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Power Generation and Delivery System |
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Edison Dynamo |
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Original Artifacts from Edison General Electric |
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Filament and Incandescent Electric Light |
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Model of Electric Distribution System |
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Principles of Dynamo |
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Home Electrical Appliances of Edison's Time and Today |
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Development of Alkaline Storage Battery |
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Direct vs. Alternating Current |
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Edison Effect |
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Research of Electric Vehicle |
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| Power Generation and Delivery System |
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Edison was clearly different from other contemporary inventors in that he foresaw the need for the electrical power supply system and accompanying services in order to provide electricity on a large scale. In order to develop this system, he invented a wide range of products from dynamos, electric power transmission cables, power supply panels, plugs, fuses, switches, screwed-in sockets, electricity meters and other parts and devices which facilitated the use of electricity. He also founded a electric power supply company- behind all this was Edison's unchanging attitude that it was necessary to design new products and services in such a way that anyone could use them without any specialist knowledge. |
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| Edison Dynamo |
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The splendour of Edison's inventions can be found in all devices for the electric light. Edison's Dynamo is one of them. He combined two dynamos, setting the voltage at 110v and 220v and used direct three-phase current to supply electricity- a system which manifested itself as one of his great inventions. |
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| Original Artifacts from Edison General Electric |
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TEPIA has collected a wide array of Edison artifacts and other electrical artifacts. Some of the items on display include different electrical sockets and materials used for incandescent light bulb filaments. |
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| Filament & Incandescent Electric Light |
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On experimenting with the incandescent light bulb, Edison tested a large number of materials to produce a filament that did not melt at high temperature. He tested a number of metals, animal furs and skins, and more than 6,000 kinds of plants, and left detailed experiment notes on the results. When the members of staff at the laboratory were on the verge of giving up, Edison always encouraged them, saying "The more we fail the closer we are to success. We are lucky if we get one success out of 100 trials. Never give up!!" |
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Edison Incandescent Light: 1879
On October 19, 1879, Edison made the first incandescent light bulb. That same year, he founded the Edison Lamp Company to produce the light bulbs.
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First Japanese Manufactured Electric Light: 1890
Ichisuke Fujioka manufactured the first electric light in Japan in 1890. That same August, bamboo grown in Japan was used for a filament.
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Double Coil Electric Light: 1921
For the first time in the world, Junichi Miyura began the manufacture of the double coiled filament light bulb. This type uses less energy, and produces the same amount of light. Because of this efficiency, its use spread quickly throughout the world.
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Frosted Glass 100W Light Bulb (1925)
For the first time in history, Kyozo Fuwa (Toshiba) developed the frosted glass light bulb which helped diminish the brightness. It is marked as one of the five greatest light bulb inventions.
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Flashlight Bulb for Photography (1931)
The first flashlight bulb in Japan, developed by Toshiba using alminium foil. Until then, magnesium powder had been burnt to aid photography, but the arrival of this new bulb resolved the problem of noise, heat and smoke --it then became so easy for everyone to use flash.
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Wartime Brightness Control Light Bulb (1933)
The light bulb was developed during the wartime, to keep the brightness down when bomber aircrafts flew in.
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Standard Light Bulb for International Luminousity Alignment (1955)
Due to the necessity to standardize luminousity, this light bulb was selected to serve as the standard by the International Department of Measurement. Its stability to maintain and generate the standard 2042k is unrivalled. It is still in use in a number of countries across the world.
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Wedgebase Bulb (1963)
Japan's first claspless bulb marketed by Toshiba. Highly reliable, its applications are diverse from the meter panel display in cars, to display lights.
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Bulb-Shaped Fluorescent Lamp "Neo Ball" (1980)
This bulb-shaped fluorescent lamp saves a considerable amount of energy without entirely losing the characteristics of the incandescent light. It can be installed in any incandescent light equipment. Compared to the conventional incandescent light bulb, it only uses one third of the electricity, radiates only a quarter of the heat and lasts three times as long. A highly economical light bulb.
