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Freeberg, Ernest.
Subjects
Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931.
Technological innovations -- United States -- History.
Technological innovations -- Social aspects
Electric lighting -- History.
Browse Catalog
by author:
Freeberg, Ernest.
by title:
The age of Edison : ...
by call number:
621.3092 F853a
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Freeberg, Ernest.
Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931.
Technological innovations -- United States -- History.
Technological innovations -- Social aspects
Electric lighting -- History.
MARC Display
The
age
of
Edison
:
electric
light
and the
invention
of
modern
America
/ Ernest Freeberg.
by
Freeberg, Ernest.
Penguin Press, 2013.
Call #:
621.3092 F853a
Subjects
Edison
, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931.
Technological innovations -- United States -- History.
Technological innovations -- Social aspects
Electric
lighting -- History.
Series
Penguin history of American life.
ISBN:
9781594204265 (hardback)
1594204268 (hardback)
Description:
354 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Bibliography:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Inventing
Edison
-- Inventing
electric
light
-- Civic
light
-- Creative destruction:
Edison
and the gas companies -- Work
light
-- Leisure
light
-- Inventive nation -- Looking at inventions, inventing new ways of looking -- Inventing a profession -- The
light
of civilization -- Exuberance and order -- Illumination science -- Rural
light
--
Electric
light
's golden jubilee.
Summary:
The late nineteenth century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but arguably the most important
invention
of all was Thomas
Edison
's incandescent lightbulb. Unveiled in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory in 1879, the lightbulb overwhelmed the American public with the sense of the birth of a new
age
. More than any other
invention
, the
electric
light
marked the arrival of modernity. The lightbulb became a catalyst for the nation's transformation from a rural to an urban-dominated culture.
Electric
light
changed the pace of city life and the nature of work and play, and stimulated countless innovations that changed every aspect of American life, from sleep patterns to surgery, shopping to waging war. City streetlights defined zones between rich and poor, and the electrical grid sharpened the line between town and country. "Bright lights" meant "big city." Like moths to a flame, millions of Americans migrated to urban centers in these decades, leaving behind the shadow of candle and kerosene lamp in favor of the exciting brilliance of the urban streetscape. This book places the story of
Edison
's
invention
in the context of a technological revolution that transformed
America
and Europe in these decades.
Edison
and his fellow inventors emerged from a culture shaped by broad public education, a lively popular press that took an interest in science and technology, and an American patent system that encouraged innovation and democratized the benefits of
invention
. And in the end, as the author shows,
Edison
's greatest
invention
was not any single technology, but rather his reinvention of the process itself. At Menlo Park he gathered the combination of capital, scientific training, and engineering skill that would evolve into the
modern
research and development laboratory. His revolutionary electrical grid not only broke the stronghold of gas companies, but also ushered in an era when strong, clear
light
could become accessible to everyone. Here the author weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural
America
, tracing the progress of
electric
light
through the reactions of everyone who saw it. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility, in which the greater forces of progress and change are made visible by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects.
Holds:
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Copy/Holding information
Location
Collection
Call No.
Item type
Status
Central Library
Adult Nonfiction
621.3092 F853a
Adult books
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Halifax North Memorial Public Library
Adult Nonfiction
621.3092 F853a
Adult books
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