ONLY Our easy-to-use BulbFinder will let you find the correct bulb, step by step. He was neither the first nor the only person trying to invent an incandescent light bulb. However, Edison is often credited with the invention because his version was able to outstrip the earlier versions because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve and a high resistance that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.
In , Humphry Davy invented the first electric light. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. His invention was known as the Electric Arc lamp.
More notably, in , British scientist Warren de la Rue enclosed a coiled platinum filament in a vacuum tube and passed an electric current through it.
In , Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.
Discharge lamps became the basis of many lighting technologies, including neon lights, low-pressure sodium lamps the type used in outdoor lighting such as streetlamps and fluorescent lights. Both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla experimented with fluorescent lamps in the s, but neither ever commercially produced them. Hewitt created a blue-green light by passing an electric current through mercury vapor and incorporating a ballast a device connected to the light bulb that regulates the flow of current through the tube.
While the Cooper Hewitt lamps were more efficient than incandescent bulbs, they had few suitable uses because of the color of the light. By the late s and early s, European researchers were doing experiments with neon tubes coated with phosphors a material that absorbs ultraviolet light and converts the invisible light into useful white light.
These findings sparked fluorescent lamp research programs in the U. These lights lasted longer and were about three times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. The need for energy-efficient lighting American war plants led to the rapid adoption of fluorescents, and by , more light in the U. Even though it is over a hundred years old, this bulb looks very much like the light bulbs lighting your house right now.
The base, or socket, on this 19th century lamp is similar to the ones still used today. It was one of the most important features of Edison's lamp and electrical system. The label on this bulb reads, "New Type Edison Lamp. Patented Jan. In the early s, Edison planned and supervised the construction of the first commercial, central electric power station in New York City.
In , Edison began construction of a new laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. Before he died in , Edison patented 1, of his inventions. The wonders of his mind include the microphone, telephone receiver, universal stock ticker, phonograph, kinetoscope used to view moving pictures , storage battery, electric pen, and mimeograph.
Edison improved many other existing devices as well. From a discovery made by one of his associates, he patented the Edison effect now called thermionic diode , which is the basis for all electron tubes. Edison will forever be remembered for his contributions to the incandescent light bulb. Even though he didn't dream up the first light bulb ever crafted, and technology continues to change every day, Edison's work with light bulbs was a spark of brilliance on the timeline of invention.
At the very beginning of his experiments with the incandescent lamp in , he said:. Where this thing is going to stop Lord only knows. Note: The object pictured above is part of The Franklin Institute's protected collection of objects. All rights are reserved. Join Our Email List. Learn more about our commitment to safety. He used thin — and thus high-resistance — filaments to achieve the brightness, and delayed burnout by making them from high-melting-point metal sealed in a vacuum.
His choice of pricey platinum for the filament and the difficulties of achieving a good vacuum made the result uneconomic, however.
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