Thomas Edison
Short History Of...
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The Untried Technology of Edison
Edison's company spends $130,000 on experimental work between October of 1878 and March of 1881. He experiments with everything from bamboo to human hair to the thread from a spider's web. In the end, he hits upon sewing thread covered in carbon and baked to a specific temperature. A year into the life of his electric company, he has a light bulb that lasts 13 and a half hours. His next attempt goes for 100 hours. At Christmas, he lights up Menlo Park with 100 lamps and welcomes 3,000 visitors to his modern wonder of the world.
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