U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for November 26: Plugging In

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

PLUGGING IN

Profile America — Saturday, November 26th. This month 112 years ago, Connecticut inventor Harvey Hubbell moved household electricity from shock it to socket. In November 1904, he received a patent for the world's first detachable electric plug: the two-, now sometimes three-prong plug familiar to us today. Remarkable as it sounds, at the time electric terminals would extend out from a wall, and any electrical device had to be hardwired to them--a time consuming process with a chance of electrocution. Hubbell was no one-hit wonder, as in the 1890s he created an electric switch and patented the pull-chain electric light socket. Electrical supplies for builders and homeowners are available at the more than 6,500 home centers in the U.S., along with more than 15,300 hardware stores. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources
Patent/accessed 9/1/2016: http://connecticuthistory.org/the-worlds-first-detachable-electric-plug-today-in-history/ 
Hubbell bio and other inventions/accessed 9/1/2016:  http://connecticuthistory.org/hubbells-pull-chain-electrical-light-socket-today-in-history-august-11/ 
Electrical supplies:
Home centers/NAICS 444110: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2014/00A1//naics~444110 
Hardware stores/NAICS 444130: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2014/00A1//naics~444130

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

Related Links

http://www.census.gov