Thomas Edison was a man who loved to learn. When he was younger, he read all the time. He was also the man who innovated the incandescent electric light bulb. His innovation created a society fully operational at all hours, and no longer depending on candles for light.

I call it... The lightbulb!

Edison successfully created and patented the light bulb in 1879 in his workshop in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It took him over one thousand tries to create one that worked and created light for a sustained amount of time. That light bulb went through several improvements and later changed how people used electricity.

Thomas Edison did not just come across a solution one day. It took him years of hard work to find the correct filament for the light bulb. Some of his motivations were ...

Society

Thomas Edison disliked that the world was almost completely dependent upon candles for light. He wanted to create a sustainable light source that people could use for more than a few hours, and at a cheap cost.

Competition

Many people were trying to create a light bulb at the time, but many designs were too expensive, and only lit up for a few seconds. Edison knew that he could create a better design that would be cheap and stay lit for a long time, running completely on electricity.

Funding

J.P. Morgan, a famous investor at the time, agreed to fund Edison’s project and gave him the capital to create his light bulb and start the Edison General Electric Company, which sold many of Thomas Edison’s inventions, including the light bulb.