Today the light bulb seems the simplest of devices, but in the late 1870s it was a formidable problem.
Up until the end of the 18th century, "coal smoke" was used, as were candles and whale oil. Then in the early 1800s, gas lighting began to appear. It was dirty and dangerous, causing the occasional fire or even explosion.
The electric arc light, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, was also widely used. Unfortunately it was exceedingly bright and inefficient. It gave off a orange or rose-coloured light.
This (literally) sparked attempts to develop an incandescent lamp. The problem, however, was finding a design that was durable, with most filaments rapidly failing, making them effectively useless.
Thomas Edison was one who worked tirelessly on the problem, undeterred by those who said it was impossible. One even claimed that "such a system is incompatible with the well-proven law of conservation of energy".
Edison demonstrated his carbon filament light bulb in October 1879, which was later superseded by the tungsten filament bulb invented by Alexander Just and Franjo Hanaman in 1904.
The story of the electric light almost always focuses on the light bulb itself while ignoring the host of other functions that were also necessary. Not least of these is that a light bulb is of no use without a power supply.
In other words, the widespread use of lighting required a systems approach that brings together many different elements.
While Edison and others worked on electric generators, there was a struggle to settle whether the current used should be AC or DC. It'd never work if one side of a street used DC, while the other used AC.
Related were details such as standardised plugs, sockets and wires. The electricity supply had to provide a reliable voltage and capacity. With AC current, the frequency needs to be consistent (50 Hz in Australia).
Cables needed to be run along overhead wires or underground.
Then there's the mundane but vital functions such as how to bill a customer, and it was not immediately clear how that should be done.
In 1888 Oliver Shallenberger from Westinghouse patented a meter that measured how many AC watt-hours were used.
Electricity was clearly a superior solution and gas companies could see their business disintegrating. Then, as now, they fought back.
Electricity generation, however, was mostly coal powered (with some hydro such as at Niagara Falls).
While they would not be surprised by the growing dominance of electric solutions, one can only imagine how horrified the pioneering inventors would be to learn the disastrous consequences of burning fossil fuels.
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