A New Fad Comes to the White House
In 1891, among those able to afford it, a new technology was gaining converts: the electric light bulb was now brighter, safer and cleaner than a gas lamp. That year, electric lamps came to the White House as a supplement to gas lighting. President Benjamin Harrison and his wife were leery, preferring not to touch the switches. Few foresaw the complete abandonment of the use of gas lighting that was in store. As late as 1919, when most new homes included the new technology, the home gas industry called electric lights a fad. It did take until the 1930s, and President Franklin Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Administration, to bring electric lights to the entire United States.
In the White House of the 1960s, President "Light Bulb Johnson" began turning those lights off.
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