"New Type Edison" incandescent lamp
date: label: date made
content: ca 1886
label: date made
content: ca 1889
name: label: maker
content: Edison Lamp Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Invention rarely stops when the inventor introduces a new device. Thomas A. Edison and his team worked to improve his electric lighting system for some years after the initial introduction in 1880. This lamp shows changes made after about ten years of labor aimed at lowering costs and increasing production. The simplified base required little material; the diameter and thread-pitch are still used today. The filament was changed from bamboo to a treated cellulose, based on an invention by English chemist Joseph Swan. The bulb was probably free blown by Corning Glass Works, but would soon be replaced by a bulb made by semi-skilled laborers blowing glass into iron molds. The cost had dropped from about $1.00 per lamp to less than 30¢.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Energy & Power
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content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Princeton University, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, thru Dean Howard Menand
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.318685
label: catalog number
content: 318685
label: accession number
content: 232729
objectType: label: Object Name
content: light bulb
label: Object Name
content: incandescent lamp
label: Other Terms
content: incandescent lamp; Lighting Devices; Edison; Horseshoe; Carbon
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plaster (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: carbon (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 cm x 5.5 cm; 5 29/32 in x 2 5/32 in