Editing Thomas Edison (section)

==Menlo Park laboratory (1876–1886)==
===Research and development facility===
[[File:Menlo Park Laboratory.JPG|thumb|Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, reconstructed at Greenfield Village in [[Henry Ford Museum]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan]]]]
[[File:Edison's Menlo Park Lab.jpg|thumb|Edison's Menlo Park Lab in 1880]]
Edison's major innovation was the establishment of an industrial research lab in 1876. It was built in [[Menlo Park, New Jersey|Menlo Park]], a part of Raritan Township (now named [[Edison, New Jersey|Edison Township]] in his honor) in [[Middlesex County, New Jersey]], with the funds from the sale of Edison's [[quadruplex telegraph]]. After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $4,000 to $5,000 was right, so he asked Western Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $10,000 {{USDCY|10000|1874}}, which he gratefully accepted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bounceenergy.com/blog/2013/02/happy-birthday-thomas-edison/ |title=Happy Birthday, Thomas Edison! |last=Trollinger |first=Vernon |work=Bounce Energy |date=February 11, 2013 |access-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-date=June 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602160113/http://www.bounceenergy.com/blog/2013/02/happy-birthday-thomas-edison/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success, and Menlo Park became the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally credited with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produce results.

[[William Joseph Hammer]], a consulting [[electrical engineer]], started working for Edison and began his duties as a laboratory assistant in December 1879. He assisted in experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, [[Edison Ore-Milling Company|iron ore separator]], [[incandescent light bulb|electric lighting]], and other developing inventions. However, Hammer worked primarily on the incandescent electric lamp and was put in charge of tests and records on that device. 

In 1880, he was appointed chief engineer of the Edison Lamp Works. In his first year, the plant under general manager [[Francis Robbins Upton]] turned out 50,000 lamps. According to Edison, Hammer was "a pioneer of incandescent electric lighting".<ref>{{cite book |title=Thomas Edison: Life of an Electrifying Man |last=Biographiq |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59986-216-3 |page=9 |publisher=Filiquarian Publishing}}</ref> {{anchor|sprague}}[[Frank J. Sprague]], a competent mathematician and former [[United States Navy|naval officer]], was recruited by [[Edward H. Johnson]] and joined the Edison organization in 1883. One of Sprague's contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was to expand Edison's mathematical methods. Despite the common belief that Edison did not use mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal that he was an astute user of mathematical analysis conducted by his assistants such as Francis Robbins Upton, for example, determining the critical parameters of his electric lighting system including lamp resistance by an analysis of [[Ohm's law]], [[Joule's first law|Joule's law]] and economics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/ |title=The Thomas A. Edison Papers |publisher=Edison.rutgers.edu |access-date=January 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630040718/http://edison.rutgers.edu/ |archive-date=June 30, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Nearly all of Edison's patents were utility patents, which were protected for 17 years and included inventions or processes that are electrical, mechanical, or chemical in nature. About a dozen were [[design patent]]s, which protect an ornamental design for up to 14 years. As in most patents, the inventions he described were improvements over [[prior art]]. The phonograph patent, in contrast, was unprecedented in describing the first device to record and reproduce sounds.<ref>Evans, Harold (2004), ''They Made America''. New York: Little, Brown and Company. {{ISBN|978-0-316-27766-2}}. p. 152.</ref>

In just over a decade, Edison's Menlo Park laboratory had expanded to occupy two city blocks. Edison said he wanted the lab to have "a stock of almost every conceivable material".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=737 |title=Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) |last=Wilson |first=Wendell E. |work=The Mineralogical Record |access-date=February 24, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415080355/http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=737 |archive-date=April 15, 2013 }}</ref> A newspaper article printed in 1887 reveals the seriousness of his claim, stating the lab contained "eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made, every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels&nbsp;... silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hoofs, shark's teeth, deer horns, tortoise shell&nbsp;... cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, jet, amber, rubber, all ores&nbsp;..." and the list goes on.<ref>{{cite book | last = Shulman | first = Seth | title = Owning the Future | url = https://archive.org/details/owningfuture00shul | url-access = registration | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company | year = 1999 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/owningfuture00shul/page/158 158–160]| isbn = 9780395841754 }}</ref>

Over his desk Edison displayed a placard with [[Sir Joshua Reynolds]]' famous quotation: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,752631,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125035516/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,752631,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 25, 2008 |title=AERONAUTICS: Real Labor |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=December 8, 1930 |access-date= January 10, 2008}}</ref> This slogan was reputedly posted at several other locations throughout the facility.

