Thomas Edison
While Thomas Edison’s 1879 lightbulb represented an epochal advance, it remained far from perfect: its carbonized cellulose filament gulped power. In 1905 managers at General Electric’s pioneering research laboratory in Schenectady, New York, decided to figure out a way to improve filament performance. They hired 32-year-old William Coolidge, a research assistant to Arthur Noyes at MIT’s Department of Chemistry.
No tale in all the chronicles of American invention would seem to be better known than the story of Thomas Edison’s incandescent electric light.
Summer 2020 | Volume 26, Issue 2
Born in Massachusetts in 1848, Latimer served in the U.S. Navy and worked as a patent illustrator before authoring a number of inventions himself. “Like the light of the sun, it beautifies all things on which it shines, and is no less welcome in the palace than in the humblest home,” wrote Lewis…
Fall 2010 | Volume 25, Issue 3
While Thomas Edison’s 1879 lightbulb represented an epochal advance, it remained far from perfect: its carbonized cellulose filament gulped power. In 1905 managers at General Electric’s pioneering research laboratory in Schenectady, New York, decided to figure out a way to improve filament…
Summer 1985 | Volume 1, Issue 1
Edison's dazzling light display at the 1904 World Fair.No tale in all the chronicles of American invention would seem to be better known than the story of Thomas Edison’s incandescent electric light. The electric light, after all, quickly became the epitome of the bright idea, and its creator was…
Innovations
