The day the light bulb was invented – level 2

21-10-1879

The first experiments with electric light were made in the early 19th century. It was the time when Humphry Davy from England discovered that when electricity passed through a piece of platinum, it started to shine.

Yet it took 50 more years for scientists to make a light bulb which could shine longer. They needed to find the right material for the inner part of the bulb.

That was the challenge that Thomas Edison and his team of scientists accepted. His team made thousands of tests. They were working day and night.

On October 21, 1879, Edison made a new type of light bulb. This bulb was shining for 13 and a half hours.

The newspapers didn’t write about anything else and called this discovery Edison’s triumph of life. However, for Edison, it wasn’t a success. He wanted a light bulb which could shine much longer. That’s why his team did thousands of other tests.

Then they discovered that a material from bamboo could shine up to a thousand hours. After that, light bulbs flooded the world.

Difficult words: discover (see something new), platinum (a silver-grey metal), inner (the inside), call (give name), bamboo (a tall plant which is used for furniture), flood (go everywhere).

"What inspired Thomas Edison and his team to continue experimenting even after making the initial successful light bulb?"

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