I've heard many people say that Edison didn't do ANYTHING worthwhile, or simply
took credit for others' work.
That is interesting because Edison stopped using patents and started using
trade secrets because of all of his work that was stolen. That is why we have
so little written information on so many things he did especially when it comes
to reproducers and their improvement. Today when most people have a working
knowledge of electricity it is easy to minimize what Edison did. Before Edison
there was gas lighting and in some of the older houses you can see the
converted gas to electric system. Edison did learn from the failures of those
before him but there is no question he invented the parallel method of
electrical distribution which allowed electricity to come into use. Before
Edison you had the series method and there was not enough copper available to
make the mains large enough to have a practical system for just one large city,
let along the whole country. Here are a few things Edison did develop: the
parallel circuit, a durable light bulb, an improved dynamo, the u
nderground conductor network, the devices for maintaining constant voltage,
safety fuses and insulating materials, and light sockets with on-off switches.
Before Edison could make his millions, every one of these elements had to be
invented and then, through careful trial and error, developed into practical,
reproducible components. The first public demonstration of the Thomas Edison's
incandescent lighting system was in December 1879, when the Menlo Park
laboratory complex was electrically lighted. Edison spent the next several
years creating the electric industry. If creating is not inventing then what is?
After all that work he did he got kicked out of the company that without him
would not have existed so even back then he had recognition problems. Steve >
From: jnic...@fuse.net
> Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 23:53:35 -0400
> To: phono-l@oldcrank.org
> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Dearborn trip--Edison's last breath
>
> Yes, I know (some) British would disagree, but they're wrong. The part you
> quoted below about Swan stated that "his filament had low resistance, thus
> needing heavy copper wires to supply it". That is the key reason that Swan
> and everyone but Edison completely failed to REALLY invent an incandescent
> light that didn't burn out right away. And not to mention that even if it
> somehow didn't burn out, it would still be useless for a home owner because
> of the high current needed to operate it.
>
> In the same Wikipedia article you quoted it said that Paul Israel concluded
> that the high resistance filament was the key invention, and why Edison's 22
> predecessors failed. And later in the article is said that the US Patent
> Office thought about invalidating the patent, but concluded that the high
> resistance filament was a valid patent claim.
>
> So I repeat: What is the point of inventing non-working, non-practical light
> bulbs? None! They are all failures, not inventions. Edison himself made
> dozens of light bulbs that were utter failures. Such as platinum filaments,
> many of which required elaborate thermal cutout mechanisms inside the bulb to
> shut off power as the platinum reached melting temperature. Those weren't
> valid light bulbs any more than Swan's were. They were failed experiments,
> not real inventions. Edison would not have the nerve to claim a failed
> experiment was a valid invention, as some historians now do.
>
> Did any of you guys ever read all the detailed accounts of Edison working on
> the light bulb? As an electrical engineer, I was fascinated. Scientists of
> the day said that Edison's attempt to "subdivide the light" was against the
> laws of physics. They were thinking in terms of old-fashioned arc lights that
> used high current, and thus had to be wired in series. Only Edison understood
> that to succeed he needed high resistance lights, which allowed them to be
> wired in parallel. Imagine if there was no Edison, and most lights in your
> house or on your whole street had to be wired in series! Edison was so far
> beyond others in the field that there is no comparison.
>
> Jim
>
> On Jul 3, 2011, at 9:29 PM, Bill Burns wrote:
>
> > 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
> > _______________________________________________
> > Phono-L mailing list
> > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
>
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