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| Model of Electric Distribution System |
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Many people tend to think of Edison inventing only the incandescent light bulb. In fact, Edison invented an entire system of distributing electricity in order to make home incandescent lighting practical and affordable. On display here is a model of Edison's electric distribtion system. It was a very clever system. And when the switch is thrown, watch all of the lights in the little village come to life! |
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| The Principle of Dynamo |
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If you put a copper cable around a metal bar, make a coil and turn it between permanent magnets, you can generate electricity. When one end of the coil passes the north pole, the magnetic fields are disturbed and electricity is generated. When the coil leaves the north pole, there is no more electric current. When the coil approaches the south pole, the electric current is reversed. |
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Michael Faraday of England discovered the priciple of electro-magnetic induction, demonstrating that an electric currenct could be produced by thrusting a magnet into a coil of wire and withdrawing it thus giving birth to the dynamo and the transformer and bringing immeasurably many benefits to the modern society. Edison learnt about electricity when he as a young telegrapher wandered around Canada and the United States. He read Faraday's first volume of "Experimental Researches in Electricity and Magnetism," a pervasive influence which was a definitive role model for Edison as his working methodology coalesced. Edison began keeping a "common place book", whereby he took notes of quotations and questions arising from this learning. |
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| Home Electrical Appliances of Edison's Time and Today |
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The phonograph, electric light, telephone and kinetoscope are one of the well known inventions by Edison, but there were many more practical inventions at Edison's company, ranging from home electric appliances such as the electric fan, iron, heater, and toaster to office tools such as the mimeograph, typewriter and the microphone. Edison believed in providing practical commodities to general city dwellers at reasonable prices- revised and improved, these products still enrich our lifestyle in the 20th century. In this sense, Edison was indeed the founder of "General Electric". Not only that, he had other striking futuristic ideas like colour photographs, solar batteries, photocopier and faximille, to spaceships and sleep inducing machine. |
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| Development of Alkaline Storage Battery |
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In those days, the major means of transport was horse-drawn vehicle. There were carriages filling the streets of big cities like New York. Edison was offering his heartfelt encouragement to Ford to develop the gasoline automobile, but Edison's own prediction was that the electrically driven trucks would be the future means of transport. For 9 years since 1900, he spent much money and effort in research and development for the conventional lead battery, trying to integrate it into cars.
The electrolyte storage battery (E-type battery) that Edison first invented, was sold on premises that it was cheap, efficient and safe. However there were structural failures so Edison had to redesign it, using thin nickel wafers for noncorroding plates and establishing a constant chemical reaction that would not wear down the components, and could be replanished with plain water, the clear goals being longer life, durability, safety and a much more efficient weight-to-energy ratio. The batteries used today are mostly lead batteries, and Edison's battery (alkaline battery) is used only in specific areas like the motor for the electric vehicle and safety lamps inside mines. They should be selectively used for matching purposes. Here are some details of where alkaline and lead battery should be used.
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New Electricity Storage Battery
The nickel iron battery HER 60-10 is a new battery developed in cooperation with Kansai Electric Power (Kansai Denryoku) for electric cars. It has the following characteristics.
- High energy density with respect to weight.
- Heat is efficiently released due to the cylindrical metal battery container
- High resilience against the rise of the internal pressure
- Long lasting
- works efficiently regardless of alignment
Japan Battery Corporation
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Nickel iron battery for electric cars
This electric car nickel iron battery uses nickel for the positive electrode, iron for the negative, and alkaline catalyst mainly consisting of hydroacidic potassium for the electrolyte. With the following characteristics, this battery serves to improve the abilities of the electric car.
- Higher energy density than the lead battery, which means the electric car can cover a longer distance.
- The battery stands up to excessive charge and discharge of electricity.
- Long lasting
- The use of iron for the negative electrode is eco-friendly, and the iron is rich in resources.