In Menlo Park, Edison had created the first industrial laboratory concerned with creating knowledge and then controlling its application.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/gilded-age/essays/edison%E2%80%99s-laboratory |title=Edison's Laboratory |last=Israel |first=Paul |work=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |date=August 3, 2012 |access-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-date=February 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225091901/http://gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/gilded-age/essays/edison%E2%80%99s-laboratory |url-status=live }}</ref> Edison's name is registered on 1,093 patents.<ref name=time1979>{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-1,00.html|title=Business: The Quintessential Innovator|date=October 22, 1979|magazine=Time|access-date=November 23, 2016|archive-date=November 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124025122/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-1,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Phonograph===
[[File:Edison and phonograph edit1.jpg|thumb|Edison with the second model of his phonograph in [[Mathew Brady]]'s studio in [[Washington, D.C.]] in April 1878]]
Edison began his career as an inventor in [[Newark, New Jersey]], with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention that first gained him wider notice was the [[phonograph]] in 1877.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edbio.html |title=The Life of Thomas A. Edison |work=The Library of Congress |access-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-date=January 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120001520/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edbio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park".<ref name="Wizard"/>

His first phonograph recorded on [[Tin#Applications|tinfoil]] around a grooved cylinder. Despite its limited [[sound quality]] and that the recordings could be played only a few times, the phonograph made Edison a celebrity. [[Joseph Henry]], president of the National Academy of Sciences and one of the most renowned electrical scientists in the US, described Edison as "the most ingenious inventor in this country... or in any other".<ref>Edison, Thomas A. 1989. ''Menlo Park: The early years, April 1876 – December 1877''. Edited by P. B. Israel, K. A. Nier and L. Carlat. Vol. 3, The papers of Thomas A Edison. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Doc. 1117</ref> In April 1878, Edison traveled to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] to demonstrate the phonograph before the National Academy of Sciences, Congressmen, Senators and [[Rutherford B. Hayes|President Hayes]].<ref>Baldwin, Neil. 2001. ''Edison: Inventing the century''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 97–98.</ref> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' described Edison as a "[[genius]]" and his presentation as "a scene... that will live in history".<ref>"Genius before science". ''The Washington Post'', April 19, 1878.</ref> Although Edison obtained a patent for the phonograph in 1878,<ref>Edison, Thomas A. 1877. ''Telephones or speaking-telegraphs''. US patent 203,018 filed December 13, 1877, and issued April 30, 1878.</ref> he did little to develop it until [[Alexander Graham Bell]], [[Chichester Bell]], and [[Charles Sumner Tainter|Charles Tainter]] produced a phonograph-like device in the 1880s that used wax-coated cardboard cylinders.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

===Carbon telephone transmitter===
In 1876, Edison began work to improve the [[microphone]] for telephones (at that time called a "transmitter") by developing a [[carbon microphone]], which consists of two metal plates separated by granules of carbon that would change resistance with the pressure of sound waves. A steady direct current is passed between the plates through the granules and the varying resistance results in a modulation of the current, creating a varying electric current that reproduces the varying pressure of the sound wave.

Up to that point, microphones, such as the ones developed by [[Johann Philipp Reis]] and [[Alexander Graham Bell]], worked by generating a weak current. The [[carbon microphone]] works by modulating a direct current and, subsequently, using a transformer to transfer the signal so generated to the telephone line. Edison was one of many inventors working on the problem of creating a usable microphone for telephony by having it modulate an electric current passed through it.<ref name="Adrian Hope 1102, page 378">Hope, Adrian (May 11, 1978), "100 Years of Microphone", ''New Scientist'', Vol. 78, No. 1102, p. 378. {{ISSN|0262-4079}}.</ref> His work was concurrent with [[Emile Berliner]]'s loose-contact carbon transmitter (who lost a later patent case against Edison over the carbon transmitter's invention<ref name="IEEE">''IEEE Global History Network: Carbon Transmitter''. New Brunswick, NJ: IEEE History Center {{cite web|url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Carbon_Transmitter |title=Carbon Transmitter |access-date=January 14, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100318043500/http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Carbon_Transmitter |archive-date=March 18, 2010 }}</ref>) and [[David Edward Hughes]]' study and published paper on the physics of loose-contact carbon transmitters (work that Hughes did not bother to patent).<ref name="Adrian Hope 1102, page 378"/><ref>Worrall, Dan M. (2007), {{Cite web|url=http://www.angloconcertina.org/files/HughesforWebsite.pdf |access-date=December 17, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913132543/http://www.angloconcertina.org/files/HughesforWebsite.pdf |title=David Edward Hughes: Concertinist and Inventor |archive-date=September 13, 2016 }}</ref>

