From Invention to Innovation
From Invention to Innovation
From Invention to Innovation
When it refers to the inventor of the electric light, most people's first thought is Edison. However, in fact, Edison is the 23rd one who invented the electric light. The famous 19th century American inventor invented 1093 inventions as a whole and till now, no one can break the record. The light can be said to be one of his most important inventions.
In fact, in the early 19th century, Davy invented arc lamps which were widely used in square, theater and other public places. In 1860, British scientist Joseph Swan invented the semi vacuum carbon filament lamp which was the prototype of the incandescent lamp that we use today. But because of the immature vacuum technology and the lack of adequate power source, the life for this lamp was very short, and Joseph Swan stopped the continuation of exploration in this field because of the lack of funds and manpower.
The difference from the previous twenty inventors who only lighted the lamps in the laboratory is that Edison gave the results of this technology with great commercial value. He made the popularity of the lamps by building a power transmission system. Then the mass production and marketing of high-quality but low-cost changed the lighting way of homes and offices. Therefore, most people could use the electric lights. Apart from an inventor, he was also a genius in business.
At that time, if the lamps that wanted to enter into people's life as a new technology, it would still face multiple barriers. First, the technology must be stable to use. In brightness, durability and safety, it should be at least better than the mature industrial gas lighting; second, we must build a supporting power transmission system; third, the price of the lamp should be lowered to what the ordinary people can accept; fourth, there are some people who are willing to invest for it. Without one of the above, the commercial lamp will only be empty talk.
Before entering the field of electric lighting in 1878, Edison set up the" invention factory" in New Jersey. He gathered more than 100 professional scientist, engineers and technicians who were in different fields and began to do research together. Adequate funds and a huge R & D team ensured Edison that he could collect a variety of experimental materials and do hundreds of experiments. In October 1879, when he invented the first lamp---the real practical incandescent lamp, which can continue to light up for 45 hours in the world by using the carbonized cotton thread, he did not passively wait for others to come to inquire and purchase the patent. He established a "system" from the beginning. On the one hand, he and his assistant continued to look for wayside to improve the life of the filament; on the other hand, he began to design a series of supporting devices for the using around the lamp in order to promote the use of it. His light bulb was specially designed to be used for the power company.
Edison then began with the generator. At that time, the magnet-type generator could only achieve the highest conversion efficiency of 40%. In 1880, he developed the first improved version of the generator; the next year, he continued to improve the design, and developed the largest generator" long waist Marian" at that time. Its energy conversion rate reached 82% which doubled that of the ordinary magnet generators
After that, Edison turned to the design of the transmission network. He designed a new transmission system to solve the problems of voltage drop during transmission loss and copper consumption. Meanwhile, for electrical safety and convenience, Edison designed a series of safe parts, such as the electric engine, seat cover, etc, and he even invented the ammeter which make that each user can easily and accurately calculate the electricity consumption. Thus, a complete set of feasible power transmission and lighting system came into being.
Science is priceless. From invention to innovation, we should to learn a lot from Edison. Nowadays, we can see various kinds of lamps, like showed on this website: http://www.dinodirect.com/light-bulbs/. I believe that our society will never stop moving forward.
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