—By Leilehua Yuen
—Photo By Jason Raia from Valley Forge, PA, USA
My grandfather used to say, “Shut the light,” a holdover from the days when kerosene lanterns were turned off by shutting off the fuel supply. Here’s a good video showing the kind of lighting many Hawai`i homes still used back in the mid-20th century, when I was born.
The first electric lights in Hawai`i were installed in `Iolani Palace. Ka Lani Kāwika Kalākaua, King of Hawai`i at that time, was a forward-thinking person who recognized the potential of electricity and wanted to assure that his people could access its benefits.
In the late 1870s, generating and harnessing electricity was an amazing new thing that was all the talk of society. Ka Lani Kāwika, a renaissance man of many talents; a scholar, historian, and inventor, was always curious about science and technologies that might benefit his people. He had heard of the American inventor, Thomas Edison, and his work with electricity. While on a world tour, the king arranged to meet him in New York, in 1881.
Edison-style lamps are a great way to bring a touch of the monarchy into home decor.
Mahalo for reading! Your purchases through our Amazon links help to keep this website on-line.
A few years later, on the night of July 26, 1886, Charles Otto Berger, a Honolulu-based insurance executive with American connections, organized a demonstration of “electric light” at the palace. To commemorate the occasion, a tea was organized by the Crown Princess Lili`uokalani and the Princess Likelike, sisters of the king. The Royal Hawaiian Military Band played music and military companies marched in the palace square. The people of Honolulu turned out that night to promenade and admire the brightly lit palace.
Soon, the king commissioned an electrical system for the palace. Thomas Edison asked David Bowers Smith, a North Carolinian businessman living in Hawaii, to facilitate the installation of an electrical system at the palace. The plant comprised a small steam engine and dynamo which powered incandescent lamps. On the kingʻs birthday, November 16, 1886, `Iolani Palace became the world’s first royal residence to be lit by electricity.
Following that success, the Hawaiian government decided to light the streets of Honolulu. A water-driven power plant was built in Nu`uanu Valley, with the stream there driving the turbines.
A Friday evening, on March 23, 1888, eleven year old Ka`iulani, niece to the king, threw the switch that lit Honolulu. Within a year businesses and homes were being wired for electricity and, by 1890, 797 homes in Honolulu had the modern convenience.
Once the switch was thrown, there was no turning back. Anyone who could afford it purchased a generator. Sugar plantations to private homes invested in the modern technology. Most were serviced by the firm of E.O. Hall & Son.
In 1891, four men, including E.O. Hall’s son William, gathered together and registered their co-partnership on May 7, 1891. Five months later, on October 13, 1891, the co-partnership was dissolved. The Hawaiian Electric Company was incorporated.
On Hawai`i Island, in Hilo, the second largest city in the kingdom, also was a hotbed of innovation. David Belden Lyman, and his wife Sarah Joiner Lyman, had move to Hilo to join the Christian mission there. They founded the Hilo Boarding School, which provided “manual training” for youth. The innovative school provided a model which was later used by leading American technical schools.
By 1892, the school was generating its own power to run its woodworking and machine shop, as well as provide light. A water-driven dynamo was installed on an irrigation ditch at the Hilo Boarding School. (Portions of the ditch remain today, and one section continues to mark the property line of my grandparents’ home.) In addition to providing power for lighting and machinery, the small direct current dynamo also ran a half-ton ice plant.
Local businessmen soon saw the potential in this technology, and in 1894 the Hilo Electric Light Company was formed. Starting with a small ice plant and a 500-light dynamo, the safe and easy to use electrical lighting became so popular that in half a year demand had outstripped the company’s production. A 3,000-light dynamo was then purchased.
On the leeward side of the island, small electric companies were forming to support the sugar and coffee industries. In Kona, a large trading company that was heavily into the production of coffee helped bankroll Kona Light and Power Company. To give some perspective on timeline, this was 1932 – the year my grandparents’ home was built.
In Kohala, a ditch was dug to irrigate the sugar cane fields. With this additional water, sugar became hugely profitable, leading the sugar companies to install power plants to run the mills and serve the people who worked the plantations. In 1934 the Kohala Ditch Company took over the distribution and sale of electricity in North Kohala. During World War II the Marines installed generators in Waimea.
By 1956, the Hilo Electric Light Company had purchased or merged with all these smaller companies. By 1963, Hilo Electric had received the franchise for the whole island. In 1970, Hilo Electric was bought by Hawaiian Electric Company, and five years later the company’s name was changed to Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO).
My grandparents, born about 1900, saw many of these changes. But old habits die hard. Even long after electrical lights were in use, my grandparents still said, “Shut the light!”
The classic Coleman lantern and stove!