Edison’s light bulb
A carbon filament in an evacuated glass bulb – the lamp that made electric light an everyday thing.
In October 1879 Thomas Edison and his Menlo Park laboratory made a lamp with a carbon filament glow for many hours. In England Joseph Swan had reached almost the same result.
The lamp was only one part of a system of generators, wiring and meters. Edison’s thread, E27, is still the most common lamp base in Europe.
Materials: Blown glass, carbonised bamboo or cotton thread, platinum lead-in wires, brass
Manufacture: The bulb was blown, the filament mounted and the air pumped out before the glass was sealed.
The tip of the bulb where the glass was sealed after pumping.
The thin carbon filament in a loop.
The thread on the base – the Edison screw.