119-527: Thomas Edison National Historical Park preserves Thomas Edison 's laboratory and residence, Glenmont , in West Orange, New Jersey , United States. These were designed, in 1887, by architect Henry Hudson Holly . The Edison laboratories operated for more than 40 years. Out of the West Orange laboratories came the motion picture camera, improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies and
238-407: A phase-out of incandescent light bulbs to reduce energy consumption. Historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel list inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison of General Electric . They conclude that Edison's version was the first practical implementation, able to outstrip the others because of a combination of four factors: an effective incandescent material;
357-434: A vacuum higher than other implementations which was achieved through the use of a Sprengel pump ; a high resistance that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable, and the development of the associated components required for a large-scale lighting system. Historian Thomas Hughes has attributed Edison's success to his development of an entire, integrated system of electric lighting. The lamp
476-475: A "chunk of it". The representatives decided to give a cubic foot of solid copper weighing 486 pounds with their gratitude inscribed on it in appreciation for his part in the "continuous stimulation in the copper industry". Edison is credited with designing and producing the first commercially available fluoroscope , a machine that uses X-rays to take radiographs . Until Edison discovered that calcium tungstate fluoroscopy screens produced brighter images than
595-401: A $ 50-a-week profit by age 13, most of which went to buying equipment for electrical and chemical experiments. At age 15, in 1862, he saved 3-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J. U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan , was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron
714-428: A Canadian patent was filed by Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans for a lamp consisting of carbon rods mounted in a nitrogen-filled glass cylinder. They were unsuccessful at commercializing their lamp, and sold rights to their patent to Thomas Edison in 1879. (Edison needed ownership of the novel claim of lamps connected in a parallel circuit.) The government of Canada maintains that it is Woodward and Evans who invented
833-493: A Hungarian patent (No. 34541) for a tungsten filament lamp that lasted longer and gave brighter light than the carbon filament. Tungsten filament lamps were first marketed by the Hungarian company Tungsram in 1904. This type is often called Tungsram-bulbs in many European countries. Filling a bulb with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen slows down the evaporation of the tungsten filament compared to operating it in
952-471: A bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $ 10,000 ($ 269,294 in 2023), which he gratefully accepted. The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success, and Menlo Park became the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally credited with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development under his direction. His staff
1071-574: A businessman. Ultimately, his entrepreneurship was central to the formation of some 14 companies, including General Electric , formerly one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. In 1866, at the age of 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky , where, as an employee of Western Union , he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire . Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimes—reading and experimenting. Eventually,
1190-513: A carbon conductor, and platinum lead-in wires. This bulb lasted about 40 hours. Swan then turned his attention to producing a better carbon filament and the means of attaching its ends. He devised a method of treating cotton to produce 'parchmentised thread' in the early 1880s and obtained British Patent 4933 that same year. From this year he began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England. His house, Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead ,
1309-472: A carbonized bamboo filament could last more than 1200 hours. In 1880, the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company steamer, Columbia , became the first application for Edison's incandescent electric lamps (it was also the first ship to use a dynamo ). Albon Man, a New York lawyer, started Electro-Dynamic Light Company in 1878 to exploit his patents and those of William Sawyer . Weeks later
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#17327755430581428-463: A chemistry course at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art to support his work on a new telegraphy system with Charles Batchelor . This appears to have been his only enrollment in courses at an institution of higher learning. Thomas Edison began his career as a news butcher , selling newspapers, candy, and vegetables on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit. He turned
1547-436: A child, he became fascinated with technology and spent hours working on experiments at home. Edison developed hearing problems at the age of 12. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections . He subsequently concocted elaborate fictitious stories about the cause of his deafness. He was completely deaf in one ear and barely hearing in
1666-582: A coiled platinum filament but the high cost of platinum kept the bulb from becoming a commercial success. Many other inventors had also devised incandescent lamps, including Alessandro Volta 's demonstration of a glowing wire in 1800 and inventions by Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans . Others who developed early and commercially impractical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy , James Bowman Lindsay , Moses G. Farmer , William E. Sawyer , Joseph Swan , and Heinrich Göbel . These early bulbs all had flaws such as an extremely short life and requiring
1785-466: A coiled platinum filament in a vacuum tube and passed an electric current through it. The design was based on the concept that the high melting point of platinum would allow it to operate at high temperatures and that the evacuated chamber would contain fewer gas molecules to react with the platinum, improving its longevity. Although a workable design, the cost of the platinum made it impractical for commercial use. In 1841, Frederick de Moleyns of England
