In this episode of "The Gilded Age," drama unfolds against a backdrop of a very significant change happening in cities around the world in the 1880s: the dawn of electricity being widely available, and the start of lightbulbs as common household items. Over 140 years later, it's easy for us to take for granted electricity and artificial lighting, which surrounds us every day in our homes, workplaces, even on our portable devices. Putting ourselves in the shoes of late 19th century individuals, seeing the first electric lightbulbs lighting a city or in a home must have been breathtaking. In this episode of the podcast, we take a quick jaunt through the lead-up to the invention of lightbulbs, look at how fast electricity was installed across cities in the U.S. and around the world, and think about how it transformed our every day activities.

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