The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was looking through my phonograph paper collectibles and literature and found this electric bill. I guess Thomas Edison was not probably directly connected to the electric company by this time, but I thought I might include it here just to catch a glimpse, so to speak, of what the times were like back when many of our phonographs were new. It appears that electricity cost 12 ½ cents per kilowatt hour then. It looks like Frank Fair used 14 kilowatts and had to pay a whopping $1.40 for his monthly bill! What do you pay now? And even today, in So. California, I still pay the Edison Electric Co. for my power. It appears that electric appliances were just coming into being at that time such as this vacuum cleaner. Does anyone know why it is called the Duplex?

marcapra wrote:It appears that electric appliances were just coming into being at that time such as this vacuum cleaner. Does anyone know why it is called the Duplex?

Because it has two wheels?

According to this ad it was two cleaners in one - A motor driven brush AND Suction.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 33,3627361

That's a bill I would still not mind getting. A buck forty in 1925 is only about $19 now adjusted for inflation.

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:That's a bill I would still not mind getting. A buck forty in 1925 is only about $19 now adjusted for inflation.

Clay

Bet you use more than 14 KWH/month, though!

I have a Westinghouse electric meter, Type OB, which dates to 1926 according to the serial number. What is interesting about it is that it is rated only 5 amps (115V, 60hz). Clearly, the house this was used on could not have had much more than just electric lighting. Larger meters capable of much heavier loads very quickly supplanted these old meters as energy-consuming appliances became more common.

Henry wrote:

FloridaClay wrote:That's a bill I would still not mind getting. A buck forty in 1925 is only about $19 now adjusted for inflation.

Clay

Bet you use more than 14 KWH/month, though!

Yep. Point well taken.

Clay

Actually, we pay 11.875 cents per kilowatt hour, delivered (that 's with all charges including taxes and franchise fees). So in real terms this poor fellow was paying nearly fifteen times what I do for a watt-hour of energy. All of a sudden 25 watt bulbs, 275 watt percolators, 400 watt irons and 650 watt room heaters make sense.

The Franz Premier Dpelx was but one of many pioneering electric carpet sweepers made in Cleveland, OH. Other brands include Royal, Health-Mor, Good Housekeeping, Electro-Hygene, Flter Queen, Kirby, Scott-Fetzer , Vacuette, General Electric (these were made by Premier), Sanitronic, Macy's, Speigel, and over in Toledo Air-Way, not to mention the stuff from North Canton (Hoover). I guess that in those days Cleveland really did...