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N0KFQ > TODAY 31.12.15 15:57l 66 Lines 2967 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 31
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Sent: 151231/1447Z 80347@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1879
Edison demonstrates incandescent light
In the first public demonstration of his incandescent lightbulb,
American inventor Thomas Alva Edison lights up a street in Menlo
Park, New Jersey. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company ran special
trains to Menlo Park on the day of the demonstration in response
to public enthusiasm over the event.
Although the first incandescent lamp had been produced 40 years
earlier, no inventor had been able to come up with a practical
design until Edison embraced the challenge in the late 1870s.
After countless tests, he developed a high-resistance
carbon-thread filament that burned steadily for hours and an
electric generator sophisticated enough to power a large lighting
system.
Born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847, Edison received little formal
schooling, which was customary for most Americans at the time. He
developed serious hearing problems at an early age, and this
disability provided the motivation for many of his inventions. At
age 16, he found work as a telegraph operator and soon was
devoting much of his energy and natural ingenuity toward
improving the telegraph system itself. By 1869, he was pursuing
invention full-time and in 1876 moved into a laboratory and
machine shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
Edison's experiments were guided by his remarkable intuition, but
he also took care to employ assistants who provided the
mathematical and technical expertise he lacked. At Menlo Park,
Edison continued his work on the telegraph, and in 1877 he
stumbled on one of his great inventions-the phonograph-while
working on a way to record telephone communication. Public
demonstrations of the phonograph made the Yankee inventor world
famous, and he was dubbed the "Wizard of Menlo Park."
Although the discovery of a way to record and play back sound
ensured him a place in the annals of history, the phonograph was
only the first of several Edison creations that would transform
late 19th-century life. Among other notable inventions, Edison
and his assistants developed the first practical incandescent
lightbulb in 1879 and a forerunner of the movie camera and
projector in the late 1880s. In 1887, he opened the world's first
industrial research laboratory at West Orange, New Jersey where
he employed dozens of workers to investigate systematically a
given subject.
Perhaps his greatest contribution to the modern industrial world
came from his work in electricity. He developed a complete
electrical distribution system for light and power, set up the
world's first power plant in New York City, and invented the
alkaline battery, the first electric railroad, and a host of
other inventions that laid the basis for the modern electrical
world. One of the most prolific inventors in history, he
continued to work into his 80s and acquired 1,093 patents in his
lifetime. He died in 1931 at the age of 84.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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