The Washington times., 1924-11-24
LIGHT
WAS MADE 40
YEARS AGO
Thomas A. Edison Watched
First lncandescent Burn
in 1879

It is forty.five years since the
memorable day in 1873 when
Thomas A. Edison sat beside a
table in his laboratory at Menlo
Park, N. J., and watched his first
successful electric incandescent
lamp burn for forty hours.
We just sat and looked" Edf-
son has written, describing the ex-
perience And the lamp continued
TO burn, and the longer it burned
| the more fascinated we were None
OF us could go to bed, and there
was no sleep for over forty hours.
We sat and Just watched it, with
anxiety and growing elation.''
It was q great triumph, yet u
was only q beginning. Edison did
not have the discouraging diff
Guilty which Alexander Graham Bell
encountered in persuading the pub
lie that his invention was really
workable. Bell spent years con,
vincing people that his telephone
was more than a child's toy. Edi-
son did not have quite as much
trouble establishing his electric
light, but he had to work out and
construct q complete lighting sys.
tenn in addition to merely inventing
the uBnL 1tSeh.
How he did this is the story Of
the old Pearl street generating sta
ton in New York which started
business in the fall Of 1882. Ten
years later, after Edison had de.
Veloped a fairly flourishing CONNER
cial business in New York, his com.
pany5 the Edison General Electric,
| was one OF those consolidated into
the present General Electric Com
| pany. The latter concern now has
It's headquarters at Schenectady
! ~ X, in a plant which Edison's
company originally took over and
used for few years for electrical
manufacturing.
| Here eventually were set up the
famous research laboratories in
| which Edison's original incandescent
lamp was developed into the highly
efficient tungsten lamp OF today.
| At the big Schenectady works
there are still several old-time Ed.
son men. Chief among them are
w. 8. Andres and Charles L. Clarke
both Of them on the company's
staff Of consulting engineers and
both among the earliest of Edison's
co-workers. Mr.. Andrews became
associated with Edison as far back
as 1873, the year of the incafl.
descent lamp. Mr.. Clarke Joined
the Edison organization in the fol
| lowing year. Both are to be found
every day at their desks in the
general offices of the General Elec.
trc Company Notwithstanding their
service records Of forty-five and
| forty-four years, respectively, with
the Edison General Electric and
the present General Electric Com.
pany.
Julius c. Tournier, seventy-three
years of age, il another old Edison
man, who still does regular days
work every day. He joined Edison g
staff in 1881, and has been an EN-.
ploye of the Edison and the General
Electric companies ever since. Mr.
Tournier originated some of the
earliest wiring devices, several Of
which are still being manufactured.
There is also at Schenectady C.
III. Kaler. who was a toolmaker for
Edison in New York in 1881, and
who, in forty years with the Edi-
sno Company and the General Elec.
| trio Company has lost only two
months in working time, and that
was due to a broken leg.
Christian G. Rach entered Edi
sons employee in 1886, and has
worked continually since then with
Edison and the General Electric
Company. Alfred Duggin, more than
forty-two years with the company
entered the employ of the Edison
machine works in New York in
| 1881, at the age of seventeen, and
1 went to Schenectady in 1897