Morning Light Bulbs!

Look at that magical bulb of light that we take for granted.

It signifies a new idea..

A sudden breakthrough..

And being able to stay up into the wee hours of the night tricking your ancient brain into thinking the sun is still out.

Wow.

It’s a crazy invention, really.

And it almost didn’t work at all..

Let’s go to the 1800s. Here’s you:

Ya, the best technology of the time was like a candle.

Maybe an oil lamp.

So inventors all over the world are like:

Okay, try it.

Ya.

These first kind of electric lights, you attach a wire to a power source..

And run electrons through the tiny wire so it heats up and glows with light:

But they burn out immediately..

This is a huge problem!

How do you make a filament – a tiny wire – glow white-hot, without melting or.. burning up??

Oh baby, Tom Edison enters the chat!

So Edison and his team take this filament and test THOUSANDS of materials.

Cotton, bamboo, hair, paper:

They all go up in flames.

So he has an idea..

The filament will be carbonized bamboo:

But most importantly it’s SEALED inside a glass, vacuum bulb.

Aka there’s no oxygen inside:

No way for the filament to combust!!

Stay Lit,
Henry & Dylan 🌈

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Watch it The UNEXPECTED invention of the light bulb..