Why edison made the light bulb

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Worcester, MA Tel. Learn about the humble light bulb, how it came into being and how it has developed over the years. Ballasts and Dimmers - What do I need to know?

Original carbon-filament bulb from Thomas Edison. Sign up to receive our best offers Subscribe. Stay connected with Bulbs. He spent a few of his early years in formal schooling, but he received most of his education at home. Thomas set up a laboratory in the basement of his family's Michigan home and spent most of his time experimenting.

Edison's mother, Nancy, knew her son was fond of chemistry and electronics, so she gave him books to read on the subjects. One book explained how to perform chemistry experiments at home; Thomas did every one in the book. A biographer of Edison once noted: "His mother had accomplished that which all truly great teachers do for their pupils, she brought him to the stage of learning things for himself, learning that which most amused and interested him, and she encouraged him to go on in that path.

It was the very best thing she could have done for this singular boy. Thomas got a job as a newsboy for the day-long trip to Detroit and back. Since there was a five-hour layover in Detroit, Edison asked for permission to move his laboratory to the baggage car of the train so he could continue his experiments there. This worked for a little while, until the train lurched forward and spilled some chemicals, setting the laboratory on fire.

While working for the railroad, Thomas saved the life of a station official's child who had fallen onto the tracks of an oncoming train. As a way of thanking him for saving his child's life, the father taught Thomas how to use the telegraph. Thomas became so good at using the telegraph that he got a job working as a telegrapher sending signals between the United States and Canada.

He began experimenting with ways to improve the telegraph, which led to his invention of the automatic telegraph, duplex telegraph, and message printer. It was about this time that Thomas dedicated his life to being a full-time inventor. He continued his work on the telegraph and his ideas also gave birth to the universal stock ticker. His father Samuel supervised the construction of the new laboratory; it opened in In the period from to Edison and his associates worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp.

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.

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. Already a print subscriber? Go here to link your subscription. Need help? Visit our Help Center.

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