1904-688: A commercially viable electric light bulb on October 21, 1879, Edison developed an electric " utility " to compete with the existing gas light utilities. On December 17, 1880, he founded the Edison Illuminating Company , and during the 1880s, he patented a system for electricity distribution . The company established the first investor-owned electric utility. On September 4, 1882, in Pearl Street , New York City, his 600 kW cogeneration steam-powered generating station, Pearl Street Station 's, electrical power distribution system
2023-504: A constant electric light at a public meeting in Dundee, Scotland . He stated that he could "read a book at a distance of one and a half feet". However he did not develop the electric light any further. In 1838, Belgian lithographer Marcellin Jobard invented an incandescent light bulb with a vacuum atmosphere using a carbon filament. In 1840, British scientist Warren De la Rue enclosed
2142-436: A dozen buildings that supported Edison's research into electricity, photography, motion pictures, chemistry, metallurgy and other disciplines. A private library was attached to the main laboratory building. Specialty heavy and precision machine shops made tooling and prototypes. Edison's Black Maria was the world's first movie studio, and the building could be rotated on a turntable to keep sunlight on film subjects. A replica of
2261-521: A draftsman and an expert witness in patent litigation, began working for the United States Electric Lighting Company run by Edison's rival Hiram S. Maxim . While working for Maxim, Latimer invented a process for making carbon filaments for light bulbs and helped install broad-scale lighting systems for New York City, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London. Latimer holds the patent for the electric lamp issued in 1881, and
2380-478: A glass receiver, hermetically sealed, and filled with nitrogen, electrically arranged so that the current could be passed to the second carbon when the first had been consumed. Later he lived in the US, changed his name to Alexander de Lodyguine and applied for and obtained patents for incandescent lamps having chromium , iridium , rhodium , ruthenium , osmium , molybdenum and tungsten filaments. On 24 July 1874,
2499-493: A grooved cylinder. Despite its limited sound quality and that the recordings could be played only a few times, the phonograph made Edison a celebrity. Joseph Henry , president of the National Academy of Sciences and one of the most renowned electrical scientists in the US, described Edison as "the most ingenious inventor in this country... or in any other". In April 1878, Edison traveled to Washington to demonstrate
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#17327755430582618-402: A high electric current to operate which made them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially. In his first attempts to solve these problems, Edison tried using a filament made of cardboard, carbonized with compressed lampblack. This burnt out too quickly to provide lasting light. He then experimented with different grasses and canes such as hemp, and palmetto, before settling on bamboo as
2737-679: A laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey , that featured the world's first film studio , the Black Maria . With 1,093 US patents in his name , as well as patents in other countries, Edison is regarded as the most prolific inventor in American history. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 due to complications from diabetes . Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio , but grew up in Port Huron, Michigan , after
2856-448: A lamp with inert gas instead of a vacuum resulted in twice the luminous efficacy and reduced bulb blackening. In 1917, Burnie Lee Benbow was granted a patent for the coiled coil filament , in which a coiled filament is then itself wrapped into a coil by use of a mandrel . In 1921, Junichi Miura created the first double-coil bulb using a coiled coil tungsten filament while working for Hakunetsusha (a predecessor of Toshiba ). At
2975-415: A large part of the market without electrical service. AC companies expanded into this gap. Edison expressed views that AC was unworkable and the high voltages used were dangerous. As George Westinghouse installed his first AC systems in 1886, Thomas Edison struck out personally against his chief rival stating, " Just as certain as death, Westinghouse will kill a customer within six months after he puts in
3094-406: A lower resistivity than carbon, the tantalum lamp filament was quite long and required multiple internal supports. The metal filament gradually shortened in use; the filaments were installed with large slack loops. Lamps used for several hundred hours became quite fragile. Metal filaments had the property of breaking and re-welding, though this would usually decrease resistance and shorten the life of
3213-486: A meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne on 3 February 1879. These lamps used a carbon rod from an arc lamp rather than a slender filament. Thus they had low resistance and required very large conductors to supply the necessary current, so they were not commercially practical, although they did furnish a demonstration of the possibilities of incandescent lighting with relatively high vacuum,
3332-561: A number of nearby private dwellings, but was shut down in September 1886 as uneconomic, since he was unable to extend the premises. On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey . As Edison expanded his direct current (DC) power delivery system, he received stiff competition from companies installing alternating current (AC) systems. From
3451-698: A process of introducing red phosphorus as the so-called getter inside the bulb ), which allowed obtaining economic bulbs lasting 800 hours; his patent was acquired by Edison in 1898. In 1897, German physicist and chemist Walther Nernst developed the Nernst lamp , a form of incandescent lamp that used a ceramic globar and did not require enclosure in a vacuum or inert gas. Twice as efficient as carbon filament lamps, Nernst lamps were briefly popular until overtaken by lamps using metal filaments. US575002A patent on 01.Dec.1897 to Alexander Lodyguine (Lodygin, Russia) describes filament made of rare metals, amongst them
3570-424: A result, the incandescent bulb became widely used in household and commercial lighting, for portable lighting such as table lamps, car headlamps , and flashlights , and for decorative and advertising lighting. Incandescent bulbs are much less efficient than other types of electric lighting. Less than 5% of the energy they consume is converted into visible light; the rest is lost as heat. The luminous efficacy of
