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Informationen zum Autor Gavin Weightman is social historian based in London. He has a special interest in the origins of modern society and his books include the best-selling London River: A History of the Thames, an account of the American natural ice industry The Frozen Water Trade and most recently a history of wireless Signor Marconi's Magic Box . The Industrial Revolutionaries was published by Atlantic Books in 2007. Klappentext In the early 1870's a nighttime view over Britain would have revealed towns lit by the warm glow of gas and oil lamps and a much darker countryside, the only light emanating from the fiery sparks of late running steam trains. However, by the end of this same decade, Victorian Britons would experience a new brilliance in their streets, town halls, and other public places. Electricity had come to town. In Children of Light , Gavin Weightman brings to life not just the most celebrated electrical pioneers, such as Thomas Edison, but also the men such as Rookes Crompton who lit Henley Regatta in 1879; Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, a direct descendant of one of the Venetian Doges, who built Britain's first major power station on the Thames at Deptford; and Anglo-Irish aristocrat, Charles Parsons inventor of the steam turbine, which revolutionized the generating of electricity. Children of Light takes in the electrification of the tramways and the London Underground, the transformation of the home with "labor saving" devices, the vital modernizing of industry during two world wars, and the battles between environmentalists and the promoters of electric power, which began in earnest when the first pylons went up. As Children of Light shows, the electric revolution has brought us luxury that would have astonished the Victorians, but at a price we are still having to pay. Vivid in its execution and original in its argument, this book tells the story of how the discovery of electricity changed Britain forever. Zusammenfassung Vivid in its execution and original in its argument, this book tells the story of how the discovery of electricity changed Britain forever....
