Besides the light switch at the top of the steps, our basement, at 134 E. Bruce Avenue, had several light bulbs downstairs. Not connected. All were affixed to the ceiling, single bulbs screwed into their sockets, with a pull chain dangling down.
I’d like to say now that I come from a family of tall people. Of the seven children, not only am I the youngest, but I am also the shortest at 5’6”. My brothers are each 6’2”. The tallest is my sister at 6’3”. And the rest well above me.
So. My point? Those chains hanging down from the lightbulbs were short little numbers, with barely any links at all. For many years, when I wanted to turn on a light downstairs, I’d have to climb on top of something or push a chair across the floor to switch it on.
Though, if someone were down there with me, I’d ask for help.
I never thought about it before now, but that’s how it worked. Thanks to a man named Harvey Hubbell. No. He didn’t belong to our parish and come over one Saturday afternoon to help my Dad install lights.
Harvey Hubbell was the guy who patented the electric light bulb socket with a pull chain. He did it on this very date, August 11, 1896.
Harvey Hubbell II, to be exact. He was born on December 20, 1857, in Brooklyn, NY. I don’t know a thing about his boyhood or how he grew up. But by the time he was an adult, he’d grown into an American inventor, entrepreneur, and industrialist.
His two best-known inventions are the U.S. electrical plug and that pull-chain light socket I mentioned a moment ago.
He must have had big ideas rolling around in his head each morning as he sat at his breakfast table, dipping his toast into his eggs over easy. Because one morning, he stood up and declared, “Harvey’s got big ideas, and here they come.” This had to have been in 1888 when Harvey was at the age of thirty-one.
That day, Hubbell quit his job as a manager of a manufacturing company and founded Hubbell Incorporated in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I should mention Harvey’s company is still in business today and headquartered near Bridgeport.
He started making things for consumers. But also invented manufacturing equipment for his factory. All from necessity.
One of his most important industrial inventions, still in use today, is the thread rolling machine. Good old Harvey began selling his newly devised manufacturing equipment right alongside his commercial products.
All in all, Harvey received at least 45 patents. Most of his work was with electrical products. His most famous invention, the U.S. electrical power plug, came in 1904. I’m sure the people cheered, as it allowed folks to have their convenient, portable electrical devices wherever they wished to put them, like little fans or toasters. This was a luxury Great Britain had been enjoying since the early 1880s. And now, the U.S. could plug in a sweeper. That is, once people had sweepers.
Dear Harvey Hubbell died on December 17, 1927, and I don’t know how. By that time, he was 70 years old, but it could have been anything. Maybe he had an allergic reaction to shellfish.
Regardless, he passed away 37 years before I was even born. Yet. There in my basement, tottering atop some folding chair, I reached my little hand up in the air and pulled the chain attached to the bulb. And all because of Harvey Hubbell.
Let there be light.
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Doubt is the father of invention.
— Ambrose Bierce
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Necessity… the mother of invention.
— Plato
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Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.
— Mary Shelley
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Either way, doubt and necessity made a baby in a very chaotic manner.
— Polly Kronenberger
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The bulb. The chain. All you have to do is pull.
