WEST ORANGE, N.J. -- At the Edison National Historic Site, archivist Leonard DeGraaf oversees a vast collection of artifacts from the great inventor's work, including early examples of the incandescent light bulb that first lit the world more than a century ago.
Since December, when Congress mandated the phase-out of such bulbs, DeGraaf has heard and read suggestions that Edison, were he alive, would be upset that one of his most famous devices was destined to be just a museum showpiece. The process has even begun in Edison's last hometown, which is encouraging residents to replace his invention with energy-efficient bulbs.
But this wouldn't necessary upset Edison, said DeGraaf.
"We are living in a different kind of environment today, and Edison was all about innovation," said DeGraaf, whose collection includes a nearly intact lab where Edison and his staff worked on such staples of everyday life as the storage battery, motion picture camera and improvements to the phonograph.
The simple incandescent bulb, which casts light when electricity passes through a filament, holds a special place in the hearts of staff and visitors to the site. Here, Edison continued meticulous research to refine the invention, which originally used Japanese bamboo as a filament. The lab where he first developed prototypes for the bulb no longer exists, but its location, about 20 miles south, is commemorated with a memorial tower capped by a giant bulb.
Edison positioned his electric-powered lamp, first patented in 1879, as a cheaper, safer alternative to the gas lighting then available to consumers. Now Congress has mandated the phase-in of energy-efficiency standards that will mostly relegate the familiar household bulb that he perfected to specialized applications such as appliances, where compact fluorescent bulbs won't work.
Incandescents, which give off a lot of wasteful heat while producing light, have "been around 140 years. ... Now we've got alternatives that address issues that we have now," DeGraaf said. Experts say bulbs such as fluorescents reduce energy use, cut down on greenhouse gases and save consumers money.
In fact, the government uses compact fluorescent bulbs to illuminate Edison's former chemistry lab. Even West Orange, where Edison spent the last half of his life, wants residents to switch to the pigtailed fluorescents as part of an "energy diet" - though local officials have incorporated Edison's incandescent bulbs into their conservation logo.
Hal Wallace, associate curator of electricity collections at the Smithsonian Institution, says he thinks Edison would be fascinated with the problem of conserving energy and with the way compact fluorescents work - especially since the inventor had patented his own version of the fluorescent bulb. And there's no denying electric light's impact on our culture.
"It's been a foundation stone of what we think of our modern society," Wallace said. "It does free us from our reliance on nature's light, the sun."
Although telegraphs and other technology used electricity, the light bulb was the first practical application that tempted people to bring electric power inside their homes and businesses.
"That made people sit back and say, 'Oh, that's what we can use this for,' " Wallace said.
Over time, the light bulb has come to symbolize innovation or creativity - bright ideas. It's also a sign of civilized society.
"How many mayors have lost their offices because they 'couldn't keep the lights on' during a snowstorm or whatever?" Wallace asked.
But Edison's greatest achievement was not simply developing the bulb. He created the companies to bring this all to market and figured out a way to sell electricity through a distribution system modeled after gas lighting.
The inventor also gathered a team of researchers to tackle the problem of incandescent light in a systematic way, DeGraaf said. "When we talk about electric lighting, it's not just about the lamp itself. He kind of institutionalizes innovation in a way that had never been done before."
A number of inventors had made incandescent bulbs that worked in laboratory settings by the 1860s, but Edison refined the bulb to make it long-lasting and therefore practical for use in homes and businesses, Wallace said. The structure is "not that different than the bulb you find at the grocery store today."
The original prototypes were not very efficient by today's standards but had several advantages over the candles, kerosene lamps and gaslights available to consumers at the time, Wallace said.
In the 1880s, when Edison developed his bulb and the electric power industry to support it, bulbs cost about $1 each - a high price more than a century ago. So, "if you could even afford to have electric lights, you weren't worried about how efficient they were," Wallace said.
And the bulb's versatility has made it especially useful. "Everyone knocks the incandescent bulb, but it really is the perfect light source," Wallace said. "You can scale it up ... you can scale it to so small it has to be seen under a microscope. You can make an underwater lamp with it, you can take it to the moon. You can use it everywhere."
People have predicted the end of the incandescent whenever new options such as low-pressure sodium lamps or fluorescent lighting became available
"Every time a new lighting source has come on the market, everyone says, 'OK, Edison's bulb is on its way out.' Perhaps this will be the time it really does fade away," Wallace said.
DeGraaf did not want to speculate about what Edison would have thought of the potential burnout of his light bulb. But standing in the inventor's wood-paneled laboratory library, surrounded by his scientific journals and reference materials, the archivist said a cubbyhole on the rolltop desk might offer a clue.
The desk, rolled shut the day he died, remains pretty much as Edison left it. One cubby, labeled "new things," is brimming with papers.
DeGraaf said, "The fact that there's a lot in there suggests that maybe Edison wouldn't be totally against the adoption of new technology if it actually meant an improvement."
liz.kay@baltsun.com
At the Museum of Industry
Laboratories at the Edison National Historic Site are closed for renovations, but you can view a collection of historic light bulbs at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
Dr. Hugh Hicks, a Mount Vernon dentist who died in 2002, bequeathed them to the museum. A fraction of the approximately 30,000 bulbs he collected from 1879 to 2000 are on display, including original Edison prototypes, Christmas lights and even bulbs from the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan.
The museum, at 1415 Key Highway, is open 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Times are subject to change, so call 410.727.4808, ext. 132 to confirm.