"Of all the gifts that electricity brings, almost the greatest is the relief from the burden of mechanical, monotonous, everlasting toil. Just as our factories have become organised to turn out their product rapidly and efficiently by electrical machinery controlled by man, our homes will be transformed to operate smoothly with the aid of electricity, so that the labour involved in cleaning, in heating, in cooking and in washing and other domestic tasks will be performed by an electrical deputy. The energy thus released can be devoted to the enjoyment of home life, to education, to the cultivation of music and art and the other beneficent recreations for which a measure of freedom is essential. Leisure will cease to be a monopoly of the well-to-do and will extend until it becomes a common possession."
Electricity was held to promise a bright, clean, efficient, cheerful, toil-free world; it would make real the visions of Utopias and science fiction...