musings & more

The 1881 Exposition Universelle in Paris wowed crowds with telephone-transmitted concerts from the Opéra & a demonstration of Edison’s recent improvement of an old idea: the incandescent light bulb. Edison carefully guarded the 1879 patent of the light bulb & only allowed the Compagnie Continentale Edison to diffuse his device in France… some of the original access panels in Paris can occasionally be found [photo above]. Licensing agreements were also given to two German entrepreneurs: Werner von Siemens & Emil Rathenau. Rathenau established the Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft, later reorganized in 1887 as the Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft (AEG). As mentioned in the previous post, the AEG would play an important role in bringing electricity to Buenos Aires.