Hammer's Electrifying New Year's Celebration for the Society of Seventy Seven

摘要

This paper describes the New Year's Eve party thrown by William Hammer for the "Society of Seventy Seven" (fellow workers with electricity) in his home at 23 Rowland St., Newark, NJ, USA, on the last day of 1881. The whole house was fitted throughout with electric bells, burglar alarms, fire alarms, telephones, electric cigar lighters, medical coils, phonographs, electric fans, thermostats, heat regulating devices and some seven musical instruments operated by electricity. The life and career of William Joseph Hammer (1858-1934) is also outlined in this historical overview.