ABSTRACT
An electricity metre can be used to control consumption, but users sometimes find ways to bypass it by mobilizing the knowledge and skills of informal networks of, for example, corrupt members of utilities, local technicians or amateur engineers. Historians tend to privilege the stories of electricity adopters, but there was a substantial gap between the image of modern electrical life, circulated by electrification advocates and appliance manufacturers, and the reality of average consumers’ lives. A Japanese user in 1938 consumed 60 per cent less electricity than an American user. The reason was simple: the large majority of electrified households only used electricity for illumination. The reason was simple: the large majority of electrified households only used electricity for illumination. Diffusion of electrical appliances, such as the vacuum cleaner and washing machine, was much faster in the United States and Britain than in Japan.
