The incandescent light bulb, since its fairly recent invention, has quickly become a basic essential of modern technological life as we know it. It took many years to create an practical bulb despite the simplicity of its structure. I believe a majority of us take them completely for granted as a normal part of life.
Early man knew the sun as his lightsource and when the sun set, he knew the moon and the stars. As his intelligence increased and he learned about the world in which he lived he became associated with fire. Fire could be used for warmth, cooking, protection, and light. Man lived with this for years, elaborating and improving the way the fire was created and burned for light, until the year of 1809 when one man, an English chemist by the name of Humphrey Davy began the search for a usable incandescent light source using electricity. Using a high powered battery to induce a current between two high powered strips he produced an intense incandescent light, which became known as the first arc lamp.
Although it was a first step it was not yet a practical light source. The first known attempt to make a actual bulb didn't come until 1920 when Warren De la Rue enclosed a coil of platinum wire in an evacuated tube and passed an electrical current through it. Although a platinum light bulb was not practical the idea behind his design was. A metal with a high melting point to achieve high temperature and thus bright light, as well as an evacuated tube that contained less particles to react with the metal and thus an elongated bulb life.
Throughout the next few decades scientists labored to create their "efficient" light bulb. Their main hurdle was finding a low cost, long lived, high temperature filament material that would glow with high intensity.
In 1879 two scientist, Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas A Edison, had independent breakthroughs for a longer lasting incandecent bulb with their use of a carbon fiber filament derived from cotton. It lasted a maximum of 13.5 hours. In 1880 Edison also developed a filament derived from bamboo which lasted up to 1200 hours. This was good, but to create a truly efficient bulb something different was need to creae a filament with very high temperatures but without degeneration and loss of heat.
Many elements were experimented with, a few of the most popular which were carbon, osmium, and tantalum.
Hiram Maxim, founder of the U.S. Electric Light Co., at Bridgeport, CN, and the inventor of the Maxim machine gun, hired Lewis Latimer as an assistant manager and draftsman. Latimer's talent for drafting and his creative genius led him to invent a method of making carbon filaments for the Maxim electric incandescent lamp. In 1881, he supervised the installation of the electric lights in New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London.
Light sticks work in a similar way. When you “snap” a light stick, the chemical in the glass capsule mixes with a chemical in the plastic tube and creates light energy. Instead of the chemicals used by a firefly, other chemicals are used to create a glow. The light stick that you can buy at a store usually contains hydrogen peroxide, phenyl oxalate ester, and fluorescent dye (New York Times Company, 1 of 3). The light stick will glow the same color as the fluorescent dye placed in it. In luminescence, the chemical reaction “kicks an electron of an atom out of its ‘ground’ (lowest-energy) state into an ‘excited’ (higher-energy) state, then the electron give back the energy in the form of light so it can fall back to it’s ‘ground’ state (Fluorescent Mineral Society, 1 of 2).
The light bulb is the way we see in the dark, the way we find our way, the way we know when to go at a stoplight. How did Thomas Edison achieve this invention? Knowledge. Knowledge of electricity and the needs of those around him. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan claims that she wants her daughter to be “a beautiful little fool.” In other words Daisy is saying that ignorance is bliss. Some others believe that knowledge is power. The advancement from candles to light bulbs changed the culture entirely. People could easily do the work they needed to after sunset, and it even led to more inventions. We need knowledge to advance, and for this reason powerful knowledge is more valid than blissful ignorance.
Thomas Edison was a businessman who invented the light bulb. He lived by his quote “ Genius is one percent inspiration
It started with the British, with the arc lamp in 1835. For years after people around the world experimented on an incandescent lamp. They tried things like filling the bulb with gas but they did not last very long and they were very expensive. Finally in 1879, Thomas Edison made a bamboo filament (the part of the bulb that actually makes the light) that was able to last 1,200 hours. Lighting has changed over the years but some of the new inventions still were made in the 1800’s. Glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker discovered that they could make light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and by passing an electrical current through it. They called it the Geissler tube. In the early 1900’s Peter Cooper Hewitt made the fluorescent lamp. While the Cooper Hewitt lamps were more efficient than incandescent bulbs, no one really used them because of the blue green color of the light. European researchers made neon tubes coated with phosphors (that made the light white). In the mid and late 1930s the U.S. was showing the fluorescent lights to the navy and at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. These lights lasted longer and were about three times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. In 1976, Edward Hammer at General Electric figured out how to bend the fluorescent tube into a spiral shape, creating the first compact fluorescent light
The demonstration of the Incandescent light bulb was held in downtown New York City, New York at financier J.P Morgan’s office. The incandescent light bulb had instantly spread throughout the majority of the American homes and offices. The first incandescent light bulb used a carbon base inside a glass bulb until it became hot to produce a glow, (CITE). Many of the first designs were burning up quickly due to a poor vacuum design. Gas companies once dominated the industry were having a difficult time promoting the arc lamp due to the new invention of the Incandescent light bulb, (CITE). By the year 1892, the distribution of electric power replaced the gas setup, which had formally set up throughout the cities and the majority of the
Philips made a strong push to developing new technologies starting in the 1950s and 1960s. Upon doing so, the company also wanted to translate these technologies into products while adapting, producing, and selling these products within individual national markets. During this time period, most of the companies in the electrical products market were bring formed and racing to diversify. However, Philips decided to stick with what they knew best. They made only light-bulbs. In doing so, their strong focus enabled the company to create significant innovations. Continuing on, Philips also became a leader in industrial research by creating physics and chemistry labs to address both production and scientific problems. The labs developed a tungsten metal filament bulb that brought great commercial success. Philips simple structure and significant innovations gave them the financial support they needed to compete in a time period where competitors were seeking major growth.
