Illuminating Systems: Edison and Electrical Incandescence

Author(s): Greg Sanford

Source: OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 4, No. 2, Science and Technology (Spring, 1989), pp.
16-19
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162654
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 Illuminating Systems: Edison
and Electrical Incandescence
Thomas A. Edison did not in
vent the electric light. He
invented a system of electrical in
candescent lighting. Between 1878
and 1881, Edison and his associates
developed generators, wiring, insu
lation, fuses, sockets, and switches
as well as the bulb. That is, Edison
devised a system composed of the
compatible parts necessary to banish
darkness with the flip of a switch.
Further, the Wizard of Menlo Park
established a corporate structure to
manufacture the various com
ponents and market the entire
package as the Edison Electric
Light Companies.
Edison's pursuit of sys
tematization was hardly unique.
While technical, inventive, and
business insight characterized
his special genius, his advocacy
and understanding of business
and technological systems was
widely shared. As Alan I
Marcus and Howard P. Segal
observe in Technology in
America: A Brief History, "System
was the touchstone of late nine
teenth- and early-twentieth-cen
tury America, and it influenced
virtually every aspect of American
life." In an age of systematization,
businessmen and engineers shared
and acted upon a basic understand
ing of system. System entailed a
rational, hierarchical arrangement
of distinct parts into a harmonious
whole. That is, each part had its
own integrity but had to operate in
conjunction with other parts to ensure
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Greg Sanford
the smooth functioning of the whole.
The concept found expression in
Carnegie's rationalization of steel
production, Rockefeller's organiza
tion of oil transport, and Ford's
transformation of auto manufactur
ing with the assembly line. Corpo
rate structure was commensurate
with the projects undertaken. For
instance, the railroad giants stan
dardized track and employed stan
dard time which enabled them to fix
schedules that maximized freight
As Edison turned to incandes
cence, he did so with an acute
understanding of marketing and
a reputation for mechanical
ingenuity...
per track mile. Armour relied upon
telegraphs to coordinate the pur
chase, slaughter, and sale of beef
over his widely dispersed opera
tions. In effect, the notion of system
was widespread and served as the
organizing principle for late nine
teenth-century ventures.
Edison's penchant for systema
tization reflected that of his con
temporaries, but his technical and
business acumen followed from a
life of self-education. In 1860, the
thirteen-year-old boy began his
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career at Western Union. His later
position of midnight operator led to
his first inventions. The sleepy te
legrapher devised a bell activated by
a key to rouse him when transmis
sions arrived. An automatic mes
sage recorder that encoded dots and
dashes on a paper tape obviated his
need for the bell. Edison left West
ern Union in the late 1860s to
become a full-time inventor. He
designed a telegraphic voting ma
chine for use by legislative bodies
and, in 1869, created a record
ing telegraph or stock ticker.
Through the device, the young
inventor met Wall Street's fi
nancial barons and procured
financing from Western Union
for a factory to produce the
machine. A subsequent part
nership with Jay Gould had
different consequences. Fresh
from manipulations of the nat
ion's gold supply and Erie
Railroad Stock, Gould relieved
Edison of his assets.
Returning to Western Union in
1875, Edison continued to apply
telegraphic principles first in the
form of the "talking telegraph" or
telephone and later as the "talking
telegraph recorder" or phonograph.
With these inventions, Edison's fi
nancial health returned. Again, he
left the telegraph company and as
sembled a cadre of assistants. As
Edison turned to incandescence, he
did so with an acute understanding
of marketing and a reputation for
mechanical ingenuity characterized
16 Magazine of History
by a remarkable sense of technical
practicality based upon first hand
knowledge of electrical apparatus
and a working approximation of
Ohm's Law.
Charles Brush's arc lighting
system first piqued Edison's curios
ity about electrical illumination. By
1876 arc lights were hardly novel.
Humphrey Davy used a battery to
create a blindingly bright electrical
discharge between two highly resis
tant carbon rods. By the 1860s
battery- and dynamo-powered arcs
found use primarily in light houses.
Warehouses and large commercial
establishments, like Wanamaker's
Department Store in Philadelphia,
experimented with arcs as well.
Brush, however, saw that brilliant
light is best suited for outdoor use,
particularly in urban areas. The
decision to pursue municipal mar
kets led him into direct competition Before inventing a system of electrical incandescent lighting, Thomas Edison applied his
with gas lighting firms. Conse telegraphic principals to inventing the phonograph.
quently, Brush was determined to
create an economical alternative. As with the arc, incandescence ments contained residual or oc
Resolving a number of technical had been known for some time. cluded gases that were released when
difficulties, Brush introduced an arc From 1838, a procession of investi heated and resulted in lamp failure.
lighting system which, in essence, gators wired batteries to a variety of Continuing to evacuate bulbs while
consisted of a central power station nonconducting substances?plati heating the filament ultimately re
joined to several arc lights in a num, sheepskin, carbon?were placed solved the difficulty. Combining
parallel circuit. This arrangement in evacuated containers. Resistance these techniques, Swan produced a
of reliable and compatible parts to the current produced an incan durable, functional bulb and ac
supplied light to the 1876 Philadel descent shine and more problemati quired an English patent in 1880.
phia International Exposition. cally, heat, which in the presence of While the English pharmacist per
It was Brush's arrangement of oxygen quickly incinerated the frag fected his bulb, Americans such as
arc lights that intrigued Edison. His ile filaments. Typical of this work, Hiram Maxim and Moses Farmer
own examination concluded that the English pharmacist, Joseph Swan, conducted similar studies. They ac
incandescence represented a more attempted to make a more durable quired Sprengel pumps and directed
profitable avenue of enterprise. With filament by baking a spiral shaped their attention to the same problems
Brush, he realized that the arc's concoction of paper, coal tar, and that confronted Swan.
painfully intense light made it powdered charcoal. Swan's failure Edison attacked incandescence
impractical for domestic use. Yet in mirrored that of others. By 1860 the from a different perspective. The
that limitation, Edison saw an project was abandoned, only to be bulb constituted but one part of his
opportunity. He recognized that a poten taken up again in 1875 when Swan overall conception. Where Swan and
tially huge market existed for inte adapted Herman Sprengel's mercury others strove to extend filament life,
rior lighting in homes and businesses. air pump to the project of evacuat Edison judged that problem to be
But to capture that market, he needed ing bulbs. The pump provided a surmountable. That is, he simply
a more suitable type of electrical more complete vacuum, curbing the assumed that an incandescent bulb
illumination. The soft glow of incandes problem of combustion. However, was possible. Indeed, after the
cence responded to both conditions. as Swan and others discovered, fila fashion of Brush, Edison focused

