Insull, Samuel (1859–1938), businessman, utilities‐industry spokesman.Born near London, England, Insull learned stenography, emigrated to America, and landed a job in 1880 as the personal secretary of Thomas
Edison. Learning the electric‐lighting business from the ground up, Insull helped establish the manufacturing arm of what would become the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York. In 1892, he became president of the Chicago Edison Company, one of several electric companies in the city.
Over the following decade, he mastered the unique economics of the electric‐utility business and emerged as a national leader of the industry. Proclaiming that “low rates may mean good business,” Insull developed a business strategy that encouraged the use of electricity by all types of energy consumers. This approach made him an innovator in the use of novel technologies, financial instruments, rate structures, and promotional campaigns to create a mass market for electric light and power. Moreover, he mounted a successful effort to establish a monopoly of central station service in
Chicago for the renamed Commonwealth Edison Company. He also became a pioneer in building larger, regional networks of power and related holding‐company devices to maintain control of his sprawling utilities empire.
During
World War I, Insull was appointed chairman of the Illinois Council of Defense. In the 1920s, he was regarded as one of the nation's leading businessmen. The Great Depression and the collapse of his utilities empire turned Insull into a target of popular anger. Arrested and tried for securities fraud, he was acquitted in 1934 but remained a broken man until his death.
See also
Depressions, Economic;
Electrical Industry;
Electricity and Electrification;
Mass Marketing;
New Deal Era, The.
Bibliography
Forrest McDonald , Insull, 1962.
Harold L. Platt , The Electric City: Energy and the Growth of the Chicago Area, 1880–1930, 1991.
Harold L. Platt
