Electrifying and Enlightening Our World
I, like Mendelssohn, made my first public appearance when I was nine. Not as a Composer or Pianist, but as a Speaker. Not at a grand stage, but at a town hall. My father along with others in the community, were upset about the high fees and surprised shutdowns. Men at the front of the room defended what they called the “Edison Company.” Their explanation? “Electrical and equipment problems at the power plant.” As my first public lesson, I learned of a public utility’s power to generate electricity or volatility in our world.
When my father attempted to speak, they ignored him or tried to shut him by talking over him. Seeing his sad face, I ran towards the man talking. I said, “Mr. my baby sister caught pneumonia and was in the hospital.” He replied, “I’m sorry to hear that.” I said, Mr., are you going to pay for the hospital bills? He replied, “Sorry for the inconvenience.” Mr., all the food in our fridge rotted.” The man said, “Sorry for the inconvenience.” Mr., my father worked hard to pay for that food and the hospital bills. He replied, “Again, Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Another man started to speak. I said, “I was startled when the light in my room shut down.” Smiling, the man said, “Oh, but you must not be afraid of the dark. There are no monsters under your bed.” I said, “Mr. I was reading my science book. Newton says actions have reactions. The only monsters here are you men and your company. But one day, I will have the energy, equipment and power to shut you all down. And I will not be sorry for the inconvenience.
Mendelssohn performances, contemporaries have written, were masterful and powerful. Seeing the faces of these “Edison Company” men and hearing the applause I received from the community, I too became masterful and powerful in my public compositions being referred to the “power girl” or “lightening girl.” Seeing my father’s face light up saying how proud he was of me, I was empowered!
Electricity is a force. Sir Michael Faraday argued and demonstrated this through his research and inventions in electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Understanding its potential value, Faraday reportedly made this point to William Gladstone, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Gladstone asked “what the practical value of electricity was.” Faraday responded, “One day sir, you may tax it.”
“Lightning Man” was a name earned by Samuel F.B. Morse, a rendition penned by the masterful biographer and Pulitzer Prize recipient Kenneth Silverman. A contemporary of Faraday, Morse too understood electromagnetic force. Celebrated for the Morse code, the American is the inventor of the “Samuel Morse Telegraph.” And like electricity, use of the telegraph system for telegraphy became a business to be taxed.
The world of Faraday and Morse was one with the presence of Kings and Queens of English Royalty and the leadership of US Presidents from Washington to Grant. Born just years after the signing of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence from England, these innovators and inventors departed their world soon after America’s Civil War to rest upon the peaceful good earth.
Our world has benefited from the discoveries and inventions of men like Faraday and Morse and the art of their contemporaries. Composers, Pianists, Writers and Artists like:
Felix Mendelssohn, Bedřich Smetana, Ludwig van Beethoven, Giacomo Puccini, Pauline Duchambge, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Niccolò Paganini, Joseph Haydn, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Charlotta Seuerling, Patrick Gilmore, Ciprian Porumbescu, Michael Balfe, Kornelije Stanković, Antonín Dvořák, Anthony Heinrich, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Franz Liszt, Mikhail Glinka, Robert Schumann, Johann Strauss I, O.B. Dussek, Wilhelm Richard Wagner, Frédéric François Chopin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Teresa Carreño, Franz Peter Schubert……..Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Clarissa Minnie Thompson Allen, Émile Zola, Moses Mendelssohn, Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci, Martha Darley Mutrie, Manuel Lorenzo Justiniano de Zavala y Sanchez, James Barry, William Wells Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Booker T. Washington, Charles A. Eastman, Ohíye S’a, Emily E. Dickinson, Honoré de Balzac, William Simpson, Félix Varela y Morales, Margaret Backhouse, General Gabriele D’Annunzio, William Blake, Henri Guy de Maupassant, Arthur Melville, Mary Moser, Miguel Otero, Emily Brontë, Giacomo Leopardi, Joseph Laurent, Giovanni Verga…….. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frances Emilia Crofton née Dunn, Carlo Lorenzini, Oscar-Claude Monet…..
As children and beneficiaries, it is our right and responsibility to ascertain a balance of electrical power that is accessible to all and is harnessed in a way that does not bring about war or the end of us and our world.