The Practical Light Bulb（1880s gaslight-era engraving）

148 years agoThe Electrical Age

1879

The Practical Light Bulb

Edison's team developed a long-lasting carbon-filament incandescent lamp.

Enter the electric workshop

Art style · 1880s gaslight-era engraving

World population

1.47Bpeople

Primary energy power

1.1×10¹²W

London → New York message

20 seconds

Civilization metrics

Each sparkline shows the documented history of a metric on a logarithmic time axis. The dot marks the selected moment.

Kardashev index

0.606

Based on primary energy power · Type I = 1

World population

1.47Bpeople

1/6 of today

Total human primary energy power

1.1×10¹²W

1/18 of today

Compute per dollar

—

No reliable data yet · data begins 1945

Fastest delivery time for a message from London to New York

20 seconds

669 times slower than today

Fastest speed reached by humans

170km/h

1/235 of today

Near this moment

The eight closest milestones. Select a title to jump there.

1866-07-27Computing
A permanent undersea cable entered service, under the slogan "From two weeks to two minutes." Source
1869-03-06Humanity
Mendeleev presented his periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society and predicted undiscovered elements. Source
1876-03-10Computing
Bell transmitted speech by telephone for the first time. Source
1879Energy
Edison's team developed a long-lasting carbon-filament incandescent lamp. Source
1882-03-24Humanity
Koch announced that tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium, establishing the germ theory of disease. Source
1882-09-04Energy
Edison's Pearl Street Station began supplying electricity to customers in Manhattan. Source
1886-01-29Energy
Karl Benz patented a three-wheeled car powered by an internal combustion engine. Source
1890Computing
The US Census processed its data with Hollerith's tabulating machines. Source

Capabilities

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Scenes across eras

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The Electrical Age

4 scenes · Select a scene to visit that moment

Generators, power grids, electric light and the telephone spread, and energy and information can travel instantly along wires.

Playable workshops

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15 moments in history to explore by hand.

Diamonds on the timeline mark playable scenes. Select a date to travel there, or enter a workshop directly.

Every timeline entry cites its source. Metrics interpolate logarithmically between sourced data points. Forecasts include institutional and community views, and attributed site scenarios; years are not guaranteed realization dates. Illustrations are AI-generated in each era's style.

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