Thomas Edison experimented with thousands of different filaments on the path to his goal of creating long-lasting, sufficient light.

In 1879, Edison discovered that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb not only glowed, but also burned for up to 40 hours. At his New Jersey laboratory on December 31, after years of work and thousands of experiments, Edison demonstrated for the first time to the public his incandescent lighting system. Not only did he produce a long lasting electric light bulb that gave off ample light during the night, but he had invented an electric lighting system; one that contained all the necessary elements to make incandescent light safe, practical, and economical.

Edison went on to eventually construct a bulb that could glow for over 1500 hours. His light bulb had profoundly changed human existence. It illuminated the night and made possible human activity like never before. When Thomas Edison was born, society thought of electricity as a craze, an innovation never to be accessible to all. By the time he died, entire cities were lit by electricity.

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