[broadgage]

Regarding post #9 and differing tariffs for lighting and for power, It is an urban myth that people plugged electric irons and other loads into lamp sockets in order to save money.

Electricity for lighting was invariably more expensive than that supplied for power, so running an electric iron from a lamp socket was in fact costing money. It was done in the absence of suitable power sockets.

In the early days, electricity was used almost entirely for lighting. The supply company therefore had to invest a lot of capital in plant that only produced significant revenue between dusk and about midnight.
There was therefore a lot of interest in "building the daylight load" by encouraging the use of electricity for power purposes during the daylight hours.
Such electricity could be produced for little more than the coal cost, with no capital outlay as it used assets already paid for by the lighting load.

It was therefore sold very cheaply, often for half or less of the "lighting" rate.

The gas industry periodically complained about this, considering it to be unfair. "Only GAS is supplied at the same low and uniform rate, to anyone, to use for any purpose" was a popular slogan that indirectly criticised the differing electricity tariffs.