Edison used the carbon microphone concept in 1877 to create an improved telephone for [[Western Union]].<ref name="IEEE"/> In 1886, Edison found a way to improve a [[Bell Telephone Company|Bell Telephone]] microphone, one that used loose-contact ground carbon, with his discovery that it worked far better if the carbon was [[roasted]]. This type was put in use in 1890<ref name="IEEE"/> and was used in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s.

===Electric light===
{{Main|Incandescent light bulb}}
[[File:Edison bulb.jpg|thumb|Edison's first successful model of light bulb, used in public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879]]
In 1878, Edison began working on a system of electrical illumination, something he hoped could compete with gas and oil-based lighting.<ref>Howard B. Rockman, ''Intellectual Property Law for Engineers and Scientists'', John Wiley & Sons – 2004, p. 131.</ref> He began by tackling the problem of creating a long-lasting incandescent lamp, something that would be needed for indoor use. However, Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb.<ref>Ings, Simon (July 26, 2019), [https://www.newscientist.com/article/2211368-the-real-history-of-electricity-is-more-gripping-than-the-current-war/ "The real history of electricity is more gripping than The Current War"], ''New Scientist''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718110034/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2211368-the-real-history-of-electricity-is-more-gripping-than-the-current-war/ |date=July 18, 2020 }}.</ref> In 1840, British scientist Warren de la Rue developed an efficient light bulb using a coiled platinum filament but the high cost of platinum kept the bulb from becoming a commercial success.<ref>[https://www.livescience.com/43424-who-invented-the-light-bulb.html#:~:text=Several%20months%20after%20the%201879,the%201880s%20and%20early%201900s. Who Invented the Light Bulb?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615052841/https://www.livescience.com/43424-who-invented-the-light-bulb.html#:~:text=Several%20months%20after%20the%201879,the%201880s%20and%20early%201900s. |date=June 15, 2020 }} LiveScience, August 17, 2017</ref> Many other inventors had also devised incandescent lamps, including [[Alessandro Volta]]'s demonstration of a glowing wire in 1800 and inventions by [[Henry Woodward (inventor)|Henry Woodward]] and [[Mathew Evans]]. Others who developed early and commercially impractical incandescent electric lamps included [[Humphry Davy]], [[James Bowman Lindsay]], [[Moses G. Farmer]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eliotmaine.org/mosespage.htm |title=Moses G. Farmer, Eliot's Inventor |access-date=March 11, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619234400/http://eliotmaine.org/mosespage.htm |archive-date=June 19, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[William E. Sawyer]], [[Joseph Swan]], and [[Heinrich Göbel]].

These early bulbs all had flaws such as an extremely short life and requiring a high [[electric current]] to operate which made them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially.<ref name="Israel"/>{{rp|217–218}} In his first attempts to solve these problems, Edison tried using a filament made of cardboard, carbonized with compressed lampblack. This burnt out too quickly to provide lasting light. He then experimented with different grasses and canes such as hemp, and palmetto, before settling on bamboo as the best filament.<ref>[http://edison.rutgers.edu/lamp.htm Thomas A. Edison Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913163223/http://edison.rutgers.edu/lamp.htm |date=September 13, 2017 }}, Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences</ref> Edison continued trying to improve this design and on 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".<ref name="Patent898">{{US patent|0223898}}</ref>

The patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways".<ref name="Patent898" /> It was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered that a [[carbonize]]d [[bamboo]] filament could last over 1,200&nbsp;hours.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Flannery
| first = L. G. (Pat)
| title = John Hunton's Diary, Volume 3
| year = 1960
| pages = 68, 69
}}
</ref>

