Thomas Edison

Americans have always been proud of their ability to find practical solutions to practical problems. During the nineteenth century they developed thousands of products to make life easier, safer or more enjoyable for people. Barbed wire is one example, the sewing machine is another.

Up to the middle of the nineteenth century the inventors of such products often had little scientific knowledge. Their inventions were based on practical "know-how." So long as the inventions worked, everyone was satisfied.

Many later developments, however, called for an understanding of basic scientific principles in, for example, electricity, magnetism and chemistry. One man above all others showed an ability to use such knowledge to solve everyday problems. His name was Thomas Alva Edison.

Edison was born in 1847 and died in 1931. He made more than a thousand original inventions. Edison's laboratory contained every material and chemical that was then known. Wearing a long, white chemist's coat, his fingers stained by chemicals and his hair dirty with oil and dust, he would work for days without eating or sleeping when he was close to solving a problem.

Some of Edison's sayings became almost as well known as his inventions. "There is no substitute for hard work" was one of them. Sometimes he took this principle too far. On the day he got married, for example, he forgot his bride and spent the night working in his laboratory.

Edison had his greatest success in making practical use of electricity. In 1878 he formed the Edison Electric Light Company. He had a clear commercial aim - to capture from gas the huge market for lighting homes, streets and places of work.

To do this, one thing Edison had to develop was a long-lasting, glowing electric light bulb. The problem was to find a suitable material for the filament of the bulb. What was needed was a filament that would glow brightly when the current of electricity passed through it, but without burning out. Edison tried platinum, paper, leather, wood, cotton. Some glowed for minutes, some for hours, but none for long enough to satisfy him. Then he found the answer - bamboo! When he gave a public demonstration of his light bulb the value of shares in the Edison Electric Light Company rose from $ 100 to $ 3,000 each.

Edison then built complete electrical generating systems to provide his bulbs with power. He developed dynamos to produce the electricity, underground cables to carry it to where it was needed, fuse boxes to make it safe to use.

The Age of Electricity had begun. Soon electricity would not only light streets, but heat houses, power machines, drive railroad engines. It would become what it has remained ever since - the world's chief source of energy.

Bryn O'Callaghan: An illustrated history of the USA; Longman, Harlow, 1990/1996, page 73