U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for October 21: Shedding Light

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Oct 21, 2015, 12:01 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

SHEDDING LIGHT

Profile America — Wednesday, October 21st. An invention was demonstrated on this date in 1879 that lit the way for a dramatic change in the rhythm of Americans' daily lives. At his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory, Thomas Edison set up the first incandescent light bulb, which burned for almost 14 hours. Within a few years, some cities had installed electric streetlights. The number of homes across the U.S. with electricity grew steadily, but even in 1940, more than one-in-five houses was without power. Today, there are over 10,600 electric power-generating establishments. American homes on average consume nearly 11,000-kilowatt hours of electricity each year. The national average bill for this power is about $111 per month, but over $190 in Hawaii. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources:
Invention of light bulb: http://www.menloparkmuseum.org/thomas-edison-and-menlo-park
1940 electrification: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 827
Electric power generation/NAICS 2211: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=BP_2013_00A1&prodType=table
Average home electric consumption: http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3
Table of average electric bills by state: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/sales_revenue_price/xls/table5_a.xls

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of 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 "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau