Edison by Quincy Shaw

Author:Quincy Shaw [Quincy Shaw]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography/Science and Technology
ISBN: 9781612309705
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2016-08-09T16:00:00+00:00

But the word was out, and the public demanded a demonstration of Edison’s epic new invention, whether or not Edison was ready to give them one. In the final days of 1879, thousands of spectators traveled to snow-covered Menlo Park to gawk at the lamps - and at their creator. Special trains were added to bring in the sightseers. What they saw was a generator powering a few dozen lights. It was only a glimpse into an electric future, but the crowd was thrilled nonetheless.

On New Year’s Eve, 3,000 people traipsed through Edison’s lab and the generator shed, some dressed in formal attire more suited to a Manhattan soiree than a scientific demonstration in rural New Jersey. This time, Edison put on quite a show, as the Herald reported: “The laboratory was brilliantly illuminated with twenty-five electric lamps, the office and counting room with eight, and twenty others were distributed in the street leading to the depot and some adjoining houses. The entire system was explained in detail by Edison and his assistants, and the light subjected to a variety of tests . . . Many had come in the expectation of seeing a dignified, elegantly dressed person, and were much surprised to find a simple young man attired in the homeliest manner, using for his explanations not high sounding technical terms, but the plainest and simplest language.”

Despite Fabbri’s misgivings, the demonstration was a resounding success. Early in 1880, the investors put up another $57,568 to underwrite Edison’s plan to build a preliminary power station and network, complete with insulated copper wires installed underground. If all went well, that system would be a precursor to a much larger undertaking: the electrification of ten city blocks in lower Manhattan.

In April, Edison latched onto a new opportunity to show off his lighting system. One of his investors, Henry Villard, president of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, was building a steamship - the Columbia - in New York and asked Edison if he would install an electric lighting system on board. Edison outfitted the ship with four dynamos and wired 115 lamps. The ship sailed around Cape Horn to California, a voyage of two months. Despite prophecies, no fire broke out at sea, and the ship arrived in San Francisco with all its lamps still aglow after 415 hours of use.

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