However, his filament had low resistance, thus needing heavy copper wires to
supply it. Jim, You are an electrical engineer, how much copper would have been
necessary to provide a working low resistance lighting system for all of
England? My understanding is that to employ a low resistance series method of
electrical distribution would have used a tremendous amount of copper therefore
the Swan system could not have been used. If a system cannot be used even if
it works in a laboratory what good is it except for a curiosity? Steve
> Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 21:29:26 -0400
> From: bi...@ftldesign.com
> To: phono-l@oldcrank.org
> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Dearborn trip--Edison's last breath
>
> On 7/3/2011 8:38 PM, Jim Nichol wrote:
> > I strongly disagree. Yes, Google will tell you that many others worked on
> > the light bulb. But those stories all conclude that none of them were
> > practical. Edison's contribution was not only that he invented the power
> > plant, but more importantly, he invented the first practical incandescent
> > bulb.
>
> The British would disagree:
>
> "In 1850 Swan began working on a light bulb using carbonized paper
> filaments in an evacuated glass bulb. By 1860 he was able to demonstrate
> a working device, and obtained a British patent covering a partial
> vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp. However, the lack of a good
> vacuum and an adequate electric source resulted in an inefficient bulb
> with a short lifetime.
>
> "Fifteen years later, in 1875, Swan returned to consider the problem of
> the light bulb with the aid of a better vacuum and a carbonized thread
> as a filament. The most significant feature of Swan's improved lamp was
> that there was little residual oxygen in the vacuum tube to ignite the
> filament, thus allowing the filament to glow almost white-hot without
> catching fire. However, his filament had low resistance, thus needing
> heavy copper wires to supply it.[7]
>
> "Swan received a British patent for his device in 1878, about a year
> before Thomas Edison.
>
> "In America, Edison had been working on copies of the original light
> bulb patented by Swan, trying to make them more efficient. Though Swan
> had beaten him to this goal, Edison obtained patents in America for a
> fairly direct copy of the Swan light, and started an advertising
> campaign which claimed that he was the real inventor. Swan, who was less
> interested in making money from the invention, agreed that Edison could
> sell the lights in America while he retained the rights in Britain."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan
>
> --
> Bill Burns
> Long Island NY USA
> http://ftldesign.com
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