Spring 1989 17

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upon the marketing and technical companies by driving down stock During the next two years, Edison
design necessary to produce a sys prices in the soon-to-be-outmoded and his associates tinkered with and
tem of electrical illumination. If utilities. Further, it attracted capital designed new Sprengel type pumps
generating, distributing, metering, to Edison's own venture, enabling and glass bulbs. Work also pro
and controlling electricity safely him to establish the first Edison ceeded on the filament. Edison
proved infeasible, a bulb made little Electrical Illumination Company in estimated that a practical bulb would
difference. Viewed from this van 1878. Financiers J.P. Morgan and have to last about twelve hundred
tage, the more than four hundred Cornelius Vanderbilt arranged a three hours. The team tested platinum,
gas companies operating in Ameri hundred thousand dollar investment paper, and other cheap, readily
can cities by 1876 posed the most in the firm, on the condition that available substances molded into
diverse shapes. His aides analyzed
and resolved the problem of oc
cluded gases. By 1879, Edison was
satisfied with a bulb containing a
Confident that he could deliver incandescent carbonized bamboo filament.
lighting, Edison publicly announced... without Concurrently, the Edison team
addressed generation and distribu
yet having developed the bulb ...the advent of a tion. The Jumbo Generator would
fill the requirements of a central
new age. His reputation lent credibility to the power station. Named after P.T.
Barnum's world renowned elephant,
claim and papers carried the story. it combined low internal resistance
with high efficiency. The former
formidable obstacle to Edison's plans. Edison assign all patent rights on reduced the evolution of heat, a
Faced with competition from gas new electrical inventions to the problem that plagued the period's
lighting, Edison made what he con company for a period of five years. generators. The latter represented a
sidered his most important calcula With financing in place, Edison ninety percent conversion rate of
tion. He ascertained the cost of gas and his associates began the project steam to electric power. The Jumbo
lighting. On the basis of that deter in earnest. Edison assigned several also was designed to conform to the
mination, he established electrical tasks simultaneously. In 1878 and demands imposed by parallel cir
incandescence's practicability while 1879 he directed work on the main cuits. Initially, Edison settled on a
setting the project's technical para components--the bulb, generator, feeder and main arrangement. Thin
meters. By incorporating a central and wiring. Each was designed and copper wires ran from the generator
power station, parallel circuits, and constructed with reference to the to mains situated at locations of high
high resistance bulbs, Edison be requirements set by Edison's initial demand. Individual homes and busi
lieved that he could deliver electric calculations. Within those limits, nesses were wired to the mains.
lighting with significant advantages each was made to perform with Edison revised the configuration in
over the slightly malodorous and maximum efficiency and economy. 1883 when he introduced the three
sooty gas lamps, at considerably less Edison's decision to develop a wire system. Connecting two Jum
expense. high resistance bulb followed from bos in series, he ran a third wire
Confident that he could deliver his original conception. It marked a from the juncture to a point be
incandescent lighting, Edison pub significant departure from the low tween the mains. The move reduced
licly announced his plans in 1878. resistance approach adopted by his wire costs by sixty-two percent
Without yet having developed a contemporaries who hoped it would while doubling the power of trans
bulb, he proclaimed the advent of a extend filament life. On the basis of mission.
new age. Edison's reputation lent his understanding of Ohm's law, Having completed the major
credibility to the claims and papers Edison rejected the low resistance components, Edison and colleagues
across the country carried the story. filament because it necessitated spent 1880 and 1881 contriving
Far from pure hyperbole, the cam expensive, thick copper wiring to complimentary technical features and
paign served several purposes. It deliver electricity from the genera testing the final assembly. They
drove prospective competitors from tor. A high-resistance filament configured matching bulbs and sock
the field. It denied resources to gas drastically reduced the expense. ets, safety fuses for fire protection,

