China began to use electric light bulbs in the first half of 1881.
In May 1879, when foreign missionary Dicko Wen returned to China for the first time on vacation and passed through Europe, he met Cyrus W. Field, an American businessman who founded the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Di Kewen tried his best to promote his business in Dengzhou Cultural Hall to Field, which finally made the big businessman develop a passion.
In January 1881, after returning to Penglai from his vacation, Dickowen immediately wrote to Mr. Cyrus W. Field, requesting him to donate a generator. In the first half of 1881, Di Kewen received a reply from the other party promising to donate a generator. This generator first lit up the electric lights in the Cultural Hall, thus opening a new era of electric lighting in Chinese history.
The first electric light in the palace was turned on in the 14th year of Guangxu (1888). Later, the first electric light in the palace was burned in a fire. After the palace was renovated, Guangxu ordered people to reinstall the electric lights.
At this time, there was already a generator in the palace, and Cixi simply ordered people to install electric lights in almost all the concubines in the harem. Since the palace used electric lights, major cities across the country have slowly used electric lights.
Extended information
The history of electric light:
In 1854, Henry Goebel, a German watchmaker who immigrated to the United States, used a light bulb in a vacuum glass bottle. The carbonized bamboo filament made the first practical electric lamp, which lasted for 400 hours, but he did not apply for a patent in time.
In 1860, the Englishman Joseph Swan also made a carbon filament electric lamp, but he failed to obtain a good vacuum environment that could keep the carbon filament working for a long time. It was not until 1878 that British vacuum technology developed to a desirable level that he invented a light bulb powered by carbon filaments under vacuum and obtained a British patent. Swann's own house was the first private house in Britain to be lit by electricity.
In 1874, two Canadian electrical technicians applied for a patent for an electric light: filling nitrogen gas under a glass bulb and using an electrified carbon rod to emit light. However, they did not have enough financial resources to continue to perfect this invention. So the patent was sold to Edison in 1875. After purchasing the patent, Edison tried to improve the filament, and finally created a carbonized bamboo filament lamp in 1880 that could last for 1,200 hours.
People's Daily Online - Foreign missionaries introduced electric lights to China? Guangxu was the first to light them in the palace