AHC: Postpone the Rise of Electricity

A huge number of people used to say electricity was dangerous as heck, and must not be used. From the first botched execution by electric chair, to house fire hazards, it's pretty much certain that Edison and Tesla could've been rejected... for a while. Electricity would surely become the "it" thing eventually, but for this challenge, postpone as long as possible. What happens? It's gotta have a huge impact, I'd imagine. Imagine WWI where electricity is a new thing. Imagine all sorts of Edwardian tech that would not work without electricity. So, any takers?
 
Lenin is reputed to have claimed that "Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country".

If this had been taken seriously by the MacCarthyists in the 1950s, electricity might have been seen as a Commie thing, and been purged all over the US. Thus no more American electricity.
 
Lenin is reputed to have claimed that "Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country".

If this had been taken seriously by the MacCarthyists in the 1950s, electricity might have been seen as a Commie thing, and been purged all over the US. Thus no more American electricity.

:p

Now, any serious takers? I'd imagine just two or three years postponement would impact everything. Dawn of Electric Age was about 1900, some maybe push it off till 1905-10?
 
A huge number of people used to say electricity was dangerous as heck, and must not be used. From the first botched execution by electric chair, to house fire hazards, it's pretty much certain that Edison and Tesla could've been rejected... for a while. Electricity would surely become the "it" thing eventually, but for this challenge, postpone as long as possible. What happens? It's gotta have a huge impact, I'd imagine. Imagine WWI where electricity is a new thing. Imagine all sorts of Edwardian tech that would not work without electricity. So, any takers?


I think it would be impossible to significantly delay electrical research from 1800 onwards.

This is simply down to the fact that early electrical experiments were conducted with incredibly low current devices (low amps) meaning that the quantities of energy being transferred were incredibly low.

I mean, Ampere's and Faraday s experiments at the beginning of the 19thC were basically using Voltaire pile, and the scientific (mathematical) descriptions from 1820-1830 were similarly based on such low energy experimentation. Even with such equipment the practicalities of electrical energy like its conversion to mechanical motion, and vice versa had been well established far earlier than Tesla, Maxwell and Edison come on the scientific stage in teh latter half of the 19thC.

This in principle means that electricity is 'very well understood' long before it starts to find uses within society. Thus it makes it almost impossible for any 'Luddite movement' based on ideology to reject it....and partly why we were so quick to adopt electrical energy over steam power and mechanical devices.

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The 'dawn of the electrical age' would be more like 1885-1890 or so...even then it had been well established in various devices and concepts for over 50 years before then.



Sorry to burst your bubble there...
 
You might want to look at economic problems. Maybe some kind of disaster at an early power plant that ensures that investors are scared off for a few years, or kerosene suppliers lobby against it maybe.
 
The Industrial Revolution really takes off after the Peace of Metternich and the end of the Napoleonic Wars, spreading out from Great Britain. You can justificiably delay the expansion of industry (and by extension, electricity) by extending the war. An extended war would also worsen the British economy and perhaps give the Luddites steam (Waterloo and a post-war boom created more jobs and stabilized the economy, which pacified most people and thus killed the Luddite's momentum). If you can engineer a French victory over Britain, or a major political shift in British governments (perhaps even a revolution?) you MIGHT be able to justify a slower industrial revolution as well.
 
You could keep general access more limited by delaying or avoiding the large scale infrastructure projects that brough electricity to the rural areas and countryside in the 30's or in the post war years, depending on which country we're talking about.
 
Lenin is reputed to have claimed that "Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country".

If this had been taken seriously by the MacCarthyists in the 1950s, electricity might have been seen as a Commie thing, and been purged all over the US. Thus no more American electricity.

The upside of such a decision is MaCarthy being dismissed as a loon, and the whole 'commies-under-the-bed' attitude screeches to a halt.
 
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