More than 150 years ago, inventors began to develop something that would significantly affect the way energy is used throughout people’s lives. The desire of the people to be able to illuminate their surroundings, especially at night, was there forever. This invention increased the working day’s length, changed the way buildings were designed, and launched many businesses. It has also led to new energy breakthroughs, from power plants and transmission lines to household appliances and electric motors. Ultimately, it influenced the fact that people ceased to be active exclusively during the day. Such an engineering miracle is an ordinary electric light bulb. Furthermore, despite all its achievements, this simple invention is, to a certain extent, ignored. It was the light bulb that made people’s society, culture, and world what they are and gave the world not only illuminated cities but also digitalization and, consequently, the Internet.
Like all great inventions, the light bulb cannot be attributed to a single inventor. It all started with a small idea, followed by a series of minor improvements by other inventors that led to light bulbs as we know them now. The history of electric lighting began long before Thomas Edison, first in 1879 and then again a year later in 1880, patented his incandescent lamp and began to popularize it (Dakin 36, Saraf 21). English inventors showed that electric light could be obtained using an arc lamp. People saw the first electric light in 1835 (Dakin 36). After that, for another 40 years, scientists worldwide worked to improve the incandescent lamp (Dakin 39). Various filaments were sifted through a part of the lamp, which heats up and produces light when an electric current passes through it. Different lamp atmospheres were also considered, whether it was necessary to use a vacuum or fill the lamp with an inert gas so that the filament would not burn out so quickly.
Ultimately, this small bulb, made of a glass bubble and a nickel filament, created the world as people know it today. Without tubes, digital technologies such as computers, which initially ran on vacuum tubes instead of transistors, would not have been possible (Primiero 123). Everything from glowing garlands for Christmas to neon signs for cafes and restaurants results from a specific device. Furthermore, despite everyone knowing about the light bulb and Edison, almost no one pays attention to the colossal contribution they brought to the world. Twenty-first-century society takes electric lighting for granted, though it is an incredible leap.
Edison’s contribution to the history of electric lighting is substantial. He did not stop at improving the incandescent lamp. He developed several inventions that made the use of light bulbs more practical. Edison modeled his lighting technology on an existing gas system. In 1882, in London, he showed that electricity could be distributed from a central generator to the right places using electrical wires and pipes (Saraf 57). At the same time, he focused on increasing energy production. Pearl Street Station’s first commercial power plant was developed in lower Manhattan. In addition, to keep track of how much energy each customer used, Edison invented the first electric meter.
Before electric lamps, people in the Western world used gas lighting in their homes and streets. The colossal number of horrific deaths, injuries, and fires arose then and quite naturally (Dakin 41). A network of pipes was laid throughout the city, containing gas and exiting thousands of places: from houses to streets, parks, and markets. However, gas lighting was a fleeting miracle at the height of the industrial revolution. It did not affect humankind the same way as the electric light bulb or the era of darkness before it. Before gas lighting, there were candles made of wax and tallow, torches and fires, and this has been the reality of humanity since its appearance.
Knowing the history of this simple invention and realizing the contrast between what the world was before it and what it has become now, it is impossible to overestimate the contribution of a small and primitive device. The light bulb became the salvation of humanity, giving lighting to hospitals, increasing the efficiency of patient treatment, and creating round-the-clock hospitals (Dakin 66). The light bulb improved the situation for workers, allowing shifts to be shortened in the summer and extended in the winter. Ultimately, all this led to vacuum tubes, computers, transistors, and the Internet. Thus, each person has a small piece of a miracle in their house, a light that gave a new breath to modern civilization.
To conclude, light bulbs have enhanced the lives of multiple people and enabled further progress in worldwide communication. The progress achieved after the light bulbs were invented could not be overemphasized or overvalued. Without the invention of light bulbs such modern inventions as computers and Internet would be impossible. The invention has shaped the path for further international developments that continue to evolve even today, which makes light bulbs one of the most important discovery in the past two hundred years.
Works Cited
Dakin, James. Wrestling With Light: History, Science and Applications. Zaltbommel, Netherlands, Van Haren Publishing, 2021.
Primiero, Giuseppe. On The Foundations of Computing. Illustrated, Oxford UP, 2020.
Saraf, Nandini. Thomas Edison. Prabhat Prakashan, 2020.