Thomas Edison Electricity was one of the most important inventions in history. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. With little formal education, Edison gained experience as a telegraph operator and then went on to invent the phonograph, the electric light bulb, and a forerunner of the movie projector. In West Orange, New Jersey, he also created the world's first industrial research laboratory, where he employed dozens of workers to systematically investigate a given subject. However, perhaps his greatest contribution to the modern industrial world came from the work that Thomas Edison electricity made. He developed a complete electrical distribution system for light and power, set up the world's first power plant in New York City, and invented the alkaline battery, the first electric railroad, and a host of other inventions that laid the basis for the modern electric world. He continued to work into his eighties, and acquired a record 1,093 patents in his lifetime. He died in West Orange on October 18, 1931.
Edison patented an electric distribution system in 1880, which was essential to capitalize on the invention of the electric lamp. On December 17, 1880, Edison founded the Edison Electric Illuminating Company. The company established the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882 on Pearl Street Station, New York City. It was on September 4, 1882, that Edison switched on his Pearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system, which provided 110 volts direct current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.
Earlier in the year, in January 1882 he had switched on the first steam generating power station at Holborn Viaduct in London. The DC supply system provided electricity supplies to street lamps and several private dwellings within a short distance of the station. On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey.
After many experiments with platinum and other metal filaments, Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879; and lasted 13.5 hours. Edison continued to improve this design and by November 4, 1879, filed for U.S. patent 223,898 (granted on January 27, 1880) for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," it was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1200 hours.
Thomas Edison invented the first practical incandescent electric lamp. The invention was perfected *21st October 1879 when the first lamp embodying the principles of the modern incandescent lamp electrically incandescently lasted more that 40 hour. *1879Thomas Edison made deep seated upgrades within the edifice of dynamos manufacture. Edison dynamos powered generators for his system of distribution for current for light, heat and power.
Invented systems of distribution, regulation and measurement of electric current. He made sockets, switches, fuses, and other electrical devices for a light and power system. *31st December 1879 gave a public demonstration of his electric lighting system in streets and buildings at Menlo Park, New Jersey. *3rd April 1880 invented the magnetic ore separator. *13th May 1880 begun operation of the first passenger electric railways in this country at Menlo Park, New Jersey. *1880 Spent seven laborious years of invention in endeavouring to improve and increased the electric light, heat and power systems.
Of the 1,093 patents issued to Thomas. Edison over his lifetime as an inventor, 358 of those patents dealt with electric lighting and power distribution. *2nd March 1881 Thomas Edison arranged to open the Edison Machine Works at 104 Goerck Street, New York City. *12th January 1882 opened the first commercial incandescent lighting and power station at Holborn Viaduct, London, England. *1st May 1882 moved the first commercial incandescent lamp factory from Menlo Park to Harrison, New Jersey. Organised and established shops for the manufacture of dynamos, underground conductors, sockets, switches, fixtures, meters, etc. *4th September 1882 commenced the operation of the first commercial central station for incandescent lighting in the United States at 257 Pearl Street, New York City. *1883 Thomas Edison found that an independent wire or plate, that was sandwiched between the legs of the filament of the incandescent lamp.
ThomasEdison bought light bulb U.S. patent 181,613 of Henry Woodward that was issued August 29, 1876 and obtained an exclusive license to Woodward's Canadian patent. These patents covered a carbon filament in a rarefied gas bulb.
In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financiers, including J. P. Morgan and the members of the Vanderbilt family. Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. It was during this time that he said, "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles."
George Westinghouse's company bought Philip Diehl's competing induction lamp patent rights (1882) for $25,000, forcing the holders of the Edison patent to charge a more reasonable rate for the use of the Edison patent rights and lowering the price of the electric lamp.
On October 8, 1883, the U.S. patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William Sawyer and was therefore invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years, until October 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent had been awarded a year before Edison's, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to manufacture and market the invention in Britain.
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