UNITED STATES. — Edison was not the first to experiment with the idea of electric lighting. Many before him had developed the incandescent bulb, but none was practical enough for everyday use in the home. Edison tested over 6,000 types of vegetable matter, including baywood, boxwood, hickory, cedar, flax and bamboo as material to use for the filament.
He achieved success when he experimented with a filament of carbonised sewing thread.
The incandescent light bulb patented by Edison began to gain widespread popularity in Europe as well. He sent engineers to promote their system, first to London, then around Europe.
On September 4, 1882, Edison turned on the electrical lighting system to supply the company’s 946 customers in Manhattan. But few people noticed, and some came in the evening to ask why the system had not been activated—the lights were so steady and so similar to the gas the people were used to that they had not noticed the switch.
From 1863 to 1869, Edison held a succession of night-shift telegraphy positions across Ontario, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Massachusetts. As a Western Union employee, he worked the Associated Press (AP) news wire.
Edison first gained wider notice in 1877 due to his invention of the phonograph. As a telegrapher, he had long imagined a device that could record incoming messages and replay them.
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, USA.
Although probably best known for developing the light bulb, Edison was a prolific inventor, registering 1093 patents by the time he died in 1931.
