electricity developed slowly before the war but during the 1920s the electricity industry experienced a huge boom. by 1929 the majority of houses in america had electricity and 70 per cent of them used it for lighting purposes. as a result of the development of factories to produce consumer goods for the american people, the demand for electricity doubled. electrical power was introduced in factories to drive machinery, and thus it became possible to introduce mass production to a number of factories, e.g. refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and radio sets.