Attempts to prevent blackening of the bulb due to [[thermionic emission|emission of charged carbon from the hot filament]]<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=J. B. |date=December 1, 1960 |title=Contribution of Thomas A. Edison to Thermionics |url=https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1935997 |journal=American Journal of Physics |volume=28 |issue=9 |pages=763–773 |doi=10.1119/1.1935997 |bibcode=1960AmJPh..28..763J |issn=0002-9505|url-access=subscription }}</ref> culminated in [[Edison effect]] bulbs, which redirected and controlled the mysterious unidirectional current.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Preece |first=William Henry |author-link=William Preece |year=1885 |title=On a peculiar behaviour of glow lamps when raised to high incandescence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xmdDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA219 |url-status=live |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |volume=38 |issue=235–238 |pages=219–230 |doi=10.1098/rspl.1884.0093 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140626213555/http://books.google.com/books?id=xmdDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA219 |archive-date=June 26, 2014 |doi-access=free | issn = 0370-1662 }} Preece coins the term the "Edison effect" on page 229.</ref> Edison's 1883 patent for [[Voltage regulator|voltage-regulating]]<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=307031|title=Electrical indicator|pubdate=1884-10-21|fdate=1883-11-15|inventor1-last=Edison|inventor1-first=Thomas A.|inventorlink1=Thomas Edison}}</ref> is notably the first US patent for an [[Electronics|electronic]] device due to its use of an Edison effect bulb as an [[Active electronic component|active component]]. Subsequent scientists studied, applied, and eventually evolved the bulbs into [[vacuum tube]]s, a core component of early [[Analogue electronics|analog]] and [[digital electronics]] of the 20th century.<ref name=":2" /> 

[[File:Light bulb Edison 2.jpg|thumb|U.S. Patent #223898: Electric-Lamp, issued January 27, 1880]]
[[File:SS Columbia Undated Photograph.png|thumb|The [[Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company]]'s new steamship, the [[SS Columbia (1880)|''Columbia'']], was the first commercial application for Edison's incandescent light bulb in 1880.]]
In 1878, Edison formed the [[Edison Electric Light Company]] in New York City with several financiers, including [[J. P. Morgan]], [[Spencer Trask]],<ref>"Handbook of Research on Venture Capital". Colin Mason. Edward Elgar Publishing. January 1, 2012. pg 17</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sloan-c.org/conference/proceedings/1996/doc/96_gomory.doc |title=Keynote Address – Second International ALN1 Conference (PDF) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613133233/http://sloan-c.org/conference/proceedings/1996/doc/96_gomory.doc |archive-date=June 13, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Henry Villard]], president of the [[Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company]], attended Edison's 1879 demonstration. Villard was impressed and requested Edison install his electric lighting system aboard Villard's company's new steamer, the [[SS Columbia (1880)|''Columbia'']]. Although hesitant at first, Edison agreed to Villard's request. Most of the work was completed in May 1880, and the ''Columbia'' went to New York City, where Edison and his personnel installed ''Columbia''{{'s}} new lighting system. The ''Columbia'' was Edison's first commercial application for his incandescent light bulb. The Edison equipment was removed from ''Columbia'' in 1895.<ref>Jehl, Francis [https://books.google.com/books?id=OkL1Smk4uiAC&pg=PA563 Menlo Park reminiscences : written in Edison's restored Menlo Park laboratory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160120024434/https://books.google.com/books?id=OkL1Smk4uiAC&pg=PA563&dq=SS+Columbia+(1880) |date=January 20, 2016 }}, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Whitefish, Mass, Kessinger Publishing, July 1, 2002, p. 564.</ref><ref name = "Dalton">Dalton, Anthony
[https://books.google.com/books?id=LOQ67VeU3WwC&pg=PA63 A long, dangerous coastline: shipwreck tales from Alaska to California] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160120024434/https://books.google.com/books?id=LOQ67VeU3WwC&pg=PA63&dq=SS+Columbia+(1880) |date=January 20, 2016 }}
Heritage House Publishing Company, February 1, 2011 – 128 pp.</ref><ref>Swann, p. 242.</ref><ref name="Revolution">{{cite web | url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/19thcent/promo19.htm | title=Lighting A Revolution: 19th Century Promotion | publisher=Smithsonian Institution | access-date=July 23, 2013 | archive-date=October 10, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010083904/http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/19thcent/promo19.htm | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1880, [[Lewis Latimer]], a draftsman and an expert witness in patent litigation, began working for the United States Electric Lighting Company run by Edison's rival [[Hiram S. Maxim]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/edis/forkids/the-gifted-men-who-worked-for-edison.htm |title=Lewis Howard Latimer |access-date=June 10, 2007 |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |archive-date=February 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207003814/http://www.nps.gov/edis/forkids/the-gifted-men-who-worked-for-edison.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> While working for Maxim, Latimer invented a process for making carbon filaments for light bulbs and helped install broad-scale lighting systems for New York City, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London. Latimer holds the patent for the electric lamp issued in 1881, and a second patent for the "process of manufacturing carbons" (the filament used in incandescent light bulbs), issued in 1882.

