Hailed to be one of the world’s most significant inventors, Edison was born in the state of Ohia, USA, on February 11, 1847. Although he is known around the world for his invention of light bulb, his expertise in electronics and science transcends merely one invention. He is credited as the developer of several other devices pertaining to different fields such as mass communication, electric power generation, sound recording, etc.In the 1870s, Edison set up a laboratory in New York where, along with a few associates, he began working on inventing an efficient incandescent lamp. For the project, they came up with over 3000 theories! In order to generate light, such lamps use electricity to heat a filament (a thin strap of material) to the point where there is enough heat to make it glow.
Edison was not the first who tried to come up with a method of inventing light bulb. There were numerous other inventors before him who reached a certain point in the invention, but could not proceed further from there. Almost all of these inventors succeeded midway by subdividing the electric light, making it smaller or weaker. Such bulbs worked, but were still inefficient in providing light.
What made Edison’s invention different from the rest was that he ensured that the lamp consisted of a filament placed inside a glass vacuum bulb. He made it work by passing electricity through a relatively thinner filament (placed in the glass vacuum). This made sure that the filament did not melt within a short period of time. However, this too burned down quite soon.
Finally, an idea struck Edison. He decided to use carbonised materials as a filament inside the bulb. He tried different materials and eventually settled for carbonised cotton. When electricity was passed, this time, the bulb emitted a soft radiant glow. This lasted for around 25 hours, which was the longest period for a light bulb to glow. After this, he experimented with more materials to create an efficient light bulb for everyday use.
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