Edison's Electric Light

The Art of Invention
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9482-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 213 mm, Gewicht: 291 g

Reihe: Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Technology

In September 1878, Thomas Alva Edison brashly—and prematurely—proclaimed his breakthrough invention of a workable electric light. That announcement was followed by many months of intense experimentation that led to the successful completion of his Pearl Street station four years later. Edison was not alone—nor was he first—in developing an incandescent light bulb, but his was the most successful of all competing inventions. Drawing from the documents in the Edison archives, Robert Friedel and Paul Israel explain how this came to be. They explore the process of invention through the Menlo Park notes, discussing the full range of experiments, including the testing of a host of materials, the development of such crucial tools as the world's best vacuum pump, and the construction of the first large-scale electrical generators and power distribution systems. The result is a fascinating story of excitement, risk, and competition.

Revised and updated from the original 1986 edition, this definitive study of the most famous invention of America's most famous inventor is completely keyed to the printed and electronic versions of the Edison Papers, inviting the reader to explore further the remarkable original sources.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Friedel, Robert

Israel, Paul B

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Erfindungen und Erfinder 
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technikgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition
1. "A Big Bonanza"
2. "The Throes of Invention"
The Search for a Vacuum
3. "Some Difficult Requirements"
Carbon and the Incandescent Lamp
4. The Triumph of Carbon
Who Invented the Incandescent Lamp?
5. Business and Science
The Menlo Park Mystique
6. A System Complete
7. Promises Fulfilled
Afterword
A Note from the Authors with Acknowledgments
Notes
Recommended Additional Reading
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Friedel, Robert
Robert Friedel is a professor of history of technology and science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book is A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium.

Israel, Paul B
Paul B. Israel is the director and editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Robert Friedel is a professor of history of technology and science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book is A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium. Paul Israel is the director and general editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is the author of Edison: A Life of Invention and the coeditor of the multivolume The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, also published by Johns Hopkins.