Inventing A Complete System Of Lighting - 10

  Inventing A Complete System Of Lighting - 10

 Quite naturally most of these patents cover inventions that are in the nature of

improvements or based upon devices which he had already created; but there are a

number that relate to inventions absolutely fundamental and original in their nature.

Some of these have already been alluded to; but among the others there is one which is

worthy of special mention in connection with the present consideration of a complete

system. This is patent No. 274,290, applied for November 27, 1882, and is known as the

"Three-wire" patent. It is described more fully in the Appendix.

The great importance of the "Feeder" and "Three- wire" inventions will be apparent when

it is realized that without them it is a question whether electric light could be sold to

compete with low-priced gas, on account of the large investment in conductors that

would be necessary. If a large city area were to be lighted from a central station by means

of copper conductors running directly therefrom to all parts of the district, it would be

necessary to install large conductors, or suffer such a drop of pressure at the ends most

remote from the station as to cause the lights there to burn with a noticeable diminution

of candle-power. The Feeder invention overcame this trouble, and made it possible to use

conductors ONLY ONE-EIGHTH THE SIZE that would otherwise have been necessary

to produce the same results.

A still further economy in cost of conductors was effected by the "Three-wire" invention,

by the use of which the already diminished conductors could be still further reduced TO

ONE-THIRD of this smaller size, and at the same time allow of the successful operation

of the station with far better results than if it were operated exactly as at first conceived.

The Feeder and Three-wire systems are at this day used in all parts of the world, not only

in central-station work, but in the installation and operation of isolated electric-light

plants in large buildings. No sensible or efficient station manager or electric contractor

would ever think of an installation made upon any other plan. Thus Mr. Edison's early

conceptions of the necessities of a complete system, one of them made even in advance

of practice, have stood firm, unimproved, and unchanged during the past twenty- eight

years, a period of time which has witnessed more wonderful and rapid progress in

electrical science and art than has been known during any similar art or period of time

since the world began.

It must be remembered that the complete system in all its parts is not comprised in the

few of Mr. Edison's patents, of which specific mention is here made. In order to

comprehend the magnitude and extent of his work and the quality of his genius, it is

necessary to examine minutely the list of patents issued for the various elements which

go to make up such a system. To attempt any relation in detail of the conception and

working-out of each part or element; to enter into any description of the almost

innumerable experiments and investigations that were made would entail the writing of

several volumes, for Mr. Edison's close-written note-books covering these subjects

number nearly two hundred.

It is believed that enough evidence has been given in this chapter to lead to an

appreciation of the assiduous work and practical skill involved in "inventing a system" of

lighting that would surpass, and to a great extent, in one single quarter of a century,

supersede all the other methods of illumination developed during long centuries. But it

will be ap- propriate before passing on to note that on January 17, 1908, while this

biography was being written, Mr. Edison became the fourth recipient of the John Fritz

gold medal for achievement in industrial progress. This medal was founded in 1902 by

the professional friends and associates of the veteran American ironmaster and

metallurgical inventor, in honor of his eightieth birthday. Awards are made by a board of

sixteen engineers appointed in equal numbers from the four great national engineering

societies --the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Mining

Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute of

Electrical Engineers, whose membership embraces the very pick and flower of

professional engineering talent in America. Up to the time of the Edison award, three

others had been made. The first was to Lord Kelvin, the Nestor of physics in Europe, for

his work in submarine-cable telegraphy and other scientific achievement. The second was

to George Westinghouse for the air-brake. The third was to Alexander Graham Bell for

the invention and introduction of the telephone. The award to Edison was not only for his

inventions in duplex and quadruplex telegraphy, and for the phonograph, but for the

development of a commercially practical incandescent lamp, and the development of a

complete system of electric lighting, including dynamos, regulating devices, underground

system, protective devices, and meters. Great as has been the genius brought to bear on

electrical development, there is no other man to whom such a comprehensive tribute

could be paid.