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Edison "New Year's Eve" Lamp

National Museum of American History

Object Details

Edison, Thomas Alva
Description
On December 31, 1879, Thomas Edison invited the world to his Menlo Park laboratory for a demonstration of his new lighting system. He and his team lighted the laboratory, the office, the grounds, and the boarding house across the street with about 100 incandescent lamps. This is one of the lamps from that demonstration. Fitted with a filament made of Bristol-board, the lamp could operate for about 125 hours, long enough for a demonstration but not for a commercial product. Edison’s began selling an improved lamp in early 1880 that used a bamboo filament and operated for about 600 hours.
Credit Line
from Frank A. Wardlaw, Jr. and Frank A. Wardlaw
1879
ID Number
EM.310578.01
catalog number
310578.01
accession number
123470
Object Name
Light Bulb
incandescent lamp
Physical Description
carbon (overall material)
glass (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 7 in x 3 in; 17.78 cm x 7.62 cm
See more items in
Work and Industry: Electricity
Exhibition
Lighting a Revolution
Exhibition Location
National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History
Record ID
nmah_995925
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a8-456c-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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