Template:Did you know nominations/James Hood Wright


 * 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 Yoninah (talk) 00:22, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

James Hood Wright

 * ...that the first home electric lighting system from an independent power plant was installed at James Hood Wright's residence in New York City in 1881?

Created by Doug Coldwell (talk). Self-nominated at 19:59, 16 December 2017 (UTC).
 * ALT1... that the first electric illuminated home was James Hood Wright's residence in New York City in 1881?
 * Source 1 : "1881 Incandescent Innovation: First Electrically Lighted House - Banker James Hood Wright installs Thomas Edison's newly invented electric lights in his suburban mansion on West 176th Street in Washington Heights." here Slesin (1992), p. 256.
 * Source 2 : "The first private residence to be lighted by Edison lamps was that of J. Hood Wright, New York..." here Jones (1908) p. 121
 * Source 3 : "They were the firm to which Edison first turned during his Menlo Park experiments, and they promptly supplied him and his company with their first permanent fixtures. ..... They fitted up the first private residence lit by the incandescent system, that of Mr. J. Hood Wright, of Drexel, Morgan & Co. here New York Great Industries (1884), p. 96
 * Source 4: "The first electric light from a power plant in a residence was generated by an independent plant installed in the home of James Hood Wright in the Fort Washington section of New York City sometime before December 1881." Kane (1997), p. 221
 * Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Puchuldiza


 * Symbol confirmed.svg New, in time, long enough, sourced, inline hook citation checks out, no apparent copyvios, QPQ done. --Usernameunique (talk) 10:51, 26 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Symbol possible vote.svg Returned from prep per discussion at WP:ERRORS:
 * "... that the first electrically illuminated private home was James Hood Wright's residence in New York City in 1881?" - Well, Cragside in Northumberland had domestic electric lighting from 1878. DuncanHill (talk) 16:15, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * OK, so the hook was sourced by two citations, one which said ""The first private residence to be lighted by Edison lamps was that of J. Hood Wright, New York." - which may be correct, as Cragside was illuminated by arc lamps, although incandescent ones were installed in Cragside in 1880, whether they were Edison-type I don't know. So that might be correct, or not. The second citation says that Wright's was ""The first electric light from a power plant in a residence..." which is correct, as Cragside was powered by an external hydroelectric source.  However, clearly Wright's residence was not the first powered by electric light.  It certainly could be altered to say that it was the first powered by a power source on the premises (and I've changed the article to reflect this), whether that's hooky enough, I don't know. (Note: Source 3 above is simply wrong. It wasn't the first residence to be lit by the incandescent system). Black Kite (talk) 17:02, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I understand that Edison patented the commercial incandescent light bulb in 1880. The first commercial application of Edison's incandescent light bulb was in May 1880. There was no practical incandescent light bulb before this time, therefore no such system could be installed in anybody's home - anywhere! Do you have a reference that shows Cragside incandescent lighting from 1878, since that would be 2 years before Edison's patent? I read over the Cragside article and could not find such a reference for incandescent lighting, even for 1880. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 20:47, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The reference for Cragside says arc lighting in 1878, "Joseph Swan incandescent lighting" in 1880.  It's a book, though, so I can't check that.  However our article for Joseph Swan says he demonstrated his incandescent lighting system in 1879 and it was in use in public buildings by 1880; given that he was working very close to Cragside, it would seem reasonable for this to be correct. Black Kite (talk) 08:26, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * No, that does NOT seem reasonable since Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879 and patented it in 1880. Apparently you have not read the Edison article. The Joseph Swan article says he invented a practical lamp in 1881. I have 4 Sources that can be checked out that all say the first home lit by incandescent lighting was that of James Hood Wright. Source 3 that you say is incorrect (but have no proof of this) would seem to be correct, since the book was published in 1884. I don't see anywhere where the Swan article says he had an incandescent lighting system in public buildings by 1880. I was going to check the references on that, but there are no references for that! The Swan article says, From that time he began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England. BUT there is NOT a reference for that! Since you have no references that shows the Cragside house was lit up before Wright's house by incandescent light bulbs, I believe my ALT2  proposal is reasonable.
 * Edison didn't invent the incandescent bulb, he invented the first commercially practical version (as his article says). Also, the holder of the patent in the UK is actually Swan, who patented it in mid-1879, some months before Edison's US patent. As most of the sources mention, Swan and Edison were pretty much inventing the useful incandescent bulb at the same time, but Edison's was quickly the more practical and long-lived.  However there are a number of reliable sources which say that Cragside was lit by Swan's bulbs in 1880, however impractical - in terms of lifespan - they might have been.  Here are three, but there are dozens more.   .  This is actually unsurprising, as Armstrong was someone who wanted to incorporate any new technology into his home, regardless of how useful it actually was! Black Kite (talk) 14:44, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * ALT2... that the first electric incandescent illuminated home was James Hood Wright's residence in New York City in 1881?
 * Propose this alternate hook with the word "incandescent" added to accepted ALT1 hook.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 12:04, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * ALT3... that the first Edison incandescent lamp illuminated home was James Hood Wright's residence in New York City in 1881?
 * Propose ALT3 alternate hook as another possibility and withdrawing ALT1 & ALT2.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 20:01, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Sources are those four under ALT1 above.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 21:10, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Don't ask me to approve the ALT3 hook because I will probably be the person moving it to prep. Ask who was the person who queried the earlier hook. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:15, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

Can you look at ALT3. Thanks. Will that work?--Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:21, 27 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Fine by me. Black Kite (talk) 15:00, 30 January 2018 (UTC)