Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography major - How did Edison, who didn't even graduate from elementary school "invent" the electric light?
How did Edison, who didn't even graduate from elementary school "invent" the electric light?
Edison made up his mind to invent a better lighting lamp than kerosene lamp. So he tried to find materials that can be electrified and emit light, but the effect of these materials on filament was not ideal. Edison tried more than 6,000 materials and conducted more than 7,000 experiments before he invented the light bulb. Finally, I found a filament material that can last for 45 hours, which also marks the invention of a great electric lamp!
This just confirms Edison's famous saying: "Genius is 99% sweat and 1% inspiration. 」
But the biggest flaw in this story is: how did Edison, who didn't graduate from elementary school, know that current could make the conductor glow?
This is why the story highlights 99% of Edison's sweat and ignores the previous 1% inspiration. The fact is that Edison was not even inspired by the 1% of the invention of electric light. He learned the idea of inventing the electric light from Joseph, an Englishman? Swan borrowed it.
Joseph? Sir Swan is a famous British chemist, physicist and inventor. In his early years, he worked as an apprentice in a pharmacy in his hometown, and studied under a pharmacist. He has been engaged in chemical work since he started his career. But Swan's personal interest is the mysterious connection between electricity and light. As early as 1848, the 20-year-old swan began to develop electric lamps and made a major breakthrough in the selection of filament materials.
Before Swan, inventors have tried to use metal as filament, and platinum wire is the most common one. However, the cost of platinum wire is high, and the melting point of 1768℃( 1773℃) leads to poor durability, so it is not a good choice. Swan tried to replace platinum wire with carbon. The melting point of carbon is as high as 3500℃, and it is not easy to melt because of heating after electrifying. However, carbon also has a big weakness ―― it burns easily in the air and needs to be isolated from oxygen to work for a long time.
Swan's vacuum carbon filament electric lamp scheme was thus finalized.
He cut a kind of cardboard into an arc like a horseshoe, and then baked it in a crucible to make carbon carbide resistance wire.
Connect both ends of the carbon wire to the lead wire, seal it in a bell-shaped glass cover, and extract the air as much as possible. Wires are connected to the two electrodes of the battery, and carbon filaments emit bright light, which is the most primitive incandescent lamp.
Although the light bulb of Swan burned out in only 13.5 hours, this did not prevent it from becoming a great breakthrough. That year, Edison was only 1 years old.
At that time, because the basic technology of electric lamp was immature, the battery used for power supply had low voltage and poor durability, and vacuum technology was not developed. Swan's electric lamp not only has no practical value, but also has poor performance. Poor vacuum technology will always make carbon wires burn out quickly. To this end, he has been improving his invention and studied it for 12 years. Unable to break through the bottleneck of durability, he completely put down his experimental work at 1860. This year, Edison was a newsboy of 13 years old.
Swan, who stopped studying electric lights, was not idle. He has been involved in a wide range and is famous in local academic circles. He was promoted from assistant to partner in a photographic master manufacturing company, and also improved the wet collodion photography at that time. Swan designed a dry photographic master, and used nitrocellulose plastic instead of the complicated steps of preparing nitrocellulose solution on site. 15 years later, this technology inspired Eastman in the United States, who later established Kodak Company.
It was not until 1875 that the swan picked up the original electric light again to study. There are two reasons. One is that crookes, a British physicist, improved the vacuum pumping technology and studied the phenomenon of vacuum discharge. The other is that Gram, an engineer from Belgium, and Siemens from Germany made excellent DC generators. The perfection of these two technologies makes the swan see hope. He just needs to work hard on the technology of making filament.
Swan's electric light did not burn because of the residual oxygen in the light bulb, but it exposed another problem. The resistance of carbonized filament is too low, so there is no obvious exposure problem in the original battery power supply. At present, DC generator is used to supply power, and carbon wire is very fragile under the condition of high current. Although the research results have not been made public, Swan's usual talk about incandescent lamps has aroused great concern in the industry.
Joseph? Sir Swan (Image from
That year, on his way to Wyoming to watch the solar eclipse, Edison learned about the incandescent lamp of the swan from physicist Buck in a chat. He suddenly felt that incandescent lamps would become a necessary lighting equipment for every family in the future, so he quickly accelerated research and development to seize the opportunity when the technology was not mature.
After these years, Edison is no longer a little newsboy. He has been a great inventor, inventing the phonograph and synchronous transmitter. Although his own scientific research level is not high, he knows how to use people. There are many college students and scientists in his laboratory. He immediately assigned his scientist Upton to help develop incandescent lamps.
On the other hand, the research and development of incandescent lamps is far from being applied. Edison has set up a new electric light company, and he also advertised in the newspaper that he has solved all kinds of supporting problems of electric lights, attracting many investors. This also forced Swan to pull his immature incandescent lamp to the table early.
1878, Swan publicly displayed his incandescent lamp at the Newcastle Chemical Society, but the most worrying thing happened. The filament was still burnt out because of excessive current, and this problem was solved in the second year's exhibition. However, this does not prevent Swan from applying for the patent of carbon filament vacuum glass cover incandescent lamp in Britain.
Edison's investment in financial and human resources was not in vain. 1879, his laboratory made a durable incandescent lamp from carbonized cotton silk, and publicly displayed his incandescent lamp at the end of the year.
Swan was very unhappy when he learned about it. In an article in Nature, he pointed out: "15 years ago, I made electric lights from coking paper and coking cardboard according to the principle of incandescent lamps. To be exact, I used a horseshoe shape, just like what Edison uses now. 」?
Condemnation is futile, and inventions ultimately depend on patents. 1880 At the end of the year, Swan's incandescent lamp was patented in the UK, becoming the first incandescent lamp patent in the UK. Edison's patent was not so smooth. Although the filing date was several months earlier than that of Swan, it was judged by the US Patent Office in 1883 as a continuation of Swan's invention, and the patent was invalid.
Edison appealed for six years and finally got the patent right of incandescent lamp at 1889. No matter how high Edison's business talent is, he can't shake the status of swan incandescent lamp in Britain.
Edison's business empire touched the British market, and it had to pay a high price for the patent license of swan. Finally, the two sides cooperated to establish "EdiSwan" company in the UK.
After the story is finished, you will think that the incandescent lamp was invented by the swan, which is a bit wrong. If the electric light was invented by an Englishman, Swan, then the Russians certainly wouldn't want to. In their country, there was the incandescent lamp invented by Lodkin in 1872, and then there was the "candle" carbon rod electric lamp invented by Yablokhkov in 1875.
If the electric light was invented by the Russians, then the Germans certainly wouldn't want to. German Henry? The carbonized bamboo filament incandescent lamp invented by Goebbels in 1854 was able to illuminate continuously for 400 hours, before he became an American citizen.
If the electric light bulb was invented by the Germans, then Britain will return to the ranks of unwilling. Because in 180 1 year, David, a great chemist and president of the Royal Society, made the platinum wire electrify and glow through experiments. Eight years later, David and his student Faraday developed a carbon rod arc lamp, but it is not suitable for home use because of its high brightness and fast loss.
Who invented the electric light? Edison, the 23rd inventor who popularized electric light to every household, or other inventors who made practical incandescent lamps earlier?
No, no one really invented the electric light. Electric light is only an inevitable milestone on the road of human science and technology development.
Without DC generator technology, mature vacuum technology and electrical theory, even if you go back to that era with ready-made electric lights, you can't copy qualified products. The swan experience is the best example.
The debate between countries about the invention of electric light is just to show the breakthrough of national science and technology. Even if there are 10 thousand reasons, we can't label all the achievements created by all mankind.
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