3689-402: A ruling 8 October 1883, that Edison's patents were based on the prior art of William Sawyer and were invalid. Litigation continued for a number of years. Eventually on 6 October 1889, a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid. The main difficulty with evacuating the lamps was moisture inside the bulb, which split when
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3808-552: A second patent for the "process of manufacturing carbons" (the filament used in incandescent light bulbs), issued in 1882. On October 8, 1883, the US patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William E. Sawyer and was, therefore, invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years. In 1885, Latimer switched camps and started working with Edison. On October 6, 1889, a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance"
3927-421: A source is defined as the ratio of its luminous efficacy to the maximum possible luminous efficacy, which is 683 lm/W. An ideal white light source could produce about 250 lumens per watt, corresponding to a luminous efficiency of 37%. For a given quantity of light, an incandescent light bulb consumes more power and emits more heat than most other types of electric light. In buildings where air conditioning
4046-527: A successful version of this the first synthetic filament. The light bulb invented by Cruto lasted five hundred hours as opposed to the forty of Edison's original version. In 1882 Munich Electrical Exhibition in Bavaria, Germany Cruto's lamp was more efficient than the Edison's one and produced a better, white light. In 1893, Heinrich Göbel claimed he had designed the first incandescent light bulb in 1854, with
4165-480: A system of lighting . In 1761, Ebenezer Kinnersley demonstrated heating a wire to incandescence . However such wires tended to melt or oxidize very rapidly (burn) in the presence of air. Limelight became a popular form of stage lighting in the early 19th century, by heating a piece of calcium oxide to incandescence with an oxyhydrogen torch . In 1802, Humphry Davy used what he described as "a battery of immense size", consisting of 2,000 cells housed in
4284-466: A system of any size. He has got a new thing and it will require a great deal of experimenting to get it working practically. " Many reasons have been suggested for Edison's anti-AC stance. One notion is that the inventor could not grasp the more abstract theories behind AC and was trying to avoid developing a system he did not understand. Edison also appeared to have been worried about the high voltage from misinstalled AC systems killing customers and hurting
4403-476: A thin carbonized bamboo filament of high resistance, platinum lead-in wires in an all-glass envelope, and a high vacuum. Judges of four courts raised doubts about the alleged Göbel anticipation , but there was never a decision in a final hearing due to the expiration of Edison's patent. Research work published in 2007 concluded that the story of the Göbel lamps in the 1850s is fictitious. Joseph Swan (1828–1914)
4522-936: A typical incandescent bulb for 120 V operation is 16 lumens per watt (lm/W), compared with 60 lm/W for a compact fluorescent bulb or 100 lm/W for typical white LED lamps . The heat produced by filaments is used in some applications, such as heat lamps in incubators , lava lamps , Edison effect bulbs, and the Easy-Bake Oven toy. Quartz envelope halogen infrared heaters are used for industrial processes such as paint curing and space heating. Incandescent bulbs typically have shorter lifetimes compared to other types of lighting; around 1,000 hours for home light bulbs versus typically 10,000 hours for compact fluorescents and 20,000–30,000 hours for lighting LEDs. Most incandescent bulbs can be replaced by fluorescent lamps , high-intensity discharge lamps , and light-emitting diode lamps (LED). Some governments have begun
4641-453: A vacuum. This allows for greater temperatures and therefore greater efficacy with less reduction in filament life. In 1906, William D. Coolidge developed a method of making "ductile tungsten" from sintered tungsten which could be made into filaments while working for General Electric Company . By 1911 General Electric had begun selling incandescent light bulbs with ductile tungsten wire. In 1913, Irving Langmuir found that filling
4760-578: Is enclosed in a glass bulb that is either evacuated or filled with inert gas to protect the filament from oxidation . Electric current is supplied to the filament by terminals or wires embedded in the glass. A bulb socket provides mechanical support and electrical connections. Incandescent bulbs are manufactured in a wide range of sizes, light output, and voltage ratings, from 1.5 volts to about 300 volts. They require no external regulating equipment , have low manufacturing costs , and work equally well on either alternating current or direct current . As
4879-598: Is notably the first US patent for an electronic device due to its use of an Edison effect bulb as an active component . Subsequent scientists studied, applied, and eventually evolved the bulbs into vacuum tubes , a core component of early analog and digital electronics of the 20th century. In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financiers, including J. P. Morgan , Spencer Trask , and
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4998-582: Is now the Czech Republic), opened in 1882, and was the first public building in the world to use Edison's electric lamps. Francis Jehl , Edison's assistant in the invention of the lamp, supervised the installation. In September 2010, a sculpture of three giant light bulbs was erected in Brno, in front of the theater. The first Edison light bulbs in the Nordic countries were installed at the weaving hall of
5117-500: Is registered on 1,093 patents. Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey , with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention that first gained him wider notice was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park". His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around
5236-411: Is used, incandescent lamps' heat output increases load on the air conditioning system. While heat from lights will reduce the need to run a building's heating system, the latter can usually produce the same amount of heat at lower cost than incandescent lights. The chart below lists the luminous efficacy and efficiency for several types of incandescent bulb. A longer chart in luminous efficacy compares
