The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is as old as the commercial use of electricity itself. It is the oldest, as well as the largest, electrical union in the world.

    Various histories of labor record no attempts to organize electrical workers during the experimental days of electricity. In 1844 the first telegraph wires were strung between Washington and Baltimore carrying that famous message of Samuel Morse, ``What hath God wrought?" This was the first electrical accomplishment of commercial importance. It changed the whole aspect of electricity, which most people believed to be an interesting but dangerous experiment. In 1848 the first telegraph station was built in Chicago. By 1861 a web of telegraph lines crisscrossed the United States, and in 1866 the transatlantic cable was laid. Linemen to string the wires became a necessity, and young men flocked eagerly to enter this new and exciting profession.

Opportunity Grows

    With Edison's invention of the first successful incandescent lamp in 1879, the general public became aware of the possibilities of electricity. The electric power and light industry was established with the construction of the Pearl Street Generating Station in New York in 1882. Where once only a few intrepid linemen handled electricity for a thrill, many now appeared on the scene, and wiremen, too, seeking a life's work. As public demand for electricity increased, the number of electrical workers increased accordingly. The surge toward unionism was born out of their desperate needs and deplorable safety conditions.