A long long time ago in the 1870’s a smart and successful man named Thomas Edison came up with a new idea for innovation.

It would change the oil lamp-filled world that he lived in forever.

Describing Innovation

Thomas Edison has come up with a ton of new ideas, do you want to be like him?

He innovated the first incandescent light bulb. The light bulb uses energy to create a source of light, that can be turned on and off safely in houses. His innovation had a strong and durable incandescent material, a better vacuum in the bulb, and a filament material of very high resistance. The bulb uses a carbonized bamboo filament that can last over 1200 hours. The bulb uses energy and turns it into heat, making the light.

Describing Innovation

1200 hours, that's A LOT of time! His innovation to the light bulb made it so much better!

Before Thomas Edison could innovate the light bulb, he needed someone to invent it. He needed someone like  Alessandro Volta from the early 1800’s to create one of the first forms of generating electricity. He also needed someone like Humphry Davy to make the first electric lamp.

Hmmmmm how can I make a incandescent light?

Causes

Second, he had to find a filament that would last long enough, because he didn't want the light to run out too fast. He found a carbonized bamboo filament that could last over 1200 hours. That finding was huge and helped bring the light bulb to the market.

Finally! A filament that can last longer, 1200 hours is about 50 days worth of light!

Causes

Finally, Thomas Edison was able to make the light bulb much cheaper, it was still expensive at around 1 dollar or so, but it was much cheaper than any other light bulb at the time. Making is explode in the market.

Causes

1 dollar is about 23 dollars in today’s world. For some people, that would be worth a full day of work!

Hey guys! I need to have some money for my invention, the light bulb. It may be a risk to invest. But trust me, I firmly believe that the light bulb will be the greatest innovation ever!

You know, maybe he is right. Maybe I should invest!

He had some slight help from J.P. Morgan, the man who invested and gave him money to work on his inventions because he did not have much capital. Once he got money, it lead to the light bulb.

You know what, I will invest!