IS ELECTRICITY IDEAL...?

Well...yes. Electric drives are compact (Nicola Tesla!!!), clean, efficient and long-life. Electric controls (switches, relays, contacts) provide most of day-to-day automatics. Electricity drives most information-electronics. Except for storage and heating, electricity seems close to ideal of energy medium. What is perhaps most important- humans live beside electricity since more than a century and no negative health influences were noted.More even - neural systems use electrochemical currents for motoric and sensory signalling ,with low-Herz AC.

But...

People live longer and longer. We slowly close to maximum life endurance designed by nature for living cells of human body (ca 120 yrs). It is time to optimize even smallest details - very much like in every mechanism nearing to technical perfection.

If we consider closely the omnipresence of fast pulsating electromagnetic fields, associated with electricity transport (at least: long-distance transport), it is perhaps only matter of large-group, long-term study to discern marginal , but presumably tangible (statistically) detrimental effects to human cells life expectancy. It is intuitively very probable - health of cell nucleus, reproduction, chemical stability, mutations - these all processes are vulnerable to external fields , as magnetic, electric, chemical potentials ,etc. And, in particular harmonic changes with their resonances, harmonic sub-frequencies, repetitve long-term stimuli to biological structures etc, may be (and probably are) harmful. Yes, in very small amount, but probably additive and cumulative. After all , living tissues also contain often bio-alcohols or alkaloids, but in higher concentrations both these natural substances turn deadly...

Again - we are talking about fine optimization of human longevity...

In XIX century industry nobody cared much about fumes emitted by industrial ovens, because workers were not expected to live much beyond retirement at 60-ty, so long term health effects of inhaling fumes were not noticeable. And fireplace at home was a pleasant luxury.

What are the options?

Well, in early20 century pressurized water was quite popular energy medium, combining motive power with drinking&sanitation-water delivery. Mostly in UK and Switzerland , pipe water was driving stationary engines , industrial drives, cranes, lifts. But , it required costly pipe network , caused problems with corrosion, freezeing etc. By far price not worth simple elimination of EM-fields.

But how about compressed air ? No freezing, no corrosion ,no EM. Possibility to transport mechanical and heat energy (cooling and heating , both) in one pipe. Absolute neutrality to environment ( some oil is required for valves and drives, but easy to separate).

Possibility to be generated directly from windpower. PossibIlIty to effectively store (CAES). Counter-acting global warming. Air-driven cars , applied broadly commercially in XIX century in France by certain Ludwik Mekarski - as street-car, could assure truly clean air in towns, and pleasant chilling effect in hot cities. (By the way - in my free time I sketched a small ouverture on modern drive for air car , with additional on-board re-compressor/compander and de-icer, which basically turns it to mobile heat pump, using ambient heat as source of motive power, not actually perpetuum-mobile but in this direction...).

Except for electronics and light , all automatics&controls are well-mastered in pneumatics. Electronics and light require basically DC , and so little of it that local solar energy is perfectly sufficient, without long-range, transformed-voltage transport.

Underground HP-pipes are needed, but require very little maintenance over century, or longer.

So , why not air....