On October 8, 1883, the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office|US patent office]] ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of [[William E. Sawyer]] and was, therefore, invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years. In 1885, Latimer switched camps and started working with Edison.<ref>Mock, Brentin (February 11, 2015), [https://grist.org/climate-energy/meet-lewis-latimer-the-african-american-who-enlightened-thomas-edison/ Meet Lewis Latimer, the African American who enlightened Thomas Edison], ''Grist''.  {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718215442/https://grist.org/climate-energy/meet-lewis-latimer-the-african-american-who-enlightened-thomas-edison/ |date=July 18, 2020 }}.</ref> On October 6, 1889, a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid.<ref>{{cite book |title=Thomas Edison: Life of an Electrifying Man |last=Biographiq |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59986-216-3 |page=15 |publisher=Filiquarian Publishing}}</ref> To avoid a possible court battle with yet another competitor, [[Joseph Swan]], who held an 1880 British patent on a similar incandescent electric lamp,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swan |first=Kenneth R. |title=Sir Joseph Swan and the Invention of the Incandescent Electric Lamp |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co., London |year=1946 |pages=21–25}}</ref> he and Swan formed a joint company called [[Ediswan]] to manufacture and market the invention in Britain.

The incandescent light bulb patented by Edison also began to gain widespread popularity in Europe as well. [[Mahen Theatre]] in [[Brno]] (in what is now the Czech Republic), opened in 1882, and was the first public building in the world to use Edison's electric lamps. [[Francis Jehl]], Edison's assistant in the invention of the lamp, supervised the installation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ndbrno.cz/en/about-us/theatre-buildings/mahen-theatre/history-of-mahen-theatre/history-mt/ |title=About the Memory of a Theatre |access-date=December 30, 2007 |work=National Theatre Brno |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119092027/http://www.ndbrno.cz/en/about-us/theatre-buildings/mahen-theatre/history-of-mahen-theatre/history-mt/ |archive-date=January 19, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In September 2010, a sculpture of three giant light bulbs was erected in Brno, in front of the theater.<ref>{{cite web |author=Michal Kašpárek |url=http://brnonow.com/2010/09/light-bulbs-edison/ |title=Sculpture of three giant light bulbs: in memory of Thomas Alva Edison |publisher=Brnonow.com |date=September 8, 2010 |access-date=December 31, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026200319/http://brnonow.com/2010/09/light-bulbs-edison/ |archive-date=October 26, 2013 }}</ref> The first Edison light bulbs in the [[Nordic countries]] were installed at the weaving hall of the [[Finlayson (company)|Finlayson]]'s textile factory in [[Tampere, Finland]] in March 1882.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://innovationcapital.fi/innovation-story/a-history-of-continuous-change-and-innovation|title=A history of continuous change and innovation|first=Mika|last=Kautonen|work=Smart Tampere Ecosystem|date=November 18, 2015|access-date=December 9, 2021|archive-date=December 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209035220/http://innovationcapital.fi/innovation-story/a-history-of-continuous-change-and-innovation|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1901, Edison attended the [[Pan-American Exposition]] in [[Buffalo, New York]]. His company, the [[Edison Manufacturing Company]], was given the task of installing the electric lights on the various buildings and structures that were built for the exposition. At night Edison made a panorama photograph of the illuminated buildings.<ref>{{cite web |first= |last= |title=Panorama of Esplanade by night |publisher=Library of Congress |year=1901 |accessdate=November 24, 2023 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/00694344/ |ref=panorama}}</ref>

