"THE WIZARD" CHANGES THE WORLD It is hard to imagine that someone with only three months of school could become one of the greatest inventors in history, but Thomas Alva Edison's inventions changed the world. As the public learned about amazing devices like the phonograph, moving pictures, and the dictaphone, Edison became known as the "Wizard of Menlo Park." Many of Edison's inventions found new uses for electricity. Scientists had experimented with electricity for years, but ordinary people had little use for this kind of power. When the scientists in Edison's lab showed off the first electric light bulb in 1879, it sparked dramatic changes in American life and business. America was about to become wired.

BRIGHT LIGHTS OF THE CITY The first people to see the benefits of electrical technology lived in large cities. Electrical lines and poles could be run easily and cheaply in areas where houses were close together. By 1930 nearly 70 percent of all city dwellers were hooked up. On the other hand, private power companies were slow to bring power to rural areas they didn't think would make them money. In 1930 only 10 percent of farm families had access to electricity. It was clear that rural Americans were not sharing in the benefits of the electric age. It would take the efforts of a new president for rural power to become a reality.

A "POWER"FUL PRESIDENT In 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for office promising a "New Deal" for the American people suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. One of these promises was to bring electric power to rural people. The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was created in 1935 to fulfill this promise. The REA helped organize farmer-owned electric "cooperatives" to bring electricity to farms. With the help of government loans and by selling "shares" in the cooperative, money was raised to buy supplies and hire workers to set up the lines and poles.

THE ELECTRIC FARMER The use of electricity on farms increased rapidly after 1935. This success was largely due to education efforts that showed the benefits of electricity to farm families. Magazines like the "Electric Farmer" published articles with hints about using the new power for farmwork and housework. Dairy farmers learned how electric milking machines would increase the speed of their work. Farm wives learned how electric stoves, washers, and water heaters could improve their home. Electric pumps also made indoor plumbing a reality for farm families.

CHANGES ON THE FARM Ruth Peterson grew up on a farm in Lakeville, Minn., just 20 miles south of Minneapolis. She turned 14 the year that her family's farm received electricity in 1936. The changes were exciting for the teenager who had spent many of her days doing chores that could now be done more easily with electricity. She'd no longer have to run down the hill to get water for drinking and cleaning. Electric lights replaced smoky kerosene lamps. When she helped her mother cook, it would be with an electric stove, not the woodburning oven that overheated the kitchen in the summer and required cold trips to the wood pile in the winter. Instead of keeping food cold with ice cut from local rivers, electric refrigerators could store food safely for longer periods of time. Ruth's family could now consider buying some of the new electrical appliances they saw in the Sears catalog. Her friends who lived in the city had these conveniences already. The REA helped rural Minnesotans "catch up."

FULL POWER Another benefit of electricity for rural areas was easier access to communication. The radio was a source of news and information for farmers. Mary Ann Kronemann of Fergus Falls recalls their first radio. "We purchased a small wooden radio, an 'Emerson," ... I will never forget the first news I heard on that radio. Our electricity was turned on the day Franklin D. Roosevelt died. ... [I was] excited about having electricity on our farm, but saddened by the loss of the President who put it here."

President Roosevelt's support of rural electrification connected American farmers to the technological advances of the 20th century. By 1955 almost every farm in the United States received electric power. In just 20 years the REA helped close the "electricity gap" between cities and farms and improved the lives of millions of Americans.