Thomas Edison’s discovery of using carbonized bamboo as a filament for light bulbs led to the world’s first incandescent lighting systems, replacing gas lights. The White House was first installed with electricity in 1891, but President Harrison and his wife never touched the switches. Instead, the household staff turned the lights on and off. During Lyndon Johnson’s administration, the president was known for saving electricity and earned the nickname “Light Bulb Johnson.”
In the 1880s, Thomas Edison discovered how to make a more durable light bulb, using carbonized bamboo as a filament. The discovery sparked the world’s first incandescent lighting systems, which won much acclaim at the Paris Lighting Exhibition of 1881 and at London’s Crystal Palace in 1882. Soon, gas lights began to fade, slowly being replaced from alternating current electrical systems. But the technology was still unknown — and somewhat unreliable — when electricity was first installed in the White House in 1891, during President Benjamin Harrison’s administration. The Edison Company installed a generator in the basement of the State, War, and Navy building next door and ran wires across the White House lawn. When the work was completed, however, President Harrison and his wife Caroline remained skeptical and never touched the wall switches, for fear of being electrocuted.
White House Wiring:
Instead of mounting unsightly wires on the interior walls of the White House, workers dug channels in the plaster and then covered them, installing round switches in every room.
Since the Harrisons would not touch the switches, it was up to the household staff to turn the lights on or off. The lights were reportedly sometimes left on all night in the presidential quarters on the second floor.
During Lyndon Johnson’s administration in the 1960s, the president was known for saving electricity, regularly turning off lights throughout the White House in an effort to save money, and earning the nickname “Light Bulb Johnson.
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