Electric light invention day： how the myth of Edison, the ＂king of invention＂, was made？

On October 21, 1879, countless reports and books recorded that "Edison invented the electric light on this day", and this story has since entered the textbooks of many countries and become the historical common sense of ordinary people. However, this kind of lamp invented by Edison at that time belongs to incandescent lamp, and now it has been gradually eliminated by many countries in the world.

Textbook illustration, clever boy Edison.

Edison did not "invent" the electric light.

In fact, inventors had made various improvements to incandescent lamps long before Edison, but they were not as famous as Edison without exception. However, after all, it was an early invention. At that time, incandescent lamps generally faced problems such as low life, high cost, high power consumption, and difficulty in commercialization.

Although he only has a primary school education, Edison’s research drive and business sense are not lost to ordinary people. In 1878, Edison began to improve the technical characteristics of electric lighting, in order to compete with the traditional lighting market based on natural gas and kerosene. After a lot of experiments on carbon fiber, platinum and other metals, Edison turned his attention back to carbon fiber, which was largely because he realized the problem of choosing the size of resistance. The experiment was not successful for the first time until October 22, 1879, and the light bulb continued to illuminate for 13.5 hours.

In 1879, Edison, J.P. Morgan’s partner and members of the Vanderbilt family, together established Edison Electric Light Company, the predecessor of General Electric. He led the subsequent improvement of this incandescent lamp, applied for a patent in November 1879, and was granted a patent in January of the following year. Finally, Edison’s light bulb was improved to last for 1200 hours.

Magic Edison (New York Daily photo, 1879)

Nowadays, the well-known tungsten filament incandescent lamp, which is durable, high-temperature resistant and not deformed, was not actually invented by Edison. The earliest tungsten filament incandescent lamp was invented by Franjo Hanaman of Croatia and Alexander Just of Hungary. Later, this patent belonged to TUNGSRAM of Hungary. The name of this company originated from the pronunciation of "tungsten" in English and German to show its glorious history-"We have the first patent in tungsten lamp in the world!"

This company sells tungsten light bulbs and vacuum tubes in Europe. British Tungsram Radio Works was its subsidiary before World War II. After World War II, General Electric acquired 51% of Tungsram’s shares and invested in it. Sadly, most people even think that tungsten lamp invented it. It seems that the role of fame is immeasurable.

Left Franjo Hanaman, right Alexander Just

According to statistics, there are more than 1,500 patents owned by Edison, the "King of Invention", but in fact, except for the phonograph patent, almost all of Edison’s other patents are utility model patents. This type of patents does not require much innovation, and they cover all aspects such as technology, electricity, machinery and chemical industry.

Nine times out of ten inventions protected by the patent law in the United States at that time were improvements on existing technologies, such as a new combination of certain technical features. The electric lamp invented by Edison was actually an improvement on technical features, specifically the material problem of filament wires in incandescent lamps.

Technical features can be the shape, structure, composition and size of parts, components, materials, appliances, equipment and devices, as well as the technology, steps and processes, the time, temperature and pressure involved, the equipment and tools adopted, etc., and even the relationship between technical features is also a technical feature.

It is precisely because of this broad orientation of practical improvement that many people confuse inventions with patents and create the myth of Edison’s "great inventor". Later, many people gradually raised objections to the well-known "Edison invented the light bulb", thinking that Edison did not "invent" the light bulb in any sense, but only improved its technical characteristics. The success of this patent depends more on commercial operation.

Create Edison myth

Edison is so famous all over the world because of publicity and marketing. Edison’s main innovative work comes from his industrial research laboratory, which was built in Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA. This laboratory was world-famous for producing more than 400 inventions in six years, and won the title of "invention factory". In fact, this title is as mixed as "patent jungle" now, so Edison didn’t do the experiment on incandescent lamps alone.

Edison’s laboratory in Monroe Park, January 10th, 1880. （Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper）

Edison worked with a team of less than 20 people, including engineers, mechanics and physicists, in the laboratory he founded, but only Edison himself, like a qualified businessman, began to deal with customers, investors and the media. So gradually, only Edison’s name became a word-of-mouth and brand in customers’ mouths, and the sense of existence of other laboratory personnel disappeared with the embarrassment of selling products. It can be said that it is such a group of people who are rarely reported that created the myth of Edison, the "king of invention".

Edison’s laboratory tests the technical characteristics of incandescent lamps, and the specific times are unknown, which may reach hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands. However, Edison’s goal of releasing news to the media is obvious, such as finding perfect fibers all over the world and testing them for tens of thousands of times, which can better publicize the hardships, rigor and advantages behind the products.

In 1884, a young man named Nikola Tesla came to join Edison’s team. More information shows that Edison only regards Tesla as an inexperienced, smart and young employee, but in fact Tesla has a profound theoretical foundation. After getting along with Edison, Tesla finally recognized Edison’s businessman’s face and limited ability in innovation-"Edison’s massive experiments, which ignore basic knowledge and have no theoretical basis, are actually a stupid behavior." Then, the two went their separate ways.

In the "Battle of Current", discredit opponents behind their backs.

So in the following years, Edison often conceived some topics to discredit Tesla, and he successfully persuaded the banker J.P. Morgan not to invest in Tesla. Edison, who advocated direct current all the time, and J.P. Morgan started a famous "current war" against Tesla and Geogre Westinghouse, who advocated alternating current. During this period, Edison fully studied and took advantage of the fear of electricity at that time.

Edison warned the public that "alternating current is the killer of mankind". (Documentary The Men Who Built America)

Edison was unequivocal in discrediting his opponent. He personally compiled a 61-page booklet to tell the lethality of alternating current and distributed it to the government and the public, which was jumping up and down. In addition to publishing an article entitled "The Danger of Electric Lights" in North America Weekly, he has repeatedly discredited his competitors in the media and made alternating current extremely horrible.

In order to let people intuitively feel the danger of alternating current, Edison hired pupils to catch cats, dogs and other small animals in the street, and arranged for his employees to electrocute these small animals with 1000 volts DC. As a result, they were still alive, and then they were electrocuted with 350 volts AC, and all the small animals were electrocuted, and finally an elephant was electrocuted with AC.

Tuposi, an elephant of new york Park Circus who was electrocuted in 1903. (Documentary Electrocuting an Elephant)

After learning that prison officials in New York State had the intention to execute the death penalty by electricity, Edison managed to buy a second-hand alternator produced by Westinghouse from Brazil, and finally designed the world’s first electrocution chair. On August 6, 1890, William Francis Kemmler, who was sentenced to death for killing his wife, sat in the electric chair in front of the prison and the media and was executed by 2000 volts alternating current. The local citizens and the media watched the cruel process in real time.

William Kemmler, who was sentenced to death for killing his wife, was executed by 2000 volts alternating current. (Documentary The Men Who Built America)

With the negative news generated by alternating current, Edison successfully discredited his competitors for a period of time. However, the extremes meet. People don’t care whether it is alternating current or not before electrocution. They only remember that "electricity was used to kill a human being", and Edison was the cruel executioner, so his reputation plummeted. J.P. Morgan was later persuaded by his father: "Give up Edison."

Edison used his labor to create his own myth of "king of inventions" and used countless dirty propaganda methods in the "war of electricity", which fully exposed his dark side as a businessman.

Thanks to the "invention" of electric light, Edison’s reputation has reached an unprecedented height all over the world. Compared with the images of diligence, unyielding and juvenile wit in textbooks, Edison’s business operation and publicity strategy for success should probably be known to the world.