"PRACTICAL HIGH RESISTANCE CARBON THREAD FILAMENT"

EDISON DEMONSTRATES THE INCANDESCENT LIGHT

Menlo Park, New Jersey (JFK+50) On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1879, Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the incandescent electric light for the first time in public.  

The famed inventor had set up 100 bulbs around his laboratory here in Menlo Park and along Christie Street.  

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company ran special trains to transport people to Menlo Park to observe the demonstration.

Mr. Edison had out performed other inventors with a "practical design, high resistance carbon-thread filament that burned four hours and an electric generator to power it."

JFK+50 COMMENT

On this New Year's Eve, we mourn the passing of JFK's granddaughter, Tatiana Scholossberg, at age 35.  She, like her grandfather, leaves this world much too young.  She was an accomplished woman who would have made the President very proud.  

SOURCES

"December 31, 1879," JFK+50, December 31, 2010, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/

"Edison's 'New Year's Eve' Lamp," American History Museum, Smithsonian, www.si.edu/

"Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent light," www.history.com/

Edison Bulb

Used at Menlo Park Demonstration

by User: Alkivar

CC BY SA 3.0

"EDISON SLEPT UNDER A BIG SYCAMORE"

PRESIDENT RIDES, PREACHER PREACHES WHILE EDISON SLEEPS

Big Pool, Maryland (JFK+50) On July 24, 1921, President Warren G. Harding took a horseback ride and listened to a sermon by Bishop Anderson of Ohio at his encampment here at Big Pool*.

In addition, the President sat in the shade and talked in a loud voice with Thomas Edison, who is "somewhat hard of hearing," on the subject of deep-sea fishing.

During the Bishop's sermon, Mr. Edison "took a pillow and slept under a big sycamore."

The President phoned Mrs. Harding from a country store on the hill above the camp and returned to Washington by automobile accompanied by Maryland State Police and secret service agents.

*Big Pool is located in western Washington County, MD between Clear Spring & Hancock.  It is part of the Hagerstown metro area & had a population of 82 in 2010.  It has a natural pool that was a turning point for canal boats.

SOURCE

"Harding Has Horseback Ride, Hears Camp Sermon on Peace," The New York Tribune, July 25, 1921, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ 

 

 

Ford, Edison & Firestone

Ft. Myers, Florida

Feb 11 1929

Herbert Hoover Library Image 

THOMAS EDISON DOES HIS BIT

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2319

EDISON DOES HIS BIT TO SAVE THE COUNTRY

West Orange, New Jersey (JFK+50) One hundred years ago this evening, May 24, 1917, the world's greatest inventor, Thomas Alva Edison*, spoke to employees of his plant here in West Orange telling them that he was in the process of working "in a certain direction" to save the country.

Mr. Edison said...

"It is not something I can talk about but I am trying to do my 'bit' for Uncle Sam."

Vice President of the Edison Company William Maxwell said that since Mr. Edison had to cancel his Florida vacation in February 1917, he had been working "day & night" for the government.  Mr. Maxwell said that he expected whatever the inventor was working on would be a success because "he had never failed in anything he undertook."

*Thomas A. Edison founded the Naval Research Laboratories & brought in leading scientists throughout the nation.  TAE made himself & his laboratories available for the U.S. government.

His contributions during WWI included sonar (detecting submarines by sound), locating positions of guns by sound ranging, faster turning of ships, sailing lights for convoys & airplane detection.

*Thomas Alva Edison (1947-1931) was born in Milan, Ohio but grew up in Port Huron, Michigan.  He had only 3 months of formal education but was home-schooled by his mother.  TAE became a telegraph operator for Western Union before beginning his career as an inventor in Newark, NJ.

His "invention factory" at Menlo Park was the first industrial research laboratory in the world.  It was there that he invented the electric lamp and phonograph.

SOURCES

"Edison Works On "Something" To Save Nation", The Chicago Daily Tribune, May 25, 1917.

"Thomas Edison and World War I", www.edison.me.uk/

Thomas A. Edison (1915)
Edison Book, Moscow 1958
Photo by Vizu
www.wikimedia.org/

THE EDISON EFFECT

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1858

WIZARD OF MENLO PARK OBSERVES EDISON EFFECT FOR FIRST TIME

Menlo Park, New Jersey (JFK+50) One hundred thirty-six years ago today, February 13, 1880, Thomas Alva Edison* observed, for the first time, a phenomenon which would lead to his development of the first practical incandescent lamp.  

This phenomenon, later known as the Edison Effect, had first been reported by British scientist Frederick Guthrie in 1873.  Guthrie found that a red hot iron sphere with a negative charge would lose its charge, but would not with a positive charge.

The Edison Effect is described as "the classic example of...thermionic emission...or the emission of electrons from a hot cathode into a vacuum." This effect is important in the operation of many electronic devices. Today, this one-way flow from the hot element to a cool plate is accomplished by the diode.

Mr. Edison was in the process of attempting to find out why lamp filaments broke and uneven blackening occurred in his incandescent bulbs.  Finding that the current from the hot filament increased rapidly with increased voltage, he applied for a patent for a voltage regulator, the first U.S. patent of its type.

In 1904, the Edison Effect was put to use in converting a weak alternating current into a direct current to activate a meter or telegraph by British physicist John Fleming.  His work led to the invention of the first vacuum tube which later would be replaced by the transistor.

While Thomas Edison is credited with the invention of the electric light, light bulbs had been around for a number of years.  Those early electric bulbs, however, were expensive, unreliable and short-lived. 

"By creating a vacuum inside the bulb, finding the right filament to use and running lower voltage in the bulb," Edison was able to create an electric bulb which was long-lasting, reliable and affordable.  Mr. Edison was granted U.S. Patent #223,898 for the Electric Lamp on January 27, 1880.

By the time he was through, Thomas Alva Edison had been granted 1093 patents by the United States Patent Office and earned the nickname "Wizard of Menlo Park."  Mr. Edison has been described as "the most prolific and influential inventor of all time."

*Thomas Alva Edison (1947-1931) was born in Milan, Ohio but grew up in Port Huron, Michigan.  He had only 3 months of formal education but was home-schooled by his mother.  TAE became a telegraph operator for Western Union before beginning his career as an inventor in Newark, NJ.

His "invention factory" at Menlo Park was the first industrial research laboratory in the world.  It was there that he invented the electric lamp and phonograph.

SOURCES

"The Edison Effect and its modern applications," by Clayton H. Sharp, Journal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 1, January 1922.

"Thomas Edison and the Electric Lamp, Patented Jan 27, 1880," by Gene Quinn, January 26, 2014, www.ipwatchdog.com/

"Thomas Edison's Laboratory," www.thomasedison.org/

A Replica of

Thomas Edison's

Carbon Filament Lamp

Photo by John White (2016)