Edison "New Year's Eve" Demonstration Lamp
date: label: date made
content: 1879
name: label: maker
content: Edison, Thomas Alva
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: When many people imagine an inventor, they think of Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). One of the most prolific inventors in history, Edison still holds the record for the most United States patents issued to an individual. Perhaps the most significant of his many inventions, a commercially practical light bulb, became the reason many people adopted electricity. They wired their homes, businesses, and other buildings for lighting, then took advantage of electric power for other uses. The desire for and profits from electric lighting supported the electrification of the U.S.
label: Description (Brief)
content: This bulb was used during Edison’s public introduction of his lighting system on 31 December 1879. He invited everyone to visit Menlo Park to see the buildings and grounds illuminated by about 70 of these lamps. Fitted with a filament made of Bristol-board, the lamp could operate for about 125 hours, long enough for the demonstration but not for a commercial product. Edison began selling an improved lamp in early 1880 that used a bamboo filament and operated for about 600 hours. Publicity and investment generated by the New Year’s Eve event played a significant role in accelerating the so-called Second Industrial Revolution–the electrification of our world.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The object has a glass envelope with a neck at bottom and a tip on top. There is no base, that improvement came later. Two flat contact plates are tied with a string to either side of the envelope's neck. The bulb fits into a separate holder for operation. Tiny platinum clamps hold a horseshoe-shaped Bristol-board filament (now broken) in place. Platinum wires carry the current from the contact plates, through the glass stem, to the clamps. Edison chose platinum because it expands and contracts with heat at about the same rate as glass, maintaining the vacuum seal inside the bulb. The tip on top is where the bulb was attached to a vacuum pump during manufacturing. After pumping out the air, a worker sealed the tip with a torch.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: Exhibition
content: Lighting a Revolution
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Frank A. Wardlaw, Jr. and Frank A. Wardlaw
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.310578.01
label: catalog number
content: 310578.01
label: accession number
content: 123470
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Light Bulb
label: Object Name
content: incandescent lamp
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: carbon (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 3 in; 17.78 cm x 7.62 cm