A World-Hunt For Filament Material - 2

A World-Hunt For Filament Material - 2

 Although Mr. Moore did not meet with the exciting adventures of some subsequent

explorers, he encountered numerous difficulties and novel experiences in his many

months of travel through the hinterland of Japan and China. The attitude toward

foreigners thirty years ago was not as friendly as it has since become, but Edison, as

usual, had made a happy choice of messengers, as Mr. Moore's good nature and

diplomacy attested. These qualities, together with his persistence and perseverance and

faculty of intelligent discrimination in the matter of fibres, helped to make his mission

successful, and gave to him the honor of being the one who found the bamboo which was

adopted for use as filaments in commercial Edison lamps.

Although Edison had satisfied himself that bamboo furnished the most desirable material

thus far discovered for incandescent-lamp filaments, he felt that in some part of the world

there might be found a natural product of the same general character that would furnish a

still more perfect and homogeneous material. In his study of this subject, and during the

prosecution of vigorous and searching inquiries in various directions, he learned that Mr.

John C. Brauner, then residing in Brooklyn, New York, had an expert knowledge of

indigenous plants of the particular kind desired. During the course of a geological survey

which he had made for the Brazilian Government, Mr. Brauner had examined closely the

various species of palms which grow plentifully in that country, and of them there was

one whose fibres he thought would be just what Edison wanted.

Accordingly, Mr. Brauner was sent for and dispatched to Brazil in December, 1880, to

search for and send samples of this and such other palms, fibres, grasses, and canes as, in

his judgment, would be suitable for the experiments then being carried on at Menlo Park.

Landing at Para, he crossed over into the Amazonian province, and thence proceeded

through the heart of the country, making his way by canoe on the rivers and their

tributaries, and by foot into the forests and marshes of a vast and almost untrodden

wilderness. In this manner Mr. Brauner traversed about two thousand miles of the

comparatively unknown interior of Southern Brazil, and procured a large variety of

fibrous specimens, which he shipped to Edison a few months later. When these fibres

arrived in the United States they were carefully tested and a few of them found suitable

but not superior to the Japanese bamboo, which was then being exclusively used in the

manufacture of commercial Edison lamps.

Later on Edison sent out an expedition to explore the wilds of Cuba and Jamaica. A two

months' investigation of the latter island revealed a variety of bamboo growths, of which

a great number of specimens were obtained and shipped to Menlo Park; but on careful

test they were found inferior to the Jap- anese bamboo, and hence rejected. The

exploration of the glades and swamps of Florida by three men extended over a period of

five months in a minute search for fibrous woods of the palmetto species. A great variety

was found, and over five hundred boxes of specimens were shipped to the laboratory

from time to time, but none of them tested out with entirely satisfactory results.

The use of Japanese bamboo for carbon filaments was therefore continued in the

manufacture of lamps, although an incessant search was maintained for a still more

perfect material. The spirit of progress, so pervasive in Edison's character, led him,

however, to renew his investigations further afield by sending out two other men to

examine the bamboo and similar growths of those parts of South America not covered by

Mr. Brauner. These two men were Frank McGowan and C. F. Hanington, both of whom

had been for nearly seven years in the employ of the Edison Electric Light Company in

New York. The former was a stocky, rugged Irishman, possessing the native shrewdness

and buoyancy of his race, coupled with undaunted courage and determination; and the

latter was a veteran of the Civil War, with some knowledge of forest and field, acquired

as a sportsman. They left New York in September, 1887, arriving in due time at Para,

proceeding thence twenty- three hundred miles up the Amazon River to Iquitos. Nothing

of an eventful nature occurred during this trip, but on arrival at Iquitos the two men

separated; Mr. McGowan to explore on foot and by canoe in Peru, Ecuador, and

Colombia, while Mr. Hanington returned by the Amazon River to Para. Thence

Hanington went by steamer to Montevideo, and by similar conveyance up the River de la

Plata and through Uruguay, Argentine, and Paraguay to the southernmost part of Brazil,

collecting a large number of specimens of palms and grasses.