Friday, Jan. 27, 2012

What innovation by Thomas Edison, now being phased out, was patented Jan. 27, 1880?

THEN

On Jan. 27, 1880, Thomas Edison patents an improved incandescent light bulb, making electric lighting practical for domestic use. Although not the original inventor of the incandescent bulb, Edison improves on the concept. Edison’s bulb uses lower current electricity, an improved vacuum inside the glass globe, and a small carbonized filament, producing a long lasting source of light. But for Edison’s more durable and longer lasting bulb to achieve widespread use, Edison had to improve the electrical circuitry the bulbs would operate on. Thus in addition to the durable light bulb, Edison also invents a device for maintaining constant voltage, safety fuses, and insulating materials, as well as light sockets with on-off switches, an underground conductor network, and the parallel circuit. He demonstrates the new bulb in December 1879 by installing lighting in his Menlo Park, N.J., laboratory complex.

NOW

The phaseout of incandescent light bulbs in the United States was temporarily halted last December as Republicans blocked the administration from spending any money to implement new energy efficiency standards that would have made the traditional incandescent bulb obsolete. Incandescent light bulbs are facing a phaseout around the world, with Brazil and Venezuela starting the process in 2005. In 2009 the European Union, Switzerland, and Australia also began phasing out traditional incandescent. The bulbs are being replaced in favor of the longer lasting, less energy consuming compact fluorescent lamps and LED lamps.