Backstage

Backstage Flashback Premier Edition

Our recent power issues in the northeast got me thinking... (ok, I know it went out to the midwest too, but I don't live there, so it really just didn't matter much to me) (and actually my power was out for all of about 30 seconds, but damn was it strange looking at the NYC skyline I've lived most of my life around completely dark) What was I thinking about?.. Well electric light naturally... So in honor of that flashback to the days when I had to study the history of light, specifically theatre related...

Welcome to the first installment of Backstage Flashback

Thomas Edison did not actually invent the light bulb...  What he did was to buy the patent from a couple guys up in Canada for their electric light source... They had a nice idea, but it wasn't a practicle one when they figured it out.  Edison figured out several things...

• A fairly stable filiment (in this case carbonized sewing thread that burned for something like 13 hours)


• A better vacum inside the envelope (now isn't that just a fancy way to talk about the glass bulb)


• How to make a reliable socket and switch practicle for home use (as opposed to the scary stuff they'd use in the lab)

Edison also figured out and developed a good amount of the transmission and distributionaspects. (hey, he was in the business of making money through invention)  So he developed underground transmission systems, switches, the theory of a parallel circuit, (I kinda question that one as there were arc lights out for ages before Edison was around... but I never managed to dig up any earlier mention of such a thing) Ways to boost voltage periodically as it fell off, (he was the proponent of DC, not AC, so it drops off very quickly at distance) better dynamos (remember, DC.. not AC... not alternating generators for him) and of course, he figured out how to bill people for everything... (for those of you in the NY area, Con Ed is the short form of Consolidated Edison)

Next on Backstage Flashback, we'll follow the compition between Edison and Westinghouse for who was producing a better technology, DC or AC, and how they tried to prove it