- No malfunction under a low temperature
Furukawa Battery
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| Direct Current vs. Alternating Current and Nicola Tesla |
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Direct Current of the species exclusively espoused by Edison required operation at low voltages in order to be effective and avoid potentially dangerous sparking between dynamo brushes and commutator. In Nikola Tesla's prototype, the current alternated in direction as the dynamo armature revolved. This method of generating electricity was far more effective and inexpensive for electric power transmission over long distances, measured in hundreds of miles as opposed to Edison's direct current, whose range was limited to the length of city blocks.
Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943) originally joined the Compagnie Continentale Edison in Paris in 1882. He became intrigued by electrical machinery and continued advanced studies in electrical engineering. He bore ideas and personalities that were somewhat opposite of Edison, and their relationship did not last long. Because of critical differences in their views of electrical supply system, Tesla bid farewell to Edison. Tesla's big breakthrough came in the spring of 1888, when he was invited to deliver a keynote speech describing his reseach before the American Institute of Electrical Enginners. His lecture attracted the attention of George Westinghouse; he hired Tesla and together they developed the alternating current system.
Edison's persistent support for the direct currency system may be considered as a mistake, but his choice was natural and understandable in his days. Today the direct current is back in use again, in areas such as solar batteries, fuel batteries and superconductivity. |
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| Edison Effect |
| In 1883, Edison was in the midst of the incandescent light bulb research. During an experiment, he noticed that only one side of the glass bulb was blackened. The bulb contained a filament. He assumed that there were small particles shooting out of the filament and adhering to the glass. |
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Replica of Fleming's Valve (cyrindrical anode): made in U.S.A.
In 1904, Fleming, an Englishman working on his wireless electro-magnetic wave detector, discovered that the device received electro-magnetic wave when he used an Edison Effect light bulb. The inner structure of this replica is similar to that of the valve produced for Fleming by a bulb manufacturer. A cylindrical anode surrounds the hoof-shaped filament. Heat electrons released from the heated filament reaches the anode only when the anode is positive against the filament (negative electrode), thereby generating an electric current from the anode to the filament. This detection effect serves to detect signal components from wireless wave.
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Replica of Fleming's Valve (Split anode): Made in U.S.A.
Like the cylindrical anode, this is a recently manufactured replica. There are two metal plates on each side of the hoofed filament, which implies that it was probably manufactured later than the cylindrical anode. The glass container is cyrindrical. However in Fleming's sketches and photographs, many are in spherical or pear-shaped. The name "valve" hails from the fact that the electric current flows in only one direction in contrast to the 2-way voltage between the anode and the filament. The use of the two electrodes gives its another name "diode." It is the pioneer of the vacuum tube, but it could not enhance signals, and was soon replaced by triodes.
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Spherical Audion
At the same time as Fleming, De Foret, who was working on the wireless electro-magnetic wave detector in America, discovered that with the ionised flame, the detector received electro-magnetic wave. He conducted a similar experiment replacing the flame with a light bulb as a safer heat source. By the end of 1906, he placed "the 3rd electrode" between the filament and the anode, which looked similar to the Fleming Valve, and had a great success. This third terminal was a jagged copper cable enabling easier permiation of electrons- it was named grid because it looked like a grid to grill fish. With the control effect of the grid which enabled signal enhancing, the triode became the pioneer of the electronics age. This sample is a product from 1910.
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| Research of Electric Vehicle |
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Edison and his team were carrying out research on the electric automobile, powered by the storage battery. He invested a vast amount of money and time to improve the quality of the battery. He completed the E-type storage battery, which was lighter and safer than the ones before. However, Henry Ford's automobile, the petroleum T-type Ford, gained popularity all across America and Edison's passion for the electric automobile gradually diminished. It is intesting to see that nearly a century later, a number of automobile manufacturers are eagerly promoting research on the electric automobile again. What would Edison say to this? |
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