5355-586: The Columbia . Although hesitant at first, Edison agreed to Villard's request. Most of the work was completed in May 1880, and the Columbia went to New York City, where Edison and his personnel installed Columbia 's new lighting system. The Columbia was Edison's first commercial application for his incandescent light bulb. The Edison equipment was removed from Columbia in 1895. In 1880, Lewis Latimer ,
5474-530: The 1st Middlesex Militia during the War of 1812. His father, Samuel Edison Jr. moved to Vienna, Ontario , and fled to Ohio after his involvement in the Rebellion of 1837 . Edison was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his mother, a former school teacher. He attended school for only a few months. However, one biographer described him as a very curious child who learned most things by reading on his own. As
5593-595: The American Midwest . Early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator , which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey , where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanical laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida , in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone , and
5712-606: The Edison and Swan United Electric Company (later known as Ediswan, and ultimately incorporated into Thorn Lighting Ltd ). Edison was initially against this combination, but Edison was eventually forced to cooperate and the merger was made. Eventually, Edison acquired all of Swan's interest in the company. Swan sold his US patent rights to the Brush Electric Company in June 1882. The United States Patent Office gave
5831-794: The Finlayson 's textile factory in Tampere, Finland in March 1882. In 1901, Edison attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York . His company, the Edison Manufacturing Company , was given the task of installing the electric lights on the various buildings and structures that were built for the exposition. At night Edison made a panorama photograph of the illuminated buildings. After devising
5950-535: The Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts (another AC-based competitor) built 22 power stations. Parallel to expanding competition between Edison and the AC companies was rising public furor over a series of deaths in the spring of 1888 caused by pole mounted high voltage alternating current lines. This turned into a media frenzy against high voltage alternating current and
6069-678: The United States Electric Lighting Company was organized. This company did not make their first commercial installation of incandescent lamps until the fall of 1880, at the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company in New York City, about six months after the Edison incandescent lamps had been installed on the Columbia . Hiram S. Maxim was the chief engineer at the US Electric Lighting Co. After the great success in
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#17327755430586188-570: The electric arc , by passing high current between two pieces of charcoal. For the next 40 years much research was given to turning the carbon arc lamp into a practical means of lighting. The carbon arc itself was dim and violet in color, emitting most of its energy in the ultraviolet, but the positive electrode was heated to just below the melting point of carbon and glowed very brightly with incandescence very close to that of sunlight. Arc lamps burned up their carbon rods very rapidly, expelled dangerous carbon monoxide, and tended to produce outputs in
6307-412: The phonograph , the motion picture camera , and early versions of the electric light bulb , have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world . He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory . Edison was raised in
6426-407: The 1880s that used wax-coated cardboard cylinders. In 1876, Edison began work to improve the microphone for telephones (at that time called a "transmitter") by developing a carbon microphone , which consists of two metal plates separated by granules of carbon that would change resistance with the pressure of sound waves. A steady direct current is passed between the plates through the granules and
6545-609: The 1889 merger that formed Edison General Electric. In 1890 he told president Henry Villard he thought it was time to retire from the lighting business and moved on to an iron ore refining project that preoccupied his time. Edison's dogmatic anti-AC values were no longer controlling the company. By 1889 Edison's Electric's own subsidiaries were lobbying to add AC power transmission to their systems and in October 1890 Edison Machine Works began developing AC-based equipment. Cut-throat competition and patent battles were bleeding off cash in
6664-474: The Black Maria was constructed in 1954. Edison's Queen Anne style home was designed by Henry Hudson Holly and built between 1880 and 1882 for Henry Pedder. It originally comprised 23 rooms. The mansion was built with gravity-convection central heat, indoor flush toilets, and hot and cold piped water. Pedder was found to have embezzled funds from his employer to build Glenmont, and was forced to surrender
6783-475: The Goldenrod plant. Edison decided on Solidago leavenworthii , also known as Leavenworth's Goldenrod. The plant, which normally grows roughly 3–4 feet tall with a 5% latex yield, was adapted by Edison through cross-breeding to produce plants twice the size and with a latex yield of 12%. During the 1911 New York Electrical show, Edison told representatives of the copper industry it was a shame he did not have
6902-634: The US electrical business and would compete with Westinghouse for the AC market. Edison served as a figurehead on the company's board of directors for a few years before selling his shares. Edison moved from Menlo Park after the death of his first wife, Mary, in 1884, and purchased a home known as " Glenmont " in 1886 as a wedding gift for his second wife, Mina , in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey . In 1885, Thomas Edison bought 13 acres of property in Fort Myers , Florida, for roughly $ 2,750 (equivalent to $ 93,256 in 2023) and built what
7021-621: The United States, the incandescent light bulb patented by Edison also began to gain widespread popularity in Europe as well; among other places, the first Edison light bulbs in the Nordic countries were installed at the weaving hall of the Finlayson 's textile factory in Tampere, Finland in March 1882. Lewis Latimer , employed at the time by Edison, developed an improved method of heat-treating carbon filaments which reduced breakage and allowed them to be molded into novel shapes, such as
