After serving in the army, Yablochkov settled in Moscow in 1873, where he was appointed Head of Telegraph Office at the Moscow-Kursk railroad.

By 1880, the system had grown in size to 120 lamps with 84 lit at a time powered by a 100-horsepower steam engine and had been operating every night for two and one half years.

[2][4] Yablochkov candles required high voltage, and it was not long before experimenters reported that the arc lights could be powered on a 7-mile (11 km) circuit.

[2] Yablochkov candles were superior to Lontin-Serrin regulator arc lights that each required a separate Gramme generator.

As part of his arc lighting patents, Yablochkov described a method of employing Michael Faraday's discovery of induction to create a continuous current of higher voltage, where primary windings were connected to a source of alternating current and secondary windings could be connected to several electric "candles".

Although it was not recognized at the time, Yablochkov's idea of using transformers to provide different voltages from the same AC line[5] was the model that modern transmission and distribution systems would settle on.

As the patent said such a system "allowed to provide separate supply to several lighting fixtures with different luminous intensities from a single source of electric power".