Researched
Incandescent Light Bulb
Swan and Edison (1879) make a long-lasting electric lamp; clean light creates the demand for power stations and grids.
Open in the interactive tree →Joseph Swan in England and Thomas Edison in the US built carbon-filament lamps in 1878-79 that burned for many hours in an evacuated glass bulb. To sell light, Edison needed generators, wires and meters, so he opened the Pearl Street power station in 1882. Experiments with such bulbs also showed the Edison effect, a current flowing through the vacuum, which led to the vacuum diode (1904) and the electronics that followed.
Prerequisites
- Glassmaking & Glassblowing~50 BC
- Dynamo & Electric Motor1831-1866
- Industrial Research Laboratory1876Edison's Menlo Park laboratory produced the practical light bulb
Unlocks
- Electrification1882Edison built the first central power station to sell electric light
- Vacuum Tube (Triode)1906Fleming's diode grew out of the Edison effect seen in light bulbs
Sources
More in Energy · Industrial Age
- Wood, Charcoal & Coal~1709
- Steam Engine1712
- Voltaic Pile (First Battery)1800
- Water Turbine1827
- Dynamo & Electric Motor1831-1866
- Fuel Cell1839
- Oil & Natural Gas1859
- Rechargeable Battery1859