Edison did not "invent" the electric light.
In fact, inventors had made various improvements to incandescent lamps before Edison, but none of them were as famous as Edison. However, it is an early invention after all. At that time, incandescent lamps generally faced problems such as low life, high cost, large power consumption and difficult commercialization.
Although he only has a primary school education, Edison's research courage and business sense are not lost to ordinary people. From 65438 to 0878, 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 doing a lot of experiments on carbon fiber, platinum and other metals, Edison turned his attention to carbon fiber again, largely because he realized the problem of choosing the size of resistance. It was not until1October 22nd, 1879, 13.5 hours that the experiment was successful for the first time and the light bulb continued to light.
1879, Edison, a partner of J.P. Morgan and a member of Vanderbilt family, founded Edison Electric, the predecessor of General Electric. He led the subsequent improvement of the incandescent lamp made of this material and applied for a patent in 1879+0 1 and the following year.
The well-known tungsten filament incandescent lamp, which is durable, high temperature resistant and non-deformable, was not actually invented by Edison. The earliest tungsten filament incandescent lamp was invented by Franjo Hanaman of Croatia and Alexander Rust of Hungary. Later this patent belonged to TUNGSRAM in Hungary. The name of this company comes from the pronunciation of "tungsten" in English and German to show its glorious history-"We have the first tungsten lamp patent in the world!"
This company sells tungsten light bulbs and vacuum tubes in Europe. The British East Slam Radio Factory was its subsidiary before World War II. After World War II, General Electric acquired 565,438+0% of the shares of Tongshi Memory and invested in it. Sadly, most people even think that tungsten lamp invented it. It seems that the role of fame is immeasurable.
According to statistics, there are more than 500 patents under Edison's name/kloc-0, but in fact, except for the phonograph patent, Edison's other patents are almost all utility model patents. This kind of patents don't need much innovation, they cover all aspects of technology, electricity, machinery and chemical industry.
Nine times out of ten, inventions protected by American patent law at that time were improvements on existing technologies, such as new combinations of certain technical features. The electric lamp invented by Edison is actually an improvement of technical characteristics, especially the material problem of incandescent filament.
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. Even the relationship between technical features is a technical feature.
It is precisely because of this broad practical improvement orientation that many people confuse invention with patent and create the myth of Edison's "great inventor". Later, many people gradually objected 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 famous for his publicity and marketing. Edison's main innovative work came from his industrial research laboratory, which was built in Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA. This laboratory is famous for producing more than 400 inventions in six years and won the title of "invention factory". In fact, this title is now as controversial as "patent jungle", so Edison did not experiment on incandescent lamps alone.
Edison Laboratory in Menlo Park, 1880 65438+ 10/0. (Frank Leslie's Pictorial)
Edison worked with a team of less than 20 people in the laboratory he founded, including engineers, mechanics and physicists, but only Edison himself, like a qualified businessman, began to deal with customers, investors and the media. So gradually, only Edison's name became the word-of-mouth and brand of customers, 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 number of times is unknown, which may reach hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands. However, Edison's purpose in releasing news to the media is obvious. For example, finding perfect fibers around the world and testing them for tens of thousands of times can better publicize the hardships, rigor and advantages behind the products.
1884, a young man named nikola tesla came here to join Edison's team. More information shows that Edison only regards Tesla as an inexperienced, intelligent and young employee, but in fact Tesla has a profound theoretical foundation. After getting along with Edison, Tesla finally realized the limitations of Edison's businessman's face and innovative ability-"Edison ignored the basic knowledge and conducted a large number of experiments without theoretical basis, which was actually a stupid behavior." Then, the two parted ways.
In the "current battle", discredit the opponent behind his back.
So in the following years, Edison often conceived some topics to discredit Tesla, and he successfully persuaded banker J.P. Morgan not to invest in Tesla. Edison and J.P. Morgan, who have always advocated direct current, launched a famous "current war" against Tesla and Geogre Westinghouse, who advocated alternating current. During this period, Edison fully studied and made use of his fear of electricity at that time.
Edison warned the public that "alternating current is the killer of mankind". (Documentary "The Man Who Built America")
Edison unequivocally slandered his opponent. He personally compiled a 6 1 page booklet about the lethality of alternating current, distributed it to officials and people, and jumped up and down. In addition to publishing an article entitled "The Danger of Electric Lights" in North American 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 volt DC. As a result, they were still alive, then they were electrocuted by 350 volts alternating current, all the small animals were electrocuted, and finally an elephant was electrocuted by alternating current.
New york Park Circus Elephant "Tuposi" gets an electric shock 1903. (Documentary electrocution of an elephant)
After learning that prison officials in New York State intended to execute the death penalty by electrocution, Edison managed to buy a second-hand alternator made by Westinghouse from Brazil, and finally designed the world's first electrocution chair. 1on August 6th, 890, William Francis Kemler, 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. Local citizens and the media watched this cruel process in real time.
William Kemler, who was sentenced to death for killing his wife, was executed by 2000 volts AC. (Documentary "The Man Who Built America")
With the help of the negative news generated by alternating current, Edison succeeded in discrediting his competitors for a period of time. However, extremes meet. People didn't care if it was alternating current before electrocution. They only remember that "electricity is used to kill a person", and Edison was the cruel executioner, so his reputation plummeted. J.P. Morgan was later persuaded by his father: "Give up Edison."
Edison created his own myth of "the king of invention" with his own labor, and used countless dirty propaganda methods in the "electric war", 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 image of diligence, unyielding and young wit in textbooks, Edison's successful business operation and publicity strategy should probably be known to the world.