7140-424: The barium platinocyanide screens originally used by Wilhelm Röntgen , the technology was capable of producing only very faint images. The fundamental design of Edison's fluoroscope is still in use today, although Edison abandoned the project after nearly losing his own eyesight and seriously injuring his assistant, Clarence Dally . Dally made himself an enthusiastic human guinea pig for the fluoroscopy project and
7259-469: The basement of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, to create an incandescent light by passing the current through a thin strip of platinum , chosen because the metal had an extremely high melting point . It was not bright enough nor did it last long enough to be practical, but it was the precedent behind the efforts of scores of experimenters over the next 75 years. Davy also demonstrated
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#17327755430587378-409: The best filament. Edison continued trying to improve this design and on November 4, 1879, filed for U.S. patent 223,898 (granted on January 27, 1880) for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires". The patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways". It
7497-521: The characteristic "M" shape of Maxim filaments. On 17 January 1882, Latimer received a patent for the "Process of Manufacturing Carbons", an improved method for the production of light bulb filaments, which was purchased by the United States Electric Light Company. Latimer patented other improvements such as a better way of attaching filaments to their wire supports. In Britain, the Edison and Swan companies merged into
7616-428: The competing companies and the idea of a merger was being put forward in financial circles. The War of Currents ended in 1892 when the financier J.P. Morgan engineered a merger of Edison General Electric with its main alternating current based rival, The Thomson-Houston Company, that put the board of Thomson-Houston in charge of the new company called General Electric . General Electric now controlled three-quarters of
7735-591: The cost of interior furnishings. Edison and Mina spent many winters at their home in Fort Myers, and Edison tried to find a domestic source of natural rubber. Due to the security concerns around World War I , Edison suggested forming a science and industry committee to provide advice and research to the US military, and he headed the Naval Consulting Board in 1915. Edison became concerned with America's reliance on foreign supply of rubber and
7854-579: The cost of providing a given quantity of light by a factor of thirty, compared with the cost at introduction of Edison's lighting system. Consumption of incandescent light bulbs grew rapidly in the US. In 1885, an estimated 300,000 general lighting service lamps were sold, all with carbon filaments. When tungsten filaments were introduced, about 50 million lamp sockets existed in the US. In 1914, 88.5 million lamps were used, (only 15% with carbon filaments), and by 1945, annual sales of lamps were 795 million (more than 5 lamps per person per year). Less than 5% of
7973-436: The critical parameters of his electric lighting system including lamp resistance by an analysis of Ohm's law , Joule's law and economics. Nearly all of Edison's patents were utility patents, which were protected for 17 years and included inventions or processes that are electrical, mechanical, or chemical in nature. About a dozen were design patents , which protect an ornamental design for up to 14 years. As in most patents,
8092-539: The early 1880s, AC arc lighting systems for streets and large spaces had been an expanding business in the US. With the development of transformers in Europe and by Westinghouse Electric in the US in 1885–1886, it became possible to transmit AC long distances over thinner and cheaper wires, and "step down" (reduce) the voltage at the destination for distribution to users. This allowed AC to be used in street lighting and in lighting for small business and domestic customers,
8211-472: The estate, which Edison bought in 1886 for $ 125,000 (equal to $ 4,238,889 today), moving in with his newly married second wife Mina and his three children from his first marriage. The house retains its original furnishings in an Eastlake style interior. Edison added six more rooms, and electrical wiring. Edison's children with Mina grew up at Glenmont, including future New Jersey governor Charles Edison and industrialist Theodore Miller Edison . Edison's home
8330-667: The family moved there in 1854. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison Jr. (1804–1896, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia ) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871, born in Chenango County, New York ). His patrilineal family line was Dutch by way of New Jersey ; the surname had originally been "Edeson". His great-grandfather, loyalist John Edeson, fled New Jersey for Nova Scotia in 1784. The family moved to Middlesex County, Upper Canada , around 1811, and his grandfather, Capt. Samuel Edison Sr. served with
8449-562: The filament. General Electric bought the rights to use tantalum filaments and produced them in the US until 1913. From 1898 to around 1905, osmium was also used as a filament in lamps made by Carl Auer von Welsbach . The metal was so expensive that used lamps could be returned for partial credit. It could not be made for 110 V or 220 V so several lamps were wired in series for use on standard voltage circuits. These were primarily sold in Europe. On 13 December 1904, Hungarian Sándor Just and Croatian Franjo Hanaman were granted
8568-489: The help of Charles Stearn, an expert on vacuum pumps, in 1878, Swan developed a method of processing that avoided the early bulb blackening. This received a British Patent in 1880. On 18 December 1878, a lamp using a slender carbon rod was shown at a meeting of the Newcastle Chemical Society , and Swan gave a working demonstration at their meeting on 17 January 1879. It was also shown to 700 who attended
8687-482: The incandescent electric lamp and was put in charge of tests and records on that device. In 1880, he was appointed chief engineer of the Edison Lamp Works. In his first year, the plant under general manager Francis Robbins Upton turned out 50,000 lamps. According to Edison, Hammer was "a pioneer of incandescent electric lighting". Frank J. Sprague , a competent mathematician and former naval officer ,
