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KF5JRV > TODAY 31.12.18 14:31l 57 Lines 2902 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 31
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<SR1BSZ<LU4ECL<CT2KCK<KE0GB<KF5JRV
Sent: 181231/1227Z 28186@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.17
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.ö
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 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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