World History Minute: The rise of the electric lightbulb (Oct. 22, 1879)
World History Minute: The rise of the electric lightbulb (Oct. 22, 1879)
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Late on the evening of October 22, 1879, in a lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison passed an electric current through a piece of carbonized cotton. It started burning brightly, giving off as much light as thirty candles. Historian John Schmidt stops by to tell us how this day changed the world forever.
(Photo: Flickr/Anders Illum)