8806-518: The inside of lamp bulbs without weakening them. In 1947, he patented a process for coating the inside of lamps with silica . In 1930, Hungarian Imre Bródy filled lamps with krypton gas rather than argon, and designed a process to obtain krypton from air. Production of krypton filled lamps based on his invention started at Ajka in 1937, in a factory co-designed by Polányi and Hungarian-born physicist Egon Orowan . By 1964, improvements in efficiency and production of incandescent lamps had reduced
8925-408: The inventions he described were improvements over prior art . The phonograph patent, in contrast, was unprecedented in describing the first device to record and reproduce sounds. In just over a decade, Edison's Menlo Park laboratory had expanded to occupy two city blocks. Edison said he wanted the lab to have "a stock of almost every conceivable material". A newspaper article printed in 1887 reveals
9044-415: The lamp was lit, with resulting oxygen attacking the filament. In the 1880s, phosphoric anhydride was used in combination with expensive mercury vacuum pumps . However, about 1893, Italian inventor Arturo Malignani [ it ] (1865–1939), who lacked these pumps, discovered that phosphorus vapours did the job of chemically binding the remaining amounts of water and oxygen. In 1896 he patented
9163-498: The latter preoccupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead–acid battery when he spilt sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired. His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, U.S. patent 90,646 , which was granted on June 1, 1869. Finding little demand for the machine, Edison moved to New York City shortly thereafter. One of his mentors during those early years
9282-442: The lightbulb. On 4 March 1880, just five months after Edison's light bulb, Alessandro Cruto created his first incandescent lamp. Cruto produced a filament by deposition of graphite on thin platinum filaments, by heating it with an electric current in the presence of gaseous ethyl alcohol . Heating this platinum at high temperatures leaves behind thin filaments of platinum coated with pure graphite. By September 1881 he had achieved
9401-440: The list goes on. Over his desk Edison displayed a placard with Sir Joshua Reynolds ' famous quotation: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking." This slogan was reputedly posted at several other locations throughout the facility. In Menlo Park, Edison had created the first industrial laboratory concerned with creating knowledge and then controlling its application. Edison's name
9520-468: The market Edison's patented low voltage DC incandescent lamp system was designed to supply. Edison's DC empire suffered from one of its chief drawbacks: it was suitable only for the high density of customers found in large cities. Edison's DC plants could not deliver electricity to customers more than one mile from the plant, and left a patchwork of unsupplied customers between plants. Small cities and rural areas could not afford an Edison style system, leaving
9639-616: The members of the Vanderbilt family . Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. It was during this time that he said: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles." Henry Villard , president of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company , attended Edison's 1879 demonstration. Villard was impressed and requested Edison install his electric lighting system aboard Villard's company's new steamer,
9758-543: The museum of the Château de Blois . In 1859, Moses G. Farmer built an electric incandescent light bulb using a platinum filament. Thomas Edison later saw one of these bulbs in a shop in Boston, and asked Farmer for advice on the electric light business. In 1872, Russian Alexander Lodygin invented an incandescent light bulb and obtained a Russian patent in 1874. He used as a burner two carbon rods of diminished section in
9877-553: The nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery. The park comprises two properties in West Orange: the second Edison Laboratories complex and Edison's home in Llewellyn Park about .5 miles (0.80 km) to the west at 40°47′10″N 74°14′26″W / 40.78611°N 74.24056°W / 40.78611; -74.24056 . The laboratory complex comprises the industrial facility built by Edison in 1887 to research and develop his inventions. The complex includes more than
9996-422: The other. It is alleged that Edison would listen to a music player or piano by clamping his teeth into the wood to absorb the sound waves into his skull. As he got older, Edison believed his hearing loss allowed him to avoid distraction and concentrate more easily on his work. Modern-day historians and medical professionals have suggested he may have had ADHD . It is known that early in his career he enrolled in
10115-423: The phonograph before the National Academy of Sciences, Congressmen, Senators and President Hayes . The Washington Post described Edison as a " genius " and his presentation as "a scene... that will live in history". Although Edison obtained a patent for the phonograph in 1878, he did little to develop it until Alexander Graham Bell , Chichester Bell , and Charles Tainter produced a phonograph-like device in
10234-426: The physics of loose-contact carbon transmitters (work that Hughes did not bother to patent). Edison used the carbon microphone concept in 1877 to create an improved telephone for Western Union . In 1886, Edison found a way to improve a Bell Telephone microphone, one that used loose-contact ground carbon, with his discovery that it worked far better if the carbon was roasted . This type was put in use in 1890 and
10353-412: The power consumed by a typical incandescent light bulb is converted into visible light, with most of the rest being emitted as invisible infrared radiation. Light bulbs are rated by their luminous efficacy , which is the ratio of the amount of visible light emitted ( luminous flux ) to the electrical power consumed. Luminous efficacy is measured in lumens per watt (lm/W). The luminous efficiency of
10472-437: The project, while Edison did all the research. Edison, however, wished to contribute $ 25,000 as well. Edison did the majority of the research and planting, sending results and sample rubber residues to his West Orange Lab. Edison employed a two-part Acid-base extraction , to derive latex from the plant material after it was dried and crushed to a powder. After testing 17,000 plant samples, he eventually found an adequate source in