===Electric power distribution===
After devising a commercially viable electric light bulb on October 21, 1879, Edison developed an electric "[[Public utility|utility]]" to compete with the existing gas light utilities.<ref>Ahmad Faruqui, Kelly Eakin, Pricing in Competitive Electricity Markets, Springer Science & Business Media – 2000, p. 67</ref> On December 17, 1880, he founded the [[Edison Illuminating Company]], and during the 1880s, he patented a system for [[electricity distribution]]. The company established the first investor-owned electric utility. On September 4, 1882, in [[Pearl Street (Manhattan)|Pearl Street]], New York City, his 600&nbsp;kW [[cogeneration]] steam-powered generating station, [[Pearl Street Station]]'s, electrical power distribution system was switched on, providing 110 volts [[direct current]] (DC), initially to 59 customers in lower [[Manhattan]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.coned.com/history/electricity.asp |title=A brief history of Con Edison:"Electricity" |publisher=Coned.com |date=January 1, 1998 |access-date=December 31, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030164753/http://www.coned.com/history/electricity.asp |archive-date=October 30, 2012 }}</ref> quickly growing to 508 customers with 10,164 lamps.  The power station was decommissioned in 1895.

Eight months earlier in January 1882, to demonstrate feasibility, Edison had switched on the 93&nbsp;kW [[Holborn Viaduct power station|first steam-generating power station]] at [[Holborn Viaduct]] in London. This was a smaller 110 V DC supply system, eventually supplying 3,000 street lights and a number of nearby private dwellings, but was shut down in September 1886 as uneconomic, since he was unable to extend the premises.

On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system employing [[overhead lines|overhead wires]] began service in [[Roselle, New Jersey]].

===War of currents===
{{Main|War of the currents}}
[[File:PyramidParthenon.jpg|thumb|Extravagant displays of electric lights quickly became a feature of public events, as in this picture from the [[Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition]] in 1897.]]
As Edison expanded his [[direct current]] (DC) power delivery system, he received stiff competition from companies installing [[alternating current]] (AC) systems. From the early 1880s, AC [[arc lamp|arc lighting]] systems for streets and large spaces had been an expanding business in the US. With the development of [[transformer]]s in Europe and by [[Westinghouse Electric (1886)|Westinghouse Electric]] in the US in 1885–1886, it became possible to transmit AC long distances over thinner and cheaper wires, and "step down" (reduce) the voltage at the destination for distribution to users. This allowed AC to be used in street lighting and in lighting for small business and domestic customers, the market Edison's patented low voltage DC incandescent lamp system was designed to supply.<ref>Jill Jonnes, ''Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, And The Race To Electrify The World'', Random House – 2004, pp. 54–60.</ref> Edison's DC empire suffered from one of its chief drawbacks: it was suitable only for the high density of customers found in large cities. Edison's DC plants could not deliver electricity to customers more than {{convert|1|mi|km|1|spell=in}} from the plant, and left a patchwork of unsupplied customers between plants. Small cities and rural areas could not afford an Edison style system, leaving a large part of the market without electrical service.<ref>[[Thomas P. Hughes|Thomas Parke Hughes]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=g07Q9M4agp4C&pg=PA80 Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880–1930], p.80-90, (1993)</ref> AC companies expanded into this gap.<ref name="Coltman">{{Cite news
| last = Coltman
| first = J. W.
| title = The Transformer
| newspaper = Scientific American
| pages = 86–95
|osti=6851152
| date = January 1988}}</ref>

