have a number of different sorts of pieces of equipment coming off the lights like circuit and then you get this whole sort of cascade of adapters coming out from the ceiling fitting what we call the Christmas tree leading to lots of different pieces of equipment so if example people would be doing ironing of the lighting circuit and they would maybe have an electric heater running off the lighting circuit then of course every extra piece of equipment was adding an additional energy load to the system which is why we would get overheating of the system and potential fires because whenever they plugged lights in or toasters or refrigerators they used to overheat and the current would be running through the cable it would start melting the cable and then this cable would catch fire [Music] to demonstrate how quickly overloading can cause a fire Martin applies a battery to wire wall the battery is too high a voltage for the wire mirroring what might have happened in the Edwardian home when extra appliances were added to the electric light socket this overloading of one circuit is what caused fires in Edwardian homes [Music] it wasn't safety regulated in the way ours is now there were no consumer unit miniature circuit breakers or any of that safety equipment that we now rely on modern fuse boxes protect homes from this as soon as the system becomes overloaded it cuts out but back then the electricity would keep flowing there'd be a fire in the house and nobody knew or liked you'll be in bed when it happens and there'd be no getting out although the institution of electrical engineers issued its first wiring regulations in 1882 they were often ignored part of the problem was that initially electricity was sold by individual local companies who each supplied a particular voltage of electricity to their local area so an iron used at home in Manchester wouldn't be compatible with one in Liverpool it was down to the individual generating company what voltage and what am pitch that they put the electricity into the properties so even though you understood one system it didn't mean that if you went further down the road or bought the electricity from somebody else it would be exactly the same [Music] on it so we let and left alone electricity isn't only dangerous it's when you bring in the human factor that's when electricity becomes dangerous there were countless stories in the newspapers of the many and varied ways people had managed unwittingly to electrocute themselves he accidentally touched the main and receiving the full force of the current was killed on the spot the deceased while Larkin swung himself upon an electric light bracket which broke and the electric current passed through his body being electrocuted the effects of that depend on several things the current the duration of the electric shock that you have and also the voltage if you have a very low current electric shock for a sufficient duration it can affect the beating of the heart if you disturb that electrical flow around the heart each of the individual heart muscles can contract individually and so there's no concerted effort and so no blood will be pumped around the body so damaging the heart with an electric shock is particularly dangerous and that can happen even at quite a low current if you have very high current you typically get a burn where the electricity enters and possibly leaves the body and that may cause instant death as it causes a heart to stop those slow to address the dangers of electricity edwardian is credited it with all kinds of health-giving properties which led to some strange practices is that it's got a sort of space-age element to it it's an early sunray lamp there's meant to encourage sort of good health the theory was that this would make you healthier and there were adverts for a bit later on where they show babies positioned in front of these [Music] the therapeutic use of electricity also extended into the medical profession where it was applied to a range of physical and mental illnesses have you got any other surprising items yes there are some surprising items this is a fairly early massage machine electric massage machine it's a bit like a reg and I think that one it does look a bit like a ray gun or a sort of a microphone you think helvis and this is for massage expensively from massage it was often used for more instrument sorts of purposes as well but it was sold as a right some of the things that woody ins got up to in their own homes revealed how little they understood this deadly force to my amazement I even found an extraordinary headline in the Daily Mail a man accidentally electrocuted himself during his daily beautifying routine he was using an electrical gadget which was plugged in at the mains and was designed to enhance and inflate his pecs a man's fatal vanity he attached a needle wire to the electric light work the needle over his breast and drop dead eventually the edwardian were given the option of a wall socket instead of the light but this brought up another issue at the time both the plug and the socket contained metal which created a small spark when they came into contact the spark is typical of any piece of equipment which is being being plugged in or plugged out when the equipment is live so that's two pieces of metal coming to contact or come out of contact when they're alive then a spark that occurs as most Edwardian homes were still using a lot of gas which was prone to leaking this small spark could be enough to cause a big explosion explosion just waiting to happen from the tiniest amount of gas and windows and doors I knew would be on the street waiting whenever the Undertaker would imagine over time improvements were applied that lessened the dangers it was until nineteen eight nineteen nine that Edison came up with the idea of a rubber socket which went on to a plug which other food was in which obviously saved any shocks when you were touching it it saved anything any problems with insulating and it saved this problem of overheating but with its varying currents assortment of sockets and plugs no earth or fuse box edwardian electricity was a dangerous business especially as it was often installed and maintained by DIY enthusiasts anyone could really wire up their home so potentially you've got people not knowing what they're doing getting into big trouble even one of Edison's and Friends killed himself he electrocuted himself and that's somebody who knew who knew what he was doing by 1915 there was six hundred separate electricity suppliers across the country the demands of war led the government to take steps to set up electricity Commission's to make the generation and supply of electricity more efficient and then the government actually made a declaration that we would all use the same current it voltage it would all come through the same way and it was the start of the the grid despite all its early dangers electricity became the utility of choice for the modern Edwardian by 1913 most of the 1 million new middle-class homes that have been built in Britain had electricity wired in and people were learning to use it with care you

Channel: Absolute History

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Keywords: history history documentary funny history fun history school, timeline, absolute history, full length documentaries, documentary history, story of electricity, hidden killers of the edwardian home, new hidden killers of the edwardian home, dr suzannah lipscomb, suzannah lipscomb, suzannah lipscomb documentary, suzannah lipscomb hidden killers, edwardian documentary, edwardian documentary bbc, edwardian britain documentary, gcses 2019

Id: DXwwOQBo-n4

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Aardappelkroketje]

People were crazy. Bare uninsulated wires running through the house? Metal plugs? I get that the technology is new but damn safety isn't so hard hight?