Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1904-07-20
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Few true stories SSsy9~@~v0vSs~
cial success illustra Narited commer.
pluck and perseveranes%na roIua ~
than that of Thomas Az oro a,ao IL
the incandescent electric ligsason and
on October 49, 1879, says s. ~ wos
Magazine, that Mr.. Edison dsfiaa ,,es,.
had reached conditions under ha
a carbon filament might be made J" u
a lamp. Accordingly cotton fn rs
was laid in a hairpin-shaped groove
in nickel plate, put In n nickel mold
and covered with charcoal and cooked
five hours. 1t was then thoroughly
carbonized, but unhapplly it broke to
pieces when the inventor attempted
to take 1t from the mold.
Repeated experiments brought SINH.
lar failures, until late at night on the
18th one was rescued intact; but it
broke while being fastened to the con-
Quoting wire.~ Neither Mr.. Edison nor
his assistant, Charles Bachelor, had
had any sleep since beginning work
two days before; but they determined
to keep Mt work and make n lamp be-
fore they slept.
On the 10th they made several fila.
ments, but NIL broke in the clamping
process. On the Goth one was success
fully clamped, and hope ran high that
the lamp would soon be done; but
as 1t was being carried from the shop
where 1t was made to the glass blow
ing room to be sealed in globe a
breath of wind caught 1t and blew 1t
away.
Mr.. Bachelor was dismayed and dis
gusted. Both men were exhausted and
almost discouraged, but they Kept at
work. AT last, on the morning of the
21st, the fifth day since they had
slept, they had the happiness Of see-
ing a lamp finally completed and light
ed. The two men then went to bed
and slept several hours. When they
awoke the new lamp still burned. Mr..
Edison increased the current, and the
lamp burned more brightly-far more
brightly than they had dared antici-
pate. 1t was the first modern incan-
descent lamp. Mr.. Edison believed 1t
was successful one, but 1t lasted
only two days, and then burned out.
At once host of employees went to
work carbonizing every available sub
sance in search Of better filament.
In the midst Of the work passage
in one of Humboldt's books, descrlb.
ing certain kind of bamboo fiber,
suddenly occurred to Mr.. Edison, and
suggested to him that the vegetable
strand would be just the thing. At
once he hunted up the passage and
reread it. Then lie began search for
the proper bamboo.
A corps of trained investigators was
sent out all over the world ON this
search, and scarcely region of the
known surface of the globe was left
unvisited. A hundred thousand dol
lars We're spent in this way before
William Moore found the proper bam-
boo In Northern Japan. To insure
good supply, he bought a tract Of land
and put it In charge of two native
farmers.
Then with the bamboo fiber began
new experiments, and in the spring
of 1881 the first really successful In
candescent. lamp was made. 1t burn
ed Mt sixteen-candle-power for nearly
sixteen hundred hours, and its success
was thus assured.
In the following year n hundred
thousand Of those lamps were made,
the shape and construction being grad
ually modified MS improvements sug-
gested themselves, until the present
common style of lamp was the result.
Ten years from its first construction
four million lamps year were being
made, and eleven years later. in 1908,
America alone required forty-five mill
lion to fill Its needs.