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Even Edison needed a break. He and Batchelor had not been able to find a material that would create incandescence in a bulb for a commercially feasible time period. So he turned to other technical challenges in need of attention.
To be viable, Edison felt that the incandescent material needed to have high resistance combined with a small radiating surface. The bulb also must be capable of working in a “multiple arc” system such that each bulb could be turned on or off without interfering with other bulbs.
These were significant challenges, and the reasons others had not been able to produce a reliable incandescent system. “The crucial point was the production of a hair-like carbon filament, capable of withstanding mechanical shock, and susceptible of being maintained at a temperature of over two thousand degrees for a thousand hours or more before breaking.” Furthermore, the filament needed to be supported in a vacuum chamber “so perfectly formed” that it would withstand thousands of hours of use in which “not a particle of air should enter to disintegrate the filament.” All of this needed to be manufactured at low cost and large quantities.
With his trademark confidence, Edison acknowledged that only he, “in the enormous mass of patiently worked-out details,” could have solved the problem. With Batchelor’s help, of course.
While toggling between platinum-iridium and carbonized-paper filaments, Edison managed to improve the vacuum process enough to extend the time of incandescence. He also improved the quality of the glass bulb. On October 21, 1879, Edison had a major breakthrough. By carbonizing a piece of cotton sewing-thread bent into a loop or horseshoe form and sealing it in a vacuum bulb, Edison was able to light up the lamp to incandescent brilliance for more than forty hours, “and lo! the practical incandescent lamp was born.”
[Adapted from my book, Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World]
David J. Kent is a science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!
Hot White Snow 
Change in technology (well all change really) seems to happen faster the older one gets. Sort of paradoxical.
I think there are a handful of old style bulbs still operating in my house. Some have been there for 15 years….so obviously not used much and hence not important to replace.
Do remember several mornings in one cold, dark city in which the electrical supply would blow several bulbs in one morning while trying to get ready for work.
Try and try again is the main problem solver though.
Looking forward to improvements in the grid technology. Probably really cool potential there.
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Thomas Friedman’s new book, “Thank You For Being Late” talks about the speed up in technology development. It’s now so fast it has surpassed our ability to adapt.
Edison was definitely a tinkerer. He would try hundreds or thousands of things before he found one that worked.
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Maybe going full circle with the technology. There’s a new incandescent filament from the M.E. Department at MIT that supposedly more than doubles efficiency over LED’s. Supposed to produce a more natural light as well, and not such a waste-disposal hazard. Maybe another one of those, “Try and try again…” solutions.
http://news.mit.edu/2016/nanophotonic-incandescent-light-bulbs-0111
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And a resurgence of DC current, I think. Perhaps we are going full circle.
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I think that the cost of converting DC/AC has gone down so much that DC power transmission for high loads the method of choice.
However I only know what I read in that field.
The cost of low power inverters has certainly gone down a lot in the last forty years.
I never new the etymology of “inverter” used in the electrical engineering context. So, you all made me look it up.
Found this reference
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=476602
It is a pdf but is a really good read. Contains the history of many more electrical engineering jargony sort of terms. I did not know that much about the contributions of GE (and thus Edison’s baby) in the 1920’s.
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Thanks for the PDF. Some interesting background there. GE is both emblematic both of Edison’s success and failure. It was formed as his business and competitor’s businesses were merged, and resulted in him being pushed out the business to a large extent. More than 100 years later, the reputations of Edison and GE are still linked.
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Photonic crystals are something to learn about for me, but sort of familiar if one is conversant in mineralogy; the nomenclature for crystal structures gives me pauses in thought.
I’ve been interested in the history of flash bulb technology for photography for a while. Several peculiar features there.
But the expense of street lighting is kinda wacky in some places.
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I haven’t really looked into street lighting (or flash bulbs). But I did get to see the Crescent Dunes solar array from the airplane as I flew from DC to SF on my way to Australia. Very cool.
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That’s an impressive engineering accomplishment…the Crescent Dunes.
For flash systems, I was thinking about the power supplies mostly. I was fascinated by the sound of the tickler circuitry as it would power up and get a capacitor charged.
But there were also those things called flash cubes for a while; those were odd…kids would stomp on them at parties to make them explode…I think a magnesium filament mesh….but that is just a guess.
The artistry of neon and allied method tube lighting is kind of cool, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
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I remember flash cubes. Fun for a while.
It was cool seeing the Crescent Dunes from the plane. Very impressive.
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I haven’t seen Crescent Dunes, but I’ve seen both the Ivanpah (which is now the world’s largest) and Solar 1/2 arrays near Barstow. Very impressive. I read somewhere that they can store heat in molten salt to be released when nighttime air-conditioner use increases demand after sunset. However, the tower boilers have to be initially re-heated every morning by burning natural gas, and that’s caused some controversy regarding their carbon footprint.
The “SEGS” array at Kramer Junction on Hwy 395 is also truly massive. It uses a series of trough-shaped mirrors to concentrate light onto long pipes that I think heat pressurized ammonia. I believe the combined SEGS sites (three- if I recall correctly) total about 1-million mirrors, and can produce over 350-megaWatts.
Pretty cool, and almost certainly a look into the future.
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I didn’t know all that you added. Thanks for that. It was rather impressive from the sky. I’ve also seen complaints that it incinerates birds that might fly through it, but I haven’t done any research to check out the veracity of such claims. It’s in a desert, so there can’t be too many birds hovering about.
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