He worked only upon inventions for which there was a possible
commercial demand and sold them for a trifle to get the money to
meet the pay rolls of his different shops. Later the inventor
learned wisdom and associated with himself keen business men to
their common profit.
* Hendrick, "The Age of Big Business".
Edison set up his laboratories and factories at Menlo Park, New
Jersey, in 1876, and it was there that he invented the
phonograph, for which he received the first patent in 1878. It
was there, too, that he began that wonderful series of
experiments which gave to the world the incandescent lamp. He had
noticed the growing importance of open arc lighting, but was
convinced that his mission was to produce an electric lamp for
use within doors. Forsaking for the moment his newborn
phonograph, Edison applied himself in earnest to the problem of
the lamp. His first search was for a durable filament which would
burn in a vacuum. A series of experiments with platinum wire and
with various refractory metals led to no satisfactory results.
Many other substances were tried, even human hair. Edison
concluded that carbon of some sort was the solution rather than a
metal. Almost coincidently, Swan, an Englishman, who had also
been wrestling with this problem, came to the same conclusion.
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