Wires

Conor Harrison (0000-0002-7816-2689)

This chapter traces the history of both high voltage electricity transmission wires and systems of home wiring to show how wiring evolved alongside and also anticipated future electrical practices. It draws on archival materials and oral histories to describe how transmission problems were conceived and addressed by electrical engineers, focusing on problems of early electrification but also in preparations for future electricity consumption. Then, switching scale to the home, the chapter addresses changes to the National Electrical Code during the first half of the twentieth century, highlighting the need for wires capable of safely meeting the growing demands customers and electrical equipment manufacturers were placing upon them. The chapter concludes by commenting on a contemporary iteration of wiring technology, the so-called ‘smart grid’, and points to the continued importance of wires in the co-evolution of electricity consuming practices and technologies of transmission.