Word: lightbulb
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...there be light! Oct. 22 marks the 130th anniversary of Thomas Edison's first test of the incandescent lightbulb, the initial spark of a revolution that would electrify the world...
Though Edison is usually cited as the father of the lightbulb, it's more accurate to give Edison credit as the creator of the first commercially viable lightbulb. As early as 1820, inventors were homing in on the principles that would lead to the first electric illumination. An English inventor, Joseph Swan, took their early work and developed the basis of the modern electric lightbulb in 1879 - a thin paper or metal filament surrounded by a glass-enclosed vacuum. When electricity runs through the filament, the bulb glows. Edison refined the design, trying filaments made out of platinum and cotton...
...development of the lightbulb sparked the spread of electric power in the U.S. Edison was behind the creation of the first commercial power plant in 1882; New York City had electricity 10 years later. By the late 1930s, the Rural Electrification Administration, one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, had delivered electric lighting to nearly every corner of the country. Development on the bulb didn't stop either: researchers have modified Edison and Swan's design further, refining the filament by using tungsten and filling the vacuum with gas, both of which increase the life span...
...hope we don't hear too much of in the coming months. It comes from the Greek husteros, which means late. It refers to what happens when something snaps in such a way that it can never be put back together. Bend a plastic ruler too far, drop that lightbulb - that cracking sound you hear is the marker of hysteresis. There's no way to restore what has just been smashed. (See the top 10 bankruptcies...
...According to a new TIME poll, more than 6 in 10 Americans have bought organic products since January. Lots of us have bought an energy-efficient lightbulb too. And it's not just the nature of the product but also its provenance that's prompting us to buy. Of the 1,003 adults we polled this summer, 82% said they have consciously supported local or neighborhood businesses this year. Nearly 40% said they purchased a product in 2009 because they liked the social or political values of the company that produced it. That's evidence of a changing mind...