18 Magazine of History

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meters that measured zinc precipi York was the first. Licensed by the particular parts. Edison Electric Lamp
tated from solution by current, in parent company and chartered by Works produced bulbs and Edison
sulation for wires, and switches to the state, New York Edison con Machine Works constructed genera
activate the bulbs. Late in 1881, structed and maintained the Pearl tors. Bergmann and Company manu
Edison pieced the constituents to Street Project. Soon after Edison's factured sockets, switches, and
gether. While he had lectured about corporate headquarters had eastern various ancillaries.
and given exhibitions of incandes subsidiaries in Boston, Philadelphia, Edison Electric went virtually
cence incessantly, the displays at and Brooklyn as well as midwestern unchallenged in the field of direct
Menlo Park and in London fully facilities in Chicago and Detroit, current (DC) electrical incandes
illustrated the practicality of elec Edison sought other markets. After cence. The company achieved the
trical incandescence. The displays a priority of invention dispute with aims stipulated in Edison's initial
also permitted Edison to amend Swan, Edison and the Englishman computation of costs in the compet
residual technical glitches. At the reconciled to form the Edison-Swan ing gas lighting industry. As he had
same time, the demonstrations al Electric Light Company, a concern conceived from the outset, Edison
layed the anxieties of investors who that dominated electric lighting in had created a system of electrical
had exhibited restiveness after four Great Britain. Edison founded a incandescence rather than an elec
years without returns. specific company to handle smaller tric lamp. By 1886, he presided over
New York's financial district be markets and special purpose uses. a corporate hierarchy that promoted
came the first beneficiary of electric The Edison Company for Isolated and constructed illumination sys
lighting. Company crews excavated Lighting sold illumination systems tems and established his preem
streets and sidewalks, laid under for boats, rural areas, and munici inence in electrical lighting.
ground mains, and insulated the palities of less than ten thousand.
conduits with hot asphaltum. Edison's Manufacturing facilities adopted the
team housed the Jumbo Generator same structure. Edison Electric held Greg Sanford teaches history at
in the Pearl Street Station and pre patent rights to the technologies that Kansas City (Kansas) Community
pared to operate the variable con comprised the illumination system. College and is the Executive Direc
stant voltage dynamo. Hand-turned Under those patents, the company tor of the Corporate Resource Cen
wheels adjusted electrical produc licensed subsidiaries to fabricate ter, a library of private philanthropy.
tion to correspond with changes in
consumption. Edison offered free _! :
electricity for the balance of 1882 to
businesses and individuals that con ?V
sented to have their buildings wired.
For those who harbored doubts, he
continued the offer after the system
went into operation. On 4 Septem
ber 1882 Edison engaged the gen
erators, distributed electricity and
flooded New York with incandes
cent light.
Edison considered the Pearl Street
Station a model. He envisioned
central stations in cities across the
country and intended to market the 8s
entire package as Edison Electric
Light Companies. To facilitate sales
and manufacture, he organized the ?
venture within a particular corpo
rate structure. The original Edison
Electric served as a flagship to a
fleet of subsidiary companies. The
!
Edison Electric Company of New In his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ, Thomas Edison exhibits his phonograph to visitors.

Spring 1989 19

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