10591-428: The sales of electric power systems in general. The primary reason was that Edison Electric based their design on low voltage DC, and switching a standard after they had installed over 100 systems was, in Edison's mind, out of the question. By the end of 1887, Edison Electric was losing market share to Westinghouse, who had built 68 AC-based power stations to Edison's 121 DC-based stations. To make matters worse for Edison,
10710-552: The same year. The other three songs ("Maybe I Know", "The Edison Museum", and "James K. Polk") were released on the band's website in 2002. [REDACTED] Media related to Thomas Edison National Historical Park at Wikimedia Commons Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation , mass communication , sound recording , and motion pictures. These inventions, which include
10829-452: The seemingly greedy and callous lighting companies that used it. Edison took advantage of the public perception of AC as dangerous, and joined with self-styled New York anti-AC crusader Harold P. Brown in a propaganda campaign, aiding Brown in the public electrocution of animals with AC, and supported legislation to control and severely limit AC installations and voltages (to the point of making it an ineffective power delivery system) in what
10948-457: The seriousness of his claim, stating the lab contained "eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made, every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels ... silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hoofs, shark's teeth, deer horns, tortoise shell ... cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, jet, amber, rubber, all ores ..." and
11067-434: The signal so generated to the telephone line. Edison was one of many inventors working on the problem of creating a usable microphone for telephony by having it modulate an electric current passed through it. His work was concurrent with Emile Berliner 's loose-contact carbon transmitter (who lost a later patent case against Edison over the carbon transmitter's invention ) and David Edward Hughes ’ study and published paper on
11186-471: The tens of kilowatts. Therefore, they were only practical for lighting large areas, so researchers continued to search for a way to make lamps suitable for home use. Over the first three-quarters of the 19th century, many experimenters worked with various combinations of platinum or iridium wires, carbon rods, and evacuated or semi-evacuated enclosures. Many of these devices were demonstrated and some were patented. In 1835, James Bowman Lindsay demonstrated
11305-577: The time, machinery to mass-produce coiled coil filaments did not exist. Hakunetsusha developed a method to mass-produce coiled coil filaments by 1936. Between 1924 and the outbreak of the Second World War, the Phoebus cartel attempted to fix prices and sales quotas for bulb manufacturers outside of North America. In 1925, Marvin Pipkin , an American chemist, patented a process for frosting
11424-461: The title in hopes to relieve confusion between the Edison sites in West Orange and Edison, New Jersey . Following extensive renovations of the laboratory complex, there was a grand reopening on October 10, 2009. On April 27, 1996, the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants recorded four songs on phonograph cylinder at the museum. One of these recordings, of the song "I Can Hear You", appeared on their album Factory Showroom released later
11543-417: The varying resistance results in a modulation of the current, creating a varying electric current that reproduces the varying pressure of the sound wave. Up to that point, microphones, such as the ones developed by Johann Philipp Reis and Alexander Graham Bell , worked by generating a weak current. The carbon microphone works by modulating a direct current and, subsequently, using a transformer to transfer
11662-419: Was a British physicist and chemist. In 1850, he began working with carbonized paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb. By 1860, he was able to demonstrate a working device but the lack of a good vacuum and an adequate supply of electricity resulted in a short lifetime for the bulb and an inefficient source of light. By the mid-1870s better pumps had become available, and Swan returned to his experiments. With
11781-627: Was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope , who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey , home, while Edison worked for Samuel Laws at the Gold Indicator Company. Pope and Edison founded their own company in October 1869, working as electrical engineers and inventors. Edison began developing a multiplex telegraphic system, which could send two messages simultaneously, in 1874. Edison's major innovation
11900-462: Was a small component in his system of electric lighting, and no more critical to its effective functioning than the Edison Jumbo generator , the Edison main and feeder, and the parallel-distribution system. Other inventors with generators and incandescent lamps, and with comparable ingenuity and excellence, have long been forgotten because their creators did not preside over their introduction in
12019-681: Was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway . He also studied qualitative analysis and conducted chemical experiments until he left the job rather than be fired after being held responsible for a near collision of two trains. Edison obtained the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald , which he sold with his other papers. This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures, as he discovered his talents as
12138-580: Was designated as the Edison Home National Historic Site on December 6, 1955. The laboratory was designated as Edison Laboratory National Monument on July 14, 1956. On September 5, 1962, the 21-acre (85,000 m) site containing the home and the laboratory were designated the Edison National Historic Site. On March 30, 2009, it was renamed Thomas Edison National Historical Park, adding "Thomas" to
12257-521: Was determined to find a native supply of rubber. Edison's work on rubber took place largely at his research laboratory in Fort Myers, which has been designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. The laboratory was built after Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey S. Firestone pulled together $ 75,000 to form the Edison Botanical Research Corporation. Initially, only Ford and Firestone were to contribute funds to
12376-467: Was exposed to a poisonous dose of radiation; he later died (at the age of 39) of injuries related to the exposure, including mediastinal cancer. In 1903, a shaken Edison said: "Don't talk to me about X-rays, I am afraid of them." Nonetheless, his work was important in the development of a technology still used today. Edison invented a highly sensitive device, that he named the tasimeter , which measured infrared radiation . His impetus for its creation
