Robert Friedel is a professor of history of technology and science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book is A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium. Paul Israel is the director and general editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is the author of Edison: A Life of Invention and the coeditor of the multivolume The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Quite readable... Friedel and Israel provide a good description of the process of inventing a functional, marketable incandescent light bulb as well as an electric power grid. Choice Any library strong in scientific inventions and the process of theories and exploration will find this a winning survey. Midwest Book Review 2011

• Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition1. "A Big Bonanza"2. "The Throes of Invention"The Search for a Vacuum3. "Some Difficult Requirements"Carbon and the Incandescent Lamp4. The Triumph of CarbonWho Invented the Incandescent Lamp?5. Business and ScienceThe Menlo Park Mystique6. A System Complete7. Promises FulfilledAfterwordA Note from the Authors with AcknowledgmentsNotesRecommended Additional ReadingIndex

Robert Friedel is a professor of history of technology and science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book is A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium. Paul Israel is the director and general editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is the author of Edison: A Life of Invention and the coeditor of the multivolume The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Quite readable... Friedel and Israel provide a good description of the process of inventing a functional, marketable incandescent light bulb as well as an electric power grid. Choice Any library strong in scientific inventions and the process of theories and exploration will find this a winning survey. Midwest Book Review 2011

• Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition1. "A Big Bonanza"2. "The Throes of Invention"The Search for a Vacuum3. "Some Difficult Requirements"Carbon and the Incandescent Lamp4. The Triumph of CarbonWho Invented the Incandescent Lamp?5. Business and ScienceThe Menlo Park Mystique6. A System Complete7. Promises FulfilledAfterwordA Note from the Authors with AcknowledgmentsNotesRecommended Additional ReadingIndex

Robert Friedel is a professor of history of technology and science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book is A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium. Paul Israel is the director and general editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is the author of Edison: A Life of Invention and the coeditor of the multivolume The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Quite readable... Friedel and Israel provide a good description of the process of inventing a functional, marketable incandescent light bulb as well as an electric power grid. Choice Any library strong in scientific inventions and the process of theories and exploration will find this a winning survey. Midwest Book Review 2011

• Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition1. "A Big Bonanza"2. "The Throes of Invention"The Search for a Vacuum3. "Some Difficult Requirements"Carbon and the Incandescent Lamp4. The Triumph of CarbonWho Invented the Incandescent Lamp?5. Business and ScienceThe Menlo Park Mystique6. A System Complete7. Promises FulfilledAfterwordA Note from the Authors with AcknowledgmentsNotesRecommended Additional ReadingIndex