Some of these explorers met with striking adventures during their travels, and all of them sent vast quantities of bamboos, palms, and fibrous grasses to the laboratory for examination, but Edison never found any of them better for his purposes than the bamboo from Japan.
In this remarkable exploration of the world for such a material will be found an example of the thoroughness of Edison's methods. He is not satisfied to believe he has the best until he has proved it, and this search for the best bamboo was so thorough that it cost him altogether about one hundred thousand dollars.
In the meantime he was experimenting to manufacture an artificial filament that would be better than bamboo. He finally succeeded in his efforts, and brought out what is known as a "squirted" filament. This was made of a cellulose mixture and pressed out in the form of a thread through dies. This kind of filament has gradually superseded the bamboo in the manufacture of lamps.
We have been obliged to confine ourselves to a very brief outline history of the invention and development of the incandescent lamp. To tell the detailed story of the intense labors of the inventor and his staff of faithful workers would require a volume as large as the present one.
All that could be done in the space at our disposal was to try and give the reader a general idea of the clear thinking, logical reasoning, endless experimenting, hard work, and thoroughness of method of Edison in the creation of a new art.
XIV
MENLO PARK
In the history of the world's progress, Menlo Park, New Jersey, will ever be famous as the birthplace of the carbon transmitter, the phonograph, the incandescent lamp, the commercial dynamo, and the fundamental systems of distributing electric light, heat, and power.
In this list might also be included the electric railway, for while others had previously made some progress in this direction, it was in this historic spot that Edison did his pioneer work that advanced the art to a stage of practicability.