12495-511: Was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produce results. William Joseph Hammer , a consulting electrical engineer , started working for Edison and began his duties as a laboratory assistant in December 1879. He assisted in experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, iron ore separator , electric lighting , and other developing inventions. However, Hammer worked primarily on
12614-497: Was granted the first patent for an incandescent lamp, with a design using platinum wires contained within a vacuum bulb. He also used carbon. In 1845, American John W. Starr patented an incandescent light bulb using carbon filaments. His invention was never produced commercially. In 1851, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin publicly demonstrated incandescent light bulbs on his estate in Blois, France. His light bulbs are on display in
12733-634: Was later called Seminole Lodge as a winter retreat. The main house and guest house are representative of Italianate architecture and Queen Anne style architecture . The building materials were pre-cut in New England by the Kennebec Framing Company and the Stephen Nye Lumber Company of Fairfield Maine. The materials were then shipped down by boat and were constructed at a cost of $ 12,000 each, which included
12852-507: Was lit by Joseph Swan's incandescent lamp on 3 February 1879. Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp in 1878. Edison filed his first patent application for "Improvement in Electric Lights" on 14 October 1878. After many experiments, first with carbon in the early 1880s and then with platinum and other metals, in the end Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test
12971-424: Was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1,200 hours. Attempts to prevent blackening of the bulb due to emission of charged carbon from the hot filament culminated in Edison effect bulbs, which redirected and controlled the mysterious unidirectional current. Edison's 1883 patent for voltage-regulating
13090-563: Was now being referred to as a " war of the currents ". The development of the electric chair was used in an attempt to portray AC as having a greater lethal potential than DC and smear Westinghouse, via Edison colluding with Brown and Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, to ensure the first electric chair was powered by a Westinghouse AC generator. Edison was becoming marginalized in his own company having lost majority control in
13209-448: Was on 22 October 1879, and lasted 13.5 hours. Edison continued to improve this design and by 4 November 1879, filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including using "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," Edison and his team later discovered that
13328-495: Was recruited by Edward H. Johnson and joined the Edison organization in 1883. One of Sprague's contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was to expand Edison's mathematical methods. Despite the common belief that Edison did not use mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal that he was an astute user of mathematical analysis conducted by his assistants such as Francis Robbins Upton, for example, determining
13447-580: Was switched on, providing 110 volts direct current (DC), initially to 59 customers in lower Manhattan , quickly growing to 508 customers with 10,164 lamps. The power station was decommissioned in 1895. Eight months earlier in January 1882, to demonstrate feasibility, Edison had switched on the 93 kW first steam-generating power station at Holborn Viaduct in London. This was a smaller 110 V DC supply system, eventually supplying 3,000 street lights and
13566-411: Was the desire to measure the heat from the solar corona during the total Solar eclipse of July 29, 1878 . The device was not patented since Edison could find no practical mass-market application for it. Incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb , incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a filament that is heated until it glows . The filament
13685-488: Was the establishment of an industrial research lab in 1876. It was built in Menlo Park , a part of Raritan Township (now named Edison Township in his honor) in Middlesex County, New Jersey , with the funds from the sale of Edison's quadruplex telegraph . After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $ 4,000 to $ 5,000 was right, so he asked Western Union to make
13804-560: Was the first in the world to be lit by a lightbulb. In the early 1880s he had started his company. In 1881, the Savoy Theatre in the City of Westminster , London was lit by Swan incandescent lightbulbs, which was the first theatre, and the first public building in the world, to be lit entirely by electricity. The first street in the world to be lit by an incandescent lightbulb was Mosley Street, Newcastle upon Tyne , United Kingdom . It
13923-492: Was tungsten. Lodygin invented a process where rare metals such as tungsten can be chemically treated and heat-vaporized onto an electrically heated thread-like wire (platinum, carbon, gold) acting as a temporary base or skeletal form. (US patent 575,002). Lodygin later sold the patent rights to GE. In 1902, Siemens developed a tantalum lamp filament that was more efficient than even graphitized carbon filaments since they could operate at higher temperature. Since tantalum metal has
14042-527: Was used in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s. In 1878, Edison began working on a system of electrical illumination, something he hoped could compete with gas and oil-based lighting. He began by tackling the problem of creating a long-lasting incandescent lamp, something that would be needed for indoor use. However, Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb. In 1840, British scientist Warren de la Rue developed an efficient light bulb using
14161-515: Was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with yet another competitor, Joseph Swan , who held an 1880 British patent on a similar incandescent electric lamp, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to manufacture and market the invention in Britain. The incandescent light bulb patented by Edison also began to gain widespread popularity in Europe as well. Mahen Theatre in Brno (in what
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