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Businessman John D. Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company, which would grow to control ninety percent of the industry. Because of the efforts of Rockefeller and his company, petroleum became the leading energy source not only in the U.S., but also all around the world, during this time.
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Thomas Edison invented a practical, long-lasting incandescent lamp. He tested many filaments before finally finding success with a carbon filament made from burned sewing thread.
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The first hydroelectric power plant in the United States and the world was built in Appleton, Wisconsin.
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America's first wind turbine was built in Ohio by an engineer named Charles Brush. It weighed 80,000 lbs, had 144 blades, and about 1,800 square feet of surface area.
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William J. Bailey of the Carnegie Steel Company developed a modern solar collector. It consisted of copper coils and an insulated box, which is similar to its design today.
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The first geothermal power plant in the United States was built in the Mayacamas Mountains of California. That plant, known as The Geysers, is now the largest geothermal field in the world.
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The General Electric Company (G.E.) unveiled the first commercial fluorescent lamp. A fluorescent lamp is made of a glass tube coated with phosphor and mixed with argon and another inert gas. It gives off light when an electric current runs through the lamp, causing the gases to emit UV radiation, which excites the phosphors so that they emit light.
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The United States' first nuclear power plant, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, was built in Beaver County, Pennsylvania as part of President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program.
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An accident happened at a nuclear power plant on an island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. One of the nuclear reactors overheated and underwent a meltdown, releasing some radiation into the environment. This event is the main reason why some Americans are fearful of nuclear power today.
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After a cement seal on a BP oil well broke, oil and methane gas spewed into the ocean at one mile below the surface for eighty-seven straight days. This has been called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
