Today it is difficult to imagine life without modern amenities. Heat, energy, electricity, the Internet - what would happen to humanity if it lost all of these benefits of civilization? One of the most important inventions is an incandescent lamp. There is still debate about who invented it. If you ask the Americans, they will answer with confidence: Thomas Edison. If you ask a resident of Russia, he can object: Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin. So, who is still right.
Predecessors of the inventors of the bulb
Even in ancient times, people made attempts to create devices for lighting dark rooms at night or rooms that are underground. It is known that even in the Mediterranean and in Ancient Egypt, olive oil was used, placing it in an clay vessel with wicks made of cotton fabric. And, for example, the inhabitants of the coast of the Caspian Sea used oil in such vessels.
In the Middle Ages, candles were invented that replaced clay vessels. The composition of the candles included beef fat and beeswax. For many centuries, outstanding geniuses worked on the invention of the first kerosene lamp. Among them was Leonardo da Vinci himself.
Light bulb inventors
Despite all the efforts of various inventors, a safe and suitable for mass production design for lighting appeared only in the middle of the XIX century. In connection with the rapid development of technological progress, after a quarter of a century, the first light bulb was created.
The first electric candle, which then turned into a light bulb, was invented by Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov. Initially, street lighting was carried out using his device. However, such candles were not economical enough, and therefore unprofitable.
One electric candle cost 20 kopecks, and they had to be changed every 1.5 hours.
Later, lights were created that could change the candle on their own. Despite the inefficiency and fragility of the electric candle, this invention made a significant contribution to the development of the lighting industry. At that time, this technology was used in theaters and shops, in hotels and restaurants.
In the period 1840-1860. many inventors tried to create an incandescent lamp, but over the years none of the attempts made have been crowned with success. We were ready to give up on this idea. However, in 1873 a real breakthrough occurred in this area. Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin invented a light bulb that withstood all the tests. The first lamps burned for about 30 minutes, no longer. Then, to increase the life of the light bulb, they came up with pumping air out of a glass bulb. In 1873, on the streets of St. Petersburg, the first two lamps of A.N. Lodygina caught fire.
In addition, the invention of an incandescent lamp is attributed to Thomas Edison, an American inventor. He created a lamp with the ability to burn for hundreds of hours without losing his energy. I must say that T. Edison knew about the experiments of Lodygin and about the shortcomings of his invention, and therefore he decided to create a more reliable light bulb.
To invent such a lamp, Edison conducted 6, 000 experiments.
In the final design of his lamp, he used carbon fiber, which was made of a strong bamboo hair. During his experiments, T. Edison tested almost all varieties of bamboo. The main thing that was done by this inventor was the opening of the production of light bulbs, which allowed putting this technology on stream.
