File:The conquest of nature (1911) (14763187261).jpg

Identifier: conquestofnature00will (find matches)
Title: The conquest of nature
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Williams, Henry Smith, 1863- Williams, Edward Huntington, 1868-1944, joint author
Subjects: Industrial arts Machinery
Publisher: New York and London, The Goodhue company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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e familiar incandescent electric-light bulb seemssuch a simple apparatus to-day, being nothing appar-ently but a small wire enclosed in an ordinary glassbulb, that it is almost impossible to reahze what anenormous amount of money, energy, and that particularquality of mentality which we call genius has beenrequired to produce it. First and foremost among thenames of the men of genius who finally evolved thislamp is that of Thomas A. Edison; and only second tothis foremost name are those of Swan, Lane-Fox, andHiram Maxim. But Edisons name must stand pre-eminent ; and there are probably very few, even amongEuropeans, who would attempt or wish to deny himthe enviable place as the actual perfecter of the in-candescent-light bulb. It is said that Edison first conceived the idea of anincandescent electric light while on a trip to the RockyMountains in company with Draper, in 1878. Bethis as it may, he certainly set to work immediatelyafter completing this journey, and never relaxed or (228)
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THOMAS A. EDISON AND THE DYNAMO THAT GENERATED THE FIRST COMMERCIAL ELECTRIC LIGHT. THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT ceased his efforts until a practical incandescent lamphad been produced. His idea was to perfect a lampthat would do everything that gas could do, and more;a lamp that would give a clear, steady light, withoutodor, or excessive heat such as was given by the arclights—^in short, a household lamp. Early in his experiments he abandoned the voltaicarc, deciding that a successful lamp must be one inwhich incandescence is produced by a strong currentin a conductor, the heat caused by the resistance to thecurrent producing the glow and light. But when searchwas made for a suitable substance possessing the neces-sary properties to be the incandescent material, the in-ventor was confronted by a vast array of difficulties.It was of course essential that the substance must re-main incandescent without burning, and at the sametime offer a resistance to the passage of the currentprecisely

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