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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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Collection
Call No.
Item type
Status
Central Library
Adult Nonfiction
621.3092 F853a
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Halifax North Memorial Public Library
Adult Nonfiction
621.3092 F853a
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