Edison’s Light Bulb: In the Spotlight
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Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division (reproduction number LC-USZ62-98067)
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Thomas Alva Edison
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Say the name Thomas Edison, and you think of one of the greatest inventors of all time. Edison's creations not only made living easier, but also changed the way people led their lives. Of all his inventions the light bulb is considered the most important -- and it made its public debut in December 1879.
Thomas Alva Edison was born in 1847 in Ohio. He loved science, and when he was only ten years old, he set up his own laboratory in his parents’ basement. His first job was as a paperboy on the Grand Trunk Railway, and that is where the world would first become aware of Thomas Edison. Edison started his own newspaper, The Weekly Herald, which was the first newspaper printed onboard a moving train. Eventually a British newspaper wrote about the boy's venture, and Edison took his first steps to fame.
Edison’s first great invention was the phonograph, which was the first machine to record and play back sound. History was made on December 4, 1877 when Edison recorded the very first sound bite! He said the words "Mary had a little lamb," into his phonograph and played them back. And while this was a major invention for Edison, his "brightest" idea was yet to come
Though most people think he alone invented the light bulb, Thomas Edison was not the person who first came up with the idea. An English inventor, Humphrey Davy, had thought of using electricity to generate light almost seventy years earlier. However, Davy’s "arc lamp" was extremely powerful and too bright for home use. An English chemist named Joseph Swan then tried to perfect Davy’s lamp, but Swan's light used a quick-burning carbon paper as a conductor, and that burned away too fast. A long-lasting conductor was the key to a working light bulb because the conductor allows electricity to move to the filament which creates light. After these failures, Edison set out to make a source of electric light that everyone could use.
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World Almanac for Kids
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Light bulbs
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Edison spent many months in his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. He and his assistants were trying to perfect what Humphrey Davy had set out to create so many years ago. After hiring Princeton University’s Francis Upton to help create electric light, Edison and his team finally received a beam of hope. During an experiment on October 22nd, 1879, a carbonized thread gave off light for 13 hours. This success was much longer-lasting than any experiment before it. Finally, on the last day of December of 1879, Thomas Edison gave the first public display of his electric lighting system, right where it had been created. He lit his whole laboratory electrically.
Edison’s basic set-up for the light bulb involved a thread, called a filament, inside a vacuum-sealed glass bulb. Low-current electricity passed over the filament, causing it to glow and give off light. Edison had again made history -- and his creation would change people's lives.
The light bulb, which made Edison a household name, was only one of more than 1,000 patented inventions that he created. He has an important place in American history. So every time you turn on a light bulb, remember that without Thomas Edison, you might still be sitting in the dark!
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Writing Prompt
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Imagine that you were living 128 years ago. How do you think the invention of the light bulb would have changed your life?
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