In 1898, a book was published explaining electricity. Like many books of its time, its title was a full sentence. The elegant type was likely created using by a Linotype machine, a typewriter that melted lead at 500 degrees and molded it into lines of type in fewer than nine seconds.
The author, Edwin Houston, was an inventor, businessman and author. He co-founded the Thomson-Houston Electric company, which merged with Thomas Edison’s electric company in 1892 to become General Electric.
Prior to merging with General Electric, The Thomson-Houston Electric Company attempted to popularize AC current, competing with Westinghouse Electric company (where Tesla worked).
To beat out their main competitor, Thomson-Houston colluded with Edison Electric to make sure the Westinghouse generator powered the first electric chair. What a bunch of jerks! It seems that by the time all of this was going down, Edwin Houston wasn’t really involved in the business. He was back to his main passion: explaining technical concepts through simple language (and copious illustration).
He wrote over 100 books, mostly explaining technology and science concepts to the general public. I purchased Electricity made easy in paperback format on Amazon (it’s still in print!). You can also read most of it on Google Books here. I was delighted to find that over one hundred and twenty years after its initial publication it’s still easy to read. One of the main devices that Edwin Houston uses to explain complex topics is analogy.
In Electricity Made Easy, Edwin uses the hydraulic analogy, with helpful illustrations, to explain how a light in your home turns on when you flip the switch. The hydraulic analogy, which compares voltage and current to the flow of water, is still popular for teaching. Other sources that I found cite Sir Oliver Stone as the first person who illustrated this analogy as a teaching tool. However, Oliver Stone’s first book, Modern Views on Electricity, was published over a year after Electricity Made Easy, so it looks like Edwin was first.
Edwin clearly had both a passion and a gift for explaining technical concepts. His books were well read in his time, and brought many technical concepts to a popular audience for the very first time. His biography states that “Professor Houston was a very prolific writer both in the technical and popularized fields of science. He was keenly alive to the growing importance of science in education and wrote many textbooks and ‘popular’ essays, as well as numerous purely scientific papers.”
Edwin Houston is my great great uncle. A confirmed bachelor, he died with no children. However, ever since stumbling across his wikipedia page about seven years ago, I have felt a deep kinship with him.