THE INCANDESCENT LAMP 197 



little later, in 1880, we also flashed the filaments with gaso- 

 line vapor. 



The furore that followed the announcements from Menlo 

 Park as to the successful subdivision of the electric light in a 

 commercial incandescent lamp will be well remembered by 

 many of the readers of this. The feasibility of such a thing 

 had been denied b}^ some of the greatest minds in electricity, 

 but here it was; and along lines that have endured to this day. 

 The best story at the time was given to the world by the New 

 York Herald in December, 1879, and on Christmas day I had 

 already lighted up my laboratory, my offices, two or three 

 houses about one fifth of a mile from the dynamo plant and 

 some twenty street lights. On the last day of the year some 

 3,000 people flocked out to Menlo Park to see it for themselves 

 — and the rest everybody knows. 



It is interesting to note that in addition to those men- 

 tioned above, I had around me other men who ever since have 

 remained active in the field, such as Messrs. Francis Jehl, 

 W. J. Hammer, Martin Force, Ludwig Boehm, not forgetting 

 that good friend and co-worker, the late John Kruesi. They 

 found plenty to do in the various developments of the art, 

 and as I now look back I sometimes wonder how we did so 

 much in so short a time. Early in the spring of 1880 I lighted 

 up for Mr. Villarcl the Oregon Steam Navigation company's 

 steamer Columbia, and it was not long before the Edison 

 plants began to multiply. Meantime lamp making took on 

 large proportions in two factories of mine, one at the Menlo 

 Park and the other at Newark, and much of my energy was 

 being devoted to cheapening the price of the lamp as well as 

 increasing its life and its candle power per watt. I am told 

 that upon a moderate computation the production of incan- 

 descent lamps in this country since my first success has 

 reached a total of 250,000,000 lamps, or not less than 10,000,- 

 000 a year for each of the 25 years. Essentially, the lamp 

 has remained structurally the same ever since 1879, in the 

 elements then demonstrated to be essentially vital and neces- 

 sary to commercial success. 



