Template:Did you know nominations/Electro-Dynamic Light Company

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:28, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Electro-Dynamic Light Company, Albon Man edit

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~~... that the Electro-Dynamic Light Company, organized by Albon Man and William E. Sawyer, was the first electric-lighting company?~~

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Thanjavur Art Plate

Created by Doug Coldwell (talk). Self-nominated at 11:13, 27 April 2016 (UTC).

Comment - The source reference for the hook is on page 196 of Success and How to Attain it by Andrew Carnegie. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 13:04, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Article says first in US. E Eng 04:04, 28 April 2016 (UTC)@EEng: The reference for the hook is directly above by Andrew Carnegie.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 19:54, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

@EEng: Copy edited articles accordingly to match source.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:34, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

I hate to say it, but I think for a sweeping statement like this we need a modern scholarly source. Whatever his other talents, Carnegie didn't know what was going on everywhere, and the history of electricity is littered with the corpses of early short-lived companies. E Eng 14:03, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

@EEng: The article I created says, Man and Sawyer patented the first practical system of incandescent electric lighting, which patents were given to the Electro-Dynamic by them. The first inline reference for this is a New York Times article ("The Triumph of Science") dated June 29, 1884. The 2nd inline reference for this is a newspaper clipping article "Lawing Electrictians / The Existence of All the Light Companies to be Contested" dated June 17, 1883. The 3rd inline reference for this is a newspaper clipping article "Another Electric Lamp" dated November 1, 1878. This is then followed in the next sentence by references to electrical journals Electrical Engineer, Electrical Review, and Western Electrician (that all contain quotes). I have added those inline references also to The company was the first organized specifically for the manufacture and sale of incandescent electric light bulbs. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 14:32, 1 May 2016 (UTC)
I have also added a couple more newspaper clippings to back up It was the first electric-lighting company formally formed. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 15:34, 1 May 2016 (UTC)
I have also added a couple more newspaper clippings to back up Man and Sawyer patented the first practical system of incandescent electric lighting, which patents were given to the company by them.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:33, 1 May 2016 (UTC)
@EEng: "Evolution of the Electric Incandescent Lamp" (Boschen & Wefer, 1894) By Franklin Leonard Pope says on the bottom of page 10 The incorporators of the Electro-Dynamic Light Company were Albon Man, William E, Sawyer, Hugh McCullogh, Lawrence Myers, Jacob Hays, James P Kernochan and William H. Hays. Its nominal capital was $10,000, with $290,000 of scrip. This was the earliest company incorporated for the purpose, among other things, of carrying out a general system of incandescent electric lighting. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 19:59, 1 May 2016 (UTC)
@EEng: Wrege, Charles D. (1 January 1986). "Facts and Fallacies of Hawthorne: A Historical Study of the Origins, Procedures, and Results of the Hawthorne Illumination Tests and Their Influence Upon the Hawthorne Studies" Garland. ISBN 978-0-8240-8374-8. Page 59 -> "On July 8, l878, Mr. Sawyer and Albon Man formed the Electro-Dynamic Light Company of New York, "The first electric lighting company ever organized,..." --Doug Coldwell (talk) 20:24, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

I hate to say it, but Wrege [1] is entitled "America's First Incandescent Electric Light Company", and the text says Electro-Dynamic made the "first serious effort to develop and market an incandescent electric lighting system". The other Wrege source is apparently his dissertation, and seems to say "first electric lighting company ever organized" in passing in another context. The contemporary sources are useless for a statement of first anywhere. Can't we find some other hook? E Eng 04:39, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
ALT1 - ... that the Electro-Dynamic Light Company (their lamp shown), organized by Albon Man and others in 1878 planned electric lighting for New York City at one-fortieth the cost of the existing gas lighting? --Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:05, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
ALT2 - ... that the Electro-Dynamic Light Company (their lamp shown), organized by Albon Man and others in 1878 planned electric lighting for one-fortieth the cost of existing lighting produced from gas ?
ALT3 - ... that the Electro-Dynamic Light Company, organized by Albon Man and others, was formed three months before the Edison Electric-Light Company? --Doug Coldwell (talk) 12:28, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

Good. I think ALT3 will catch the most attention because of the Edison tie-in. E Eng 12:56, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

Alright, I totally agree. I was bold and struck out the other hooks, since it looks like we are in agreement. Does that then get a final green tick from your review? --Doug Coldwell (talk) 13:11, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

I don't do many reviews anymore -- mostly just drop in to give people grief about their hooks, that kind of thing. But since it's you I'll do it. However, I'm leaving for Rio today and may not have much time while there, but could do it by, say, next Sunday for sure if not earlier. How about that? E Eng 14:24, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

Thanks!--Doug Coldwell (talk) 16:31, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

The article is new. Posted by due date. Long enough at 4000+ characters. Images checked, these were published before 1900, in public domain, and so no image license issues. Earwig's copyvio detector: broken. The few sources I randomly checked did not show Copyvio, AGF on rest. The article is interesting, sourced. QPQ done. Hook ALT3 verified on page 654 of The North American Review, in an article written by Westinghouse. This is ready for a green tick, except for two small things: @Doug Coldwell: [1] There is WP:OVERCITE in some cases, just 2 or 3 WP:RS are enough (or just fold the various sources inside a single cite). [2] More importantly, the sentence "It was the first electric-lighting company formally formed" in the article, seems sourced to 1870s to 1890s newspapers/articles. That is a significant historical claim to be made in wikipedia, and needs a more recent WP:HISTRS to be stated that way. Or please consider revising it to, "Sources in late 19th century claimed it to be the first....". Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 21:51, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

@Ms Sarah Welch: Appreciate you looking over this nomination for the 2-in-1 hook. Removed excess references of citations per recommendations. Reworded 19th century per suggestion. Before Earwig was broken, it so happens (yesterday) that Electro-Dynamic Light Company read 0.0% and Albon Man read 2.0% as it saw the name of a book in the sources. Any other suggestions? --Doug Coldwell (talk) 22:24, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

GTG. @Doug Coldwell: You write interesting articles. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 22:28, 2 May 2016 (UTC)