Con Edison: A Brief History of Con Edison - electricity
While the gas business in New York was well established by the late 1870s, the work of Thomas Edison, the "Wizard of Menlo Park," was soon to cause great changes. Experiments in electric generation had been under way for decades, and by 1878, the Avenue de l'Opera in Paris was lit with electric arc lamps. But arc lamps gave off a harsh light, and while many inventors tried to create a more pleasing and durable light, none met with success until Thomas Edison turned his thorough and methodical attention to the problem. Backed by financiers, including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family, Edison established the Edison Electric Light Company to own and license his patents in the electric light field. After more than a year of experiments, Edison and his young assistant, Francis Upton, finally developed a carbon filament that would burn in a vacuum in a glass bulb for forty hours. They demonstrated the light bulb to their backers early in December 1879, and by the e...
