The age of Edison : electric light and the invention of modern America / Ernest Freeberg.
2013
T173.4 .F74 2013 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
The age of Edison : electric light and the invention of modern America / Ernest Freeberg.
Author
Freeberg, Ernest.
ISBN
9781594204265 hardcover
1594204268 hardcover
1594204268 hardcover
Published
New York : The Penguin Press, 2013.
Language
English
Description
354 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.
Call Number
T173.4 .F74 2013
Dewey Decimal Classification
303.48/3097309034
Summary
"The late nineteenth century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but arguably the most important invention of all was Thomas Edison's incandescent lightbulb. Unveiled in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory in 1879, the lightbulb overwhelmed the American public with the sense of the birth of a new age. More than any other invention, the electric light marked the arrival of modernity. The lightbulb became a catalyst for the nation's transformation from a rural to an urban-dominated culture. City streetlights defined zones between rich and poor, and the electrical grid sharpened the line between town and country. "Bright lights" meant "big city." Like moths to a flame, millions of Americans migrated to urban centers in these decades, leaving behind the shadow of candle and kerosene lamp in favor of the exciting brilliance of the urban streetscape. The Age of Edison places the story of Edison's invention in the context of a technological revolution that transformed America and Europe in these decades. Edison and his fellow inventors emerged from a culture shaped by broad public education, a lively popular press that took an interest in science and technology, and an American patent system that encouraged innovation and democratized the benefits of invention. And in the end, as Freeberg shows, Edison's greatest invention was not any single technology, but rather his reinvention of the process itself. At Menlo Park he gathered the combination of capital, scientific training, and engineering skill that would evolve into the modern research and development laboratory. His revolutionary electrical grid not only broke the stronghold of gas companies, but also ushered in an era when strong, clear light could become accessible to everyone. In The Age of Edison, Freeberg weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural America, tracing the progress of electric light through the reactions of everyone who saw it. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility, in which the greater forces of progress and change are made visible by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects. "-- Provided by publisher.
"The Age of Edison places the story of Edison's invention in the context of a technological revolution that transformed America and Europe in these decades. Edison and his fellow inventors emerged from a culture shaped by broad public education, a lively popular press that took an interest in science and technology, and an American patent system that encouraged innovation and democratized the benefits of invention. And in the end, as Freeberg shows, Edison's greatest invention was not any single technology, but rather his reinvention of the process itself. At Menlo Park he gathered the combination of capital, scientific training, and engineering skill that would evolve into the modern research and development laboratory. His revolutionary electrical grid not only broke the stronghold of gas companies, but also ushered in an era when strong, clear light could become accessible to everyone"-- Provided by publisher.
"The Age of Edison places the story of Edison's invention in the context of a technological revolution that transformed America and Europe in these decades. Edison and his fellow inventors emerged from a culture shaped by broad public education, a lively popular press that took an interest in science and technology, and an American patent system that encouraged innovation and democratized the benefits of invention. And in the end, as Freeberg shows, Edison's greatest invention was not any single technology, but rather his reinvention of the process itself. At Menlo Park he gathered the combination of capital, scientific training, and engineering skill that would evolve into the modern research and development laboratory. His revolutionary electrical grid not only broke the stronghold of gas companies, but also ushered in an era when strong, clear light could become accessible to everyone"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-341) and index.
Series
Penguin history of American life.
Linked Resources
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Record Appears in
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Table of Contents
Inventing Edison
Inventing electric light
Civic light
Creative destruction: Edison and the gas companies
Work light
Leisure light
Inventive nation
Looking at inventions, inventing new ways of looking
Inventing a profession
The light of civilization
Exuberance and order
Illumination science
Rural light
Electric light's golden jubilee.
Inventing electric light
Civic light
Creative destruction: Edison and the gas companies
Work light
Leisure light
Inventive nation
Looking at inventions, inventing new ways of looking
Inventing a profession
The light of civilization
Exuberance and order
Illumination science
Rural light
Electric light's golden jubilee.