Did Thomas Edison Really Invent the Light Bulb?
You've probably heard that famous inventor Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. But do you know that he wasn't the first? Have you heard about all the scientists and inventors who made light bulbs before him? And how much do you know about Edison himself? Get ready to learn all about the invention of the light bulb and Thomas Edison's life!
Transcript
Tzeela: Hi I'm Tzeela and I'm 17
Rina: Hi I'm Rina and I'm 15
Dalia: Hey, I'm Dalia and I'm 12
Penina: I'm Penina and I'm 7
All: And this is Things You Thought You Knew About History!
Tzeela: Where we show you the real story behind historical misconceptions.
Dalia: Thomas Edison had more than a thousand patents! Let’s play a game. How many of his inventions can you name?
Penina: Ooh the phonograph!
Tzeela: The quadruplex telegraph!
Rina: The lightbulb!
Tzeela: Um, he didn’t really invent the lightbulb
Penina: He didn’t?
Dalia: Nope, Thomas Edison made his lightbulb in 1879 but much earlier in the century scientists were already experimenting with electric lights.
Tzeela: In 1809 Sir Humphry Davy made an arc lamp. Arc lamps made light by an arc of electricity in the air between two conductors. And in 1802 he made the first incandescent light or the first light made by passing electricity through a filament (a conducting wire).
Rina: In 1835 James Bowman Lindsay made the first incandescent light bulb and the first constant light. He was able to use it to read from a foot and a half away!
Tzeela: In 1840 Warren de la Rue made a more effective light bulb that used platinum filament that was good because of its high melting point and put it in a vacuum tube that gave the filament a longer life span.
Dalia: In 1841 Frederick de Moleyns got the first patent for an incandescent lightbulb.
Rina: very soon after John Wellington Starr got a patent for a light bulb that used carbon filament instead of platinum like the earlier ones
Dalia: Alexander Lodygin got a patent for another type of incandescent bulb using carbon filament. He also experimented with many other metals for the filament
Tzeela: In 1874, Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans patented their light bulb, made with carbon rod in a nitrogen-filled bulb, patented. It was a very effective design but they failed to commercialize and they sold the patent to Edison in 1879
Rina: Then in 1878, just one year before Edison, Joseph Swan made his light bulb. He was able to produce these lights commercially, getting them installed in homes and buildings in Britain. His light bulbs were used to light the Savoy Theater making it the first public building entirely lit by electricity. In 1883 Edison and Swan’s companies merged to avoid litigation over patent infringement. Eventually, Edison’s light bulb design won out over Swan’s.
Penina: Oh so Edison didn’t make it first. Then why do we think he invented it?
Dalia: Before we get to Edison’s light bulb, can we learn a little about his life?
Tzeela: Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on Feb. 11, 1847, to Sam and Nancy Edison. In 1854 his family moved to Port Huron Michigan for better work for his father. Edison didn’t do well in school and he was in and out of school over the years.
Dalia: When he was twelve he got a job selling newspapers and candy on a train. He set up a lab in the baggage car where he did chemistry experiments and typed up his newspaper the Grand Trunk Herald, the first newspaper ever published on a train. But when he accidentally started a fire he was forced to stop the experiments. Around this time he also lost most of his hearing though there are different opinions on how.
Rina: In 1863 Edison became an apprentice telegrapher then for the next 6 years he moved around a lot taking different telegraph work. Throughout that time he was working on improvements to the telegraph. In 1869 he resigned from his work to focus on inventing.
Tzeela: He first partnered with Franklin L. Pope an electrical expert, and during this time he formed many new companies with different people. He got many patents in telegraph improvements, made a better automatic telegraph, and invented a quadruplex telegraph.
Rina: He got married in 1871 to Mary Stilwell and over the next 7 years they had 3 children, Marion, Thomas Jr., and William Leslie.
Dalia: He opened a laboratory in Menlo Park in 1876 that became known as the “invention factory” because of how much he created there. Besides his work on telegraphs, he invented an electric pen and made improvements to the telephone. He invented the phonograph in 1877 which came out of his work on the telegraph and telephone.
Rina: In 1878 he turned his attention to the lightbulb. In 1879 he made not only an incandescent light but also an electric system. In 1881 he set up an electric light factory and in 1882 he built the first commercial power utility on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan. He demonstrated his light across the world and it became really successful.
Peina: So he wasn’t the first to make a light bulb, but he was the first to make one that really succeeded.
Tzeela: Exactly. But Edison’s system used DC currents while his competitors, mainly George Westinghouse, used AC currents. It was a big competition but AC current became dominant. In 1892 Edison’s company merged with another and Edison wasn’t so involved in electricity anymore.
Dalia: Edison’s wife died in 1884 and he remarried to Mina Miller in 1886. They had three children- Madeline, Charles, and Theodore.
Rina: Edison worked some more on the phonograph, he worked in motion pictures, and during WWI he worked for the Navy. Edison also became less involved in the companies he’d started
Tzeela: In the 1920s his health got worse and he started spending more time at home. on October 18, 1931, Edison died.
Penina: It’s trivia time!
Dalia: Edison lived in New Jersey for a lot of his life, so now we have some NJ trivia!!
Rina: What is New Jersey’s state flower?
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1
The Violet
Tzeela: What is the state motto?
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1
Liberty and Prosperity
Penina: What is the most populous city in New Jersey? 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1
Newark
Dalia: Who are the 2 women on the state seal and flag? 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1
Liberty and Ceres
Rina: What is NJ’s nickname?
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1
The Garden State