Hey, is that a personified version of Thomas Edison’s commercialized incandescent lamp? HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Edison’s commercialized tungsten incandescent lamp!
Technically, Edison’s patent was filed the following January 27 of 1880, but today in 1879 Edison got 13 hours and 32 minutes out of his lamp’s tests and experiments. Regardless of Edison’s politics and behavior, you have to give it to him that he put the drive into inventing something that has revolutionized our lives. One of my favorite quotes ever is Edison’s quote about his development of the incandescent lamp. When a reporter asked Edison about the failures in experimentation in the process of inventing the lamp, he said “No! I didn’t fail. I found 1000 ways to not invent an incandescent light bulb.”
It’s rumored that Edison’s incandescent lamp cost about $852,000 in today’s market to develop – about $40,000 in the late 1870’s.
I also found this great list of important relevant dates (years) in the timeline of the incandescent lamp!
1850: Joseph W. Swan began working on a light bulb using carbonized paper filaments
1860: Swan obtained a UK patent covering a partial vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp
1877: Edward Weston forms Weston Dynamo Machine Company, in Newark, New Jersey.
1878: Thomas Edison founded the Edison Electric Light Company
1878: Hiram Maxim founded the United States Electric Lighting Company
1878: 205,144 William Sawyer and Albon Man 6/18 for Improvements in Electric Lamps
1878: Swan receives a UK patent for an improved incandescent lamp in a vacuum tube
1879: Swan began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England.
1880: 223,898 Thomas Edison 1/27 for Electric Lamp and Manufacturing Process
1880: 230,309 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Process of Manufacturing Carbon Conductors
1880: 230,310 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Electrical Lamp
1880: 230,953 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Electrical Lamp
1880: 233,445 Joseph Swan 10/19 for Electric Lamp
1880: 234,345 Joseph Swan 11/9 for Electric Lamp
1880: Weston Dynamo Machine Company renamed Weston Electric Lighting Company
1880: Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston form American Electric Company
1880: Charles F. Brush forms the Brush Electric Company
1881: Joseph W. Swan founded the Swan Electric Light Company
1881: 237,198 Hiram Maxim 2/1 for Electrical Lamp assigned to U.S. Electric Lighting Company
1881: 238,868 Thomas Edison 3/15 for Manufacture of Carbons for Incandescent Lamps
1881: 247,097 Joseph Nichols and Lewis Latimer 9/13 for Electric Lamp
1881: 251, 540 Thomas Edison 12/27 for Bamboo Carbons Filament for Incandescent Lamps
1882: 252,386 Lewis Latimer 1/17 for Process of Manufacturing Carbons assigned to U.S. E. L. Co.
1882: Edison’s UK operation merged with Swan to form the Edison & Swan United Co. or “Edi-swan”
1882: Joesph Swan sold his United States patent rights to the Brush Electric Company
1883: American Electric Company renamed Thomson-Houston Electric Company
1884: Sawyer & Man Electric Co formed by Albon Man a year after William Edward Sawyer death
1886: George Westinghouse formed the Westinghouse Electric Company
1886: The National Carbon Co. was founded by the then Brush Electric Co. executive W. H. Lawrence
1888: United States Electric Lighting Co. was purchased by Westinghouse Electric Company
1886: Sawyer & Man Electric Co. was purchased by Thomson-Houston Electric Company
1889: Brush Electric Company merged into the Thomson-Houston Electric Company
1889: Edison Electric Light Company consolidated and renamed Edison General Electric Company.
1890: Edison, Thomson-Houston, and Westinghouse, the “Big 3” of the American lighting industry.
1892: Edison Electric Light Co. and Thomson-Houston Electric Co. created General Electric Co.
Ah, the lamp. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Edison’s commercialized incandescent lamp! Isn’t it funny that I’m flying out to Las Vegas for LDI today of all days?
Thanks Wired, Distributed Energy, Idea Finder, and Wikipedia!
