The crowning achievement of his work in this field was the Pearl St. plant (1881-82) in New York City, the first permanent central power plant for the electricity production in the world. He also built and operated (1880) an experimental electric railway and produced a superior storage battery of iron and nickel with an alkaline electrolyte (The Columbia Encyclopedia). For the people of that time, life had been changed in a positive way. Deaf, hard of hearing, hard of hearing, regardless of hearing status, this made a difference for them