The Fascinating History of the Light Bulb: Many stories are told about Thomas Alva Edison. He is considered to be the greatest inventor in human history to date. He invented the incandescent light bulb. Many people had invented it before Edison (some even 30 years ago), but none came to fruition. His achievement was to invent an "effective and true light bulb." December 31, 1879, was the day that the American inventor Edison introduced the electric bulb to the public for the first time, and the streets of Pennsylvania were lit by electric bulbs.
Edison's interest in "incandescent lighting" began in the spring of 1878, when, at the age of 31, he went on vacation with a colleague, Professor George Barker. Harassment during the tour suggested to Edison (already famous for inventing the phonograph), among other things, that he should now aim to spread electric light to homes in America.
This touched Edison's heart. He returned to his "Factory of Inventions" in New York, assembled a team of experts, and announced to the world that within six weeks he would light up America's homes. Will this prediction turn out to be too optimistic? From the beginning, Edison had a plan in mind to create a bulb that could burn with very little current, be durable, and not fuse as well as other bulbs. If one bulb goes bad, there is no effect on the others, and each bulb can be turned on and off with the help of a switch. Edison and his team tried to design a whole system in addition to making the bulb.
The "incandescent bulb" is a simple device, and its underlying science is based on the phenomenon of electrical immunity. An electric current is introduced into a material that resists it to varying degrees. As a result, it becomes hot, burns, and gives off light. Earlier bulbs had many problems. The filaments used to carry the electric current could not withstand the heat and would burn or melt. In open air, this process would take place within seconds or minutes.
So the inventors put the filament in a glass globe, sealed it, and stripped it of oxygen so that the filament could better withstand the heat in space. Edison knew he had to create a superior filament. Edison and his team tried several metals and other materials in their search for the perfect filament and ultimately settled on platinum because of its high melting point, about 3191 degrees Fahrenheit.
Other members of Edison's team also devised better ways to extract oxygen from the glass globe. A bulb with a platinum filament proved suitable, but after burning for only 10 minutes, it too melted. Also, platinum was a rare and expensive metal. Edison and his team tried about 1,600 materials and continued to improve methods of releasing oxygen from inside the globe, but found nothing that would serve their purpose.
One day, Edison thought of trying carbon again as a filament. He had done so a year before, but later abandoned the intention. He knew that the melting point of carbon is 6233 degrees Fahrenheit, or 4500 degrees Celsius. Edison calculated that the filament should be 1/64 inch in diameter and 6 inches in length to work with adequate immunity. He scraped caulk from the glass of gas lamps and mixed it with tar to form a filament. Experiments on this filament showed that it could burn for an hour or two, but Edison was convinced that if this carbon could perform so well, there must be some other material that could be converted to carbon.
But prove even better. With this in mind, he experimented with pieces of ordinary cotton thread that were burned in a furnace and turned into carbon. The filament was very delicate and difficult to apply. Finally, after completing all the preparations, the current was switched on. This is the incident of the night of October 21, 1879. This filament was not lost, contrary to expectations. Its light output was only one percent of that of a current 100-watt light bulb. It burned and burned. Edison gradually increased the current and light until the filament broke.
It burned for 13.5 hours, and everyone knew that this dim little bulb was a precursor to the electric light era. Of course, Edison did not stop there. He looked at the filament under a microscope and knew that the carbon it needed would come from fibrous materials. Sort of like flax, eventually, Edison used hemp fiber imported from Japan that burned for 900 hours.
It took Edison only three years to create and install the electrical system that made lighting practical. His "Edison Electric Light Company" built a power station on Pearl Street in New York City and ran wires through gas pipes to the homes of potential customers. Initially, only 88 customers were found. The system had many flaws, but as they were ironed out, the bulbs improved, and the number of customers increased. At the end of the 19th century, 10 million homes had electric lights.
Today, bulbs are made with tungsten and nitrogen. The light bulb turned the night into "day." It became possible for people to read, write, stay out late at night, etc. This invention changed the world.