Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1901-04-18
INCANDESCENT LAMP.
Inventor Edison Tells How 1t Be-
came a Success.
Many Experiments Necessary to Per-
feet the Light That Is Now Taking
the Place of Gas aS an
IIIuminant.

$50 Won want to talk about the old
DAYS at Pearl street." said Mr. Edison,
reports the Electrical Review. well,
hardly know where to begin. 1t was
something like this: The central sta
ton idea struck me all of a sudden in
1878. In those days, you know, we had
arc lamps L had been down to see
Prof. Barker, at Philadelphia, and he
had shown me one. A little later l had
seen another one-I think it was one OF
Brush's make-and the whole outfit, en-
CINE, dynamo and one or two lamps,
was travelling around the country with
a circus. At that time Wallace and
Moses G. Farmer had succeeded in get
ting ten or fifteen lamps to burn to-
gether in series. 1t happened that !
was comparatively at leisure then, be-
cause l had just finished working on
the carbon button telephone, and this
electric light idea took possession OF
me. 1t was easy to see what the thing
needed it wanted to be subdiyided
The light was too bright and too big.
What we wished for was little lights
and distribution of them to peoples
houses in just the same way that gas
is sent around and burned at your fix
ture when you want it. / remember,
along about then, Grosvenor P. Lowry
thought perhaps could succeed in
solving the problem, and he raised a
little money and formed the Edison
Electric Light company. We started
the laboratory at Menlo park. The
way we worked it was that l got GER
tain sum Of money a week, and EN-
ployed certain number of men, and
we went ahead to see what we could
do"
Replying to an inquiry as to how he
went at the problem, Mr.. Edison
laughed and said: "Why, it was easy
1t was easy enough to see that the sub
division never could be accomplished
unless each light was made independ-
emit of every other. Now it was plain
enough that they could not burn in
series; hence they must burn in null
tiple arc. It was with this conviction
that l started. was fired with the idea
of the incandescent lamp, as opposed
to the arc lamp, so went to work and
got some very fine platinum wire
drawn. AS well as l remember 1t
was made by Johnston, Mathy d Co., in
London. We tried to make the plati-
mum work, but it didn't stand. Then we
tried mixing in about ten per cent. OF
iridium with the platinum, but we
couldn't force that high enough with
out melting it. After that came lot
of experimenting, covering the wire
with oxide of cerium and lot of other
things such as the WelsOach people
use nowadays. Then I got a great
idea; l took cylinder of zirconia and
wound about 100 feet of the platinum
fine wire on it coated with magnesia
from the sirupy acetate. What l was
after was getting a high resistance
lamp. and l made one in that way that
worked up to 40 ohms; but the oxide
developed the phenomenon that DR.
Nernst has run up against lately
didn't see it then as he does now-and
the lamp short-circuited itself.
after that" continued the inventor
warming to his subject, ''we went fish
ing around and trying all sorts and
shapes of things to make a flament
that would stand. We tried silicon and
boron and a lot of things that l have
forgotten now. The funny part of i
was that 1 never thought in those day:
that carbon would answer, because
fire hair of carbon was so sensitive K
oxidation. Finally thought I.Woulc