Edison Bulbs History

THE HISTORY AND TODAY'S POPULARITY OF THE EDISON VINTAGE LIGHT BULBS

The dawn of human history saw man using candles, lanterns, and moonlight as our only sources of illumination. It wasn't until the first half of the 19th century that gas lighting was developed and its development flourished a great deal. Unfortunately, the light provided by gas was unstable and this led to the burning down of theaters and homes in different parts of the world. Then came 1809 and electric arc lighting was invented. This model of lighting was quite safer than the gas type but it proved to be too bright for small areas. This brought about the need for smaller lighting, and in 1880, Thomas Edison came up with the first commercially sustainable incandescent light bulb.

A LITTLE HISTORY OF THOMAS EDISON

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. Thomas always gave his mother the credit for the success of his ever-inquisitive mind. He once said "My mother was the making of me. She understood me; she let me follow my bent." Although inventions were his real calling, Edison first had to take on the jobs of a telegrapher and a newspaper carrier. He always sought new and better ways to do things, right from his childhood to becoming the legendary inventor whose name is now in a lot of history books. His first invention was the electronic voting machine and it was patented in 1868. From there, he made patents for the motion picture camera, phonograph, telephone technology advancement, and a lot more inventions -over a thousand actually.

EDISON'S EXPERIMENTS

Thomas had some lab associates called the "Muckers," and together, they conducted thousands of experiments that led to the development of the electric light bulb. In order for them to bring the electric bulb to life, they had to invent each and every component, from switches to sealed and vacuumed glass bulbs, unique sets of wires, and different types of meters. Just like the previous efforts that were made before Edison and the Muckers, their biggest challenge was finding a material that they could turn into a long-lasting filament. They tested a lot of plant growths and in the end, they discovered that carbonized thread could give them what they want.

THE FINAL PRODUCT

With the help of the cotton thread filament, Edison was able to come up with over thirteen hours of light, and on January 27, 1880, he filed his first light bulb patent. After more research, Edison and his lab associates found out that carbonized bamboo was the perfect filament substance as it provided 1,200 hours of continuous light. On September 4, 1882, Edison made his first large-scale light test, lighting up 25 buildings in the financial district of New York City.

TODAY'S WORLD

The Edison light bulb has since been developed and grown to be known and used throughout the world. In today's world, many people are using Edison light bulbs due to the several advantages these bulbs offer, including;

• The unique vintage look and old-world ambiance those bulbs produce.
• They come in different shapes and sizes which allow businesses and people to use them in really creative ways.
• They are fairly cheap today compared to just a few years ago.
• They are easily dimmable from 0-100 with all dimmer types.
• They are widely available from many online retailers or brick-and-mortar stores.