| Throughout
the 1800s, many scientists and inventors strove to create a cost effective,
practical, long-life incandescent light bulb. The primary hurdle
was creating a long-lived, high-temperature filament--the key to a practical
incandescent light. Many high-melting-point materials were explored in
inert/evacuated chambers in the process.
Men
such as William Robert Grove, Frederik de Moleyns, W.E. Staite, John Daper,
Edward G. Shepard, Heinrich Gobel, C. de Chagny, John T. Way, Alexander
de Lodyguine, Joseph Wilson Swan, and Thomas A. Edison dedicated their
time and efforts in the race to develop the first practical incandescent
light bulb. Breakthroughs for Edison and Swan came in 1879, when they independently
developed the first incandescent lamp that lasted a practical length of
time -- at best a mere 13.5 hours. Their separate designs were based
on a carbon fiber filament derived from cotton. The next stage of development
focused on extending the practical life of the carbon filament bulb. Edison
developed bamboo-derived filaments in 1880 that lasted up to 1200 hours. |
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