Mr. Edison's Light Bulb

You may want to read a related post: "Get motivated by failure" on 4/11/09 first.

Thomas Edison was a great inventor. He didn't invent the light bulb. He perfected it.

The first light bulb was invented by Humpry Davy in 1809. Herman Sprengel invented a vacuum pump that allowed a good vacuum to be created inside a light bulb. Sir Joseph William Swan invented the first practical light bulb in 1878 (13.5 hour life).

So what did Edison do? He made significant improvements to the bulb filaments, extending the 13.5 hours of Swan. First to 40 hours, then 100, and later to 1500 hours.

To do that, Edison and his team experimented with literally thousands of different filament materials including no fewer 6,000 vegetable growths. And he looked at test failures in just the right way. When challenged on results he said: "Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...." (emphasis mine).

"The electric light has caused me the greatest amount of study and has required the most elaborate experiments.... Although I was never myself discouraged or hopeless of its success, I can not say the same for my associates.... Through all of the years of experimenting with it, I never once made an associated discovery. It was deductive... The results I achieved were the consequence of invention - pure and simple. I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems." (emphasis mine).

As one of the great inventors of his time, Thomas Edison had many more valuable quotes for us. You can see them by Clicking here to visit thomasedison.com

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