Or, to take another example, what if we stopped measuring the economic impact of electrification only 45 years after the first generating plant, Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station, became operational in 1882? At that point, America’s manufacturing industries were just discovering the benefits of flexible (re)configuration, which enabled distribution of generated electric power, while America’s home-appliance industry was in its infancy.
或者，用另外一个例子，如果我们在第一个发电厂出现的45年之后就停下来衡量电气化的影响会怎样呢？托马斯·爱迪生（Thomas Edison）的珍珠街发电站在1882年开始运行。那时美国的制造业才开始发现灵活配置电力的好处，这使得分配产生的电力成为可能，而当时的美国家电产业尚处于起步阶段。