Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-03-12
EDISON'S GREATEST MARVEL
Discovery and Wonderful Develop
ment Of the Incandescent
Lamp.
FIFTEEN MONTHS OF TOLL

or an tho r1rvcls Edison has wrought.
putting the White into the Great
White Way is perhaps the greatest. il Is
, therefore not without reason that the
celebration Of Edison day on October
Il. this year was mainly an exposition
OF the wonders OF incandcscent lighting.
For once a year the great army Of cleo
triral workers glorify their leader with
high jinks.
Edison day was not commemoration
Of the inventors birth, but Of tho ami
Nersary OF the first successful attempt
to make a carbon filament glow inside
Of a glass bulb by running a current OF
electricity through It. That was on Oc-
tobor q, 1S79 and the story Of the devel-
Cpment Of the iucandescent light after
that experimental triumph is fully as
wonderful as the experiment was, though
that itself was the elimination Of fifteen
months OF continuous toll
Tho filament he used then was simply
scrap of paper which he had baked
in an oven til all its elements had passed
away excepting its carbon frame work,
for this was before he had discovered
the availability OF carbonized bamboo.
After is discovery the latter substance
was used for about ten years in making
filaments for commercial lamps. This
was followed by the "squirted' filament
employing carbonized cellulose in one
form or another.
Next came the metalized carbon fila
ment. then the pressed tungsten fila
ment and finally the special form of
drawn tungsten wire used in modern
Edison Mazda lamps. Working down from
consumption Of four or five watts OF
electrical energy per candlepower in Edi-
son carbon filament lamps to the stand
ard a few years ago OF $40 watts per
candlepower the Mazda lamp has brought
! this down in about five years to about
one watt; while in the large sizes OF
Mazda gas-filled lamps the reduction in
! current consumption has reached the
low level Of nearly a half watt per
candlepower.
First Experiments.
/ Edison practically began his expert
ments in electric lighting in September
1878. Just previously to this he had re
turned from visit to a Connecticut
factory. where an electric arc lamp was
D
the subject of lighting by electricity, and
! he determined to tackle the problem.
Edison has said In those days 1t was
easy to see what electric lighting needed
| it wanted to be subdivided. The lights
were too bright and too big. What we
wanted was little lights and to distribute
them to peoples houses like gas"
OF the two systems before him, the vol.
taic arc and the incandescent. Edison
chose the latter as the practical one for
the subdivision OF electric lighting into
/ little units The discovery of the proper
substance and method for securing the
/ incandescence proved the stickler. The
almost boundless scope of his investiga-
lions, which is so Enthusiastically cpl
tomized in his remark. I'VE tried vari-
Gus things" is evidenced in some measure
! by the patent records.
| The substances that were experimental
with included electric arc light carbon
(made into paste and rolled into threads)
| cotton thread, vulcanized fbe-, jute
palm fiber grasses. carbonized flax
| threads made of lamp black and tar
charcoal. hemp. soft paper. fish line, va.
rious combinations OF paper and tar
linen. cardboard, celluloid, box wood
cocoanut hair and shell, shavings from
hickory. bay wood. rosewood and a thou.
sand or more other varieties of wood
Inc practical fllament was finally found
In the fiber growing just under the out.
side hard surface of a certain variety Of
| bamboo.
Stirring Scenes In Laboratory,
Commenting on the stirring scenes ir
the laboratory at the time of the discov
cry Mr.. Edison says: I'VE sat anc
looked, and the lamp continued to burn
and the longer it burned the more fascl.
mated we were. None of us could 90 II
bed and there was no sleep for owe,
forty hours. We sat and just watched II
with anxiety and growing elation.
II couldn't be put on the market. ri
course, but 1t showed Enthusiastically that
electricity could be used for incandescent
hghtlng. spent about $4,000 in bring
ing the Investigation up to that point
and yet, in a way. this was only the be
ginning. a little later we placed severa
hundred paper filament lamps on III,
market. Although people liked them.
knew we could do better So l began ,
hunt for the right kind OF carbon. Mel
] go NNNA the WOIlu TO COlieC
grasses and fibres that looked promising
They brought back several hundred. an,
out of the lot selected a certain kind o
bamboo that grows in Japan We mad
filaments out of that for nine years"
In regard to installing his FIRST centra
station, the old Pearl street station In
New York City, he has said, You can
not imagine how hard it was There wa,
nothing that we could buy or that any
body could make for us. There were n,
high-speed engines. and the manufactur
ers said they were impossible"
Watching at a Safe Distance.
Mr.. Porter Of the old Porter-Allen En-
CINE company. built for Edison his frs
high-speed engine OF $50 horsepower an,
700 revolutions minute. Edison saws
we set the machine up i'm the old sbop
and as we had some idea OF what Nigh
happen, We tied a chain round the tbrot
tie valve and ran it out through a win
dow into the woodshed, where we stoo,
to work IT,
1t ran, oh. yes. II ran Every time 1
turned over It shook the armament an,
tried to lift the whole hill with II
Toned down 10 $50 revolutions. II "a,
satisfactorily and everybody said: Why
! how beautifully IL runs and loy. 80,