The year was 1878 was the beginning of Electricity. That year Thomas Edison had made the first affordable light bulb. That year he focused primarily to make a light bulb powered by electricity which was safe; something that scientist were trying to make and succeed since 1828 "Thomas Alva Edison." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.) With the help of J.P Morgan (financial banker) he founded his company. Edison soon later became quite famous around the world. His lighting systems were soon used to light the “Paris lighting exhibition” and the “Crystal palace of London” ("Thomas Alva Edison." History.com. ) Later on came in the “the battle of currents”
He worked with George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla during the late 19th century so bring electric lighting into houses and offices. Incandescent lighting is when light is produced by heat. Around 1870s, there was already lighting called arc lighting. Those were placed in large indoor rooms such as a stage and outdoors in streetlight lamps. Arc light was proven to be impractical in housing or offices. During the 1879, Edison did research in an entire electrical systems which would deal with a generator, a distribution system, and a light bulb. His main focus though was the light bulb. It needed to be strong enough so that the heat wouldn 't cause the light bulb to explode. He worked with carbon filaments which burned inside a glass globe as electricity flowed through the filaments. During the same year, Edison worked with Francis Upton to make a generator that produced direct current, which is also what Edison is very well known for. Direct current was used for incandescent
So, the first ever incandescent light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison. Well what is an incandescent light bulb? An incandescent light bulb is an electric light with a wire filament heated to such high temperature that it glows with visible light. It is basically an electric light bulb and there are
Without the light bulb, you couldn’t see at night. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb mainly to make it for home use. The light bulb was made to create light that would last for a long time and that could be used anywhere. In today’s society, people use the bulbs in their homes to light up their whole house including their fridge. It just makes it easier to see anywhere whenever it’s the daytime or night time. “Edison's eventual achievement was inventing not just an incandescent electric light, but also an electric lighting system that contained all the elements necessary to make the incandescent light practical, safe, and economical.” Before it was created, human beings had to use fire and now you’re able to just turn the light switch on and you automatically have whatever lighted.
The history of engineering goes back into the 19th century when Alexander Volta (1745-1827) made a remarkable discover regarding the nature of electricity (Cosgrove 749). He discovered that electrical current could be controlled and could flow from one point to another. By the time the mid-19th century came about the rules for electricity were being established. During this time electromagnetic induction was discovered by Michael Faraday who lived from 1791 to 1867 (749). Also during this time Samuel Morris invented the telegraph in 1837 which relies on the principles of electromagnetic induction (749). Alexander Graham Bell, who lived from 1847 to 1922, created the telephone which also uses electricity in order to operate (749). Through the success of the telephone, Bell Telephone Company was established. In 1878, the light bulb was finally invented by Thomas Edison who lived from 1847 to 1931 (749). Off the principles of Faraday’s electric motor from 1821, Nicholas Tesla invented a more efficient and powerful electric motor in 1888 (749). To make these inventions be more significant, effort was expended to make better motors and transformers and to enhance the power needed to make them function. Through these inventions during the middle 19th century, it led to the capability of lighting homes and cities through the use of electricity, and it also led to the creation of the telephone communication system (750).
In 1879, after spending $40,000, and performing 1,200 experiments, he succeeded. He made a light bulb using carbonized filaments from cotton thread. Carbonized thread is ordinary cotton sewing thread that has been burned to an ash. The light bulb burned for two days. The electric light took the greatest amount of time and required the most complicated experiments of all his experiments.
Thomas Alva Edison is a very well-known American inventor. He invented about 1093 devices that influenced us greatly, such as light bulb, microphone, telephone receiver, universal stock ticker, phonograph, kinetoscope (used to view moving pictures), storage battery, electric pen, and mimeograph. Edison also improved many other existing devices as well. In the period from 1878 to 1880, Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp. Edison and his associates worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. In 1878, Edison built his first high resistance incandescent electric light. Incandescent lamps make light by using electricity to heat a thin strip of material (called a filament) until it gets hot enough to glow. Many inventors had tried to perfect incandescent lamps to "sub-divide" electric light or make it smaller and weaker than it was in the existing arc lamps, which were too bright to be used for small spaces such as the rooms of a house.Edison's lamp would consist of a filament ho...
Many of people came to see the showcase of the phonograph. In 1878, Thomas Edison starts expanding his inventions factory, and also builds a shopping store behind the laboratory. So he could sell his inventions to the public. Later Thomas Edison starts continuous to his other inventions. He starts to investigation how to create a light bulb that can stay longer time. Before Thomas Edison start making the light bulb, there have other inventor was working on it, but no one can let the light bulb work longer. Eventually, on October 21, 1879, Thomas Edison’s light bulbs can continuous work forty hours. Thomas Edison and his team try to use the incandescent light bulb in the laboratory and his home. In 1880, Thomas Edison believes the incandescent bulbs can able to produce and sell it to the public. Also he builds the Edison Electric Light Company to find way to use electricity to light the incandescent bulbs. In 1882, Thomas Edison uses his incandescent bulb in all the office building and houses on the Pearl Street. Many people came to the Pearl Street see the all of the building and houses is light with electricity. This became a great achievement in Thomas Edison’s life. Also Thomas Edison became a rich and famous people. Many of business and investors want to invest Thomas Edison’s