Edison expressed views that AC was unworkable and the high voltages used were dangerous. As [[George Westinghouse]] installed his first AC systems in 1886, Thomas Edison struck out personally against his chief rival stating, "''Just as certain as death, Westinghouse will kill a customer within six months after he puts in a system of any size. He has got a new thing and it will require a great deal of experimenting to get it working practically.''"<ref>Maury Klein (2008), ''The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America'', Bloomsbury Publishing US, p. 257</ref> Many reasons have been suggested for Edison's anti-AC stance. One notion is that the inventor could not grasp the more abstract theories behind AC and was trying to avoid developing a system he did not understand. Edison also appeared to have been worried about the high voltage from misinstalled AC systems killing customers and hurting the sales of electric power systems in general.<ref>Jonnes (2004), ''Empires Of Light'', p. 146.</ref> The primary reason was that Edison Electric based their design on low voltage DC, and switching a standard after they had installed over 100 systems was, in Edison's mind, out of the question. By the end of 1887, Edison Electric was losing market share to Westinghouse, who had built 68 AC-based power stations to Edison's 121 DC-based stations. To make matters worse for Edison, the [[Thomson-Houston Electric Company]] of Lynn, Massachusetts (another AC-based competitor) built 22 power stations.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nq0Le9FfXlAC&q=Thomson+Houston+westinghouse+edison+1887&pg=PT68|title=Edison to Enron|isbn=978-1-118-19251-1|last1=Robert l. Bradley|first1=Jr|date=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |access-date=October 7, 2020|archive-date=May 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511130023/https://books.google.com/books?id=nq0Le9FfXlAC&q=Thomson+Houston+westinghouse+edison+1887&pg=PT68|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Thomas Edison cabinet card by Victor Daireaux, c1880s.JPG|left|thumb|upright=0.75|Edison in 1889]]
Parallel to expanding competition between Edison and the AC companies was rising public furor over a series of deaths in the spring of 1888 caused by pole mounted high voltage alternating current lines.  This turned into a media frenzy against high voltage alternating current and the seemingly greedy and callous lighting companies that used it.<ref>Jonnes (2004), ''Empires of Light'', p. 143.</ref><ref>Essig, Mark (2009), ''Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death'', Bloomsbury Publishing US, pp. 139–140.</ref> Edison took advantage of the public perception of AC as dangerous, and joined with self-styled New York anti-AC crusader [[Harold P. Brown]] in a propaganda campaign, aiding Brown in the public electrocution of animals with AC, and supported legislation to control and severely limit AC installations and voltages (to the point of making it an ineffective power delivery system) in what was now being referred to as a "[[war of the currents]]".<ref>Carlson, W. Bernard (2003). Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson and the Rise of General Electric. Cambridge University Press. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-52153-312-6</ref> The development of the [[electric chair]] was used in an attempt to portray AC as having a greater lethal potential than DC and [[Smear campaign|smear]] Westinghouse, via Edison colluding with Brown and Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, to ensure the first electric chair was powered by a Westinghouse AC generator.<ref name="ReynoldsBernstein">{{cite magazine |url=http://simson.net/ref/1989/Edison_and_The_Chairt.pdf |last1=Reynolds |first1=Terry S. |last2=Bernstein |first2=Theodore |title=Edison and "The Chair" |magazine=Technology and Society |publisher=[[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]] |volume=8 |issue=1 |date=March 1989}}</ref>

Edison was becoming marginalized in his own company having lost majority control in the 1889 merger that formed Edison General Electric.<ref name="Sloat1979,316">{{cite book |first=Warren |last=Sloat |title=1929: America Before the Crash |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan |year=1979 |page=[https://archive.org/details/1929americabefor00sloa/page/316 316] |isbn=978-0-02611-800-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/1929americabefor00sloa/page/316 }}</ref> In 1890 he told president [[Henry Villard]] he thought it was time to retire from the lighting business and moved on to an iron ore refining project that preoccupied his time.<ref name="EdisonToEnron">Bradley, Robert L. Jr., Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies, New York: John Wiley & Sons (2011), pp. 28–29</ref> Edison's dogmatic anti-AC values were no longer controlling the company. By 1889 Edison's Electric's own subsidiaries were lobbying to add AC power transmission to their systems and in October 1890 [[Edison Machine Works]] began developing AC-based equipment. Cut-throat competition and patent battles were bleeding off cash in the competing companies and the idea of a merger was being put forward in financial circles.<ref name="EdisonToEnron" />  The War of Currents ended in 1892 when the financier [[J.P. Morgan]] engineered a merger of Edison General Electric with its main alternating current based rival, The Thomson-Houston Company, that put the board of Thomson-Houston in charge of the new company called [[General Electric]]. General Electric now controlled three-quarters of the US electrical business and would compete with Westinghouse for the AC market.<ref>Essig, Mark (2009)''Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death'', Bloomsbury Publishing US, p. 268.</ref><ref>Bradley Jr., Robert L. (2011), ''Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies'', John Wiley & Sons, pp. 28–29.</ref> Edison served as a figurehead on the company's [[board of directors]] for a few years before selling his shares.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Gryta |first1=Thomas |title=Lights out: pride, delusion, and the fall of General Electric |title-link=Lights Out (book) |last2=Mann |first2=Ted |author-link2=Ted Mann (journalist) |date=2021 |publisher=Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-358-25041-8 |edition= |location=Boston New York |pages=11}}</ref>