History: The Transformer

The technological revolution that has shaped civilization since the 1880s sprang from fundamental advances in communications, transportation, and electric power. The crowning achievements of inventors in communications and transportation—the telephone, television, automobile, and airplane—are, by now, familiar fixtures of everyday life. In contrast, the invention that ensured the ubiquity of electric power goes largely unrecognized by those whose lives are touched by it. It is a device that does not move, is almost totally silent, and is typically hidden in underground vaults or stowed behind screens.