The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1915-02-09

houses, in public parks and on the
streets, but 1t wanted a light that
could be used indoors in small units,
comparable with wax and tallow can
dies, gas jets and the oil lamp. That
electricity could furnish such lamp
had been believed for many years by
inventors in this country and abroad,
but 1t was not forthcoming.
Work went on necessarily day and
night in those years of 1878 and 1879.
To go off home to sleep was regarded
almost as treason. as a disgraceful
concession to mere human weakness.
One might get a wink or two at the |
laboratory, if some place of conceal |
ment could be found, but even in the |
] middle of the second wink call to |
arms would come, because new line |
OF experiment had been hit upon and |
must be attacked at once. Edison |
himself. in spite of all reports to the
cnotrary, had to get an occasional
nap. One of his resorts was the cup
board under the stairway, where he
was most luxuriously enaconced
among the dust-brooms and scrubbing
pals. He also showed great agility in
desk, so far as known, this invention
has never been patented
| Not only was the struggle within the
labortory intense, but soon there came
the ransacking of the world of the
right material that should make the
incandescent lamp feasible, profit
able commercial proposition. Edison
ran the gamut of the metals, including
those now the main reliance of the
art, but which in the earlier days
were about as inaccessible to us as
the South Pole. All kinds of pastes
were tried as basis for dependable
carbon filament in the little bulb Of
glass-also cotton thread, paper and
anything under the sun that would
carbonize readily and hang together
as "filament" when the electric
Juice" was turned onto 1t. Generally
the darned stuff did not stay put"
but blew up before you could say Jack
Robinson. But there were interludes
One of the funniest episodes was when
Edison made carbOnized filaments out
of very fiery whiskers of one of his
staff. He insisted that by doing this
trum and got a flying start with a
dull red glow. But when elaborate cal
culations We're made as to the availa-
BILE supply of red hair in the world
for filament purposes, the project was
: given up in despair
lie came at last to bamboo for the
: Elementary material to he put in his
, incandescent lamps. To most OF us
bamboo is just plain bamboo, but to
Edison the word opens up an infinite
variety. Not only did Edison lay vio-
} lent hands on all the bamboo he could
secure, from the palm leaf fan up to
fishing rods, but ne gutted the ter
r restrial sphere of It's supplies. Moore
: was sent to China and Japan for 1t in
T 1880. Brauner went TO Brazil the same
t year. Various search parties invaded
D Cuba, Jamaica and Florida. McGow.
3 an and Harrington plunged deep into
A South America in 1897, and Ricalton
made q final trip through all of far
|. Cathay that Edison had not previous
d ly rified.
e For nearly ten years the Edison
g lamp was made with bamboo filament
y and to that lamp must be attributed
in large degree the marvellous devel
n opment OF electric lightning and pow
I. er all over the world, as well as the
g creation OF the modern central sta
r tion industry, which in the United
= States alone represents an investment
It of over $4,000, 900 900 and annual earn
l. ings of over $35O,0OO.000. Even a.
n late as 1908 few special types OF Edi
n son bamboo lamps were being made
& But Edison himself did not regard the
l. bamboo lamps as the last word" Par
r alleling the carbon tilament lamps o
e bamboo, there soon appeared thu
d lied cellulois in one form or another
& and a great many lamps for a number
" of years were Of that type. Another
a advance was embodied In lamps still
o of the barbon type In which the fila
ments were strengthened by such sub
g stances as would justify calling then
d "metalized" The mere word was |
X revelation as to the direction in which
" teh art was tending, and very quickl!
Is real metallic filaments we're on thu
0. market and available to the public. II
ts particular, the metal tantalum, quit
q. rare and scarce, seemed to disengag'
Q itself from the rest Of the group ant
10 was found useful in many ways, bu
Ia it was never more than half-hearte'
eNp,natttnr with the QOrd old rQrhOl