So, steam power had by the last third of the nineteenth century wrought revolutions in mining, manufacturing, and transportation on land, the rivers, and the oceans. That would seem to be enough. But the inventors of the nineteenth century would wrest yet one more revolution from steam, by generating from it electric light, and then electric power. The dream of electric power began in the 1830s. A fever for electricity and its marvels swept Europe in response to the discoveries and demonstration...