Powering a City

[John]

In 1929, the USS Lexington tied up to the railroad pier in Tacoma, and provided electricity to the entire city during a power shortage.

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=5113

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[MVW]

And a darn good thing, too. Otherwise the good people of Tacoma would have been unable to power their computers. televisions, refrigerators, microwaves, dryers, air conditioners, cell phones, food processors, electric vehicles ... Hey, wait a minute. What the hell did people use electricity for in 1929? 

Jim

[nkalanaga]

The Northwest was using a lot of electricity by that time.  Much of the area wasn't truly settled until the 1890s, and wherever water or coal was available, electricity was common from the beginning.  The MILW was electrified with commercial power, and by the teens, many of the west side logging camps had at least electric lights, powered by their own portable power plants.  Electric streetcars go back to the late 1800s, at least, and one French inventor had a steam-electric in the 1890s that produced 1000 HP, and was mechanically closer to a diesel-electric than to a conventional steam loco.
http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/heilmann/heilmann.htm