Dramatic Flair

Even though Edison was building the "electric candle" on the proven ground of gas lighting which had subdivided light and already tested the market, he needed to provide a cheaper, better substitute for the dangerous gas light.  Being Edison, he was confident he could, and it would be a total system.  He couldn't just solve one problem, he had to solve them all at the same time.

He set about using advertising to showcase his idea and his success, and gain investors, on the front page of the New York Herald on December 21, 1879:

                              EDISON'S LIGHT THE GREAT INVENTOR'S TRIUMPH
                                            IN ELECTRIC ILLUMINATION
                                                   A SCRAP OF PAPER
              IT MAKES A LIGHT WITHOUT GAS OR FLAME, CHEAPER THAN OIL
                                       SUCCESS WITH A COTTON THREAD

The reporter added the dramatic with his story of applying an electrical current to that tiny "scrap of paper that a breath would blow away" and how it produced "a bright beautiful light like the mellow sunset of an Italian autumn." 

Edison announced that Menlo Park would be illuminated by "magical new lighting" on New Year's Eve 1886.  In the week between Christmas and New Year's crowds came in droves to see Edison's light of the future.  Forty incandescent bulbs from a single electric generator amazed the visitors - not just the lights themselves but the fact that they could turn off and on instantly!  America was not only amazed, they were ready for electric light!

Next time...Keeping the lights on
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Today in Pioneer History: "On April 20, 1841, the first detective story is published by Edgar Allen Poe - "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."  The story describes the extraordinary analytical powers used by Monsieur C Augusta Dupin to solve a series of murders in Paris.