At the same time Benjamin Franklin was astonishing Parisians with his displays of electricity, and light was the talk of the day, especially the white, oil-based kind already known in China and Russia.
While nostalgic retellings of world's fairs have focused on the marvels, like some of the first public displays of electricity, Dr. Rydell said the history was far more complex, and at times disturbing.
The company claims their display uses 0.16MW of electricity per square centimeter, which translates back to just 1% of what conventional LCDs need.
There is a long side trip to the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where the Wellwoods marvel at Edward Burne-Jones's painting of Lancelot's dream along with the Hall of Dynamos and displays of "fairy electricity".
Tesla was a bit like Iron Man, a somewhat touched but brilliant inventor and a talented showman, and his magical displays of what electricity could do dazzled the public with a world of new possibilities.
An eco-indicator on the meter displays the status of electricity consumption, giving real-time feedback on the driver's handling efficiency.
The seven-month-long Paris Fair of 1900 included a Palace of Electricity that displayed light encapsulated in glass and electrical motors that became symbols of modernity.
The 145-inch monster display consumes up to 1,000W of electricity, weighs 180kg and shows content such as ads, clips and web sites.
The museum's executive director, Kim Koga, said that future visitors to the museum can expect to see a neon fabricating facility, a glass furnace that shows how neon tubes were originally made by hand, exhibits of vintage neon signs, themed light art exhibits and interactive displays covering the early era of electricity.
In a deregulated market, a number of factors determined the outcome of electricity price and displays a perplexed and maverick fluctuation.
